Christmas-Yet-To-Come, loosely based on the Dickens classic, is described as "A Christmas Carol meets Cabaret." Photo by Dan Davidson.

Jay Kalagayan has a glint in his eye. "I want you to say it's hot!" he tells me.

He's describing the 2006-07 season of Know Theatre of Cincinnati, the company he founded in 1998. I make no such promise, although I tell him perhaps his thought will show up somehow in my report about what the group will present for its first full season in its new home at 1120 Jackson St. in Over-the-Rhine.

Regardless of the temperature -- and I will say that the day I had lunch at Kaldi's with Kalagayan, executive director, and Jason Bruffy, artistic director, it was definitely hot -- Know Theatre is warming up for another season. The group's new space, a former nightclub just a half-block north of Central Parkway, is giving its organizers a more sharply defined sense of what they're about.

"We've been asking ourselves, 'Who are we to Cincinnati? What makes us different? What defines who we are? What are we doing as the artists to speak to our generation?' " Bruffy says. "We're looking for new, non-traditional voices."

In fact, all this introspection has led Kalagayan and Bruffy to tweak the company's name: It's no longer "Know Theatre Tribe."

"Too nomadic," says Kalagayan, who conceived the name eight years ago when the group moved around various venues to perform its shows.

Now that they've put down roots, they want to be known as Know Theatre of Cincinnati. It's a subtle change, but one that suggests their ambition to become the city's fourth resident theater, joining the ranks of the Cincinnati Playhouse, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (located just a block away) and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (which recently changed its name from the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival).

For several seasons, Know has steadily clarified its mission as a place where audiences can see contemporary plays and theatrical works that push artistic boundaries.

The 2006-07 season will offer five plays on the second-floor mainstage. Know will again provide the administrative coordination for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival (May 30-June 10, 2007) and be a prominent site for performances. Additionally, Kalagayan and Bruffy are launching "The Underground," a new showcase for performance and live music, utilizing Know's first-floor space for an array of Fringe-like performances and live music. The Jackson Street space will also be a venue for performances during the MidPoint Music Festival in September.

Know's upcoming season kicks off this fall with the regional premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's See What I Wanna See (Oct. 12-Nov. 4). In fact, this will be only the second production of the work, which debuted just a year ago at New York City's Public Theatre. LaChiusa is one of the 21st century's rising musical theater creators (his earlier works are The Wild Party and Hello, Again). This work uses Jazz and Pop-Rock to tell a story of two lovers who plot to kill each other. It also involves a police investigation and a priest whose faith is shaken in the wake of 9/11.

See What I Wanna See will be music directed by Alan Patrick Kenny, artistic director of New Stage Collective. Kenny served in the same role for Know's first-ever musical production, Jonathan Larson's tick, tick ... Boom!, a show that earned Know a Cincinnati Entertainment Award nomination for the best musical of the 2005-06 season.

After several seasons of presenting the satiric The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, Know will move on to a new -- and original -- holiday piece created by Bruffy. It's called Christmas Yet to Come (Nov. 30-Dec. 23), and it's new take on A Christmas Carol inspired by Rock videos and using interpretive dance from the Exhale Dance Tribe.

"Think you know the story of Scrooge? Think again," Bruffy says. "This will be seedy, dark and mysterious and yet somehow wonderful." The multimedia approach, something that Know has excelled at over the past two seasons, will bring an intriguing new dimension to the show.

Know launches into 2007 with the regional premiere of Adam Rapp's Gompers (Jan. 11-Feb. 3). Rapp is one of today's most admired young playwrights: His Red Light Winter was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize, Finer Noble Gases earned its premiere at the 2002 Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville and Cincinnati Shakespeare produced a knock-out rendition of his one-man solo piece Nocturne the same year.

Gompers is a set in a destitute town of that name, where people search for answers from a mystical golden box and a mythical blue Jesus. It's a harsh comedy about losing faith and seeking answers. Bruffy compares the script to the films Magnolia and Trainspotting, noting that they're gritty, sensitive and yet viciously funny.

Bruffy hearkens back to his roots -- he came to Cincinnati to work at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival -- with a new take on Hamlet (Feb. 22-March 17, 2007). It starts where Shakespeare's Hamlet ends, with the Prince of Denmark dead after a whirlwind of love, revenge, ghosts, incest and murder. His friend Horatio experiences an epic flashback that Bruffy is creating through a mix of live action, music and newly created video. The production will feature video and media design by Big Bang Productions and music spun by DJ Late Circuit. It should be an unusual take on one of the most familiar stories told onstage.

Know's final mainstage production will be a commissioned world premiere, Vatican Falls (April 19-May 12, 2007) by Frank J. Avella, whose comedy Iris was presented by the group in 2005. Full of contemporary themes, including a plot to seek revenge against the Catholic Church by victims of sex abuse, the edgy script revolves around a love story between an American cabaret singer and a woman who works at the Vatican. While it's a play, the show includes cabaret-style music.

Know's acting company features several returning performers: Molly Binder, Elizabeth Holt, Christopher Guthrie and Reginald Willis will be the principal players in many of the productions. (Guthrie will also direct Gompers.) New talents joining Know Theatre for the 2006-07 season are Derek Snow (seen by many in Performance Gallery's Fringe production Godsplay), Robert Williams (who's been working with Theatre IV, a touring children's theater company) and Liz Vosmeier (working this summer with Jersey Productions on shows like Godspell and Cabaret).

A Modern-Day Hamlet. Photo by Dan Davidson.

Kalagayan also says the "Know-to-Go" education series will continue with three touring productions that will visit school settings and be available for diversity programs in business settings. The planned shows are A Box of Shel Silverstein, Oedipus Rex and Harlem Renaissance. (Performers for these productions are Guthrie, Holt, Snow and Williams.)

Bruffy adds that Know hopes to do its "Irish thing" again at Mount Adams Bar and Grill. For the past two years, the group has staged intimate (and sold-out) productions of scripts by Conor McPherson -- The Good Thief and Port Authority -- to enthusiastic audiences.

Asked to describe who Know's audiences include, Kalagayan says, "They've come for the experience of what we do. They've found us and they come to see what we're doing. They're seekers of experience."

The experience they find is a stimulating mix of theater, music, dance and multimedia. Bruffy likes to say, "We don't just use these elements. We embrace them!"

Know's audiences, it should be noted, are incredibly diverse -- black, white, gay, straight, Over-the-Rhine neighborhood dwellers and suburbanites. The company has built a solid base that Kalagayan and Bruffy expect to grow larger at their new permanent home.

Kalagayan thinks the 2006-07 season should be called "hot." I'll leave that to your judgment, but I can assure you the shows at 1120 Jackson St. will be worth seeing. ©