More word about upcoming seasons from two of Cincinnati’s smaller but adventurous companies. New Edgecliff Theatre (NET) has put forth a five-show season with work by several excellent contemporary playwrights, as well as a holiday offering partnering with the True Theatre. Queen City Theatre (QCT is the current incarnation of the dormant Queen City Off Broadway) will offer productions of dramas using the black box theater at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.

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If you're seeking something silly to divert your attention from the heat and humidity, I'll refer you to Cincinnati Shakespeare Company where today they open a production of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce. I went to a preview on Wednesday, and it's a daffy piece of comedy — four couples, three bedrooms, one crazy night and the morning after.

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Donald Ray Pollock's debut short-story collection, 2008's Knockemstiff, was something of an unexpected sensation —unexpected in that Pollock was a first-time author at age 53; a sensation in that the stories were driven by a visceral, sharp-edged prose style and a narrative thrust as sensitive as it was savage.

Knockemstiffwas rightly praised by everyone from The New York Times to Chuck Palahniuk (“more engaging than any new fiction in years”) to literary savant Michael Silverblatt, whose incisive KCRW radio show Bookwormfeatured an interview with the author.

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Monday night I attended the fourth of four sold-out evenings of True Theatre, an innovative spoken word program that's been happening at Know Theatre since last October. Organizers Dave Levy and Jeff Groh have found considerable success inviting people (usually five per evening) to speak at these quarter gatherings about some real, personal event — usually on a theme, such as Monday night's "True Independence," inspired by last week's holiday.

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In my CityBeat column this week I shared the news that the Acclaim Awards are gone and that the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT) have stepped up to create a new awards program. The first two recognitions of the season have been awarded to Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati’s (ETC) Christmas-in-July celebration, Roger Bean’s Winter Wonderettes. This musical sequel to ETC’s biggest-ever box-office hit, The Marvelous Wonderettes, has earned these awards for its acting ensemble and specialized design.

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Following a six-month search, UC yesterday announced the appointment of Peter Landgren as dean of the College-Conservatory of Music, effective Sept. 1, pending board approval. The search process was noteworthy for actively involving CCM faculty, students and community members.

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Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy are back onstage at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Those characters — played by Sara Mackie, Mia Gentile, Brooke Rucidlo and Denise Devlin — kept ETC audiences coming back for more in the spring of 2010 for The Marvelous Wonderettes, the theater's biggest box office hit ever, extended three times to meet the demand for tickets. This summer you can return for the regional premiere of Winter Wonderettes, a Christmas-holiday themed show with Pop holiday tunes from the 1960s, including "Jingle Bell Rock," "Santa Baby" and "It's a Marshmallow World."

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While many of Cincinnati’s theaters have announced their 2011-2012 seasons, a few more are putting the finishing touches on what they’ll stage for the coming year. Today I can share with you exciting news from The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center as well as an always popular series at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

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Not much theater as summer gets rolling locally, but it is time for Cincinnati Opera, which opened its 91st season on Thursday with a production of Verdi's Rigoletto. It's a tragic story about a foolish father who tries to protect his daughter by hiding her away from the world, leading to her death.

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Friday and Saturday are the final two days of performances from the Cincinnati Fringe. You can read reviews of all the shows at CityBeat's special Fringe blog site. But for your quick reference, here's a list of the shows that received "Critic's Picks" from one of our writers.

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