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Arts & Entertainment News

‘Aliens With Extraordinary Skills’ humorously grapples with immigration and love

L-R: Beth Harris as INS 1, Liz Vosmeier as Nadia, and MJ Jurgensen as INS 2. Photo by Deogracias Lerma.
Left to Right: Beth Harris, Liz Vosmeier, and MJ Jurgensen.

Over-the-Rhine’s Know Theatre opened its third production of the season on January 29.  Aliens With Extraordinary Skills, a dark comedy, tells the story of two Moldovan immigrants to the United States. As they struggle to find work, two immigration agents continually interfere, making their adjustment process that much harder.

While living and working in New York City, the immigrants, named Nadia (Liz Vosmeier) and Borat (Matthew Johnson) separately meet Lupita (Kaitlin Becker), who finds herself involved in the immigrants’ lives more than she ever imagined.

Despite the propensity for a play about immigration to be overly serious, Saviana Stanescu’s Aliens With Extraordinary Skills masterfully uses situational and physical humor to bring levity.

“Saviana Stanescu’s writing is what drew me to this show,” says director Eric Vosmeier. “Her manner of storytelling has an interesting and unique voice. She manages to find lighthearted commend in the struggle of trying to survive everday life as an illegal immigrant in a big city.”

Aliens With Extraordinary Skills runs now through February 26. For a full listing of showtimes or to purchase tickets, visit the Know Theater website or call the box office at (513) 300-5669.  All tickets to all Know Theatre productions this season are $12 in advance or $15 on the week of the performance, beginning Monday at noon. Flexible subscriptions are also available for $48.

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Freedom Center to debut new iPhone app tour this weekend

Cincinnati has historically served as a city that stood for freedom. It was a place of freedom to black slaves fleeing the south and heading north for a free life and the pursuit of that all elusive American Dream. The Ohio River was all that separated these individuals from a new life.

Today, on the Cincinnati riverfront of the Ohio River is the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (NURFC). The NURFC highlights this prolific journey and covers issues of slavery and human trafficking occurring today around the world. Since it opened in 2002, the NURFC has served as a regional and national destination for human rights issues and the education of thousands one of the most significant domestic migrations to have ever occurred in the United States.

New to the museum this weekend will be the debut of an iPod tour that will take visitors on an interactive experience that enhances exhibits, photographs and stories shared at the NURFC.

“Visitors will be able to hear accounts of enslaved people, Underground Railroad conductors, founding fathers, and even slave traders, while viewing additional photographs, videos, and maps on the iPod screen that will further bring to life the poignant and powerful story that is the struggle for freedom,” explained NURFC marketing and communications manager Jamie Glavic.

The iPod tour is narrated by Judy Richardson and was developed by Boston-based Audissey Media in conjunction with Richard Cooper at the NURFC to ensure accuracy and overall quality. The iPod tour is now available on iPod’s app store, and will begin this weekend at the museum located in downtown Cincinnati (map).  Purchase or preview the new app online.

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Business News

8th Street Design District branding its way to a new future

As Cincinnati begins a formal effort to define its brand and overall image, there seems to be a clear direction in which the conversation should head. Cincinnati is already known as a cradle of brands and building upon those existing creative assets would seem beneficial.

Home to consumer product giants like Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Macy’s and Chiquita, Cincinnati has been able to grow a robust support economy of branding and design firms looking to help sell their products to the world. Over time, many industries tend to self congest and maximize on economies of agglomeration. In Cincinnati this has occurred downtown roughly along the 8th Street corridor.

Within what is now being called the 8th Street Design District is a diverse collection of design professionals and businesses. In all, there are approximately 336 people working professionally in the fields of architecture, photography, graphic design, advertising, branding, urban and sustainable building design, and interior design in this small sub-section of downtown. There are also estimated to be approximately 175 people living in the immediate area in warehouses that have been converted into creative living spaces.

The numbers come to us from Ken Neiheisel, Principal of New Business Development for Marsh, who is helping lead the new organization that is attempting to brand the area with just the kind of image city leaders appear to want to do on a larger scale.

In early 2011, Neiheisel says, the 8th Street Design District hopes to begin incorporating some type of signage and designations up around the district to help make people more aware. He also says that the group is working on developing an overall brand strategy.

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Arts & Entertainment News

Downtown Cincinnati as a skate park

Downtown Cincinnati is viewed by most as a place of business, entertainment, or residence. People live or visit downtown as the central destination for the 2.1 million-person region. There are others that use the city center for something a bit different, and in this case Daniel Stephens uses it as his personal skate park.

There is no skate park in within close proximity of downtown, so skate boarders and others are left to improvise with the urban landscape surrounding them. In this video, entitled Cincinnati A.M., Stephens takes advantage of narrow alleys, busy city streets, an odd concrete-heavy park near 5th and Elm streets where skate boarders often congregate, parking lots and the rear of buildings.

The video was produced and edited by Maxwell White.

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Development News Politics

NKAPC study reveals strong passion for area hillsides

Cincinnati’s urban form has long been defined by its two most significant natural landscape features – the Ohio River and its many hills. Early in the city’s history, the hills served as a boundary to further expansion. Then, as technology improved, people began to move up the hillsides and build there as well.

Over time some hillsides were developed and remain developed, while others were never developed to begin with or have been returned to nature over time. This scenario has created a situation where Cincinnatians debate the best use for the city’s hillsides. To develop or not develop, that is the question.

In Northern Kentucky this issue has been particularly relevant over recent years as hillsides have been built upon for residences that boast city views. To determine where in fact the residents of the area stand, the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission (NKAPC) conducted a Hillside Survey.

The results of the 273 respondents are striking. While one-third of the respondents indicated that they would prefer full preservation of the hillsides, nearly 64 percent said that they would like to see a mixture of developed and preserved hillsides in Kenton County.

The common thread throughout the survey was that Kenton County residents view the area’s hillsides as a defining characteristic and one that should be carefully considered in future and ongoing policy decisions.

In June 2010 UrbanCincy discussed this same topic. What should be done with the region’s unique urban hillsides? I contended that a unique development opportunity was being left on the table that has been capitalized on in other cities in Greece and the United States. So what do you think? Should the region’s hillsides be built upon, left undeveloped, or be comprised on some mixture of both?

Mt. Adams photograph by Randy Simes; ‘The Views’ photograph by Kevin LeMaster.