Tag: arts

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Arts & Entertainment News

Know Theatre’s ‘Skin Tight’ offers passionate look at love

Know Theater Skin Tight

Know Theater Skin Tight Cincinnati’s best off-off-Broadway playhouse, the Know Theatre, opens its 13th season with the intimate, advant-garde play, Skin Tight. Written by New Zealand playwright Gary Henderson and directed by Drew Fracher, the show runs through October 30, 2010.

Skin Tight tells the story of a rural New Zealand couple, Tom and Elizabeth, who relive their love story on stage. From its opening moments, Skin Tight grabs the audience and leads them through a frenzied, passionate dance that refuses to let go. The performance is a heady mix of touching, romantic prose spoken by the duo, coupled with bouts of physical activity: fighting, wrestling, dancing, and loving gestures. The show toes the line between the reality of the couple’s situation and the way they see and view each other.

Director Drew Fracher says, “A friend gave me Skin Tight, knowing my penchant for action and stage combat and suggest that I might like the play. I felt that the Know was the only place in town that fit the style and content best. Thankfully, producing artistic director Eric [Vosmeier] felt the same way. I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to work on such an amazing, theatrical piece.”

Veteran Equity actor Jens Rasmussen (Tom) and local theatre starlet Beth Harris (Elizabeth) commandeer their audience’s attention from the get go. With believable accents and even more convincing love and care for each other, these two actors reveal the inner workings of a relationship that has stood the test of time. From juvenile taunts to real fears and honest wounds, the chemistry between the two on stage draws the viewer in and invites them to experience the same feelings. Their raw, emotional portrayal of a very real, intimate relationship – the combination of trust, pain, passion, laughter, anger, fear, hope – reduced many in the audience to tears by the end of the show.

The sets and lighting, designed by Andrew Hungerford, are simple yet effective, drawing the viewer into rural farmland without distracting from the action. Sound design by Doug Borntrager helps to illustrate the emotions being played out on stage.

This is not an easy show to attend. There is nudity, there is fighting, and it moves at a jarringly quick pace. Basic plot and character development unfolds very slowly, and even at the end the audience may have questions that were not answered.

The experience of this show, however, is completely worth every question and plot twist. In the end, love is a confusing and tricky thing. The heart and soul of Skin Tight is the bond between two ordinary people…people with just enough detail left out to be any one of us.

Let go of your expectations and come along for the ride. Experience the realities of a life well lived and fiercely loved.

Skin Tight plays at the Know Theatre (map) now through October 30.  All tickets can be purchased online, at the Know Theater box office, or by calling (513) 300-5669 for $12 in advance and $15 the week of the performance.  Flexible subscriptions are also available for $48.

Skin Tight Production Dates:
8pm performances: October 9, 14-16, 21- 23, 28-30
3pm performances: October 24 & 30

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Arts & Entertainment News

Cincinnati arts organization gathers community to paint entire city street

Paint the Street 2010

This past Sunday, September 26, over 1,000 people from all over Cincinnati converged roughly five blocks of Over-the-Rhine to participate in the newly branded ArtsWave’s Paint the Street event.

Students from the Art Academy designed and chalked out over 50 ten-foot squares into a mural that amassed 12th Street from Central Parkway to Main Street. Brightly colored abstract shapes illustrated some of Cincinnati’s pride and joy, with text saying “City of Choice” and “World’s Biggest Small Town.”

Being there in person, the highlight of the event was the enthusiasm and joy painting a mural on the street brought to participants and observers alike. The street was shut down to vehicle traffic for the day, and crowds of Cincinnatians walked slowly in the street, taking in the colors and working together.

Old and young, black and white, Cincinnati was brought together in one of its oldest and most historically significant neighborhoods – Over-the-Rhine – to show, as one citizen put it, that “12th street is a testament…OTR has a heart and is alive.”

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Sign Museum to host open house during Essex Studios Art Walk

The American Sign Museum will host an open house this Friday and Saturday from 7pm to 10pm each night. The open house is scheduled to take place during the Essex Studios Art Walk, and will showcase over 100 lit neon signs that will match over 100 participating artists.

The Walnut Hills museum first opened in 2005 and is the only public sign museum in the country. The museum’s director and founder, Tod Swormstedt, hopes to eventually move into a larger Camp Washington space that would serve as a spark towards making Cincinnati a national center for research and sign information.

“The history of signs is a micro-history of design trends and technology in the U.S., and I want to capitalize on that right here in Cincinnati,” Swormstedt told UrbanCincy in August 2010.

The open house is a unique opportunity for visitors to check out the museum’s collection which is typically only open to the public on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm, with all other times requiring appointments to be made in advance.

Swormstedt says that visitors will be treated to light refreshments, a coffee bar, and receive two-for-one admission coupons for Saturday guided tours to be held at 10am, 12pm, and 2pm. Those who show up will also be entered into a raffle to win The New Let There Be Neon book, with winners to be announced later that evening.

The American Sign Museum is located at 2515 Essex Place. For more information please call (513) 258-4020 or email Tod@SignMuseum.org.

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Development News

Mt. Washington unveils new gateway monument, celebrates city’s first NBD recycling program

Mt. Washington community leaders will be joined by Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, representatives from Kroger, and other members of City Council to unveil a new gateway monument at the north end of the neighborhood’s business district.

City leaders say that the monument will also serve as a gateway to, and extension of, the city-owned Stanbery Park.

“The monument will serve as a welcoming feature not only for the business district, but for the park as well,” says Ed Ratterman, Senior Development Officer, City of Cincinnati. “Stanbery Park is a major asset for Mt. Washington and we hope that this will help attract a few more people there.”

The $95,000 monument is being unveiled in combination with approximately $24,000 in streetscaping enhancements throughout the business district that include new benches and 33 planters along Beechmont Avenue. The enhancements also include 10 new recycling receptacles that will serve as the foundation for the first public recycling program in one of Cincinnati’s neighborhood business districts.

“This was something that was very important to the Mt. Washington Business Association, and they wanted to include the recycling receptacles in this project,” Ratterman explained.

What makes the new recycling receptacles even more unique is their design which was created by local artist Edward Casagrande who also designed the new gateway monument for the business district. City officials say that the Office of Environment Quality has assumed the costs for Rumpke pick-up at these recycling receptacles for the first year.

According to Ratterman, the two projects were largely paid for by Cincinnati Neighborhood Business Districts United (CNBDU) which provides approximately $2 million annually for improvements throughout the city’s neighborhood business districts. An additional $7,000 was contributed by Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, while the Cincinnati Park Board helped to oversee the design components of the gateway project.

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Business News Transportation

ArtWorks looking to secure sponsors for final nine Queen City Art Racks

After installing the first Queen City Art Rack in May 2010, ArtWorks is in the process of securing sponsors for the remaining 14 artist-designed bike racks they hope to have installed around Cincinnati by May 2011 to coincide with National Bike Month and ArtWorks’ 15th Anniversary.

ArtWorks executive director Tamara Harkavy said that the non-profit organization has now secured enough sponsors to fund six of those remaining bike racks which cost approximately $7,500 each. The additional money came through sponsorships by Kroger, the Duke Energy Convention Center, Truepoint Financial, Pantene, and Clairol.

The organization plans to install these recently funded bike racks in Northside, Price Hill and Hyde Park Kroger stores, and two locations in downtown Cincinnati. All of the rack locations are being determined based on the needs identified in the city-wide Bicycle Master Plan.

“We are excited about the early support of the Queen City Art Racks program,” said Harkavy. “We have at least nine more funding opportunities along with a number of creative proposals from artists, and we are now looking to close the funding phase and move to the creation phase of the project.”

Project officials at ArtWorks say that the designs for these bike racks will not be developed until December 2010 when they have finalized all fund raising efforts with potential sponsors.

In May, the first Queen City Art Rack was celebrated outside of Coffee Emporium in Over-the-Rhine where it was installed. Named Tours de Cincy, the first rack was designed by Pam Kravetz, Carla Lamb, and Karen Sanders. It was fabricated by Cincinnati-based Vulkane Industrial Arts, and sponsored by the NLT Foundation.

Those interested in sponsoring one of the additional nine racks needing funding can contact Michael Stout at ArtWorks by phone at (513) 333-0388 or email at Michael@ArtWorksCincinnati.org. All sponsorships must be submitted by Thursday, September 30.