Even as Cincinnati City Council is getting friendly to the idea of using arts and culture to help revive downtown, the downtown theater scene needs some serious reviving.

I sought advice from Bill Donabedian, mover and shaker of MidPoint Music, who managed to fill downtown with alternative live music last fall and will do it again in a few months.

He's a music guy, but he likes theater. He acted in high school. He's been to theaters from touring Broadway to Mariemont Players.

And he knows how to create buzz.

He offers the same advice he gave himself: "Get the support of local government, corporations and media."

He also has two magic words to get into the right offices, and they aren't "open sesame." They're "Youth Drain."

Donabedian's first objective with MidPoint, he says, "was to give (all interested parties mentioned above) something of value."

Persuade those movers and shakers that supporting local, small and midsized performance is in their best interest. By coming together into a "scene," it could slow or even stop youth drain. Suddenly you have a partnership for a good investment.

Build Cincinnati's young talent pool, Donabedian advises. Lure them with an inexpensive place to live, work and have fun.

Donabedian, 35, tried New York and Chicago but found them too expensive.

The "live" part of that equation may be Councilman Jim Tarbell's "Community of Arts and Artists" in Over-the-Rhine, although issues including safety haven't been resolved.

The "work" part hasn't been addressed yet, but...

"Do that, use a (Web) portal to let artists - musicians, playwrights, actors - know these things exist, and artists will come. Don't just say things are better; do them. Artists react to word of mouth."

Businesses, he promises, will follow.

He has business-like suggestions: Brand. Be market-savvy. Make sure people know where the show is and what's around it. Find synergies.

Now that he has our attention, he says, "You may be surprised to hear me say this, but I'm not a proponent of government support. I do think government can help activate individuals and especially new companies to get involved."

The best thing, Donabedian observes, might be to create an independent fund to raise private dollars for what he calls the "low" arts - the music, theater, dance, performance art and gallery scene - that attract the much talked-of and sought-after Creative Class. "I don't know who'd start it," he says, but he'd like to see it and believes "the high arts would benefit a lot" if the "low" arts were supported.

"It's not about being wealthy, it's about wanting to support" small arts and artists and a youth-friendly community, he says. "It wouldn't take much to create an environment."

"When local government, corporations and the media draw attention to something, people take notice," Donabedian says. "And when it grows into something big, the nation takes notice. Right now, the only thing coming out of Cincinnati is white noise. We have to focus and cut through the chatter."

Off Broadway: Queen City Off Broadway is offering up teaser previews for its planned Thursday series at the Greenwich Tavern jazz club, 2442 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills.

First production will be a revival of Queen City's late winter success Master Harold...and the Boys, opening date to be determined.

In the meantime, Queen City will offer "free 20-30 minute previews" of coming attractions at 8 p.m. Thursdays at the Greenwich, says artistic director Lyle Benjamin.

Watch for Reggie Willis with monologues from Master Harold, Burgess Byrd in Pretty Fire (watch for that Know Tribe revival later this summer or fall) and songs from blueS alleY caT, which Benjamin will direct in July at School for Creative and Performing Arts.

'The Maids': Sunshine Cappelletti, Regina Pugh and Carrie Ellen Zappa should be a trio worth watching in Jean Genet's psychological drama The Maids, opening Thursday and continuing through May 31 at the Performance Gallery, 3900 Eastern Ave. Brian Robertson directs. For reservations and information, call the box office at 333-8482.

Know controversy: Know Theatre Tribe has scheduled a fund-raiser to cover extra costs for its upcoming production of controversial Corpus Christi, opening June 12. A parable that interweaves homosexuality and Christianity, Corpus Christi has been judged blasphemous by America Needs Fatima, which has actively protested its productions.

"We have to hire security," says executive producer Jay Kalagayan.

Know-dee-oh! is 6-9 p.m. May 29 at Hamburger Mary's, 909 Vine St. (Stay for Mary-oke at 10 p.m.)

For more information, 300-5669 or info@knowtheatre.com.

Hot ticket: Cincinnati native Theresa Rebeck's 9-11-inspired Omnium-Gatherum (written with Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros) about a dinner party from hell was the hot ticket at this year's Humana Festival of New Plays in Louisville. Now it looks probable for Off-Broadway in fall. "It's about as solid as these things get before they actually happen," says Rebeck. Stay tuned.

'The Thing About Men': Also headed for off-Broadway is Cincinnati's Ron Bohmer. While still in negotiations ("It looks likely," says Bohmer), he plans to start rehearsals June 30 for Joe (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change) DiPietro's The Thing About Men.

Bohmer will re-team with pal Marc Kudisch (they co-starred in The Scarlet Pimpernel on Broadway). Kudisch plays a guy with a perfect life, including a wife and a girlfriend, who freaks when he finds out his wife is having an affair - with Bohmer's character "a poor, downtown, artist free-spirit New Age thinker."

The husband moves out of his house and becomes roommates with the lover with intent to murder. Go figure, the guys become friends "creating conflict and, we hope, hilarity."

Previews start Aug. 5 at the Promenade Theater.

New York connections: New York isn't as far from Cincinnati as you might think. Among this year's nominees familiar to Playhouse in the Park audiences: both actors in Hairspray nominated for best performance by a featured actor in a musical.

Corey Reynolds was introduced to Cincinnati in 2001 in Avenue X; Dick Latessa was a regular on the Playhouse stage in 1968-69.

Playhouse audiences might also recall Kathryn Meisle, nominated for best featured actress in a play for Tartuffe, for her local turn in Frankenstein.

Tony loves John Lee Beatty, who returned to Playhouse most recently as scenic designer for Talley's Folly in 2001. He's nominated this year for Dinner at Eight, as is costumer Catherine Zuber, whose work was so memorable in The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer earlier this season.

Also root for Harold Wheeler's orchestrations for Hairspray. He did a fine job on Everything's Ducky for Playhouse in 2000.

Making it in Chicago: In Chicago, Cincinnati native Rebecca Finnegan has earned a "Jeff" Award nomination for her supporting role in Company, while Adia Dobbins is getting strong notices for her role of Nala in The Lion King: The Chicago Sun-Times called her "lovely and elegant" and the Chicago Tribune noted her singing of "Shadowland" was "superb" and a "gorgeous performance highlight."

Celebrate Lebanon: Lebanon Theatre Company celebrates Warren County's Bicentennial with the original musical revue Soaring Voices.

Georgia Dunn and Paula Whitaker compiled the show, their second effort this season. Last fall, they debuted Leading Ladies to celebrate Lebanon's history.

"After we did Leading Ladies," Dunn says, "the Bicentennial Commission came to us and said, 'Aren't you going to do something for the county?'"

So they did. These women know their county history. The revue explores the county's heritage (it begins with an American Indian flutist), industry, education, Quakers, sports and more.

"We've both just retired from real jobs," Dunn says, laughing. "It's a good thing." Putting Voices together has taken almost five months.

Voices is performed at 2 p.m. today and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Top of the Shoe in the Shoe Factory Antique Mall (120 E. South St.) Call (513) 494-1932.

Youth playwriting awards: Her Song by Katherine Frazier of the School for Creative and Performing Arts was first-place finisher in the Tri-State Youth Playwriting Competition, sponsored by Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative and Cincinnati Arts Association and coordinated by SCPA faculty member Mary Lenning.

Second place is a tie shared by The Mystery Begins by Matt Campbell of Winton Woods High School and Contempt of Valor by Jon Smith, Kyle Schumacher and Jason Garman of Calvary Christian School.

SCPA students will perform Her Song and read the runners-up at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater. Tickets $5. Call 241-7469.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com.