Tag Archives: Know Theatre of Cincinnati

Big news! We’re so very excited to have two fresh faces joining us on staff at the Know in the new year, and just as excited to introduce these beautiful people to all you beautiful people.

Ri Moodie is joining us as our Operations & Company Manager, handling the business side of the company as well as logistics that affect the company as a whole. She comes to us fresh from receiving her Master of Arts Administration in Theater & Production Management from Ohio University in 2021. She has also been working as an administrative associate at Theatre Washington (home of the Helen Hayes awards).

Ri describes herself as “a biracial member of the LGBTQI+ community who is always looking to enact positive change, no matter how small, within her community.”  You can read about her work helping to establish a new student-run theater for BIPOC students at Ohio University here: https://www.vibrancytheater.com/ri-moodie-contact

Our next new staffer is new to the Know, but may already be a familiar face to Cincy Fringe fans! Katie Hartman will be taking on the mantle of Fringe Producer for the 2022 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Katie is one half of the performing team The Coldharts, who have been bringing us smash-hit shows in Fringes since 2014, including The Legend of White Woman Creek, Edgar Allan, The Unrepentant Necrophile, and Eddie Poe.

Katie is a founding member and and long-time producer of the Twin Cities Horror Festival, which operates on a very similar model to the Cincy Fringe. Katie has been an active independent touring artist at festivals across the US and Canada for the last ten years, giving them a ton of hands-on experience in how Fringe Festivals can and should be operated. The first female producer of the Cincy Fringe, they are thrilled to take on this new role, championing the Queen City as a bastion for new work and adventurous artists.

“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. 

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