Playhouse in the Park is going to the Olympics - theatrically speaking.

If you were dazzled and dumbfounded by the despairing no man's landscape of 2001-02 season opener King Lear, you won't be surprised that it's part of the U.S. entry in the 2003 Prague Quadrennial Scenography Exposition.

Every four years, the best scenic design in the theater world goes on view in Prague. Next year's theme is "The Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Theatre."

King Lear, with set design by Karen TenEyck, costumes by Susan Tsu, lighting by Thomas Hase and sound design/original score by Douglas Lowry will be represented through renderings, models, costumes, sound and virtual displays.

The Quadrennial runs June 12-29 at Prague's Industrial Palace. Lear is one of 60 U.S. productions selected; all exemplify innovative and provocative designs that address recent trends in U.S. theater design.

The `T' word: Cincinnati Business Committee exec director Laura Long hinted at some of the outcomes of an arts benchmarking study expected in January and they include the "T" word.

At Greater Cincinnati Foundation's Future Directions re-cap meeting on Thursday, Ms Long flashed a slide that illustrated how cities including Pittsburgh, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and San Francisco support the arts. The word "tax" was highlighted in each one. Sometimes a sales tax, sometimes hotel/motel or entertainment tax, but always public support.

There's no simple, easy answer, she says, including the arts-marketing "branding" campaigns (like next summer's "Festival of the New") being packaged by the Fine Arts Fund.

"The cities which are growing the fastest have the highest taxes, the most expensive workers, the most expensive land," she said. "It's no honor to be cheap."

The benchmarking study will also identify Cincinnati's image as "old" and "venerable" - not exactly words to attract a young workforce.

The question, Ms. Long noted, is whether Cincinnati is up to the task of being a city of the future, of facing the need to make policy shifts, of investing in creating a new image from what we have.

Greater Cincinnati Foundation apparently stands ready with $100,000 a year to invest for the next five years. Funds for 2003 and 2004 are committed but, says foundation exec director Kathy Merchant, the remaining money is in reserve for when significant upcoming studies are completed and "when it's clear as a community what we want to do and how we want to do it. We'll have some money ready to leverage."

Jacob Marley's story: Before he puts on his new artistic director hat, starting Friday, Nick Rose dons his actor's mask to reprise his role in Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, continuing through the holiday season at Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival.

The hardest thing about the show, says Mr. Rose, is that there is no mask, and not much in the way of costumes, either. Mr. Rose and his three co-stars don netherworldly trench coats to play out a Victorian London of characters to tell the "back story" of Charles' Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol is exactly what the title says. It's Ebenezer Scrooge's dead partner who's at the center of Tom Mula's adaptation.

Familiar characters - including old Ebenezer and some ghosts - and entirely new creations like the Jiminy Cricket-esque Bogle move the action forward as Jacob finds his own path to knowledge and redemption.

Mr. Mula, Mr. Rose reminds, spent many years playing Scrooge in a Chicago production of Carol. It was a story he already knew in his bones, so when a youngster one day noted, "What do you suppose happens to Jacob Marley? I feel sorry for him," Mr. Mula set about writing an answer.

This season Mr. Rose will again share the stage with Brian Isaac Phillips with Christopher Guthrie and Corinne Mohlenhoff joining them in Marley's adventure.

So why come back to Marley? Is he the kind of guy Mr. Rose would have dinner with?

Mr. Rose laughs. "Even if I would invite him, he's so anti-social he'd turn me down."

No, he loves the show for its many challenges, which include taking on a variety of characters using nothing but body and voice. And for its message, which isn't so very different from Charles Dickens'.

Still in rehearsal, Mr. Rose is concentrating on what is different. Sharing the stage with a new cast and with a new director, Rebecca Bowman, Mr. Rose says, "it's almost as if I'm re-learning it."

Mr. Rose is mapping out the remainder of his festival season, which will include directing The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night's Dream and appearing in Tartuffe.

For reservations and information about Marley and the new festival schedule call the box office at 381-2273. Marley plays Wednesdays-Sundays through Dec. 29.

Give blood, get ticket: Playhouse in the Park and Hoxworth Blood Center host their seventh annual community blood drive from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Playhouse (Mount Adams Drive in Eden Park).

All donors will receive a "buy one, get one free" ticket coupon to select performances of A Christmas Carol (playing Dec. 4-30) or 2001 Tony Award-winning Best Play Proof (playing Jan. 12-Feb. 14.)For information regarding donor eligibility, medications and other medical questions call Hoxworth's Donor Services Department at 558-1304 or (800) 265-1515.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com