Category Archives: Press Releases

October 7, 2026 · 6:17 pm

The Emery Theater Earns Five Awards for Preservation and Community Impact

The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati celebrates honors for the historic theater’s transformation with Terrex Development & Construction and GBBN 

Marcus Thompson, Brian Schwartz, Jennifer Sebranek, Peter Horton & Chad Burke.

CINCINNATI – The reimagined Emery Theater has earned four recent awards recognizing its historic preservation, renovation, and community impact. The honors celebrate the transformation of the 1911 landmark into a permanent MainStage home for The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati (TCT), completed in collaboration with Terrex Development & Construction and architectural firm GBBN.

The five honors include:

First Place in the Historic Category, retrofit magazine’s 2026 Metamorphosis Awards. The national awards recognize excellence in renovation and retrofitting. The Emery project will be featured in the magazine’s November/December 2026 awards issue.

Melanie Pliskin, Phil Rowland, Steve Karoly, Andrew Campbell, Krista Katona Pille & Brian Schwartz.

2026 Preservation Champion Award, Cincinnati Preservation. The Emery Theater was honored for its lasting contribution to historic preservation in Greater Cincinnati. The award recognizes the project’s restoration of significant architectural features, creative integration of modern theatrical technology, and improved accessibility, along with its renewed role as a cultural anchor and permanent MainStage home for The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati.

2026 Community Impact of the Year Award, CREDA Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky. The Commercial Real Estate Development Association chapter recognized the Emery Theater at its annual Night of the Stars Gala.

2026 Historic Theatre of the Year Award, Heritage Ohio. The statewide preservation organization honored the Emery at its September 30 awards ceremony at Cincinnati’s Woodward Theatre, recognizing historic preservation, active programming, and community engagement.

2026 State Historic Preservation Office Award. The project has been selected for recognition for its achievement in preserving Ohio’s historic places. The award will be presented November 6 at the Thomas C. Moyer Judicial Center in Columbus.

The reopening in October 2025 marked a homecoming more than half a century in the making. The Emery Theater was TCT’s original performance home before the company moved its MainStage productions to the Taft Theatre in 1969. Returning to the stage where generations of young audiences first experienced live theater reconnects TCT with its history while creating a permanent home for the next generation.

Now the most technologically advanced proscenium-style theater in the country, the reimagined Emery blends theatrical innovation with historic grandeur. The restoration retained ornamental plaster, marble finishes, and grand staircases while integrating new building systems and elevators. A stage lift with a built-in turntable, immersive projection mapping, and a large LED wall expands the possibilities for storytelling within the historic venue.

Envisioned by philanthropist Mary Emery and designed by Samuel Hannaford & Sons, the historic theater also served as home to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Its stage has welcomed figures including George Gershwin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After more than 30 years of vacancy, its restoration returns a cherished Cincinnati landmark to active cultural life.

Krista Katona Pille, Beth Johnson, Steve Karoly &Brian Schwartz.

About The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati
Celebrating 107 years this season, The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati is the nation’s oldest professional theatre for young audiences and the only professional theatre in the region devoted entirely to children. Through 60-minute MainStage productions at the reimagined Emery Theater, TCT on Tour bringing live theatre into schools across the region, and TCT Academy’s year-round classes and camps, TCT educates, entertains, and inspires more than 100,000 children and families each year, awakening a lifelong love of theatre in the young and the young at heart. For more information visit www.thechildrenstheatre.com.

About Terex Development & Construction:
Founded in 2014, Terrex Development & Construction is a Cincinnati-based firm providing development and construction services for commercial, nonprofit, institutional, and community projects. Its team guides clients from early planning through construction, with experience in historic renovations and complex redevelopment projects. Learn more at terrexllc.com.

About GBBN:
GBBN is an architecture and design firm whose work spans arts and culture, healthcare, higher education, workplaces, and community spaces. Combining creative design with technical expertise, GBBN helps clients create places that enrich people’s experiences and strengthen communities. Its portfolio includes historic restorations and performance venues, including the reimagined Emery Theater. Learn more at gbbn.com.

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October 6, 2026 · 4:58 pm

Know Theatre of Cincinnati Presents Seven Spine-Tingling Nights of Theatre in OctKNOWber Nights

Know Theatre of Cincinnati Presents 
octKNOWber Nights

Seven spine-tingling nights of theatre by local artists 
running from October 21–30

Cincinnati, OH – Know Theatre of Cincinnati, known for building belonging through bold theatre, will host octKNOWber Nights from October 21–30, 2026. Get into the Halloween spirit with local artists highlighted in comedy shows, staged readings, secret lineups, and more. Tickets are on sale now.

Starting October 21, Know Theatre fans will be excited to see Jon Bennett return with his Pick of the Fringe Award-winning solo show American’t to kick off octKNOWber Nights. Previously part of the 2025 Cincinnati Fringe Primary lineup, this comedic show takes audiences through Bennett’s journey from being stuck at home in rural Australia during the pandemic to escaping to America after restrictions are lifted and the chaos that ensues. 

Voted Audience’s Favorite of the Know Theatre’s Serials 16 lineup, Adventures in Afterlife by Sydney Vollmer and Chance Kilgour is back with three performances from October 22–24. This show follows the comedic hijinks that ensue when two young teens accidentally resurrect their uncle and team up to rescue their mom from the afterlife. 

You can catch two performances on October 25. Join us for the matinee for Trick or Treat, Sally Salem! by Zoë Peterson, and follow a local witch who needs her family and friends to find a cure for her magical illness so she can enjoy her favorite holiday: Halloween! In the evening, witness a staged reading of local playwright and co-creator of Die Hard is a Christmas Movie, A.J. Baldwin’s new play, Thief, a dystopian thriller set in a crumbling society. 

Erika MacDonald presents Show Us Your Weird: SPOOKY EDITION on October 28, after tremendous success in last year’s octKNOWber Nights lineup. With a program of experimental works, expect the unexpected in this variety show where each act and performer is a secret until the performance begins.

Rounding out octKNOWber Nights’ stellar schedule, comics Janette Pérez and Homer Shadowheart will take the stage in I’m Not Your Costume on October 29, and returning octKNOWber Nights producers The Anti-Pestilence League and Kat Reynolds will perform two classic radio plays in Wicked & Whimsy on October 30.

Founded in 1997, the Know Theatre is Cincinnati’s only Black Box Theatre: an intimate, 90-seat performance space where there’s never a bad seat in the house. With a four-show MainStage Season, Cabaret performances in our Underground Bar & Lobby, and the annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival, the Know Theatre is a place where audiences can access provocative, live performances from living playwrights and local artists. octKNOWber Nights showcases the Know Theatre of Cincinnati’s mission by highlighting a lineup of new works and a variety of performance genres from a plethora of local artists.

Performance Information
octKNOWber Nights consists of seven separate shows with 9 performances, all performed at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati (1120 Jackson St, Cincinnati, OH 45202). 

AMERICAN’T by Jon Bennett

  • Wednesday, October 21 at 7:30 PM

Rated: PG-13

ADVENTURES IN THE AFTERLIFE by Sydney Vollmer & Chance Kilgour

  • Thursday, October 22 at 7:30 PM 
  • Friday, October 23 at 7:30 PM
  • Saturday, October 24 at 7:30 PM

Rated: PG for loss, grief, and themes of terminal illness 

TRICK OR TREAT, SALLY SALEM! By Zoë Peterson

  • Sunday, October 25 at 2:00 PM 

Rated: For All Ages

THIEF by A.J. Baldwin

  • Sunday, October 25 at 7:30 PM 

Content Advisory: Strong Language, Abuse/Violence, Flashing Lights, Loud Noises

SHOW US YOUR WEIRD: SPOOKY EDITION
Produced by Erika MacDonald

  • Wednesday, October 28 at 7:30 PM 

Rated: 18+ for Warnings We Don’t Know Either!

I’M NOT YOUR COSTUME: A Night of Stand-Up Comedy
Featuring Janette Pérez and Homer Shadowheart

  • Thursday, October 29 at 7:30 PM 

Rated: NC-17 Adults Only

WICKED AND WHIMSY
Presented by The Anti-Pestilence League

  • Friday, October 30 at 7:30 PM 

Rated: PG

Ticket Information
Tickets are available through the Know Theatre of Cincinnati website or by calling the box office at (513) 300-5669.

Know Theatre of Cincinnati exists to build belonging through bold theatre.

Know Theatre is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the annual ArtsWave Campaign, the region’s primary source for arts funding.

The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Know Theatre with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

Know Theatre is also supported by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, which provides a simple, powerful, and highly personal approach to giving.

Know Theatre is a member of the League of Cincinnati Theatres and Theatre Communications Group.

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October 6, 2026 · 4:57 pm

Xavier Theatre Presents THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW

Xavier University Theatre Presents
RICHARD O’BRIEN’S THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, Oct. 23-31

(CINCINNATI, Oct. 1, 2026) – Xavier University Theatre continues its 2026-27 season with the hit musical Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show. The show runs Oct. 23-31. 

The ultimate cult musical experience, The Rocky Horror Show is a wild, hilarious ride packed with rock ‘n’ roll, sci-fi thrills, outrageous characters and audience-fueled fun. When wholesome sweethearts Brad and Janet seek shelter from a storm in the eerie castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, they are swept into a world of unforgettable music, over-the-top antics and deliciously campy chaos. Fresh from its acclaimed 50th-anniversary Broadway revival, which earned nine Tony Award nominations, The Rocky Horror Show remains the most outrageous party in town, and a perfect celebration for Halloween night!

“Rocky Horror is as groundbreaking today as when it premiered,” said Stephen Skiles, chair of Xavier’s Department of Music and Theatre, and director of the show. “It is funny, energetic, timely and original. We’ve had great conversations in rehearsal about the show’s inclusion and identity themes, and I’m really excited to bring this fun and poignant musical to the stage at Xavier.” 

Senior Kyra Sander (she/her), who plays Janet, looks forward to sharing the Xavier students’ perspective on the play with audiences. “I’m excited to bring RHS to the Xavier Theatre stage because we are introducing a new perspective on this iconic play, while still paying homage to the play’s legacy. Uncovering the heart of this story has been beautiful, and rehearsals have been such a blast. Getting to work with an amazing cast and production team has been incredibly rewarding, and I can’t wait to share these past few weeks of hard work and dedication with the community,” she said.

Senior Jamie Swisshelm (they/them), who plays Frank-N-Furter, said the show feels as timely as ever. “The Rocky Horror Show is still so important and relevant,” they said. “At its core, it’s a story about finding yourself, and finding comfort and liberation within that. That message is hidden under layers of camp and fun, but it is there, and it rings loud and true. Every single rehearsal has been filled with fun and laughter. I think audiences are really going to enjoy what we have in store.” 

And senior Josi Pietrzyk (she/her), who plays Magenta, notes the cultural impact of the show, saying, “The Rocky Horror Show is a playful love letter to classic sci-fi, horror films and musical theatre, but its cultural impact also means a lot to me. There aren’t many shows that have the fanbase and community ofRocky Horror, which highlights its impact. I’m really excited for people to see our production. We honor that legacy, while also subverting expectations about the show.”

The cast includes seniors Luke Heetderks (Brad), Pietrzyk (Magenta), Cohen Rice (Dr. Scott), Kyra Sander (Janet) and Swisshelm (Frank); juniors Taylor Mattingly (Rocky) and Anna Meister (Narrator); sophomores Sophie Mullins (Riff Raff) and Isabella Varricchio (Columbia); and first-year Cameron Wilson (Eddie). Ensemble members include seniors Reilly Somerville, Brianna Starkey and Veronica Talbert; juniors Olivia Burklow, Molly Ciuci and Anna Hittepole; sophomore Lilliana Stiverson; and first-year students Lainey Caton and Ryan Scheiner.

The show is directed and produced by Stephen Skiles. Music direction is by Scot Buzza, and choreography is by alumna Jenna Treinen (’23). The design team includes Joe Beumer (lighting designer), Joe Leonard (set designer and technical director), Jessica Pitcairn (costume designer), Jason Sebastian (sound designer) and Matt Lee (conductor). The assistant director is Kelsey Schwarber (’21). The stage manager is junior Anya Sperber, and the assistant stage managers are sophomore Maria Rund and first-year Jenna Mansfield. 

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 23, 24 and 30; at 2:00 p.m. on Oct. 24 and 31; closing at 10:00 p.m. on Oct. 31. Tickets are available now. They are $20 each for adults and $15 each for Xavier students, faculty and staff. To purchase tickets, visit https://xaviertheatre.ludus.com.

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October 5, 2026 · 5:33 pm

Plays Selected for HOME BREW THEATRE 10 at The Drama Workshop

Home Brew Theatre is The Drama Workshop’s celebration of the short play format. It features short plays by local playwrights, and beer from a local brewery served at the Meet the Artists reception after the performance. This January will be the 10th such staging since Home Brew started back in 2016. There were a record number of submissions for Home Brew Theatre 10, with the below being the final selections.
 
There will be four performances the weekend of January 15-17, 2027. Tickets are available at thedramaworkshop.org or by calling (513)598-8303.

AD HOMINEM by Eric Thomas
Directed by Judy Berrens

BREAKING UP by Emily Turner
Directed by Benny Mitchell

CLIFF by Teri Foltz
Directed by Olivia Klosterman

CROW AT A WEDDING by Craigory Billet
Directed by Steve Phalen

HATE by Wendy Vogel
Directed by Katrina Reynolds

KAREN’S UBER by Greg Dastillung
Directed by Trey Reeves

SEVENTEEN by Keith Vanden Eynden
Directed by Michael Scarpelli

TRICK OR TREAT by Steve Phalen
Directed by Kent Smith

PMA AND THE BEAST by Peter J Stavros
Directed by Dane Rogers and Sarah Louise Rogers

WORST SONG TO PLAY AT A FUNERAL by Holly Sauerbrunn
Directed by Mark Culp
 

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October 1, 2026 · 4:52 pm

Local Favorite Paul Strickland to Emcee The National Storytelling Festival

Photo by Mikki Shaffner.(Covington, KY) Cincinnati’s favorite storyteller, Paul Strickland, has been invited for the second year in a row to serve as Master of Ceremonies at the prestigious National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. The popular three-day event is the largest and oldest storytelling festival in America and draws thousands of visitors from all over the globe.

This year, in addition, Strickland will teach a storytelling workshop entitled “Funny Is A Skill.” Covington resident Strickland is the founder of Tell Stories Better, an online teaching resource to help people do just that. “Funny Is A Skill” is one of Strickland’s most popular offerings, and drew a record number of registrants when he offered it online earlier this year.

As a featured teller at the 2023 National Storytelling Festival, Strickland performed for audiences of up to two thousand people at a time, and drew standing-room only crowds to his tale-telling tents. It is experiences like this that inspired him to found a storytelling festival right here in Cincinnati, and the thriving sixth-year Cincinnati Storytelling Festival will be held this November in the heart of OTR.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL STORYTELLING FESTIVAL
Every October since 1973, thousands of travelers have visited Tennessee’s oldest town. They come for one purpose–to hear stories and to tell them at the National Storytelling Festival. This celebration of America’s rich and varied storytelling tradition, the oldest and most respected gathering anywhere in America devoted to storytelling, has in turn spawned a national revival of this venerable art.
https://www.storytellingcenter.net/festival/main/

ABOUT PAUL STRICKLAND
Cincinnati audiences know and love Paul Strickland for his award-winning performances at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, including Ain’t True & Uncle False (2013 All-Access Pick-of-the-Fringe Award winner) and Balls of Yarns (2017 Critics’ Pick-of-the-Fringe Award winner).

Paul is also one of the co-founders of the Cincinnati Storytelling Festival which has brought nationally-recognized storytellers including Bil Lepp, Sheila Arnold, Adam Booth and Charlotte Blake Alston to Cincinnati audiences. The Cincinnati Storytelling Festival will be returning for a sixth year this November 12-14, featuring national storytellers Kevin Kling and Motoko Dworkin. https://www.cincystoryfest.com/

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