urbanOut

In case you haven’t heard, Cincinnati is becoming the City of Angels starting this weekend.  On Saturday, April 3^rd, the Know Theatre of Cincinnati will be putting on Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Millennium.  The show will run from April 3 – May 8.  The second half of the play, Angels in America: Perestroika, will be added to the run on April 23, and through May 8, you will be able to see both parts back to back.

This is very exciting news for the arts community in Cincinnati, as this is the first production of the play in Southwest Ohio….ever.  Back in the mid-1990’s, after winning back to back Tony Awards in 1993 and 1994, the entire work – both parts – went on tour across America.  While places like Louisville and Columbus landed the show, Cincinnati did not, as there were concerns over how ‘conservative’ Cincinnati would receive the play’s offensive language and gay themes. 

I think this is completely ridiculous as Cincinnati easily has the most sophisticated arts community in the region and such a play would have been welcomed with open arms, just as it is today (the first show is sold out, so better get in line now to get tickets for April 10).   I am thankful for the Know and their willingness to bring this powerful piece to the Cincinnati community – it’s about damn time.  So go check it out, get dinner and drinks after in the Gateway Quarter and make it an OTR kind-of night.    

The Angels opening was supposed to coincide with the LGBT Arts Festival at the Know.  Unfortunately, this event has once again been pushed back, this time to October 2011.  Apparently, the Theatre does not feel it has the resources to put on the Angels production, the 7^th Annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival, and the LGBT Festival.  Since this would have been the first annual LGBT Festival, it got the axe over the popular and proven Fringe.  So October 2011 it is, now coinciding with National Coming Out Day, which falls on October 11, 2011.  So for now, the gay community will have to wait to officially come out to the Cincinnati arts community.

A portion of the LGBT Arts Festival – a visual art exhibit entitled Gasoline Rainbow – will go forward as scheduled because the exhibit’s programming is already in place.  The exhibit will be featured at 1219 Sycamore Street during Final Friday, April 30, and will feature work from well-known LGBT artists, including numerous DAAP students.  But again, you’ll have to wait for the rest of the Festival because, as Know Theatre’s Managing Director, Eric Vosmeier says, “I want to see a Festival that truly speaks to the LGBT community. This community is large and diverse with dramatically different economic, racial, educational, and political backgrounds. I want time to explore options, to collect ideas from the community and to seek out performers, artists, filmmakers who speak to that diversity.”