Photo By Jerome Vieh

Annie Fitzpatrick stars in Cuttings at ETC.

Main Event: Lasting Pain
Writer Thom Atkinson is a local guy: He graduated from Walnut Hills High School and majored in English lit at the University of Cincinnati. He didn't go too far afield to earn a master's degree in writing (Bowling Green State University) and many of his successful theater scripts have found their way to area stages. His script, Clear Liquor and Cold Black Nights, received its world premiere at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in 1988, part of the city's bicentennial celebration.

More recently he's been closely affiliated with Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (ETC), which gave his script, Copperheads, its regional premiere in 1996. (He's also written novels, short stories and screenplays.) This week Atkinson's words are again available for Cincinnati audiences with ETC's Off-Center/On-Stage Series production of CUTTINGS.

Local audiences had their first glimpse of the show in ETC's Theatre of the Mind Series a year ago. According to ETC's producing artistic director, D. Lynn Meyers, "This play embodies much of ETC's mission and dreams. This is a play that was written by an astonishing, strong voice and written for a truly gifted actress."

The one-woman show features Annie Fitzpatrick, one of the city's most versatile actresses, as Holly, a woman who explores a childhood accident and the way it has affected her subsequent life.

The playwright is directing his own show. He says, "Holly's story is about loss and reconciliation, and it addresses the essential normalcy of the grotesque and the familiarity of our loneliness."

Lang Lang

ETC's Mitchell S. Meyers Off-Center/On-Stage Series presents contemporary plays in brief runs -- you can only catch Cuttings Thursday-Saturday. Last year several of ETC's Off-Center productions contained performances that were eventually nominated for Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. The series offers affordable entertainment ($10 will get you a ticket) by local talent, another example of the creative arts that make Cincinnati a great place to live. 513-421-3555. (See Onstage.) -- RICK PENDER

WEDNESDAY 29
No, LANG LANG is not the newest panda from China. Well, he is from China. But he's actually a spectacular pianist at the age of 20. He began to get notice at age 13 by winning the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition. In 1999, at the age of 16, he was a last-minute replacement for renowned André Watts at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. He turned heads, and they're still spinning. He's playing a concert -- one of approximately 150 he'll give this year -- at Miami University's Hall Auditorium in Oxford on Wednesday evening. 513-529-3200. (See Onstage.) -- RICK PENDER

WEDNESDAY 29
East coasters JOHN BROWN'S BODY -- named after a Folk song about the aggressive abolitionist -- have been proclaimed one of the best American Reggae bands. Their authentic brand of Roots Reggae/old-school Ska and lively performances are drawing a growing legion of fans. The nine-member group has all the fundamental elements of Reggae down pat. JBB never clutter up the mix unnecessarily with contemporary, superfluous additives, making them a modern-day version of legends like Culture or Steel Pulse. JBB's latest effort, Live at the Grassroots, is an in-concert, Reggae-licious collaboration with Jamaican music hero Justin Hinds. The group (sans Hinds) plays the Mad Frog with local Reggae up-and-comers Kaan'Shuz. 513-929-4444. (See Music.) -- MIKE BREEN

Lilya 4-Ever

FRIDAY 31
How can you compete with the "world's only turkey-monster-anti-drug-pro-Jesus-gore-fest?" You don't, silly; you go. If there's one reason to stop by Club Clau's SOMETHING WEIRD Halloween party (10 p.m.-2 a.m.), it's the subtitle. And there's not just one reason; there are more horrific hysterics at this bizarre "booga-booga" fest than you can shake a severed body part at. One highlight is a "doctor" whose hobby is assembling dream girls from collected (detached) body parts. Ladies, mention the secret password -- "virgin apocalypse" -- and you get in free. I'm pretty sure that's not a joke. But if it is -- well, it's Halloween. You probably already look like an idiot. 513-352-0352. (See Halloween.) -- JESSICA TURNER

FRIDAY 31
What would Trick-or-Treat for grown-ups be like? I imagine lots of cool, new art to look at instead of quasi-spooky, lame costumes. I'd prefer going door-to-door for wine and fancy finger foods instead of gags and sweets. And when the windows in the neighborhood go dark, I'd join my hooligan friends guzzling beer at a local bar instead of smashing pumpkins. Seriously, if you don't get where this is going, you need to scare some art back into your skeleton with the FINAL FRIDAY GALLERY WALK, this year on Halloween night. North Main Street and Pendleton Art Center, 6-10 p.m. (See Art.) -- STACEY RECHT

SATURDAY 01
Restored digitally with new prints, boosted with a digital soundtrack and tweaked with some additional footage, ALIEN, director Ridley Scott's 1979 outer space thriller, returns to theaters with every jolt, scare and scream intact (see review in Film on page 68). More monster movie than sci-fi fantasy, Alien tells a streamlined tale about spaceship crewmembers in a battle for their lives against a murderous alien beast. More noteworthy than the spaceship's outdated computers is the surprising lack of bloodletting in the film. Scott generates his scares the old-fashioned way, with shadows, unexpected noises and engaging characters. (See Film.) -- STEVE RAMOS

Ty Pennington

SUNDAY 02
Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson first displayed his knack for believable teenage characters with Show Me Love (1999), a lively coming-of-age tale about two Swedish girls, and he builds upon this storytelling trademark with his latest film, the emotional drama LILYA 4-EVER. Moodysson tells the story of 13-year-old Lilya (Oksana Akinshina), left to fend for herself on the grim streets of Moscow after her mother moves away. She maintains a consistent, naíve sense of innocence that softens Lilya's predicament. Yet Moodysson keeps her tale grounded in the harsh reality around her, and the result is a richer story. Presented by Cincinnati World Cinema, Lilya 4-Ever screens at 4 and 7 p.m. Sunday in a one-day engagement at Old St. George in Clifton. 859-781-8151. (See Film or Events.) -- STEVE RAMOS

MONDAY 03
TY PENNINGTON is up to his old tricks again. The hunky, playful carpenter that Trading Spaces aficionados know by first name alone is dispensing his know-how with a how-to called Ty's Tricks. Pennington, who'll appear at 7 p.m. Monday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, is the model carpenter in more ways than one. Before-and-after photos capture him and his handiwork in all their glory, but it's his jargon-free direction, not to mention his quirky humor, that welcomes do-it-yourselfers terrified by carpentry tools. Even for those who haven't subscribed to the church of Trading Spaces, here's a chance to get all hot and bothered by DIY home repair and renovation. 513-396-8960. (See Literary.) -- BRANDON BRADY