Backstage

Theatre on the Hill's latest production, "Noises Off," which opens today at Western Maryland College, is more work for the stage crew than for the cast.During both 10-minute intermissions, the crew must completely remake the stage. They remove stairways and the side-pieces of the set, both 15 feet high, and spin a 20-foot section of scenery.The process converts an indoor view of a country home into a backstage view of a theater set."Not many theaters would attempt this show because it entails building a set that is complete on both sides," said Susan Thornton, who portrays Dotty Otley, an actress who plays the maid in this play-within-in-a-play.

They called us rubes, hicks, acted like we just fell off the turnip truck. And we developed an attitude, didn't we, Baltimore? A bad attitude. Well, lose it, baby. We're big-time all the way now. Forget Camden Yards and the Science Center and the National Aquarium and all those fancy hotels that stretch like concrete monuments up to the sky.I say this because -- ta-daa! -- we now have a Hard Rock Cafe of our very own. OK, it's the 77th Hard Rock Cafe to open worldwide, but still. It's opening today in the Power Plant at the Inner Harbor.

Jane Schorsch, the new executive director of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, knows full well that concert audiences HTC across America are graying as arts budgets are becoming leaner."

From the sound of it, Theodore Bikel has just an ordinary job.But not everyone is so familiar with the man and his work.Theater historySeven minutes before he went on stage at yesterday's matinee, Bikel decided to make a quick phone call to a producer in Jupiter, Fla. He stood by his makeup mirror while a young man in the box office tried to take a message."

LONDON -- The best opera in town features a diva who loses her voice, a ticket manager who is fired, and two bartenders who work side by side but who haven't spoken to one another for decades.And that's just the behind-the-scenes stuff.Britain's performing-arts world is in a panic with the unveiling of a six-part British Broadcasting Corp. documentary on a year in the life of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.The fly-on-the-wall show, "The House," was supposed to provide a warts-and-all look at one of Britain's more hallowed cultural institutions.

The thing to keep in mind here is that when a man has listened to rock and roll all his life and now finds himself easing into his 40s, he does not suddenly start cranking Mantovani on the CD player.So when my friend Rob copped a couple of backstage passes and invited me to see the legendary Warren Zevon in concert and then meet the great man afterward, I viewed it as one of the shining moments of my existence.(Let me just say this. The one thing I DON'T want to hear at this point is: "Who's Warren Zevon?"

Walt Glinowiechi was directing the chaos yesterday as his student stagehands put the finishing touches on the scenery for the Chesapeake High School Drama Club's presentation of "The Matchmaker," which opened last night.He walked across stage, barking out orders as the stagehands set the lights, checked microphones and taped down cables for the final dress rehearsal. He sent one student scurrying to his van for a cordless drill.Others hung pictures on the set that Mr. Glinowiechi and other members of the International Alliance of Theater Stage Employees Local 19 had helped them build.

President Clinton wasn't the only proud father watching his child perform in the Washington Ballet production of "The Nutcracker" on Saturday.Manchester Town Manager Terry Short also brimmed with pride as his son, Nathan, 15, danced alongside Chelsea Clinton and the other professionals and students at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C.Nathan Short plays the role of "teen-age boy." Miss Clinton plays "the favorite aunt."Silver Run teen Lauren Jewell also appears in the ballet, playing one of the toy soldiers.

The recent death of Baltimore radio and TV personality Garry Moore caused me to recall our initial meeting. It was 1947 and, having completed my sophomore year in college, I was traveling the country during summer vacation. Eating lunch in the NBC commissary in Hollywood, I glanced out the window and observed a strange message on the marquee: ''Garry Moore in 'Take It Or Leave It' Tonight.''Now everyone knew that the emcee of that top-rated radio show was Phil Baker, so I sauntered over to the box office where free tickets were dispensed to inform someone of the error.

For the past three years, Baltimore's NFL bid has been a veritable Walton family in the football-franchise hunt: dependable, honest, maybe even dull.Not any longer.Gov. William Donald Schaefer's decision to back a new owner in the final weeks of the effort has not only brought new sizzle to the bid but transformed it into something that more closely resembles the dysfunctional Simpson family.The abrupt change in strategy reflects conclusions, reached during a series of closed-door meetings and a secret pilgrimage to NFL headquarters in New York over the past month, that something urgently needed to be done to save the 10-year effort.