Photo By Ryan Kurtz

ETC's Sight Unseen features (L-R) Chris Clavelli, Drew Fracher, Sherman Fracher and a. Beth Harris in Donald Margulies' compelling story about success in art and success (or the lack thereof) in life.

The question of where new plays come from is an important one -- one often answered locally by Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, which specializes in premieres, and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, which produces a world premiere or two annually. But equally important -- some would argue even more essential -- is what happens to plays after their splashy debuts. Second and third productions are often harder to come by.

In the January 2005 issue of American Theatre magazine, playwright Theresa Rebeck -- whose 2003 script Bad Dates, is getting a subsequent production at the Playhouse -- has written an essay, "Is Your Play A Virgin?" The writer, a Cincinnati native who graduated from Ursuline Academy, complains, "The vast majority of American theatres are obsessed with producing world premieres. Some theatre people calls this phenomenon 'premiere-itis,' identifying it, appropriately enough, as a disease. Premiere-itis demands that if 12 theatres like that play and want to produce it, then the playwright has to pick only one of those productions and dismiss the other 11 -- even if they are all in different cities where there will be no possible overlap of audiences whatsoever."

Rebeck struck gold with Bad Dates, a funny comedy about a divorced mom to a teenage daughter trying to balance a career of restaurant ownership in New York with the daunting world of adult dating. The show had its New York premiere in the summer of 2003 at Playwrights Horizons (an "incubator" for new works). It earned stellar reviews at Boston's Huntington Theatre Company early in 2004, and has since been staged at San Jose Repertory Theatre in California, the Salt Lake Acting Company in Utah, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Connecticut's Hartford Stage.) Bad Dates opens in Cincinnati this week, and it's being offered by a growing number of regional theaters, including Pittsburgh's City Theatre next month. Bear in mind that this is not a touring production: Each regional theater assembles its own rendition of Rebeck's script. (Bad Dates was written for actress Julie White, who performed in New York and Boston and is currently reprising it in Dallas.) Here in Cincinnati, the role will be played by Judith Hawking, last seen in the Playhouse's 2003 CEA-winning production of The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Unlike Rebeck's success, however, for most playwrights, "Once your play has lost its virginity, it's ruined." After a three-week production, it's over, she says.

"Can't somebody tell these people" -- she means people and organizations who fund productions -- "that second and third productions are just as important as the first?"

Rebeck's argument for subsequent productions is one that needs to be asked: "What kind of theatre survives," she asks in concluding her American Theatre essay, "much less thrives, without a commitment to the overall life of the play?"

In Cincinnati, we occasionally see new work, thanks to Dr. Stanley Kaplan, who generously funded the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize at the Playhouse, which will stage John Yearley's Leap next month. But we should also be grateful to Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati which, in addition to the occasional world premiere, frequently traffics in second chances, presenting regional premieres of works that have been staged well elsewhere.

This week's opening of Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen is a perfect example. While the 1992 script was well received (it won an Obie Award that year for the best new American play presented Off Broadway and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), no Cincinnati theater has produced this story about a painter who's achieved professional success (his work is purchased "sight unseen" by eager art collectors) but missed the boat on personal happiness and deeper satisfaction.

ETC's producing artistic director, D. Lynn Meyers, has loved Sight Unseen for a long time. "I think it's a better play than Dinner With Friends," she says, referencing Margulies' 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner, a show that ETC staged with great success in 2001. "It's been on my short list for three seasons," she adds. Meyers obtained the rights to Sight Unseen just before it was revived last year on Broadway with actress Laura Linney.

Sight Unseen isn't a flashy show, Meyers says. The plot involves the artist, Jonathan; Patricia, his former lover; and Nick, Patricia's husband. Jonathan realizes that Patricia inspired his greatest work, and he hopes to recapture that spark. But she's moved on with her life. Meyers' cast includes four familiar actors: Chris Clavelli, seen in ETC's 2004 production of Stones in his Pockets, plays Jonathan. Local professionals and ETC regulars Drew Fracher and Sherman Fracher -- who are married in real life -- play Patricia and Nick. And a. Beth Harris is a young German journalist who interviews Jonathan.

"It's about people in a situation we seldom get to see," Meyers says. "People may have been through a relationship that ended; this play offers a chance to go back and look at how it began and why it followed this path. It's a look at the decision to 'settle,' which often fails to lead to happiness." The play succeeds for Meyers because Margulies has such a touch for dialogue. "These are real people," she observes.

By producing shows like Bad Dates and Sight Unseen, the Playhouse and ETC are bucking the tendency of some theaters to ignore good work: It's proof that second chances can happen.