Tag Archives: Know Theatre of Cincinnati

“Did you ever really like reality? This might be your only chance to leave.”

GLASSHEART
by Reina Hardy
November 19 – December 12, 2021
A tale as old as time. Mostly. 

For the holidays, we’re bringing you a fairy tale for the broken-hearted. You already know and love the characters: an enchanted beast, his devoted servant, and a kind-hearted young woman who’s been locked up … in a crappy Chicago apartment. Glassheart, running November 19 – December 12 at Know Theatre, brings you a daringly modern twist on the story of the Beauty and her Beast.

Whether you’re a young woman with her first Chicago apartment or a cursed Beast with a talking lamp who’s recently downsized, the hardest thing about moving to a big city can be making a genuine connection with people. Glassheart is a new kind of fairy tale: for the romantics, for the broken-hearted, and for everyone who’s ready to breathe a little magic back into the world.

The Know’s second show back on our Jackson Street MainStage after we were shuttered by the pandemic, Glassheart is written by Reina Hardy, who also penned the Know’s 2017 holiday show, the Victorian-lady-detective crime caper Susan Swayne and the Bewildered Bride. Glassheart will be presented both live onstage and as a digital streaming production.

Glassheart sets the oft-adapted tale of Beauty and the Beast firmly in the present day with the question: what if Beauty had never shown up? After centuries of waiting, the Beast and his one remaining servant, a plucky living lamp, have sold their fairy-tale European castle and decamped to Chicago, hoping that the city’s dense population holds at least one woman who can love a Beast. When Aiofe (say it “ee-fah;” it’s an Irish name that means “beautiful”) chances into their apartment in search of a runaway pet, the Beast and his Lamp think the curse’s power may soon be broken … but they may not be prepared for the sacrifices they’ll make along the way.

Tamara Winters, the Associate Artistic Director of the Know and director of this production, said of Glassheart, “After 20 months of living through a truth that is stranger than fiction, diving headfirst into a story that intentionally dances between fantasy and reality feels remarkably satisfying. It’s my favorite kind of story – one that takes what you think will be familiar and flips it on its head, asking all kinds of new questions you haven’t thought to ask before. It’s a grown-up kind of fairytale; a nice palate cleanser from predictable holiday fare. It’s a story that will keep you guessing, but ultimately one that will remind you what it takes to become human. I think, right now, we could all use that lesson.”

Adam Tran returns to the Know’s MainStage to play the Beast on the heels of this summer’s outdoor production of Mongrel, the solo show he wrote and performed. Joining him are a pair of leading ladies in their mainstage debuts: Hannah Gregory will play the Beast’s devoted Lamp, who schemes to find the true love that will break the Beast’s curse, and Julie Locker will appear as Aiofe, the young beauty who falls into imprisonment in the Beast’s home. Rounding out the cast as the Witch is Jodie Linver, who was last seen on our MainStage as the goat Bibb in 2020’s Alabaster.

Make a little magic with us this holiday season with this story of love, sacrifice, and redemption as we take a new twist on a tale as old as time.

Tickets are available on our website, knowtheatre.com, or by calling our box office at 513-300-5669.

CAST

• Adam Tran as the Beast
• Hannah Gregory as the Lamp
• Julie Locker as Aiofe
• Jodie Linver as the Witch

PRODUCTION TEAM

• Director: Tamara Winters
• Lighting & Scenic Designer: Andrew J. Hungerford
• Costume Designer: Noelle Wedig-Johnston
• Props Designer: Kayla Williams
• Sound Designer: Douglas J. Borntrager
• Technical Director: Jim Stark
• Stage Manager: Ben Dudley

AT A GLANCE

Production: Glassheart by Reina Hardy

Dates: November 19 – December 12, 2021; Wednesday – Saturday shows are at 8 PM; Sunday matinees are at 3 PM.

Where: Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson Street in Over-the-Rhine

Tickets: The standard ticket price is $25. Audiences may opt to support the Know’s initiative to pay all artists and employees a living wage by selecting the $35 Living Wage Ticket. Low-cost admission available for $15. On Wednesdays, as part of our Welcome Experiment, tickets are $5 in advance or FREE beginning one hour prior to the show. The Welcome Experiment is bright to you this season by Judge Mark P. Painter (Ret). 

Know Theatre is Cincinnati’s Theatrical Playground. The Know showcases unexpected voices, new works, and plays that embrace the inherent theatricality of the live experience. Know Theatre seeks to be a place where artists and audiences feel welcome to take artistic risks, creating work that is cutting edge and accessible. 

Know Theatre’s work is made possible, in part, by the generosity of community contributions to the ArtsWave Campaign.  

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 Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation, helping to change our communities for the better through collaboration and innovation, and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, which provides a simple, powerful, and highly personal approach to giving.

 Know Theatre is a member of Theatre Communications Group and an Associate Member of the National New Play Network. 

###

By Joseph Zettelmaier

October 8 – 24, 2021

The Night Parlor is open; don’t touch that dial

What happens when you start living a dream you didn’t know you had? Step into the den of a sexy hostess of shlocky horror at Know Theatre with Shock!: The Spine-Tingling Tale of Miss Spidra, running October 8 – 24, and see how the story behind the story has all the thrills.

In the late 1950’s, young actor Joyce is given the opportunity to take her love of horror movies to the next level, as a Horror Host of an campy late night television B Movie Extravaganza: Miss Spidra’s Night Parlor. Now, some 50 years later, an older Joyce reflects on the challenges, the fun, and the schlock, when a documentary considers her legacy.

We kicked off our return to in-person theatre this season with back-to-back outdoor productions, but as autumn arrives, we’re delighted to welcome you back into our Jackson Street MainStage with this production by one of our favorite playwrights, Joseph Zettelmaier, who also wrote the scripts for previous MainStage productions All Childish Things (2015), Pulp (2016), and The Man-Beast (2018).

Shock! tells of the rise and fall of a “horror host,” the costumed emcee of late-night television broadcasts of campy horror films. This fictionalized account is based on a real-life pop culture phenomenon: in the 1950s, cities all over the country showcased their own homegrown spins on the smash-hit success of LA’s Vampira TV show. And as it turns out, Ohio had the most local TV horror hosts of any state in the nation. (Perhaps YOU grew up watching The Cool Ghoul, Fritz The Nite Owl, or Ghoulardi, yourself?)

Andrew J. Hungerford, Producing Artistic Director of Know Theatre of Cincinnati, will direct this production. He says about Shock!: “I remember as a kid the inherent thrill in staying up late at night to watch something scary, or silly, or both, in the waning hours before the local station ended their broadcast day. It was a magical time and place that felt outside of reality, like anything could happen. It’s the same kind of feeling I still get when I walk into an empty theatre. This play, which threads connections through theatre, film and television, celebrates creativity, and the joy of making something that is your own, while never shying away from what it can all cost.”

Tess Talbot returns to the Know MainStage to play Joyce, creator and performer behind “Miss Spidra.” Ms. Talbot’s many appearances on our MainStage include (most recently) as an aspiring MMA fighter in The Girl in the Red Corner (2019) and as an occult shopkeeper in Mercury (2018). Paul Riopelle will play Ray, the producer who’s pinned all his hopes on Miss Spidra; Mr. Riopelle has previously appeared at the Know as a private eye in Pulp (2016). Brianna Bernard returns to the Know as Lucy Lupnicki, Joyce’s sexy sidekick-turned-rival. Audiences may recognize Ms. Bernard from her appearances as Lady Glethien in this summer’s touring musical All’s Faire or as Sally Perks in the smash-hit satire Puffs (2019).

Also joining the cast is Terry Neumann as Older Joyce, who appears in video footage, several decades after the play’s main action, as she speaks to a documentarian about her life as Miss Spidra. Ms. Neumann makes her Know Theatre debut in Shock!, but she’s certainly been seen around our theatre before – often in the company of Ms. Talbot, her real-life daughter.

Rounding out the cast in a cameo appearance is Daniel Winters, usually found behind the camera as our in-house stage photographer but also familiar to Know audiences from his role in 2014’s Moby Dick, as co-director of Neverwhere (2017), and as director of Whisper House (2018).

Shock! will also be available to watch online as a high-quality video-on-demand experience, filmed by cinematographer and Director of Photography Ryan Lewis.

So join us in Miss Spidra’s Night Parlor, and discover what can happen when you take a chance on a wild idea and set out to build your own legacy.

Tickets are available on our website, knowtheatre.com, or by calling our box office at 513-300-5669.

CAST

• Tess Talbot as Joyce Billings, “Miss Spidra”
• Paul Riopelle* as Ray Coslaw
• Brianna Bernard as Lucy Lupnicki
• Terry Neumann as Older Joyce
• Daniel Winters as Oglesby
  *Appearing Courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States, appearing under a Special Appearance Contract

PRODUCTION TEAM

• Director & Lighting Designer: Andrew J. Hungerford
• Scenic Designer: Kayla Williams
• Costume Designer: Noelle Wedig-Johnston
• Sound & Projections Designer: Douglas J. Borntrager
• Director of Photography: Ryan Lewis
• Original Music: James Allen
• Technical Directors: Henry Bateman & Jim Stark 

AT A GLANCE

Production: Shock!: The Spine-Tingling Tale of Miss Spidra, by Joseph Zettelmaier

Dates: October 8 – 24, 2021; Wednesday – Saturday shows are at 8 PM; Sunday matinees are at 3 PM.

Where: Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson Street in Over-the-Rhine

Tickets: The standard ticket price is $25. Audiences may opt to support the Know’s initiative to pay all artists and employees a living wage by selecting the $35 Living Wage Ticket. Low-cost admission available for $15. On Wednesdays, as part of our Welcome Experiment, tickets are $5 in advance or FREE beginning one hour prior to the show. The Welcome Experiment is bright to you this season by Judge Mark P. Painter (Ret). 

Know Theatre is Cincinnati’s Theatrical Playground. The Know showcases unexpected voices, new works, and plays that embrace the inherent theatricality of the live experience. Know Theatre seeks to be a place where artists and audiences feel welcome to take artistic risks, creating work that is cutting edge and accessible. 

Know Theatre’s work is made possible, in part, by the generosity of community contributions to the ArtsWave Campaign. 

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 Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation, helping to change our communities for the better through collaboration and innovation, and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, which provides a simple, powerful, and highly personal approach to giving.

 Know Theatre is a member of Theatre Communications Group and an Associate Member of the National New Play Network.

###