Fingers crossed for the success of Playhouse in the Park/Children's Theatre proposal for Fifth and Race.

The big loss of course will be the magical park setting and the nighttime vista of downtown. Some Mount Adams residents are already worried about neighborhood restaurants boarding up the windows, and the theater consultants aren't even here yet (that's next week, April 10) to get input from other users and potential friends at City Hall and 3CDC.

Results of the feasibility study is weeks away, the capital campaign isn’t in place, no developers or architects are yet being invited to submit plans – but just imagine.

The big gain would be being downtown. Already a line of condo developments are announced along both sides of the Ohio River. Imagine if Cincinnati nights became lively. Imagine the west end of Fourth Street coming back to life. Imagine Race Street coming to life. Imagine a big city style bar high atop the building and open after performances. That would be quite a view, too.

Imagine what could happen if downtown gets the mid-sized 1,200- to 1,400-seat theater we've been longing for for more than a decade.

The possibility seemed so dead that it's been years since I've pointed north to Columbus and south to Louisville and to the wide range of entertainment choices on offer in both cities -- cabaret, touring classical stars, international performing artists, that bypass Cincinnati because there’s nowhere to play.I’ll take a visiting company every now and again, between Children's Theatre productions and chamber work by Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet.

Imagine that's just the beginning. Things could get really interesting if money at long last comes through to renovate and re-open the Emery, giving downtown another 1,200- to 1,400 seat theater. It might not be completely far-fetched -- $$$ could start trickling in if the building's housing goes condo (hey, we're imagining, okay?) and, most significantly, Twelfth Street is starting to cook as an arts corridor.

Where once the Emery stood alone and empty on Walnut, where the nights were dark and the foot traffic was non-existent, now every block has an arts presence on or off the avenue: Music Hall and Memorial Hall on Elm, the planned School for Creative and Performing Arts at Race, Ensemble Theatre at Vine, Know Theatre at Jackson, and New Stage Collective at Main. It might be time to sieze the day (or the night).

As for the theater complex on the hill, let's imagine some more. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is making no secret that it's shopping for real estate, and the Marx Theatre does its best service to classical work. What do you think – Shakespeare in the Park?