Photograph by Jeremy Kramer
Miranda McGee remembers flying back to Cincinnati the first year she lived here, after spending Thanksgiving in Arizona. She looked out the window of the plane, and something happened.
“I saw the lights of the city, and this piece of my heart that had never been there before went ka-chink,” she says, “and I knew I was home.”
Originally from Melbourne, Australia, McGee first came to the Queen City for a job with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company in 2006. It quickly became her adopted home, a spot she loves so much that she tells people she gave up Australian beaches for the Ohio River.
McGee’s first visit to the U.S. was in 2001 to attend college in Texas on a drama scholarship. She was preparing to move to Chicago when an actor at Cincy Shakes neglected to show up for work on their first day.
“For some reason, I have no idea why, they hired me sight unseen,” she says. “They called me and said, ‘Can you be here in 24 hours?’ ”
After a year with Cincy Shakes, McGee went back to Australia for graduate work—but the relocation wouldn’t last. In 2010, she e-mailed Cincy Shakes and asked, “Can I come home?” When the theater company closed temporarily during the pandemic, McGee started working at American Legacy Tours. Today, she’s director of tour operations. “You know when you’re in love with someone and you want to talk about them all the time?” she says. “That’s how I feel about Cincinnati.”
So, we asked McGee to tell us why she’s in love with the city: It’s affordable. It’s walkable. It’s a big city that feels like a small town. People are friendly. It’s one of five cities in the country with a Shakespeare company, a ballet, a symphony orchestra, and an opera. And, she got engaged at a Reds game—even if she almost didn’t see it.
“[My now-husband] bought out section 509 and got 30 of our friends to hold up signs,” she says. “Joey Votto was right in front of me, and he was stretching, and I was looking at [him]. So I almost missed the proposal.”
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