Phædre

March 6th - 27th. Presented by Nearly Naked Theatre

Cursed by the goddess Aphrodite, Phædre, the dying queen of Athens, falls in love with her stepson, Hippolytus. Her love grows into a dangerously passionate obsession that will destroy fathers, sons and kingdoms with its fury. One of the most enduring and powerful stories of classical mythology, this production of Phædre will switch between classical and modern language, and between ancient and modern eras. An obsessive love story recalling the poetry of Euripides and the violent energy of Fatal Attraction. Tickets here.

Secret Order

A bright young scientist, Dr. Shumway, is on the verge of the most sought-after discovery in medical research today, the cure for cancer.  Recruited by a prestigious New York research institution, Shumway finds himself in over his head with pharmaceutical companies, The New England Journal of Medicine, and even the Noble committee demanding results that he is not ready to share.  When his white mice start having trouble, he has to solve the problem before anyone notices or before he has to admit that his theory may be wrong.  What unravels is a scientific and moral quandary which tests the will, desire and integrity of all involved.  This suspenseful bio–medical psychological thriller leaves the audience questioning how far should we go to alter the landscape of science and improve human life.

March 5th through March 21st. Dates and times vary. Click here for a complete listing and to purchase tickets!

Avenue Q

March 9-14, 2010

AVENUE Q is Broadway's smash-hit Tony® Award winner for BEST MUSICAL, BEST SCORE and BEST BOOK. A hilarious show full of heart and hummable tunes, AVENUE Q is about trying to make it in NYC with big dreams and a tiny bank account.  Called "one of the funniest shows you're ever likely to see" by Entertainment Weekly, AVENUE Q features a cast of people and puppets who tell the story in a smart, risque and downright entertaining way. The New Yorker calls it "SUBVERSIVE and UPROARIOUS!" Mature Language and Sexual Situations.  For tickets go to http://www.asugammage.com/

Arizona Women in Tune

Exquisite Journey: Fierce Beauty
Friday & Saturday, March 12 & 13, 2010, 7:30 pm
Faith Lutheran Church
801 E. Camelback, Phoenix

The March concert is presented in honor of Women’s History Month and will examine the journey of fear, chaos and even joy that comes with a life threatening illness. Our desire is to present the intensity and fierceness that the human spirit displays during these times. The centerpiece of the concert will be Diane Benjamin’s Where I Live: A Breast Cancer Oratorio. This sublime work brings together strings, percussion, choir, soloist and narrator in a stunning musical/spoken word offering that leads us through the uncertain journey of illness and recovery. The second half of the concert offers music that will be a celebration of the determination and resiliency of the human spirit. Plan now to be part of this very moving event.

Click here to purchase tickets!

Now That She’s Gone

Venue: Hal Bogle Theatre, Chandler Center for the Arts
$20, $26 & $32

Wednesday the 10th through Saturday the 13th at 7:30 PM. Matinees at 2:00 PM on Saturday March 13th and Sunday the 14th.

"Now That She's Gone" was inspired by Ellen’s relationship to her Norwegian-American mother. The play has been described as a Lily Tomlin/Garrison Keilor/Eve Ensler hybrid, passionate, poignant and funny in turns…a memoir piece with Eleanor Roosevelt, sex, drugs and lutefisk! This story translates to anyone's relationship with their parents as seen through the filter of a feminist activist. Politics aside, the relationship of mother to daughter is explored in a real and grounded way that is a feminist love letter to her mother.

www.nowthatshesgone.org 

The Glass Menagerie

by Tennessee Williams

Presented by Arizona Theatre Company

Tucson: February 27 – March 20, 2010
Phoenix: March 25 – April 11, 2010

In the 1930s in a small tenement apartment in St. Louis, the Wingfield family awaits your visit. The mother Amanda lives in an illusion of recapturing her faded Southern Belle glory, her daughter Laura lives in a fantasy world of delicate glass figurines, and her son Tom dreams poetically of a world beyond the back stoop.  When Tom brings home a Gentleman Caller to meet his sister, The Glass Menagerie weaves these lives into a heart-stopping dance of hopes pursued and dreams betrayed.  Considered by many to be Tennessee Williams’ greatest play, The Glass Menagerie is an achingly beautiful story of longing and love that has touched generations of theatergoers with its sparkling, delicate radiance.

The Glass Menagerie is the third show in ATC’s “AMERICA PLAYS! Celebrating Great American Stories” series following our universally acclaimed productions of To Kill A Mockingbird and A Raisin in the Sun. This unique initiative is designed to engage audiences both through the onstage performance and community activities designed to enhance the understanding of this classic play. Tickets here.

Classic Innovations

March 26-28, 2010 8:00 PM

Classic Innovations at the Orpheum Theatre March 2010

An enticing selection of ballet with a world-premiere by Artistic Director Ib Andersen and In the Night, a ballet that explores love with simmering emotion, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, the winner of multiple awards and known as one of the most influential personalities of contemporary ballet.

Click here for more details and to purchase tickets!

Keo Woolford: I Land

March 27, 2010

I LAND is Keo Woolford’s hilarious and poignant search for the meaning of his cultural heritage. From his high school days as a football player and discovery of a “Hula God” to his tour in a famous boy band, Woolford’s story will keep you enthralled. Combining elements of traditional Hawaiian hula, hip-hop, Hawaiian talk story and spoken word, I LAND tells a funny, unforgettable tale where worlds separated by geography and culture collide.

Recommended for ages 12 and older.

Click here for tickets and show times.

THE SECOND CITY DOES ARIZONA,
OR CLOSE, BUT NO SAGUARO

Presented by Arizona Theatre Company

Tucson: April 3 – 24, 2010
Phoenix: April 29 – May 16, 2010

Talk about a stimulus package! From sagebrush to Sheriff Joe, from Green Valley to kokopelli– it’s time to batten down the barrel cactus because we’ve invited The Second City to Arizona to do a no-holds-barred world premiere comedy revue all about us. Famous for their hilarious sketch comedy and for their equally famous alumni (Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Bill Murray, John Belushi, Gilda Radner and a whole slew of others), The Second City is turning their photo radar on the Grand Canyon State, and aiming their tee-shots at the land of prairie dogs and snow birds.  We’re joining with this troupe of expert Chicago comedians to create a comedy about the special challenges of the high life in the low desert. It’s a guaranteed evening of recession-proof fun and high-mileage laughter - and which of us couldn’t use a lot more of that right now? Tickets here. 

Jesus Christ Superstar

April 6-11, 2010

The first masterpiece from the legendary writing team of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, exploded onto the scene in 1971 changing the world of musical theatre forever. With a score of amazing songs - “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” “Hosanna,” “Everything’s Alright,” “What’s the Buzz,” “Superstar” and “Heaven on Their Mind,” this original groundbreaking production starring Ted Neeley in the title role is as relevant and timeless as ever.  For tickets go to http://www.asugammage.com/

Beyond Gay- The Politics of Pride

April 10th

Gay Pride marches and festivals are happening all over the world - sometimes under heavy opposition and violence. Beyond Gay – The Politics of Pride is the most comprehensive look at the role of these events ever undertaken. This feature length documentary follows the Vancouver Pride Society’s (VPS) Parade Director Ken Coolen and his VPS colleagues as they travel to places where Pride is still steeped in protest to personally experience the rampant homophobia that still exists. They also travel to Sao Paulo Brazil for the world's largest gay parade and New York City, the birthplace of the modern gay liberation movement. Increasingly the Pride movement is globalizing. Despite the hundreds of thousands of people cheering in the streets, Pride is much, much more than a parade and a party. It is a giant step on the road to true equality.

www.desperadofilmfestival.com

Forbidden Broadway

Presented by Mesa Encore Theatre

Apr 9 - Apr 25, 2010, Farnsworth Studio, MAC

Ticket Price: $18/$23/$48

Buy Tickets >

MET will ring in the spring with the wickedly funny Forbidden Broadway. In New York's longest-running hit musical comedy revue, well-known show tunes and performers are skewered in a hilarious medley of songs and scenes featuring knee-slapping ‘alternative lyrics.’ Performers target such famed and richly deserving targets as “Chicago,” “Phantom of the Opera,” and “Les Miserables” as well as Broadway legends such as Carol Channing, Chita Rivera and Ethel Merman. You don’t have to be up on the latest Broadway hits to enjoy “Forbidden Broadway,” you just have to enjoy a good laugh. If you appreciate a good lampooning, you’ll love “Forbidden Broadway.” The version MET has selected to do is the long- running show’s best bits and gags over the years: Greatest Hits, Volume 1.

Visit Mesa Encore Theatre on the web at mesaencoretheatre.com

Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps

April 20-25, 2010

Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have...(mystery chords!) THE 39 STEPS, Broadway's most intriguing, most thrilling, most riotous, most UNMISSABLE comedy smash!  The mind-blowing cast of four  plays over 150 characters in this fast-paced tale of an ordinary man on an extraordinarily entertaining adventure.  WINNER 2 TONY® AWARDS!  HILARIOUS FUN FOR THEATRE-LOVERS OF ALL AGES!  For tickets go to http://www.asugammage.com/

Richard III

Presented by Southwest Shakespeare Company

Apr 22 - May 8, 2010

Nesbitt/Elliott Playhouse, Mesa Arts Center

Ticket Price: $31.50/$20.00/$20.00/$8.50

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This haunting tragedy features one of the Bard's most wicked characters at its center. Spinning out of the whirlwind known as the The War of the Roses, this story of one man's shocking brutality is a paradox of charm and malevolence, virtuosity and corruption, good and evil.

"Let us put to it pell-mell, if not to Heaven, then hand in hand to hell!" 

For more information, visit http://www.swshakespeare.org/

No Child

Presented by Actors Theatre of Phoenix

Nilaja Sun’s critically acclaimed solo show gives us a glimpse of life into the New York City Public School System, complete with students, teachers, janitors, principles, and even the security guard.  Sun recreates her eight–year adventure as a teaching artist in the Bronx schools on the stage in a powerful lesson of struggle, hope, and laughter.  This 2007 off–Broadway breakaway hit has been performed all around the country.  Now, Sun brings her tour-de–force performance to Phoenix.

"An unexpected superb achievement.  No Child…is about the difference a single human being can make in the kingdom of the damned.” – New York Observer

April 23rd through May 09th. Dates and times vary. Click here for a complete listing and to purchase tickets!

Avett Brothers

Apr 24, 2010, $31

Ikeda Theater, Mesa Arts Center 

Buy Tickets >

Rolling Stone Magazine's Artists to Watch 2008 & 2009

"The Avett Brothers exploded onstage from their first note to their final chord with a multitude of acoustic-driven banjo-laden songs. They are one of the most impressive live bands around."- Creative Loafing

There is no harmony like brotherly harmony and you can clearly hear fraternal magic at work in the songs of Scott and Seth Avett, better known as the Avett Brothers.  Their riveting music has roots in traditional folk and bluegrass, but also captures the high spirits and no-boundaries attitude of rock & roll.  They come to Mesa Arts Center with their energetic concert of lively vocals and instrumentals, performing their unique and charming blend of folk-country and rock for this memorable night.

Ib Andersen's PLAY

May 14-16, 2010

Ib Andersen’s PLAY at the Orpheum Theatre

A fresh and inventive work of art, Andersen describes this ballet as a “seven-course meal.” It showcases a variety of emotions and feelings from playful to sensual and features the entire corps of over 30 dancers. This performance is aesthetically intriguing with imaginative choreography, costume and lighting design.

Click here for more details and to purchase tickets!

Balanchine Classics

June 11-13, 2010

Balanchine Classics at Symphony Hall

A varied program showcasing the genius of George Balanchine with the exotic choreography and powerful story of the Prodigal Son; the classical elegance of Divertimento #15; and the intrigue of the modern Four Temperaments, it’s a compelling collection of true Balanchine classics.

Click here for more details and to purchase tickets! 

In the Heights

June 15 – 20, 2010

IN THE HEIGHTS, winner of four 2008 Tony® Awards including BEST MUSICAL, is a sensational new show about chasing your dreams and finding your true home. With an amazing cast, incredible Tony® Award-winning dancing and a thrilling Tony® Award-winning score, IN THE HEIGHTS is an exhilarating journey into a vibrant Manhattan community - a place where the coffee is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. Experience the next chapter of the classic American story, find out what it takes to make a living, what it costs to have a dream, and what it means to be home…IN THE HEIGHTS.  For tickets go to http://www.asugammage.com/

The Enchantment of Beauty and the Beast

Presented by East Valley Children's Theatre

Jun 17 - Jun 27, 2010

Nesbitt/Elliott Playhouse, Mesa Arts Center 

Ticket Price: $10/$10

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By Vera Morris & Bill Francoeur

Auditions May 7, 5 & 7 pm & May 8, 9 & 11 am

Audio Description is available upon request at least 2 weeks prior to a performance.  (Call the EVCT office at 480-756-3828 to schedule a describer)
   

Click here to visit the East Valley Children's Theatre on the web.