Meanwhile, back in Covington ...

Yesterday's onstage news was about Jersey Productions moving its operations to downtown Cincinnati for its third season — after announcing a false start at Holmes High School's theater space. Next comes word from the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, where Jersey presented its shows for 2006 and 2007. The Carnegie has assembled its own productions in a four-show theater season for 2008-09:

• The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie (Aug. 15-31), directed by Greg Proccacino.

• Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice (Dec. 12-28), directed by Ken Jones.

•The Secret Garden by Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon, using an "in concert" staging (Feb. 20-March 1, 2009), directed by Greg Proccacino.

•Carousel by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (May 29-June 14, 2009), directed by Alan Patrick Kenny.

The Carnegie's theater and facilities manager, Joshua Steele, has recruited three of Cincinnati's top directors to stage these works. Proccacino is the artistic director of New Edgecliff Theatre; he directed an "in concert" staging of Stephen Schwartz's The Baker's Wife earlier this year at the Carnegie, a form he'll use again for The Secret Garden. Kenny heads up operations for New Stage Collective, where he has undertaken a number of adventurous contemporary musicals; Carousel is a classic, and it will be interesting to see what he brings to it. (Kenny and Steele were co-founders of New Stage Collective.) Jones heads up the theater program at Northern Kentucky University.

The Otto M. Budig Theatre has some limitations — a cramped stage without the possibility of "flown" scenery — so these directors will have to overcome some challenges. But they bring reputations for creativity and verve that will certainly attract audiences from around the Tristate.

— Rick Pender