24 GAY PEOPle's ChroNICLE October 25, 1996

EVENINGS OUT

'Women's night' is second in Ensemble's new series

by Eric Hunter

Cincinnati-"If people want something to do on a Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday evening, dammit, we've got it. If they don't take advantage of it they have no one to blame but themselves," Michael Blankenship said. Blankenship is the producer of the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati's new Off Center, On Stage series, which opened in September.

"I believe it is important to have a theatre where freedom of expression is celebrated," said Ensemble artistic director D. Lynn Meyers. To that end, she asked for ideas from

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her company about works that would complement Ensemble's Main Stage series. Blankenship came to Meyers last year with a shopping bag full of scripts.

"He really embraced the opportunity," Meyers said. The result was the five-play series Off Center, On Stage, which kicked off in September with the show Durang, Durang.

Why We Have a Body, the second work in the series, opened October 20. The work by award-winning playwright Claire Chaffe tells the story of four women, a mother, her two daughters, and one daughter's lover, as they explore lust, need and hammering doubt.

The performance will be the centerpiece

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of what is being called Women's Night Out. The theater is such a male-dominated environment that Blankenship felt it was time to offer something for women, hopefully without precluding men, who are also encouraged to attend.

"Why We Have a Body is the story of four strong women told from the point of view of a strong woman author. Hollywood's idea of 'women's night out' is Steel Magnolias. This show and the entire series are really about giving people a new perspective," Meyers said.

In addition to Why We Have a Body, Women's Night Out will include the music of the Cincinnati band Ain't Helen. Director Regina Pugh is hoping to include other artists' work, but has no confirmed talent as yet.

Pugh was immediately drawn to the structure of Chaffe's script. It is episodic, nonlinear, and "everywhere at once," Pugh said.

"It is a story that can only live in the theater. That excited me," Pugh said. Pugh, who has been an Ensemble company member for six years, wanted to branch out from

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acting. The Off Center series offered the perfect environment for her to test her wings in the director's chair.

"The theatre is a place where social issues have to be discussed, not swept under the rug," Blankenship said. Because Cincinnati is a town where so many leaders try to control what people can see, Blankenship feels sure there is an audience for the cutting edge, provocative theater in the Off Center series. In his opinion, efforts to stifle free expression only increase the public's appetite for an alternative.

The Off Center series will make audience members consider their opinions on topics as varied as the creation, prostitution, and gay couples and marriage. Critics may write this series off as little more than a publicity stunt, but that would be their mistake. It is not the controversy that Blankenship and Meyers are seeking. They are simply exercising their right to freedom of artistic expression. And they are guessing that there is a group of intelligent theatergoers who want to be challenged to think.

The Ensemble Theatre's Off Center, On Stage series runs on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays only through April 29, 1997. All shows start at 8 pm. The Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati is located at 1127 Vine St., between Central Parkway and 12th St., at the downtown edge of Over the Rhine. Contact the theater at 513-421-3555 to purchase tickets.

Women's Night Out, Why We Have a Body by Claire Chaffe; October 20 to 29 The Creation of the World and Other Business by Arthur Miller, January 19 to 28, 1997. The Oldest Professions, Poetry and Prostitution. An evening of two short plays: Cross Dressing in the Depression by Eric Cressida Wilson and House of Tricks by Victor Ladato; March 2 to 11, 1997.

Edward II by Christopher Marlowe; April 20 to 29, 1997.

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