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Make History with The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati: Dedicate a Seat at the Emery Theater

CINCINNATI, OH – The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati (TCT) is thrilled to offer a unique opportunity to be part of history. For a $500 gift, you can dedicate a seat in the newly renovated Emery Theater, creating a lasting tribute for a loved one or marking a special milestone.

With this dedication, a personalized signature of your choice, along with your family name, will be carefully placed on a seat at the Emery Theater. This lasting tribute will remain for the life of the current seating configuration, ensuring that in 30 years, your grown children can return with their own families to see the seat and remember the moment when their signature was first placed there.

Why Dedicate a Seat?

  • Celebrate a child or grandchild
  • Honor a family member, friend, or even yourself
  • Mark a special occasion with a unique gift

Exclusive Benefits:

  • Invitation to our private Seat Dedication Day in Fall 2025
  • A permanent legacy cherished for generations

Flexible Payment Plans:

  • Quarterly: 4 payments of $125
  • 12 months: $41.60 per month

To arrange a payment plan, please contact Anne Venters at anne.venters@tctcincinnati.com.

We’re Serious About Seating—Especially Leg Room! At TCT, we’ve made it a priority to ensure comfort in the new Emery seats. You asked, and we listened: “Will there be enough leg room?” The answer is a resounding yes! Our creative partners at GBBN went above and beyond, crafting a full-scale plywood mockup to confirm the comfort and spaciousness of the new design. With careful planning and testing, we’re excited to move forward with seats that offer both comfort and ample leg room.

Reserve your seat in history today! Visit https://tinyurl.com/Emery-Seats to purchase your seat now. 

Please Note: This naming opportunity does not reserve the seat for performances. Seat availability can be inquired about when purchasing tickets.

About TCT:
Celebrating 105 years, The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati (TCT) is the oldest children’s theatre in the U.S. and the only professional theater in the region dedicated to children’s productions. Our mission is to educate, entertain, and engage audiences of all ages. We reach over 200,000 people annually through our MainStage, TCT on Tour, and TCT Academy programs. The historic Emery Theater, our future home, is undergoing a $51 million revitalization, set to open in October 2025. Join us in making history and creating memories for the next century!  For more information about The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati and the Emery Theater, visit our website at https://thechildrenstheatre.com/the-emery/.

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Ghostlight Stage Company Announces Cast and Creative Team for 2024 One Act Double Feature

The Ghostlight Stage Company is thrilled to announce the cast and creative team for it’s upcoming season opener, “2024 One Act Double Feature.” This year’s double feature will showcase “Esther Made Me Do It” by Nell Adkins and Elizabeth Sacktor, and “Artists & Vandals,” by Erin K. Considine.

Cast & Creative Teams:
Intimacy Coordinator: Angelique Archer
Stage Manager: Rose Gibson
Set Designer: Viscaya Wilson
Costume Designer: Lindsey Jones

ARTISTS & VANDALS
Playwright: Erin K. Considine
Director: Tamara Winters
Cast: Kate Stark, Montez O. Jenkins Copeland, Douglas Fries

ESTHER MADE ME DO IT
Playwrights: Nell Adkins and Elizabeth Sacktor
Director: Beasley
Cast: Faith Gingrich Goetz-Isaacs, Rachel Kobernick

More about the event: The Ghostlight’s One Act Double Feature gives the audience a look “behind the curtain” and into the process-side of developing 2 new one-act plays. Leading up to the event, casts and creative teams are given 4 brief rehearsals to workshop the plays, with the playwrights making adjustments throughout. After these few rehearsals, plays are performed in front of an audience to bring them into the process and gain valuable community feedback! The plays are presented with some light staging and minimal costuming and props similar to other staged-readings…but with a twist! Audiences can take a look into the visions for how the pieces could be if they were to go on and be fully developed in the future. We do this by having design presentations from professional set and costume designers available in a studio space for audiences to ask questions about and view before the performance and during intermission. There are also feedback boxes where audience members can write down their thoughts and be a part of the development process! Each performance will also begin and end with brief commentary from the playwrights and directors of each piece, who give the audience even more insight as to the process of developing the work, their vision for what’s to come and their motivation for creating the piece in the first place. You can’t miss this interactive developmental night of theatre!

ARTISTS & VANDALS synopsis: After years of odd jobs and struggling to make ends meet, Lyla and Knox are opening their own Art Gallery to critical acclaim and personal pride. They have parented a son and parented each other. Nothing could ruin this night. Nothing but Daniel: who disappeared fifteen years ago, and is now standing in the shadows under the L.

ESTHER MADE ME DO IT synopsis: Best friends, Naomi and Ruth, are preparing to audition for their local Purim shpiel. Naomi, gunning for the part of Esther, hopes to kick start her theatrical career. Ruth questions her feelings for Naomi and how long she’s willing to put Naomi’s desires before her own.

Date/Time: October 21, 2024 at 7pm

Location: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s Schiff Education Studio

Performance will run approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, including a 10 minute intermission.

All tickets are “pay what you can” and can be reserved ahead at: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/e73170b7-225a-403b-b21e-3591393cca82

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Cincinnati Opera and CCM to Workshop HILDEGARD

A new opera by Sarah Kirkland Snider, commissioned and produced by Beth Morrison Projects, through Opera Fusion: New Works partnership

The workshop culminates in a free, public presentation of excerpts from the opera on Thursday, October 10.


CINCINNATI (September 11, 2024)—Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) have announced the next opera to be workshopped through their joint program, Opera Fusion: New Works (OF:NW): Hildegard, with music and libretto by Sarah Kirkland Snider.

Commissioned and produced by Beth Morrison Projects, Hildegard imagines three of the most pivotal events in the life of 12th-century German Benedictine nun, visionary, composer, and polymath Hildegard von Bingen. It’s the year 1147, and Hildegard begins transcribing her visions of God. She enlists the assistance of a young convalescent, Richardis von Stade, and the two women quickly develop a transformative partnership that awakens them creatively, spiritually, and—much to the internal conflict of both women—romantically. In the meantime, a dispute with Hildegard’s superior costs her and her novitiate daughters the right to make music, underscoring Hildegard’s fundamental lack of agency in the male-dominated monastic culture and jeopardizing her standing within the Church. As Hildegard anxiously awaits the Pope to declare her prophet or heretic, the love between Hildegard and Richardis becomes impossible to ignore, and an unforeseen crisis threatens both their hard-won accomplishments and the intimacy, in all its complexity and secrecy, that has become their salvation.

Sarah Kirkland Snider
Composer/Librettist
Photo: Shervin Lainez

Opera Fusion: New Works (OF:NW) is co-directed by Robin Guarino, professor of opera at CCM, and Evans Mirageas, The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera, and provides composers and librettists the opportunity to collaborate with singers and creative personnel to refine their operas-in-progress. During the October workshop for Hildegard, Snider will work to further develop the work alongside director Elkhanah Pulitzer, dramaturg Annie Wang, and a cast of singers that includes Kiera Duffy as Hildegard and Mikaela Bennett as Richardis.

A public performance of excerpts from Hildegard will take place on Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. (ET) at Cincinnati Music Hall’s Wilks Studio (1241 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202). Admission to the public performance is free, though seating is limited and reservations are required. Reservations are available by calling 513-241-2742 or visiting cincinnatiopera.org.


About Opera Fusion: New Works
Funded through a generous gift from the Mellon Foundation, Opera Fusion: New Works (OF:NW) is a partnership between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) dedicated to fostering the development of new American operas. This collaboration is jointly led by Robin Guarino, professor of opera at CCM, and Evans Mirageas, The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera. OF:NW offers composers or composer/librettist teams the opportunity to workshop an opera during a residency in Cincinnati. Residencies utilize the facilities, personnel, and talent of both Cincinnati Opera and CCM. The workshops are cast with a combination of CCM students and professional artists, and each workshop concludes with a free public presentation of excerpts followed by an audience Q&A session. For more information, visit ofnw.org.

About CCM
Nationally ranked and internationally renowned, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is a preeminent institution for the performing and media arts. The school’s educational roots date back to 1867, and a solid, visionary instruction has been at its core since that time. CCM offers 10 degree types (BA, BFA, BM, MA, MFA, MM, MME, AD, DMA, PhD) in nearly 120 possible majors, along with a wide variety of pre-collegiate and post-graduate programs and workshops. The college also offers a new graduate certificate in Music Pedagogy and two academic minors (Media Production, Music).

Declared a top college vocal program by Backstage Magazine and described as “one of the continent’s major music schools,” by the Toronto Star, CCM’s Departments of Opera and Voice provide one of the most comprehensive training programs for opera singers, coaches, and directors in the United States. CCM offers an international faculty of dedicated educators who are also celebrated professionals in their own right, widely and currently active in their respective fields. Several national opera companies hold auditions at the conservatory, and CCM students frequently advance to the final rounds of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. CCM graduates have performed on the stages of the world’s greatest opera companies, including Cincinnati Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera (London), La Scala (Italy), and more. CCM Voice and Opera program support is provided by the Mellon Foundation for Opera Fusion: New Works, The Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund, and the Patricia A. Corbett Estate. Additional support for CCM’s undergraduate opera productions is provided by Rafael and Kimberly de Acha. Guest directors for the 2024-25 season are supported by the Bacchus Legacy Foundation. To learn more, visit ccm.uc.edu.

About Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera’s mission is to enrich and connect our community through diverse opera experiences. Founded in 1920 and the second-oldest opera company in the nation, Cincinnati Opera presents a thrilling season of grand opera every summer and engaging programs throughout the year. The company’s repertoire includes beloved classics and contemporary masterworks brought to life by some of the world’s most dynamic performers and creative artists.

Cincinnati Opera is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. This project is supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts. Opera Fusion: New Works receives generous funding from the Mellon Foundation. Cincinnati Opera also receives general season support from The Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund, Patricia A. Corbett Estate and Trust, and the Harry T. Wilks Family Foundation, along with general season and project support from many other generous individuals, corporations, and foundations. Cincinnati Opera is a proud member of OPERA America. Learn more at cincinnatiopera.org.

About Beth Morrison Projects
Founded in 2006 to support the work of living composers and their multi-media collaborators, Beth Morrison Projects encourages risk-taking, creating a structure for new work that is unique to the artist and allows them to feel safe to experiment and push boundaries. Noted as “the edge of innovation” (Opera News), Beth Morrison Projects is a “contemporary opera mastermind” (Los Angeles Times) and “its own genre” (Opera News). Projects have been performed at numerous prestigious venues and festivals around the world including Brooklyn Academy of Music, Disney Hall, The Barbican, Lincoln Center, The Walker Art Center, The Beijing Music Festival, New Visions Arts Festival, The Holland Festival, O Festival Rotterdam, and more. Recent and upcoming projects include works by composers Michael Gordon, Ted Hearne, Huang Ruo, David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Emma O’Halloran, Paola Prestini, Ellen Reid, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and more, with directors Tom Creed, James Darrah, Rachel Dickstein, Lee Sunday Evans, Patricia McGregor, Zoe Aja Moore, Kevin Newbury, Matthew Ozawa, Karmina Silec, Jay Scheib, Michael VQ, and Basil Twist.

About Beth Morrison
Recipient of the Musical America Award for Best Artist of the Year and Agent of Change, and a Kennedy Center Next50 Honoree, Beth Morrison is hailed as a “contemporary opera mastermind” (Los Angeles Times) and “a powerhouse leading the industry to new heights” (WQXR). She created Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) in 2006 to identify and support the work of emerging and established living composers, and to create a new kind of opera, and Opera News has noted: “More than any other figure in the opera industry, Beth Morrison has helped propel the art form into the twenty-first century.” In 2013, Beth co-founded the PROTOTYPE Festival with HERE, which has become “essential to the evolution of American opera” (New Yorker).

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Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST JR Runs Oct. 12-21

Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST JR
The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati
Oct. 12-21
Taft Theatre [Downtown]

Directed by Maddie Jones
Choreographed by Roderick Justice

Cast: Lena Andrews as Mrs. Potts, Juno Brosas as Belle, Avery Fox* as Silly Girl/Ensemble, Josh Galloway as Lefou, Max Hunker as Monsieur D’arque/Ensemble, James Jones as Lumiere, Evan Koons as Gaston, Ethan Kuchta as Beast/Prince, Casey Merren as Babette/Milk Maid, Bobby Montaniz as Maurice, Gabrield Kanai Nakata as Cogsworth, Ellie Maddock* as Silly Girl 1/Ensemble, Parker Patton* as Chip, Madeline Stern as Wardrobe/Ensemble & Keya Vadivelu* as Silly Girl 2/Ensemble
Ensemble: Jude Abella, Kate Bauer, Brinley Culver*, Edrico Evans-Pritchett, Jonathan Hobbs, Claire Long*, Austin Mills, Anthony Nocero, Kip Richardson*, Avery Sherman, Colton Slade, Kari Keller Stewart, Cynsere Stevens, Lisa Takahashi* & Mia Zink*

TCT last produced Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR. in 2009 and 2014, and the new 2024 production will feature a fresh concept with an interesting twist for the “tale as old as time.” The classic story tells of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end and he will be transformed to his former self. But time is running out. If the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity.

  • Sat, Oct. 12 at 2pm & 5pm
  • Sun, Oct. 13 at 2pm
  • Fri, Oct. 18 at 7pm
  • Sat, Oct. 19 at 11am & 2pm
  • Sun, Oct. 20 at 2pm

Official page | Facebook events |

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Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN Runs Oct. 11-Nov. 2

Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company
Oct. 11-Nov. 2
[Over-the-Rhine]

Directed by Brian Isaac Phillips

Cast: Jasimine Bouldin as Actor 2, Alexis Bronkovic* as Actor 3, Billy Chace* as Actor 5, John Patrick Hayden* as Actor 1 & Jay Wade as Actor 4

On a dark and stormy night, a group of friends challenge each other to tell a frightful tale and thus Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is born. Cast away by his creator, Victor Frankenstein’s rejected creature is thrust into a world that recoils in terror, disgusted by his inhumanity. A new spin on the gothic tale from the mother of science fiction promises to be a spine-tingling encounter with one of literature’s most iconic monsters. Ideal for the Halloween season, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein will ask the question: who is the real monster, creature or creator?

  • In preview Wed-Thu, Oct. 9-10 at 7:30pm
  • Fri-Sat, Oct. 11-12 at 7:30pm
  • Wed, Oct. 16 at 7:30pm
  • Sat-Sun, Oct. 19-20 at 2pm
  • Thu-Sat, Oct. 24-26 at 7:30pm
  • Sun, Oct. 27 at 2pm
  • Fri, Nov. 1 at 7:30pm
  • Sat, Nov. 2 at 2pm & 7:30pm

Official page | Facebook event |

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