Blogs

At Know Theatre, a company I founded over ten years ago, we’ve been getting ready for our season opener, Reefer Madness:The Musical.  It’s a hilarious political satire on the 1930s propaganda film denouncing marijuana. Marijuana is often called a “gateway” drug that, combined with peer pressure, leads to the use of other drugs.  While our production does not promote drug use whatsoever, lately I have been thinking that Know Theatre is sort of like the positive version of marijuana: we’re a “gateway” arts experience.  Try Know Theatre of Cincinnati a few times and you might get a taste for other arts organizations like Ensemble Theatre and Playhouse in the Park.  Try Buddha Khan and you might want to try Jean Ro’s or Morton’s.  Try the Weston Art Gallery and you might want to try the Contemporary Arts Center.
 
I’m sorry to find so perfect a comparison between the non-profit arts and activities that aren’t exactly condoned by the federal government.  However, the parallel is multi-layered:  just as we act as a “gateway,” we also spread our message through peer pressure.  We want to open audiences to a larger role – to be the cavalry, championing the arts and applying pressuring on their friends to try it as well.
 
Arts organizations need audiences to apply the peer pressure. We need those who already understand the power of a well produced play or compelling piece of art to persuade, coerce, and compel their friends and family to come downtown and to Over-the-Rhine.  Some public service announcements tout the likelihood that spending money on illegal activities is similar to giving handouts to terrorists.  Well, a dollar spent on the arts here in Cincinnati has the same ripple-effect (without the terrorism) and with it, a tremendous local impact. The economic impact that the arts in total bring to the city is greater than that of our sports teams.

Whether encouraging people to come to the Gateway Quarter for shopping and art galleries or to Fountain Square for dinner and cocktails, we need to persuade more people to sample, and become addicted to our center city.  Your peer pressure on this front is the complete opposite of the negative social pressure surrounding drug-culture.  You aren’t telling people to hurt themselves in order to feel good, you’re telling people to help themselves by supporting the gateways of Cincinnati culture. 
 
So tell ‘em, “Have you been to a show lately?” “Have you seen downtown lately?” Check out the burgeoning arts districts.  The lights are on later.  The food is great.  The entertainment rocks.  The drinks keep flowing.  Get your asses down here.

We need to be ambassadors for our city, and the first line of offense is made up of the people who live and work at the center of it all.  Be subversive, be edgy, be a bright-eyed believer—be whatever it is that makes you want to fight the good fight, and you will always be a dealer of the “good stuff” in Cincinnati.