I know more critics who love theater than who live to spew out negativity. In fact, I've often said it seems nonsensical (if not masochistic) to carve out a career as a critic if you hate the theater and never enjoy the experience. Why subject yourself to night after night of torture if you really find actors or directors incompetent or self-serving?

Terry Teachout writes for The Wall Street Journal. Earlier this month he wrote about "America's Favorite Plays," listing the plays most often produced in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010. Cincinnati audiences are lucky: We saw all 11 plays on Teachout's list thanks to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati.
Read it in print

The new year often prompts thoughts of new beginnings, perhaps leading to a resolution or two. As I thought about my first column of 2010, it occurred to me that such beginnings could be focused on introducing young people to the theater for the first time.
Read it in print

Cincinnati’s Classical music community was stunned and blessed by a remarkable gift announced on Dec. 10. Louise Dieterle Nippert, a long-time (although low-profile) supporter of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Opera, established an $85 million fund that will sustain those two organizations and Cincinnati Ballet for years to come.
Read it in print

It’s the time of year when people ask me which holiday production they should see. I usually throw that back to them, asking what they’re looking for. If it’s traditional holiday entertainment, there’s nothing better than the Cincinnati Playhouse’s A Christmas Carol, a production I’ve seen annually for 18 years.
Read it in print

During last weekend's event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the music theater program at UC's College-Conservatory of Music, 1993 grad Scott Coulter paid tribute to CCM's musical theater chair Aubrey Berg and remarked how important it is to go "back and back and back" to see how each of us came to be at this particular concert and this particular place and moment in time. His advice took me back to when I was 8 years old and my grandfather, Arthur Pender, took me to see the musical 'Brigadoon.'

The University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music is one of the best musical theater training programs at any American university. The program was established slightly more than four decades ago, and its graduates have been lighting up Broadway ever since. Most recently, grad Karen Olivo picked up a 2009 Tony as Anita in the Broadway revival of 'West Side Story.'

When the Cincinnati Playhouse's Ed Stern described his 50th anniversary season last spring, he was especially excited about a new version of Anton Chekhov's 'Three Sisters,' a 1905 play about three siblings who yearn for the life they once enjoyed in Moscow but now find themselves trapped in a cultural backwater. Stern and veteran Broadway director John Doyle talk about the Playhouse production.
Read it in print

In case you’re keeping track, the most produced play in the United States this season is Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s Boom, presently in its regional premiere at Know Theatre of Cincinnati. According to American Theatre magazine, nine productions of the absurdist comedy are scheduled this season. The list excludes works by Shakespeare and holiday-themed shows.
Read it in print

Michele Lowe asks a lot of questions: Why would a man claim his fictional Holocaust memoir was true? Why would a writer say she was a member of the Crips gang when she was really from suburban Los Angeles? Why would Bernard Madoff fleece people and charities of billions of dollars while posing as someone who was helping them with their investments?