Know Theatre opens its production of Jacqueline Goldfinger’s The Arsonists tonight. This rolling world premiere is the story of a father/daughter team that burns things in the Florida Everglades. When a job goes bad, she has to come to terms with her father’s departure. It’s a Southern Gothic fable loosely inspired by the ancient Greek tale of Electra and her father Agamemnon. Know’s two-actor production features Erin Ward and Jim Stark, who also perform haunting melodies from the Folk and Americana tradition. Through Oct. 14. Tickets: 513-300-5669.
Over the past seven years, lots of Cincinnatians have become fans of quarterly performances by trueTheatre guests sharing true personal stories at Know Theatre. You might want to head to Memorial Hall (1225 Elm Street) on Saturday for a special event: trueNEWS! It will feature tales told by Sharon Coolidge (The Enquirer), Bill Cunningham (700 WLW), Brian Hamrick (WLWT-TV 5), Angenette Levy and Joe Webb (WKRC-TV 12) and Tom McKee (WCPO-TV 9). They’ll offer behind-the-scenes stories about life in the news business. And here’s a news flash: For its eighth season, trueTheatre will call Memorial Hall home for evenings on Oct. 30, Jan. 22, April 30 and July 23. Proceeds from this weekend’s event will benefit the Freestore Foodbank. Tickets: truetheatre.com.
Clifton Performance Theatre (404 Ludlow Ave.) is where you’ll find a production of Jeff Daniels’ play Guest Artist (a runner-up for the Steinberg-American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award). It’s being staged by theater veteran Kate Wilford and features three top-notch local actors: Daniel Britt, Carter Bratton and Michael G. Bath. It’s a funny, touching drama about what happens when a young man meets his washed-up idol in a small town bus station — a perfect story for CPT’s intimate basement space a few blocks west of the Esquire cinema. Tickets: 513-813-7469.
This is the second weekend of three for Queen City Theater’s presentation of Tom Horan’s Typhoid Mary at the Carnegie in Covington. It’s the story of Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant who worked as a cook in New York City early in the 20th century. She carried the dread disease without suffering from it herself; it’s believed that she infected 51 people, three of whom died. Public health authorities forcibly isolated her for more than three decades. Jennifer Joplin plays the title character; the production also features Traci Taylor and Spenser Smith. QCT is presenting three plays in 2017-18, works inspired by real events. Through Oct 8. Tickets: 859-957-1940.
A number of productions worth your attention continue onstage at Cincinnati theaters for another week: Cincinnati Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (through Sept. 30), Shakespeare in Love at the Cincinnati Playhouse (through Sept. 30) and The Miracle Worker at the Covedale Center (through Oct. 1). Wicked continues at the Aronoff through Oct. 15.
Rick Pender’s STAGE DOOR blog appears here every Friday. Find more theater reviews and feature stories here.
This article appears in Sep 20-27, 2017.
