Not so long ago, Michael Bath and Bob Rais were part of the improv and sketch comedy troupe Carnivores in Action.

        Carnivores has disbanded, but Mr. Bath and Mr. Rais remain two of the Tristate's most able actors. Both of them are starring in season opening shows for downtown theater companies.

        Mr. Rais already has opened in Fully Committed at Ensemble Theatre, but it's rubber-faced Mr. Bath who is fully committed on area stages.

Front and center

        Playing Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid for Stage First, opening tonight at the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater, is part of a nonstop performing schedule that has included stints with Ensemble, Children's Theatre, Showboat Majestic, Women's Theatre Initiative as well as Stage First.

Bath

        “If I can get a walk-on, I'll do it,” Mr. Bath says merrily. “I can't stand not doing it.”

        Not that walk-ons figure much into his performing schedule. He'll be front and center in ETC's holiday Adventures of Pinocchio as the puppet's cricket guardian; he'll be aboard Noah's Ark for Children's Theatre, and he and Stage First artistic director Nicholas Korn are talking about his taking on Caliban in The Tempest.

        Mr. Bath wraps his acting gigs around his day job of general contracting, although he claims, with a fairly straight face, “Dry wall is the craft, I just act to pay the bills.”

        He's a proud character actor. “I'm the funny guy who gives support,” he says. “When you're a dopey-looking guy who says "I'll do anything,' you can pretty much count on getting something. Those tall, good-looking guys maybe get cast once a year.” He doesn't quite wink on that line.

        Playhouse in the Park audiences may remember him stealing Chaps out from under the rest of the cast a few seasons back.
High school musical

        A native of Wilmington and graduate of Wilmington College (“My goal was to follow in Gary Sandy's footsteps”), Mr. Bath, 35, discovered theater in high school.

IF YOU GO

What: The Imaginary Invalid    When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Sept. 30    Where: Fifth Third Bank Theater, Aronoff Center for the Arts, Seventh and Main streets, downtown    Tickets: $17.50, $13.50 students and seniors. Student tickets $10 at Thursday performances. 241-7469

        “A girl I really liked was in The Bad Seed. It blew my mind. The kids who did theater had to do everything, and they all tried very hard to be good at everything.”

        At the time Mr. Bath was a wild child but he tried out for the spring musical anyway. “(Theatre) really cleaned up my life.”

        He arrived in Cincinnati by way of Columbus in time to spend the 1990-91 season as an acting intern at ETC. He wasn't planning to stay, but he did.

        Mr. Bath is one of the most popular actors on Cincinnati stages, and ETC artistic director D. Lynn Meyers is happy to explain why. “He thinks on his feet, he's extremely versatile, he's one of the funniest people I've ever met and brings all that to his characters.”
       

Equity question

        He's having a ball with Invalid. “I'm the straight man, the guy who gets stuff done to him. He's upfront about what he wants: He's a hypochondriac who plans to marry his daughter off to a doctor. That's it.

        “It's everybody else who has the plots and scams” which are plentiful. Of course the daughter doesn't want to marry the nasty old doctor, and there are plenty of charlatans who would be happy to divest Mr. Bath's character of his money with their cures.

        “They do all the work,” he claims.

        Mr. Bath is about to face a crossroads.

        He is notorious in Cincinnati theater circles for spending the last decade avoiding membership in Actors' Equity, even turning down jobs in order not to accrue too many Equity points.

        He'll finally join the stage actors union with Pinocchio. “It means I'll have to go regional (to look for other Equity jobs),” he sighs. “It scares the hell out of me.” He hopes to use Cincinnati as his home base.

        Working regionally may mean having to give up his beloved dry-walling, but sacrifice is, he notes, part of what it is to be an artist.

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