So it's almost Thanksgiving and you need to find some good theater before you can begin working on all the preparations for the big meal later next week. My recommendation — Evita at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Aubrey Berg, who has headed the musical theater training program at the University of Cincinnati for 24 years, directs the show about Eva Duarte Peron's rise to fame and power in Argentina and subsequent fall from grace (she died from cancer at 33).

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Perhaps you’ve been hearing some conversation about the Cincinnati Playhouse moving downtown, which started late last year. Guess it would no longer be the “Playhouse in the Park,” but there are some grand plans for a new theater facility right in the heart of downtown.

If you’d like to learn more, you might want to stop by the Playhouse’s Marx Theatre tonight for the second of two town hall-style meetings about the future. (The first meeting was on Sept. 22.) Playhouse Board President Jack Rouse and Producing Artistic Director Ed Stern will present the pros and cons of the Mount Adams location and what downtown has to offer; there will be a chance for questions from the audience, too.

Rouse says, “Theater is a collaborative art, and we want to mirror that collaborative process as we analyze the important decisions that we will be making concerning our physical theaters and their location.”

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis in the Marx Theatre. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Parking is free (there are no performances at the Playhouse on Monday evenings). Following the presentation, attendees can stay for further conversation with Playhouse board members and key staff in the Rosenthal Plaza. Hors d’oeuvres will be served, and a cash bar is available.

What might become of the Playhouse’s current facility in Eden Park is a big question, as is how a downtown theater complex could be funded. These are important questions for the future of our much-admired regional theater. Sounds like a worthwhile way to spend a few hours on a Monday evening.

– Rick Pender

We are building an art production studio. No big deal you say? Well what if I told you it was compiled from two groups of teenagers, still nothing special? Okay, they are young people who are incarcerated and those recently released from incarceration. Yes, in jail and on parole. Now what do you say? That’s what I thought.

I am an artist who is part of a team spearheading a new project - Inside Out Studios – a pilot program conceived by Stephen Canneto and Eliah Thomas of ArtSafe in Columbus, Ohio. We have embarked on a 17-week journey to guide youth - to develop skills both artistic and business, to improve focus and self-worth, to increase self-discovery and community while designing and creating art that will earn income for them.

Through it all I am learning. Learning about choices, incarceration, what makes us unique and similar, how the same circumstances can put each of us on different paths, how getting caught can be a good thing. I am reminded with every coming together that these young people, not unlike us, are smart and creative and loving and curious and passionate and opinionated and original. Check back over the next several weeks for updates and revelations and get to know them as I do. It is challenging and joyful and full of the wonderful stuff of life.

For more information about ArtSafe and its programs visit Artsafe.org

ArtSafe - Art for a Child's Safe America Foundation (ArtSafe) is a not-for-profit organization established to provide opportunities for communities to use the arts to create safe, nurturing environments for children, youth and adults. ArtSafe creates, develops, and implements programs that promote productivity, positive outlook, and a sense of community through encouraging participants to discover, value, and use their innate talents and individual interests. Creating programs and products that provide meaningful alternatives to violence is ArtSafe's highest priority.


Remember: The One Who Says It Can’t Be Done Should Not Interrupt The One Doing It

If you Google search “John McClellan,” you’ll find the late Democratic senator from Arkansas and the 19th century chemist. So what is comedian, Akron native and onetime Cincinnatian John McClellan — who brings his "Punk Rock" stand-up tour, the Fuck All Comedy Ball into Northside's tiny music club/bar, The Comet, this Saturday — doing to distance himself from his fellow McClellans?

“None of those guys are funny,” says the funny McClellan. “That’s why I had to get boozecoma.com, because some guy already had johnmcclellan.com, and asking people to spell my last name was a chore. They’re working on old cars or selling real estate and I’m just out there trying to bring the jokes to the people.”

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Presuming that reports about Disney's High School Musical wouldn't interest CityBeat's readers, I've not previously written about that popular phenomenon, driven by repeated airing on the Disney Channel. And I'm still not certain that it's of that much interest to anyone who regularly reads this blog.

But I went to see High School Musical 2 on Feb. 28, presented by the Children's Theatre of Cincinnati (CTC) at the Taft Theatre. I imagined a show that would appeal to kids, and my expectations were reinforced by the hordes of moms and dads escorting little ones into the Taft. But what I saw onstage surprised me.

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Cincinnati Art Museum has just released attendance figures for the recently closed Wedded Perfection: Two Centuries of the Wedding Gown, and it was a blockbuster. The exhibit, which ran Oct. 9-Jan. 30, drew 63,176 visitors, making it the biggest CAM exhibit since Petra: The Lost City of Stone drew 62,203 people in the 2004-2005 season.

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Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Producing Artistic Director Ed Stern today announced that he will leave the esteemed regional theater after two more seasons, following the 2011-12 season, his 20th. Ed’s tenure at the Playhouse predates CityBeat’s coming into existence: He began in 1992, two years before CityBeat began publishing. I had the pleasure of writing about the recovery of the theater under Stern for EveryBody’s News and then for CityBeat; the Playhouse was in desperate financial straits when Stern and Executive Director Buzz Ward took over — a $1.25 million accumulated deficit.

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I wish I could point you to a good production of a Shakespearean play today, since it's the Bard's 446th birthday. But Cincy Shakes is presenting Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband in a delightfully enacted production that ranges from witty humor to heartfelt emotion. It's definitely worth seeing.

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If you're still working on your checklist of holiday shows, there have been several added performances for shows at Know Theatre, Ensemble Theatre and other venues you should keep in mind.

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There's nothing unlucky about Friday the 13th in the theater world. (Theater folks have enough other superstitions anyway.) So you have lots of excellent choices this weekend, from the very funny The Foreigner at the Playhouse (just opened) to the satiric Timon of Athens at Cincinnati Shakespeare (see review here).

If you want a heavy-duty drama, try Bent at New Stage Collective (it's about the mistreatment of gays in Nazi concentration camps; see my review here). And if you want to see some of the talent that keeps spilling out of UC's College-Conservatory of Music, I recommend that you stop by the Over-the-Rhine nightclub Below Zero tonight after 10 p.m.

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