New Edgecliff Theatre Cancels 'Talk Radio'

New Edgecliff Theatre will cancel its first production of the season, largely the result of its need for a new venue. The group has performed in the Columbia Performance Center, the "pink church" on Eastern Avenue in the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood on Cincinnati's East Side, for several years. Without much notice over the summer, NET was informed by the property's owner that the facility would no longer be available. Artistic Director Jim Stump tells me that they've been notifying the actors and designers who had been recruited for a staging of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio that the production, scheduled to open on Sept. 27, is not going to happen. He wrote to me in an email, "This is due to a number of factors, not the least of which was the suddenness of our losing the Columbia with little warning.  This meant we spent a significant portion of the time we would normally dedicate to the first production to the search for a new venue. In the end, we didn't feel we could present a production of the quality our audiences would expect." NET is still seeking a permanent solution to its venue needs, but Stump says the company will present The Santaland Diaries and The 12 Dates of Christmas at the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater in December.