Category Archives: Press Releases

Break Out Your Dunce Caps for ALPHAS: BACK TO SCHOOL – A Comedy Variety Show On Sept. 23

ALPHAS_Back to School

Cast and Crew: Direction by: Tatiana Godfrey and Liz Looney Featuring: Colette Lindemann, Emily Elma, Katie Gayer, Julie Locker, Jennifer Martinez, Molly McCuistion, Amanda Monyhan, Kelley McCollum-Uyeno, Cat Ward & Jenna Yuenger

(Clifton) Cincinnati, OH – Alphas Comedy presents “Alphas: Back to School- A Comedy Variety Show” at Clifton Comedy Theatre on Saturday, September 23 at 8pm.

Raise your hands and line up single file to see an original show spinning any of your residual middle school trauma into a one-hour comedic joyride of sketch comedy, improv, musical parody, and charming choreographed dances!

Written and performed by Alphas, the all-female identifying Cincinnati-based sketch and improv comedy group.

Doors open at 7:30, show at 8pm. Purchase your tickets online, and check in at the door with your name. No other proof of purchase required!

Questions about the event or want to know more? Connect with Alphas on social media: @alphas_improv on Instagram and Facebook. Or reach out to Artistic Director Patricia Mullins at alphas.improv@gmail.com

About Alphas:
Alphas is an all-female identifying Cincinnati-based sketch and improv comedy group who have been writing, performing, and improvising shows together since April 2022. Their most recent productions were August’s “Alphas: HOT! HOT! HOT! – A Comedy Variety Show” and July’s “Alphas: Bedtime Stories – A Comedy Variety Show”. Their show “Alphas: Apocalypse – A Comedy Variety Show”, was featured as a special event at Cincy Fringe, 2023.  Their mission is to amplify women’s voices in comedy, while providing an inclusive, safe space for exploration, performance, and learning.

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NKU Opens “On-Tour” Theatre Season with THE CURIOUS INCIDENT

NKU_Curious IncidentHIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KY – Brace yourself for a captivating journey as Northern Kentucky University’s School of the Arts (NKU SOTA) opens its on-tour theatre season with the Tony Award-winning play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” The production will be on stage from September 28 to October 8, 2023, at the NKU Griffin Hall Digitorium.

    • What: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    • When: Sept. 28 – Oct. 8, 2023
    • Where: NKU Griffin Hall Digitorium
    • Tickets: nku.edu/tickets or 859-572-5464

Prepare to be spellbound by “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” a Tony Award-winning play adapted by Simon Stephens from the acclaimed novel by Mark Haddon. The gripping narrative follows 15-year-old Christopher, a boy with an extraordinary brain that is exceptional at mathematics but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he discovers his neighbor’s dead dog, Wellington, he finds himself under suspicion and sets out to solve the mystery, leading him on a thrilling journey that upturns his world.

The cast includes Gabby Casto, Cody Combs, Chloe Esmeier, Jericah Green, Liv Gudmundsson, Maggie Komp, Elliet Malatesta, D.J. Stroud, Mark Taylor, Hailey Watson, and Reagan Wildoner. The production team features Savanah Kennedy as Stage Manager, Jessica Ruehl as Projections Designer, Ronnie Chamberlain as Scenic and Costume Designer, Jacqueline Williams as Props Designer, Chanelle Dau Pino as Lighting Designer, and Jo Sanburg as Sound Designer. The show is directed by Christopher Ryan.

Don’t miss the opportunity to embark on this exhilarating adventure! Tickets for the NKU SOTA 2023-24 Theatre & Dance Season On Tour are available for purchase at nku.edu/tickets.

About NKU: Founded in 1968, NKU is an entrepreneurial state university of over 16,000 students served by more than 2,000 faculty and staff on a thriving suburban campus nestled between Highland Heights, Kentucky and bustling downtown Cincinnati. We are a regionally engaged university committed to empowering our students to have fulfilling careers and meaningful lives. While we are one of the fastest-growing universities in Kentucky, our professors still know our students’ names. For more information, visit nku.edu 

About SOTA: The School of the Arts at Northern Kentucky University, which is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, is made up of three programs: Theatre and Dance, Art and Design, and Music. The Theatre and Dance program relies on intensive student involvement both inside and outside the classroom. At the program’s center is a vital balance of process and production, giving each student opportunities to stretch boundaries and discover new possibilities. Graduates have gone on to successful careers in professional theatre, film and television. For more information, visit theatre.nku.edu.

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Close Harmony Styles Collide as Award-Winning Men’s Vocal Groups Join Forces for Special Concert

SGC_A Night of Harmony.jpgCINCINNATI, OH – Two of Greater Cincinnati’s most beloved male vocal ensembles are coming together for a one-of-a-kind evening of close harmony singing in Evendale. The Southern Gateway Chorus and No Promises Vocal Band proudly announce a first-ever co-bill concert, “A Night of Harmony,” September 23 & 24, 2023 at Landmark Church (1600 Glendale Milford Rd (follow Aerohub Blvd.), Cincinnati, OH 45215). The program will feature sets from both award-winning ensembles, ending in a special finale with the groups singing together. Tickets are $20 – $25 and available for purchase online: bit.ly/23SGC-Harmony-pr

Barbershop and Vocal Jazz Collide

“A Night of Harmony” will feature two men’s a cappella ensembles who share a passion for close harmony singing but whose style and repertoire come from different branches of the a cappella tree. Performing in the “barbershop” style, Southern Gateway Chorus embodies the classic four-part harmony of lead, tenor, baritone and bass.

About the collaboration, SGC Show Producer/Music Team member Gary Ellerhorst says, “The international award-winning Southern Gateway Chorus is thrilled to perform once again with No Promises Vocal Band after sharing the stage several years ago for their annual Christmas show.  Their combined talent and love of a cappella harmony makes this a dynamic duo and an event that you don’t want to miss!”

No Promises Vocal Band also looks to the past for its stylistic inspiration, modeling its sound on vocal jazz groups such as The Hi-Los and Manhattan Transfer. Their set for the collaborative concert will include selections by those groups, as well as arrangements of music by The Jackson 5, The Gaither Vocal Band and Dan Fogelberg. No Promises is a two-time “Best of Cincinnati” winner whose past concert collaborators have included the Queen City Sisters, the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers and the Gem City Chorus.

Vocalist Nat Comisar has the unique perspective of having sung with both ensembles, making “A Night of Harmony” an especially exciting program for him. “It’s mind-blowing to see these two fantastic groups come together,“ says the No Promises bass, who still moonlights in a barbershop quartet. “The musicality of each of these groups is superb, but to showcase a full spectrum of male harmony styles in one night makes it truly special.”

About Southern Gateway Chorus
Formed in 1956, Southern Gateway Chorus is dedicated to singing a cappella musical arrangements done in the four-part Barbershop Harmony Style. As a competitive chorus, Southern Gateway is a perennial qualifier to the annual Barbershop Harmony Society’s International Championship, is a two-time International Champion, and has accumulated more Top 5 finishes than any other chorus in the Barbershop Harmony Society’s history.   In addition, Southern Gateway has a rich history of Quartet performers. Gold Medal international Champions “Interstate Rivals” (1987) “Keepsake” (1992) “Marquis” (1995), “Platinum” (2000) and “Old School” (2011) all have at least one voice part from the Chorus.

And notably, the 2020 International Senior Champion, “Hearsay” is comprised of singers who are ALL active SGC members!

In addition to competitions, SGC proudly produces family friendly themed shows yearly, including musical parodies— “Robin Hood: Misadventures in Sherwood Forest, “East Side/West Side Story”, and “Somewhere Over the Rhine-Bow”.

Highlighting a typical year, the Christmas season finds SGC producing an annual Holiday themed show. In addition to caroling sessions around town, the Chorus has become a regular holiday performer at St Francis Seraph Church. Southern Gateway’s most recent holiday CD offering, “Believe”  was recorded and released in 2018.

In 2022, Southern Gateway’s Aronoff performance of “A Little A Capella Music”,  presented in partnership with Cincinnati Music Theater, was selected as Best Cabaret Performance by Broadwayworld.com

Our current membership is comprised of enthusiastic amateur vocalists from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. SGC is always looking for new members  Our current rehearsal home is Bassett Hound Sound, 5633 Vine Street, Cincinnati 45216, where we rehearse on Thursdays from 7pm to 10 pm.   Our Membership contact is Dale Shoemaker— membership@southerngateway.org

About NO PROMISES
NO PROMISES is a Cincinnati-based professional a cappella ensemble bringing exhilarating vocals and breathtaking harmonizations to jazz and popular music favorites from 1940s classics to today’s jams. Citybeat “Best of Cincinnati” winners in 2017 and 2022, the group has entertained at festivals, concert series, conventions and performing arts centers throughout the state. Its members have graced the stages of Broadway, fronted major symphony orchestras, and backed the likes of Jim Messina, Steve Winwood, Kenny Loggins and POCO. In their day-to-day lives, the men of NO PROMISES are clinical psychologists, concert promoters, social workers, real estate moguls and hairdressers with a passion for fine a cappella singing.

In 2023, NO PROMISES premiered a newly commissioned work by composer Cecelia Olszewski as part of Cincinnati May Festival’s 150th anniversary season. 2021 saw the ensemble’s debut of “The Boy Band Diaries,” a collaboration with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra featuring male vocal hits spanning the past century. The group’s numerous other collaborators and guest artist appearances have included the Gem City Chorus, the Southern Gateway Chorus, the Sycamore Community Singers, the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers, the Queen City Sisters, the Three Bald Guys and the Cincinnati Collaborative Ringing Project. NO PROMISES has released three recording projects: A No Promises Christmas (2016), All Wet (2018) and The Nines (2019), as well as the pandemic-era virtual concert, NO PROMISES Saves Christmas.

The members of NO PROMISES are Joshua Steele (resident of Kennedy Heights), Kaeden Kass (Mt. Airy), David Baum (Montgomery), Jeff Grooms (Cold Spring, KY), and Nat Comisar (Indian Hill). Individual bios available at http://www.nopromisesvocalband.com/lineup/.

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2023-2024 Season Announced by Mount St. Joseph University

MSJ_logoMSJ Theatre Arts is proud to announce the 2023-2024 season. Our season is a tale of identity, coming-of-age, and self-realization. In today’s society there are swaths of our world asking us to ignore our past mistakes and histories that make up so much of our country’s patchwork. These missteps if not taught and examined are destined to be repeated, but let’s challenge ourselves to look at them through a different lens. This season we look backwards…quite a bit. We hope that you will join us as we explore the trials that we go through personally, professionally, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

MSJ_A Piece of My HeartShirley Lauro’s authentic look at the women who served in the Vietnam war is a heartfelt exploration of feminism in action with her courageous play, A PIECE OF MY HEART. This is a true tale of six women sent to Vietnam and their struggle to make sense of a war that irrevocable changed them and a nation that shunned them, a work with the music and soul of a tumultuous era in our history. Overall, more than 265,000 women served in the military during Vietnam — and approximately 10,000 military women served in-country during the conflict. Only 8 are memorialized on the Vietnam War Memorial.  Six different points of view from six different routes that all happen to parallel and intersect at a variety of points and interludes.

A PIECE OF MY HEART runs November 9th, 10th, 11th, 17th & 18th 2023.

MSJ_MarianIn the spring, we will explore what it means to be female amidst the backdrop of medieval Nottingham with Adam Symkowicz’s MARIAN, OR THE TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD. A gender-bending, patriarchy-smashing, hilarious new take of the classic tale. Robin Hood is (and has always been) Maid Marian in disguise, and leads of motley group of Merry Men (few of whom are actually me) against greedy Prince John. As the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, who will stand for the vulnerable if not Robin? What is the cost of revealing your true self in a time of trouble? Modern concerns and romantic entanglements clash on the battlefield and on the ramparts of Nottingham Castle in this play about selfishness, selflessness, love deferred and the fight. Always the fight. The fight must go on.

MARIAN, OR THE TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD runs April 11th, 12th, 13th, 19th & 20th 2024. 

Tickets are $5 for students, MSJ alumni, or anyone under age 18; $10 for adults.
www.MSJTheatre.BookTix.com

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NYC Ballet Superstar Headlines MORE ROOM TO PLAY, Kaplan New Works

CB_More Room to Play60th Anniversary Season kicks off with ‘New Works,’ Sept. 15-24

Cincinnati, OH (August 28, 2023) –

Cincinnati Ballet opens the Diamond 60th Anniversary season with MORE ROOM TO PLAY, Kaplan New Works, at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, Jarson-Kaplan Theater, September 15–24. MORE ROOM TO PLAY features three world premieres from incredible artists Tiler Peck, New York City Ballet principal dancer and international superstar with Balderrama. “The power of music to bring people together is ultimately my inspiration for this piece,” Peck said of her world premiere, Balderrama. “The song “Balderrama” is a tribute to a traditional folk music club located in the city of Salta, Argentina, called Lo de Balderrama. This is a place where the music is played and everyone dances and feels the rhythm deep in their bones;” Houston Thomas, an innovative dance maker based in Dresden, Germany with In The Smoke; And patron favorite choreographer David Morse with the title work, MORE ROOM TO PLAY, one originally conceived during the pandemic. The program also features an evocative piece from San Francisco-based choreographer Amy Seiwert, who serves as the artistic head of her own contemporary ballet company, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, and is currently the Associate Artistic Director of Smuin Ballet based in San Francisco. She crafted a piece titled It’s Not a Cry set to the captivating rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley. Completing the program is a work entitled Quem Viver, Verá (“He Who Lives Shall See”) a dance for five men by Cincinnati Ballet artistic collaborator Jennifer Archibald.

The annual program has gained a cult following with Cincinnati audiences who are first to experience groundbreaking world premieres by some of the world’s most sought-after choreographers in an intimate theater setting that accommodates only three hundred patrons.

Tickets for The Kaplan New Works Series are on sale now, with seating already limited to some performances.  For more information visit http://www.cballet.org.

WHO: Cincinnati Ballet

WHAT: MORE ROOM TO PLAY, Kaplan New Works

WHEN:

  • Friday, September 14 at 7:30 pm
  • Saturday, September 15 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm
  • Sunday, September 16 at 1 pm
  • Thursday, September 21 at 7:30 pm
  • Friday, September 22 at 7:30 pm
  • Saturday, September 23 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm
  • Sunday, September 24 at 1 pm

WHERE: Aronoff Center for the Arts, Jarson-Kaplan Theater – 650 Walnut Street, Cincinnati, Ohio

TICKETS: Call 513.621.5282 or visit cballet.org

Cincinnati Ballet 2023-2024 Season Sponsors:
PNC, Margaret and Michael Valentine, ArtsWave, H.B., E.W. & F.R. Luther Foundation, Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund, Ohio Arts Council, The Austin E. Knowlton Foundation

About Cincinnati Ballet
Since 1963, Cincinnati Ballet has been the cornerstone professional ballet company of the region, presenting a bold and adventurous array of classical, full-length ballets and contemporary works, regularly with live orchestral accompaniment. Under the artistic direction of Jodie Gates, Cincinnati Ballet is a creative force within the larger dance community, commissioning world-premiere works and exploring unique collaborations. With a mission to enrich, expand, and excel in the art of dance through performance, a high-caliber academy, and impactful education and community engagement in local to global communities, Cincinnati Ballet reaches beyond the stage in programs that allow every person in the region to be part of the continued evolution of dance. To that end, Cincinnati Ballet presents exhilarating performances, provides extensive education and community engagement programs, and offers top-level professional ballet training at Cincinnati Ballet Otto M. Budig Academy.

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