Category Archives: Press Releases

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Exceeds Campaign Goal by $1.3 Million for $50 Million Mainstage Theatre Complex

PIP_Rouse Theatre

Moe and Jack’s Place – The Rouse Theatre is the centerpiece of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s all -new mainstage theatre complex. Building designed by BHDP Architecture. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.

CINCINNATI – Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park celebrated the completion of its capital campaign today with a ribbon cutting for its new Mainstage Theatre Complex, featuring Moe and Jack’s Place — The Rouse Theatre. The $50 million project began construction in 2021.

“Thank you to all the donors that gave generously and made this amazing achievement possible,” Robert Reifsnyder, who co-chaired the capital campaign with Woody Taft, noted in his remarks to the city and state leaders and donors in attendance. “We exceeded our fundraising goal by just over $1.3M for a grand total of $51,230,174 in funds available to build this new facility and usher in a new era for the Playhouse.”

The Rouse Theatre and Schueler Lobby will officially open March 16 with an all-new production of A Chorus Line. The new facility features expanded comfort and accessibility for patrons and enables the Playhouse to host Pre-Broadway productions, which means a production that premieres in Cincinnati could go straight to Broadway for the first time ever, further solidifying Cincinnati’s reputation as a city with a thriving arts scene.

“Thanks to the support of our community, we emerge from a tumultuous period with renewed clarity in our role as Cincinnati’s national theatre – committed to bringing diverse, engaging works of great artistry to our community and putting Cincinnati’s artistic excellence in the national spotlight,” stated Blake Robison, Osborn Family Producing Artistic Director.

Enhancements to outdoor features and landscaping this spring will connect the Playhouse to the Cincinnati Ballet and Cincinnati Art Museum in the emerging Eden Park/Walnut Hills arts corridor. New design elements also deepen the Playhouse’s roots in its Eden Park home.

The State of Ohio invested $3 million in the project, which created over 200 construction jobs and brought $2 to the community for every $1 spent. Other key donors include Moe and Jack Rouse; The Rosenthal Family Foundation; The Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation; Digi and Michael Schueler The Taft Family; Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation; The Lemmerman Family; Procter & Gamble; Margaret and Albert Vonz, III; LKC Foundation, the City of Cincinnati; First Financial Foundation; The Harold C. Schott Foundation; Barbara M. Weyand;  Susan Friedlander; Craig & Anne Maier; Robert and Dell Anne Sathe; Ellen and Ray van der Horst; Western & Southern Financial Group; Susan and Don Zaunbrecher.

The Playhouse is supported by the generosity of almost 40,000 contributors to the ArtsWave Community campaign. The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The Playhouse also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation.

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The Carnegie’s Creative Disruption Series Continues in March

TC_Creative Disruption Committee logoCOVINGTON, Ky. (March 10, 2023) – The Carnegie’s Creative Disruption Series continues this spring with two new productions. This workshop series focuses on supporting new theatrical works created by local theatre-makers, especially works with surprising themes or storytelling structures. The next productions in the series include MULTI-SHELLED HERMIT CRAB by Aki Hosada and ALL’S FAIRE written by Alexx Rouse and Zach Robinson with music by James Allen. 

MULTI-SHELLED HERMIT CRAB, a one-person show that follows Alex Hollow, a sweet timid man who has multiple unique personalities (his many shells). Absurdly, the crustaceous protagonist finds himself embroiled in the murder of a woman and under investigation by chief Oscar Charles DeanMulti-Shelled Hermit Crab is a comedic thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seats while laughing non-stop.  

The performance will take place on March 17 at 7:30 pm on The Carnegie’s Otto M. Budig stage. Tickets are $25. Purchase tickets at: thecarnegie.com.

ALL’S FAIRE, a new musical (which originally premiered as a touring production for The Know Theatre of Cincinnati in 2021, after wild success in their Serials! program in 2017) has been fully reimagined for the Carnegie stage. All’s Faire is a musical comedy that tells the story of Johnson, a tightly wound private eye, who has been invited to solve a crime at the local Renaissance festival. With their trusty (and highly distractible) sidekick Josh, surely this will be an open and shut case…or will it? With pirates, fair maidens, puppets, and tomfoolery, it soon becomes clear to Johnson that anything goes at Ye Olde Ren Faire. This might be a tougher case to crack than they thought.  

Performances will take place on March 31 & April 1, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. on The Carnegie’s Otto M. Budig stage. Tickets are $25. Purchase tickets at: thecarnegie.com. 

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About The Carnegie
The Carnegie is Northern Kentucky’s largest multidisciplinary arts venue providing theatre events, educational programs and art exhibitions to the Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati community. The Carnegie facility is home to The Carnegie Galleries, the Otto M. Budig Theatre, and the Eva G. Farris Education Center. More information about The Carnegie is available at www.thecarnegie.com or by calling (859) 491-2030.  

The Carnegie is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the ArtsWave Community Campaign. The Carnegie receives ongoing operating support from the Kentucky Arts Council, City of Covington, Kenton County Fiscal Courts, Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and Cincinnati International Wine Festival. 

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DANCING FOR THE STARS 2023 | Sat., April 22, 2023 | Music Hall Ballroom

caa_dancing for the stars 2019 logoCINCINNATI, OH – Who will be voted Cincinnati’s best celebrity dancer?  Which stars have the right moves to rule the dance floor?  Find out on Saturday, April 22, 2023 when the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) celebrates season fifteen of its annual fundraiser Dancing for the Stars at the Music Hall Ballroom to benefit CAA’s Overture Awards (the nation’s largest locally run high school arts scholarship competition) and arts education programs. 

Inspired by the hit ABC-TV show Dancing with the StarsDancing for the Stars will feature eight Cincinnati celebrities paired with some of the area’s finest professional dancers in a competition program at which the audience will vote for its favorite celebrity dancer. The competitive dance for the evening will be the Disco, and each dance pair will have ninety seconds to woo the crowd and the judges.

In addition, Dancing for the Stars will feature:

  • Dance music by guest on-air DJ “JD Hughes” from 103.5 WGRR-FM
  • Pre-event reception and wine tasting
  • Open dancing before and after the competition
  • Lite bites provided by some of Cincinnati’s finest restaurants and caterers
  • Cash bar

In addition to the winner of the dance competition, Dancing for the Stars will crown a Fundraising Champion – the celebrity dancer who raises the most revenue toward the event’s fundraising goal through table/ticket sales and donations. Fans may add a donation under their favorite celebrity’s name at the time of their ticket purchase, or simply make a donation if they cannot attend the event. These direct donations (outside of the event ticket price) will help one of the fans’ favorite celebrities win the Dancing for the Stars Fundraising Champion award (announced the evening of the event) and are 100% tax deductible.

Tickets are currently on sale at the following levels (a portion of the ticket price is tax-deductible):

  • $150 – Patron (pre-event reception and two drink tickets)
  • $1,500 – Corporate Table (ten Patron level tickets and a half-page program ad)
  • $2,000 – Celebrity Circle Table (premium “first-row” viewing of competition area, ten Patron level tickets, full-page program ad, recognition on event signage)

RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION:

THE STARS:

  • David Kapor (Founder & Managing Partner – Kapor, Davis & Associates, LLC)
  • Frank Marzullo (Meteorologist – FOX19 NOW)
  • Diana Nguyen (Owner – Deluxe Nail Salon & Spa)
  • Morgan Owens (Entrepreneur, Author, Consultant, Speaker, and Brand Ambassador)
  • Tom Parker (Director of External Communications – Lindner Center of Hope)
  • Erin Rolfes (Director of Communication & Media Relations – The Kroger Co.)
  • Litsa Spanos (President – ADC Art Design Consultants, Inc.)
  • Britton Spitler as Brock Leah Spears (Project Manager – ADM) 

THE PROS (WITH STAR PAIRING):  

  • Amanda Barraza (Independent Dance Instructor)  Britton Spitler
  • Bonita Brockert (Independent Dance Instructor) – David Kapor
  • Alaine Glick (Independent Dance Instructor) – Frank Marzullo
  • Jeremy Mainous (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Diana Nguyen
  • Andrea Stefano (Independent Dance Instructor) – Litsa Spanos
  • Josh Tilford (Independent Dance Instructor) – Morgan Owens
  • Rostislav Toporski (Independent Dance Instructor) – Erin Rolfes
  • Melissa Vaughn (Arthur Murray Dance Studio – Cincinnati) – Tom Parker 

THE HOSTS:  Chris O’Brien & Janeen Coyle (“Married With Microphones,” 103.5 WGRR-FM) 

EVENT COMMITTEE:  Michael Betz, Amal Daoud, Terry Foster, Jill Jansen, Ginger Loftin, Rosemary Schlachter, Phil Schworer, and Tracey Skale

EVENT SPONSORS:  TriHealth – Presenting Sponsor, Arthur Murray – Cincinnati, Amanda Barraza, Bonita Brockert, Alaine Glick, Andrea Stefano, Josh Tilford, Rostislav Toporski 

FOURTEEN YEARS OF DANCING FOR THE STARS WINNERS:

  • 2007:    Dr. O’dell Owens (former Hamilton County Coroner)
  • 2008:    Jenell Walton (former WCPO-TV9 Anchor and Reporter)
  • 2009:    Phil Schworer (past President – Cincinnati Bar Association; Environmental Lawyer – Frost, Brown and Todd)
  • 2010:    Donna Speigel (Owner – The Snooty Fox)
  • 2011:    Dr. Tracey Skale (Chief Medical Officer – Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services)
  • 2012:    Regina Russo (former Director of Marketing and Communications – Cincinnati Art Museum)
  • 2013:    Chris Seelbach (former Cincinnati City Councilman)
  • 2014:    Neal Schulte (Founder & President – Schulte Financial Group, LLC)
  • 2015:    Johnny Chu (Owner – AmerAsia Kungfood Restaurant)
  • 2016:    Jay Lame (Financial Analyst – Lenox Wealth Management)
  • 2017:    Rohan Hemani (former Intrapenuer – Procter & Gamble Fabric Care)
  • 2018:    Dr. Marcia Bowling (Gynecologic Oncology – Oncology Hematology Care, Inc.)
  • 2019:    Halle Quinn (Community Volunteer)
  • 2022:    Sebastian Castillo (General Manager – Prime Cincinnati)

CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATION’S ARTS EDUCATION PROGRAMS

CAA’s Education Department promotes life-long learning through its programs, which are diverse, multidisciplinary, and accessible to all ages and cultural groups. SchoolTime presents a series of programs that feature nationally-recognized artists at CAA’s two venues (the Aronoff Center and Music Hall), and Artists On Tour brings the finest local artists in the region to Tri-state schools for interactive arts experiences aligned with the curriculum.

The Overture Awards Scholarship Competition is the largest locally run arts scholarship competition in the country. The program annually provides a $3,000 scholarship to six area high school students for education and training, with 18 finalists each winning a $1,000 scholarship. Each year, nearly 400 students are nominated by their schools to compete in one of six artistic disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art, or Vocal Music. There are three levels of competition: Regional, Semi-Finals, and Final.

The Overture Awards was developed to recognize, encourage, and reward excellence in the arts among Tri-state students in grades 9-12. It also provides students an opportunity to share their talents and interests among their peers in a supportive environment outside of their individual schools. Now in its twenty-seventh year, The Overture Awards was launched by the Cinergy Foundation and Leadership Cincinnati (a Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber program).

Founded in 1992, the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is a not-for-profit organization that oversees the programming and management of two of the Tri-state’s finest performing arts venues – the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall – and is dedicated to supporting performing and visual arts. Each year, CAA presents a diverse schedule of events; serves more than 600,000 people in its venues; features the work of talented local, regional, and national artists in the Weston Art Gallery (located in the Aronoff Center); and supports the work of more than one dozen resident companies, including Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony/Pops Orchestras, May Festival, and Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati, presented by TriHealth. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education programs in 1995, CAA has reached nearly two million students and adults.

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KSO Presents THEY’RE GRRREAT! On March 25

KSO_Theyre GrrreatThe Kentucky Symphony Orchestra journeys back 200 years to hang with prolific Classical composers who died or retired in their 30s. KSO musicians have requested Franz Schubert’s 9th Symphony (“The Great”) for decades, so the orchestra’s music director called upon a long standing cereal advertising campaign to tie Rossini, Mozart and Schubert selections together with — “They’re Grrreat!”

Gioachino Rossini wrote 39 operas between 1806 and 1829 then simply retired at the age of 37 (he died at 76). For each of his opera overtures, for which Rossini is most noted (William Tell, Barber of Seville, etc), he often waited until the day before each opera’s premiere before sitting down to write it, leaving copyists (there were no copy machines) and impressarios (producers) frantic. The Overture to Tancredi underscores this anticipation with its ever quickening tempo to the end.

The KSO’s very first concert in 1992 featured pianist Michael Chertok. Michael, now a renowned pianist and conductor, performs internationally, heads the piano faculty at CCM and leads the Blue Ash Symphony. Over three decades, the KSO has featured Mr. Chertock playing Rachmaninoff, MacDowell, Liszt and Gershwin. He returns to perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s spritely Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major K. 488.

Franz Schubert, like Mozart, produced an incredibly large catalog of music for a composer who only lived to age 31. His Symphony No. 9 (The Great) was his last completed symphony, though its unusual length (50-60”) and difficulty, prevented it from being publicly performed until ten years following his death. Schubert’s Ninth was composed a year after he attended the premiere of Beethoven’s immortal 9th Symphony. In the finale to his Symphony, Schubert pays homage to his older Viennese colleague, by slipping in a brief quotation of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”

“When orchestras perform the classics, they are sharing a spiritually-inspired gift from which subsequent composers and musicians took their cue and dared to continue to push musical boundaries. It is why we still revere, study and perform the works of these pillars of Western music.” — KSO Music Director, James Cassidy.

Join the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and Michael Chertock for “They’re Grrreat” — 7:30 p.m., Saturday, March 25, at Greaves Concert Hall, on the campus of NKU in Highland Heights, KY. Tickets are $35-$19 with children 50% off. For those who are out of the area, or who must stay home, the KSO live streams each concert (with multiple cameras) for your ‘at home access’ for the price of a single “A” ticket. Tickets are available online at kyso.org or by phone at (859) 431-6216.

For additional information, visit the KSO at www.kyso.org or call (859) 431-6216.

“They’re Grrreat!”
(Classical — Period.)

7:30 P.M. Saturday, March 25, 2023
Greaves Concert Hall
Highland Heights, Kentucky

James Cassidy, conductor
Michael Chertock, piano

Program

Overture to Tancredi – Gioachino Rossini

Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K.488
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Allegro
     Adagio
     Allegro assai

Michael Chertock
I N T E R M I S S I O N

Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944, The Great – Franz Schubert
Andante; allegro ma non troppo
     Andante con moto
     Scherzo. Allegro vivace
     Finale. Allegro vivace

Michael Chertock
Pianist Michael Chertock has performed as a concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, includ- ing the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops; the Dallas, De- troit, Montreal and Toronto symphonies, and the State Symphony Orchestra of Moscow. In Europe and the U.K. he has performed with the Irish National Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of Britain, and orchestras in Portugal and Germany. He has recorded solo albums of film music on the Telarc label and
appears on more than 40 different record- ings on multiple labels.

Michael is the conductor of the Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and he frequently composes and arranges music for that orchestra’s concerts. He has also conducted the Cincinnati Symphony, the Columbus Symphony; the State Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, and the Moscow Conservatory Orchestra.

Michael has served for over 30 years as principal keyboardist with the Cincinnati Symphony. Formerly a faculty member at Miami University of Ohio, Michael is the chair of the piano department at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. He recently recorded a series of podcasts called The Personal Beethoven.

Michael lives in Cincinnati with his wife, Maaike, and three children

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Mindful Poetry Moments’ 2023 National Poetry Month Selections Curated by Cincinnati Poet Laureates

 MISC_Mindful Poetry MomentsCincinnati-based The Well’s Mindful Poetry Moments is again offering students and adults the chance to pause and reflect on poetry’s ability to encounter themselves, the world, and the mystery of each other during the course of their normal school or work day during April, National Poetry Month.

Mindful Poetry Moments–incubated with The On Being Project, and supported this year in partnership with The HiveWordPlayThe Mercantile Library, and Puffin Foundation West– will present four poems under the theme Our Stories, Our Narratives, with prompts in a variety of accessible forms selected by guest curators Yalie Saweda Kamara, Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate, and Rimel Kamran, Cincinnati’s Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate. 

Yalie Saweda Kamara is a Sierra Leonean-American writer, educator, and researcher with roots in Oakland, California serving now as an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati and the Director of Creative Youth Leadership at WordPlay Cincy. Rimel Kamran is a Pakistani-American poet and current senior at the Summit Country Day School where she serves in a variety of leadership roles within several student coalitions, centering poetry, medicine, and inclusion in her work.

Participating Mindful Poetry Moments schools, individuals, and organizations will be offered free, daily audio recordings of prompts and poetry featuring poems by Nikki Giovanni, Leora Kava, Carlina Duan, Freya Manfred, and Joy Harjo. All of the content, free to 300+ national Mindful Music schools and available for anyone to utilize, is provided via an easy-to-use Web App throughout National Poetry Month and beyond.

In addition to the lesson content, Mindful Poetry Moments will host virtual gatherings presenting Yalie and Rimel’s co-curated selections with the help of one mindfulness facilitator and one poetry facilitator for each week of April. These facilitators — local and national mindfulness practitioners and poets including Samantha Weiss, Brooke Thomas, Samyak Shertok, Haleh Liza Gafori, Sheila McMullin, our Poet Laureates, and The Well Founder & Director Stacy Sims — will provide guidance and prompts for writing time together, after which Mindful Poetry Moments will invite participants to share their writing with one another and ask for submissions for the fourth Mindful Poetry Moments publication, set to release in the summer of 2023. For those unable to attend, all the sessions will be recorded and available to watch on The Well’s YouTube channel.

All virtual gatherings will be held each Wednesday in April from 4:00-5:00pm, and registration is completely free. Mindful Poetry Moments invites its participants to “Come with a pen, paper, and an open heart.”

Finally, this year features two additional opportunities. Writers will be invited to The Craft of Mindful Poetry, a Zoom workshop for writers to work on their Mindful Poetry Moments 2023 submissions prior to publication with The Well’s Wellspring Fellow, poet Sheila McMullin and Rimel Kamran on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023. Additionally, weaver and writer Rowe Schnure will lead a special, free Threads of Reflection: A Community Poetry and Weaving event at The Well on Sunday, April 23, 2023.

This year’s Mindful Poetry illustrations were created by Cincinnati-based illustrator and educator Julie Klear Essakalli.

Video of Guest Curators Explaining Mindful Poetry and The Featured Poems

Read full bios for all of our facilitators and collaborators

View full listing of Mindful Poetry Moments events

About The Well / A Mindful Moment

Providing programs, practices and connection at the intersection of arts and wellness.

In different forms, The Well programs have been nourishing the Greater Cincinnati community since 2005. In 2019 we became the non-profit, A Mindful Moment. A Mindful Moment’s mission is to improve the mental and emotional well-being, connectedness, and effectiveness of all citizens through arts integration, mindfulness, music, movement, and healing-centered practices.

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