FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 8, 2004
Contact: Christa Skiles
Public Relations Director
513-345-2242, ext. 232

CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE WELCOMES EXPANDED LINEUP OF PERFORMERS, VISUAL ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS FOR THE FOURTH SEASON OF ALTERACTIVE

Series starts February 16 with <<wink>> and closes with NPR favorite Kevin Kling

(CINCINNATI) – For the fourth straight year, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is bringing the best performance artists from around the country to Cincinnati audiences through its Monday evening alteractive series. In addition to nationally renowned headliners, this year’s series will include a significantly expanded roster of local and regional performers, highlighted as opening acts, musicians and visual artists at the shows.

The series starts February 16 with six weeks of one-of-a-kind performances. They include a play with film and music that was a New York hit, a lively take on a classic tale, a San Francisco improv duo, a humorous look at Shakespeare’s women, a night spotlighting regional talent and an acclaimed show from this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.

alteractive brings the best of alternative artists, including monologists, performance poets, experimental musicians and improvisational comedians to Playhouse audiences. Shows are staged in the intimate cabaret-style setting of the Rosenthal Plaza. Doors open for alteractive at 6:30 p.m., with opening acts beginning at 7 p.m. and headliners at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are just $12 for adults and $8 for students. The alteractive schedule features:

<<wink>>, a play with film and live sound by Donny Levit
Featuring Amelia Campbell and Kimberleigh Weiss
February 16, 2004
<<wink>> is a dual set of urban stories, told with low-fi grit. The play introduces audiences to two women, Vem and Kae. Each reveals a personal secret that slowly unfolds into a series of peculiar and spectacular events. The first half of the tale, titled “Andrew Jackson’s Left Brow,” starts with an innocent bowl of soup at Vem’s favorite diner. “Anthora Cup” begins with a trip to Kae’s local hardware store and with a pair of very grey neighborhood cats. An 80-minute play with myth, film and sound, <<wink>> premiered at New York’s 78th Street Theatre Lab and was described by Time Out New York as “richly imagined and charmingly executed.”

According to writer and director Donny Levit, <<wink>> did not start as a play, but rather as an indirect response to the events of September 11. “I knew that I did not want to write directly about the events. So I tricked myself. I started doing everything but write,” he has said. “I picked up the guitar and started developing what would later become the sound score for this play. I picked up my Super 8 camera and started documenting places that made me feel comfortable in New York City.”

Mr. Levit is director of New York’s The Vintage Group. He has directed and taught at the California and New Jersey Shakespeare festivals, taught directing at the National Theater Institute and is a teaching artist with Lincoln Center Institute.

The evening also features visual art by Cincinnati’s NFS, who likes to work with pastels, chalk drawing and sculpture. There is no opening act for <<wink>>. The show starts at 7 p.m.

Charlie Bethel’s Beowulf, a solo performance
February 23, 2004
The mother of all monster-tales comes to life in this remarkable solo performance. The tale of a man who kills monsters, enjoys hearty friendships, becomes king and ultimately dies in battle with a dragon, Beowulf is one of the oldest surviving examples of English poetry. Actor Charlie Bethel reanimates this English literature staple and restores it to a rollicking, bloody and brash morality poem, in which the story’s main themes — the impermanence of life, the certainty of the ultimate uncertainty of mortality and the courage required to engage in the simple act of living — are as immediate and pertinent as they are timeless and classic.

Translated in 1991, this show rehearsed for seven years before making its premiere as part of the “In the Spotlight” series at The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis in 2001. It sold out every performance and earned widespread critical acclaim, described by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune as “a compelling performance… a subtle and riveting one-man show.” The show earned a place in the 2002 and 2003 Minnesota Fringe Festivals.

Charlie Bethel’s numerous Chicago acting credits include roles in Serious Money at Evanston Playhouse, Toga Tales at Apple Tree Theatre, The Primary English Class at Trinity Rep and The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie for Red Bones Theater. He is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts and the South Carolina Governor’s School.

The evening also features music by Cuddly-D (Fairmount Girl’s Dana Hamblen), opening act musical troupe I invented it! (who create shows based on young adult adventure novels with each chapter interpreted in song) and oil and acrylic paintings by Sdurm.

Black and Tan, improvisational comedy duo
Featuring Shaun Landry and Ana Elizondo of Oui Be Negroes
March 1, 2004
Described as “the slickest, hippest and smartest improv ensemble in San Francisco,” Black and Tan features Shaun Landry and Ana Elizondo, members of Oui Be Negroes, the original African American sketch comedy and improvisational touring theatre company in the country. Their goal is to create stories and long form improvisations that hit all forms of social and political topics, highlight African American women in improv and inspire a really good time. Black and Tan made its New York debut in October at The East Coast Funny Women’s Festival.

Ana Elizondo is an actor and writer for Oui Be Negroes and a regular player with The San Francisco Improv Co-Operative. She has performed in plays including Tale of the Sea, Macbeth and Am I Blue and says that she “probably never will be seen” in her extra roles in the films Angels in the Outfield, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

Shaun Landry is the artistic director of Oui Be Negroes and co-founder of The San Francisco Improv Co-Operative. A veteran of the national touring company of The Second City, her other credits include The Second City Children’s Theatre Co. and Playback Theatre Midwest. Ms. Landry also teaches improvisation, acting and theatre business and is featured in the improvisational resource book Whose Improv is it Anyway — Beyond The Second City.

The evening also features music by Joshua Treble, opening act Irene Moon (with Scientifically Speaking, a performance art piece based on actual entomological studies) and two-dimensional media by SSNOVA co-founder Emily Buddendeck.

Bard Babes I Have Known
Featuring Robin Goodrin Nordli
March 8, 2004
In this one-of-a-kind revue, acclaimed actress Robin Goodrin Nordli culminates her experience of having performed in 39 productions of 24 different plays by Shakespeare into a humorous, touching and informative look into the pleasures and pitfalls of playing the female side of the Bard’s canon. With a deft comic touch, she discusses the demands of playing Shakespeare’s female roles, demonstrating everything from the arts of swooning and pleading to playing insane women or women impersonating men.

Ms. Nordli has been a leading lady in many of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s productions over 10 seasons. In Bard Babes, she portrays women from Henry V, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Cymbeline, Macbeth, Othello and A Midsummer Night's Dream among others. Ms. Nordli is assisted by fellow Oregon Shakespeare veteran David Kelly.

Among Ms. Nordli’s credits include productions at California Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Arizona Theatre Company. She is the winner of a Bay Area Theatre Critics Award, a DramaLogue Award and a Backstage West Award.

The evening features music by Lesniak, opening act Mark Flanigan (exploring the relationship between spoken word and music with Steven Proctor) and experimental photography by Valeria.

Locals Only Night
March 22, 2004
Local and regional names take the spotlight for the entire alteractive evening on March 22. Among those featured are Julie Roessler, who will perform an interactive movement piece; musician and poet Roesing Ape, who will conduct a modern chanting ritual; spoken word performer Keith Wahle, performing an absurdist theatre piece; Ra Sessions, offering an eclectic mix of poetry and hip hop; Russell Ihrig, in a piece revolving around a group of failed high school musical auditions; Andy Marko with a performance projection; and Is What?, performing improvisational dance and music. Music will be supplied by 8 Fold and The Black Fives with visual art by Sam Nation (a community art mural), Dave Rohs (an installation piece) and Scottie Bellissemo (an out of this world chair sculpture).

Baseball, Dogs and Motorcycles
Featuring Kevin Kling
March 29, 2004
Playwright, storyteller and actor Kevin Kling built his reputation during the 1990s with his groundbreaking plays 21A and Fear and Loving in Minneapolis and with his one-man autobiographical play Home and Away, which was seen at Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, The Jungle Theater and the HBO Comedy Arts Festival. But he is best known for his regular storytelling contributions to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

In his latest foray, Baseball, Dogs and Motorcycles, which was a hit at the 2003 Minnesota Fringe Festival, Mr. Kling touches upon the joys and frustrations of being a Twins fan, his enduring love of bikes, his new basset hound and the importance of wiener dogs in his life. Mr. Kling was developing this piece two years ago when he was badly injured in a motorcycle accident during the 2001 Fringe Festival. He since has endured multiple surgeries and intense physical therapy in an attempt to regain the use of his arms.

Mr. Kling has been awarded grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Bush Foundation and the Jerome Foundation. His recordings include Wonderlure, Stories off the Shallow End and Home and Away. He is a member of the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.

In its review of Baseball, Dogs and Motorcycles, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said, “Ranging from baseball to dachshunds to his long and painful recovery, Kling’s stories adeptly communicate his uniquely quirky vision of the world, as well as a poignant and hard-won sense of hope in the face of calamity. Whether it be a back-yard carnival or a trip to a coffee shop, he has an unerring ability to reveal the extraordinary that lurks beneath the surface of ordinary events.”

The evening features music by Tim Schwallie, opening act contemporary dancer Holly Price and art by Tim Schwallie and Victor Strunk.

Tickets for alteractive are on sale by calling the Playhouse box office at 513/421-3888 or toll-free in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, 800/582-3208. Parking is free. Happy Hour drink prices are available. Karlo's Bistro at the Playhouse will offer Casual Fare selections, including sandwiches, soups, salads and desserts. To find more information about alteractive or to purchase tickets, visit www.cincyplay.com.

Playhouse artists fly to and from Cincinnati on Delta Connection COMAIR, the Playhouse’s official airline.

The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of thousands of individuals and businesses that give to the Fine Arts Fund.

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 City of Cincinnati.

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