Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park has been celebrating its year-long 50th season with a remarkable number of premieres. Producing Artistic Director Ed Stern will sustain that commitment to new work with a world premiere to kick off the 2010-11 season in September. High will feature movie and stage actress Kathleen Turner in a drama already designated for a move to Broadway early in 2011.

Despite today's rain, all the scheduled activities for O'Nati's Irish Pub on Fountain Square are going as planned. The St. Patrick's Day Parade this morning was wet, but reports are that attendance was pretty good.

No matter your last name, everyone’s green on St. Patrick’s Day, but finding authentic (and near authentic) Irish events in German-dominated Cincinnati can sometimes be difficult. Not anymore. The newly opened Irish Heritage Center of Greater Cincinnati will offer a variety of Gaelic-oriented events tomorrow and on the holiday itself, Wednesday. They include Irish musical groups and dancers, an Irish art exhibit, sing-alongs, films, food and an indoor Children’s Parade.

We didn’t need the Academy Awards to tell us that Kathryn Bigelow is a really good director — she’s been that for more than 30 years.

Local Democrats wasted little time in trying to make some political hay out of this week’s Porkopolis column about an e-mail written by Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Monzel’s chief of staff.Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke is urging Monzel, a Republican, to fire his employee, Brad Beckett. Burke wrote that Beckett’s e-mail was inappropriate and contained gratuitous insults.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company's artistic director, Brian Isaac Phillips, says, "Secrets can be good and bad." But there's one less secret today, now that he's announced the company's 17th season, eight productions, kicking off in July.

Broadway Across America's Cincinnati season was recently announced. I had hoped for a few productions that are touring (or soon will be). But two Tony Award winners, BILLY ELLIOTT THE MUSICAL and AUGUST OSAGE COUNTY are missing. Straight plays like the latter by Tracy Letts, even when they've done well in New York City (and a Pulitzer Prize winner in this case), are seldom as attractive to presenters as musical productions.

Politically minded people who are turned off by the harsh rhetoric and anti-government stance of the Tea Party movement have a new group where they can express their opinions and try to affect public policy — the Coffee Party.The fledgling movement will hold a series of get-togethers across the nation Saturday to commemorate “National Coffee Party Day.” Several are scheduled in and around Cincinnati, organizers said.

Anyone who looked at the front page of today's Cincinnati Enquirer saw a prominent advertisement along the bottom featuring an image of a treasure chest and announcing, “Roadshow is in town all week in Cincinnati!” To the uninitiated, it m

Carl Lindner and Richard Farmer, are you paying attention?In an exclusive at the Politico Web site this week, reporters obtained a copy of a confidential PowerPoint presentation created by the Republican National Committee about how it intends on raising money during this election cycle.