I spent last weekend in Chicago, filling up on classics at a variety of theaters.

As happens with the best art, I left thinking about it more than when I arrived. What was most on my mind is how badly we need to make the same commitment to a quality theater scene as we have to making a national mark in music/ opera and visual arts.

The key word here is scene. We have arguably one of the best resident U.S. theaters in Playhouse in the Park, but one theater cannot be all things to all people.

A range of quality artistic endeavors, large and small, mainstream and alternative, is what makes great cities. We don't have to be a major U.S. metropolis. We just have to be smart and committed.

We have to welcome exciting, well-trained young artists.

We want a creative class, and a diverse, adrenalin-charged theater scene is a big part of what attracts that much-desired professional, young, urban workforce.

Cincinnati spends money on the arts, but primarily on buildings and its largest fine arts institutions. The new museums will indeed put polish on our cultural crown, but they don't do much of anything for downtown nightlife or for growing a demographic sector.

We know from the last U.S. Census that Cincinnati is in intensive care when it comes to a young professional workforce. We are bleeding out. Part of triage is a strong dose of The Big Wow.

Wow. Theater that is consistently memorable. Theater of ambition and invention, willing to risk.

Original storytelling and emotional courage don't rely on budget size. In Chicago I was profoundly moved by work at the big budget Chicago Shakespeare Theater and at the no-budget Redmoon Theater.

Cincinnati is capable of The Big Wow. Playhouse in the Park's recent The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer stood equal to the best I saw in Chicago.

Don't dismiss this as a pipedream.

Cincinnati's best hope lies with an idea Playhouse producing artistic director Ed Stern had a couple of years ago.

He envisioned an incubator that would recruit the best young directors and designers graduating from MFA programs across the nation. The idea stalled in an early phase because 9-11 and the failing economy dried up national funding.

It's an idea that would have transformed Cincinnati's theater scene and it's an idea that needs to be resuscitated with the help of everyone - artists, urban advocates, fund-raisers, elected officials, the corporate community - interested in Cincinnati's vitality.

It would be a bargain compared to the tens of millions that have been invested in the museum scene in the last few years.

We need to start making an investment in a lively, diverse, high quality theater scene.

We need to understand what's possible - as we do in music, opera and visual art.

We need trained young artists to come here, like what they find and stay on in Cincinnati after their Playhouse tour of duty.

If we're not smart enough to make this happen, another city will be.

The Bar Tour: Mark May 15 on the calendar for the Enquirer's final Footlights event of the season.

The Bar Tour will offer an opportunity to simultaneously quench your thirst for live performance and liquid refreshment.

Check out some of the city's best young talent including Playhouse/Ohio University M.F.A. Acting Company, Ensemble, Cincinnati Shakespeare, Know Tribe, Cincinnati Alternative Theaters and more.

They'll perform every half-hour throughout the evening in downtown locations including Hamburger Mary's, Kaldi's and Arnold's, which will host the tour post-party starting at 11 p.m.

Watch for more details but be ready to start strolling at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $5 at the door ($10 for an all-evening pass). The pass will be available at League of Cincinnati Theatres member box offices starting Thursday.

This and that: Ensemble Theatre announces the return of rockin' phenom Hedwig and the Angry Inch in June, details to come.

Ensemble also promises an extended run of Kia Corthron's Breath, Boom for next season (re-scheduled from this season) and a return of Luther (Love Child) Goins in the staged reading series Theatre of the Mind.

CCM's final free studio show of the year is the musical revue Songs for a New World, playing Thursday-Saturday. Reservations required. Call the box office at 556-4183 beginning at noon Monday.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com.