Outside her window, it was a perfect Cincinnati summer afternoon. The Reds were winning; Fountain Square was filled with office workers and families taking advantage of a humidity-free day; and down the street, the valet line was full outside two hotels as visitors arrived for the weekend.
Kevin Reynolds was looking for a way to give back. Mike Boberg was ready to stick his toe back into the arts. Together, they are helping to shape the future of Commonwealth Artists Student Theatre, a newly renamed high school summer theater program in Northern Kentucky.
Artist James Billiter’s sculpted bike racks rise with bursts of color against county park landscapes and remind us that everyday objects can be crafted with careful thought and infused with deeply rooted meaning.
Not unlike some events traditionally scheduled during the summer, Cincinnati Opera’s 2018 season will offer “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” – plus Giuseppe Verdi’s beloved classic “La Traviata,” to boot.
Cincinnati Opera and Pink Floyd as artistic collaborators? “Strange bedfellows” hardly begins to describe it. Perhaps “preposterous” is a better word. But this July, Cincinnati Opera will present “Another Brick in the Wall,” based on Pink Floyd’s iconic 1979 “The Wall.”
The May Festival – the oldest, continuously active choral festival in the Western Hemisphere and the oldest arts institution in the Queen City – is embracing real change.
Cincinnati’s Fringe Festival describes itself like this: “Kinda weird, like you.” Produced by Over-the-Rhine’s Know Theatre, this annual summertime theater-bender draws a fleet of artists – dancers, actors, playwrights, musicians, visual artists, puppeteers, clowns and storytellers – from across the country to share their strangest, riskiest work with audiences in spaces scattered throughout Over-the-Rhine.
“I’ve always had a ‘giving back’ philosophy,” Boehne said. “I grew up in a Southern Baptist family where it was always: What’s mine is yours … and if much has been given, much is expected.”
The most basic elements of any story are a beginning, a middle and an end. The more nuanced elements include an introduction, interesting characters, conflict, high stakes, transformation and resolution. By any of these measures, the story of Cincy Stories remains incomplete. The end, or resolution, is nowhere in sight. But the power of a story, in the telling and the hearing, has been plain to see.
To muse: to think, to ponder, to meditate on. This is the focus at Anne Ilyinsky’s Muse in Mt. Lookout. She and her team, including executive chef Jen Kempin balance and beauty to Cincinnati’s ever evolving food scene.
