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New Edgecliff Theatre (NET) stages its own version of March Madness this week with its first-time CINCINNATI DIRECTORS COMPETITION. Three different plays will be staged at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. The nine performances will be viewed by a panel of professional directors and by audiences. Two will be selected for presentation again on Sunday at 2 p.m. NET's associate producer, NATHAN GABRIEL, the mastermind of this event, has lined up a group of veterans: Lynn Meyers (ETC), Jason Bruffy (Know Theatre), Alan Patrick Kenny (New Stage Collective), Bob Allen (Clear Stage), Bert Goldstein (Cincinnati Playhouse), Alana Ghent (Ovation), Tim Perrino (Showboat/Covedale) and NET Artistic Director Greg Procaccino. The directors (and their shows) will be: Fringe Festival regular Matt Slaybaugh from Columbus (presenting his own work, A Study in Art & Lies), Jene Rebbin Shaw (Does This Woman Have A Name? by Theresa Rebeck), Stephanie Brockman (a selection for Parallel Lives by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy), John Berman Miller (his own work, Grandmother's Cedar Chest), Christopher Karr (his own work, Precious), Mike Miller (from Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley), Michael Hatton (Good Evening Pigtown by local writer Nathan Singer), Timothy Waldrip (Words by Sally Domet) and Alan Jozwiak (his own work, Intervention). This is an opportunity to see the work of promising directors and writers who could become players in Cincinnati's theater scene. Performances take place at the Columbia Performance Center (3900 Eastern Ave., Columbia-Tusculum). Info: directorscompetition.com.
Speaking of competing, if you were confused by one piece of the 2007 Fringe Festival announcement, well, so was I: Two distinct works selected for performance in June seemed to have almost identical titles.
New Edgecliff Theatre (NET) stages its own version of March Madness this week with its first-time CINCINNATI DIRECTORS COMPETITION. Three different plays will be staged at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. The nine performances will be viewed by a panel of professional directors and by audiences. Two will be selected for presentation again on Sunday at 2 p.m. NET's associate producer, NATHAN GABRIEL, the mastermind of this event, has lined up a group of veterans: Lynn Meyers (ETC), Jason Bruffy (Know Theatre), Alan Patrick Kenny (New Stage Collective), Bob Allen (Clear Stage), Bert Goldstein (Cincinnati Playhouse), Alana Ghent (Ovation), Tim Perrino (Showboat/Covedale) and NET Artistic Director Greg Procaccino. The directors (and their shows) will be: Fringe Festival regular Matt Slaybaugh from Columbus (presenting his own work, A Study in Art & Lies), Jene Rebbin Shaw (Does This Woman Have A Name? by Theresa Rebeck), Stephanie Brockman (a selection for Parallel Lives by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy), John Berman Miller (his own work, Grandmother's Cedar Chest), Christopher Karr (his own work, Precious), Mike Miller (from Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley), Michael Hatton (Good Evening Pigtown by local writer Nathan Singer), Timothy Waldrip (Words by Sally Domet) and Alan Jozwiak (his own work, Intervention). This is an opportunity to see the work of promising directors and writers who could become players in Cincinnati's theater scene. Performances take place at the Columbia Performance Center (3900 Eastern Ave., Columbia-Tusculum). Info: directorscompetition.com. ...
Speaking of competing, if you were confused by one piece of the 2007 Fringe Festival announcement, well, so was I: Two distinct works selected for performance in June seemed to have almost identical titles. Alone Together is the name of a piece that will be presented by Ted Brengle from Oxford, Ohio, described as "the course of a relationship between two people, from friends to lovers to strangers. That's almost the same title as one I wrote about in Curtain Call last week — submitted by the Satori Group, a subset of New Stage Collective. What they originally called Alone, Together (only the comma was different) has been renamed iLOVE. (Read more about it in the feature story on page 41.) Brengle's work was previously performed, so Satori graciously backed off for their new piece. They are taking it in stride, e-mailing me to say, "We find it ironic that a group [Satori] who has chosen to use the (re)-making project as a guideline for their creative process has had to (re)-make the title of their own show, again." Their performance takes another play (Charles Mee's Fêtes de la Nuit) and evolves it into a new piece. ... Know Theatre is changing titles, but in a different way. Frank J. Avella's Vatican Falls will be replaced by the Cincinnati premiere of Gina Gionfriddo's AFTER ASHLEY (April 19-May 12), a tragicomic satire about a teenage boy navigating the media circus surrounding his mother's death. Originally staged at the 2004 Humana Festival in Louisville, it won a citation from the American Theatre Critics Association and had an Off-Broadway production at New York City's Vineyard Theatre. (See my review of it at www.citybeat.com/2004-04-07/onstage2.shtml) We'll eventually see Avella's script. Know plans a workshop and staged reading in April for Vatican Falls at their 1120 Jackson St. facility. Info: knowtheatre.com. ...
Director JERRY LOWE did some nice work with Downtown Theatre Classics back in 1998-1999. He's kept a low profile since then, but he's been busy. On Sunday at 5 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral downtown (Fourth and Sycamore streets), he'll direct a free staged reading of his new play, Children of the Light, adapted from Jan de Hartog's best-selling novel, The Peaceable Kingdom. Lowe has working on this script since 1972. Past CEA winner Sherman Fracher plays a central role; also featured are Michael Bath, Michael Shooner, Rob Jansen, Bob Allen, Jim Stump, Jerry Rape and Ric Young. Info: 859-372-0273.
contact rick Pender: rpender(at)citybeat.com