Email Author Robrt L. Pela

1996 Stories by Robrt L. Pela

• Humbugger Stand

  published December 19, 1996

  If theater is a microcosm of the universe, then we must be a godforsaken, consumer-driven society, more interested in what's under the tree than... More >>

• Unchained Malady

  published December 12, 1996

  Theater has been braving the AIDS pandemic for more than a decade. Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart in 1985 was the first of a subgenre of plays... More >>

• Bewitched Blanket Babylon

  published December 12, 1996

  Planet Earth Multi-Cultural Theatre has made a name for itself with overwrought dramas and dark translations of prominent plays. Whether this... More >>

• Bros and Cons

  published November 28, 1996

  The strengths of Sam Shepard's plays are in the peculiar humor he brings to them. In most of his better-known work, the playwright/actor blends... More >>

• The Height Report

  published November 21, 1996

  Early in the beautifully written first act of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, one of the characters says to another, "I remember everything!" To... More >>

• This Time the Bottle Let Us Down

  published November 21, 1996

  I didn't much like The Cocktail Hour, which surprised me. Not only because it's one of the more amusing and sophisticated of A.R. Gurney's... More >>

• Oy Story

  published November 14, 1996

  With its current production, Arizona Jewish Theatre Company has managed to cram both comedy and tragedy onto the same stage. The comedy is Wendy... More >>

• Visual AIDS

  published November 14, 1996

  Patient A is a small, infrequently produced play about the life and death of Kimberly Bergalis. Bergalis died in 1991 from complications of AIDS,... More >>

• The Yellowed Pages

  published November 7, 1996

  Phoenix Theatre's current production, Dial M for Murder, pits a killer against a mystery writer/police inspector team, but the plot is no puzzler.... More >>

• Ebony and Ivories

  published November 7, 1996

  August Wilson's The Piano Lesson is among the most stirring dramas written this century. The critically acclaimed play, about a black American... More >>

• Sex and the Single Gay

  published October 31, 1996

  I've been a big fan of Paul Rudnick's writing ever since I read his first novel, Social Disease, in the early Eighties. That book, and most of... More >>

• Interview With the Mime

  published October 31, 1996

  I hate mimes. Who doesn't? Say "mime" and I think of Marcel Marceau. Or worse, Shields and Yarnell. No matter who, it'll be white face and a... More >>

• Avon Crawling

  published October 24, 1996

  Phoenix is lousy with Shakespeare this week. At Herberger Theater Center, Arizona Theatre Company's The Two Gentlemen of Verona trods the boards.... More >>

• Frenchman's Creak

  published October 24, 1996

  Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is a musical revue that became an off-Broadway staple nearly 30 years ago. Truth be told,... More >>

• Sketch Marks

  published October 17, 1996

  All in the Timing, a collection of six short one-acts now being staged by Actors Theatre of Phoenix, exploded off-Broadway a couple of seasons... More >>

• Hello Dolly, Goodbye Risk

  published October 17, 1996

  It's becoming more difficult to crow about live theatre in Phoenix. For a couple of years, it looked like the local theatre scene was evolving... More >>

• Much Skidoo About Nothing

  published October 17, 1996

  The Two Gentlemen of Verona is not the most amusing of William Shakespeare's comedies. It's clumsily constructed and makes an awkward shift into... More >>

• Gruel and Unusual Punishment

  published October 10, 1996

  It's no mystery why Lionel Bart's Oliver! is occasionally trotted out for another go-around. This classic British musical, adapted from Charles... More >>

• Sexual Tension

  published October 3, 1996

  There are better reasons to strap on a bustle than Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Something, perhaps the popularity of the film... More >>

• Seaworthy Dames

  published September 26, 1996

  Nowadays, send-ups of old movie musicals tend to play about as well as the films they spoof. There are enough such satires that they've become a... More >>

• The Stormin' Conquest

  published September 19, 1996

  Immediately before the opening-night performance of Planet Earth Multi-Cultural Theatre's production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, downtown was... More >>

• Emperor Strikes Out

  published September 19, 1996

  Opening night of Guv: The Emperor Strikes Back, the New Scottsdale Playhouse was half empty when the curtain rose on this much-anticipated sequel... More >>

• Creme Dement

  published August 29, 1996

  About two thirds of the way into Christopher Durang's 1987 comedy Laughing Wild, the Infant of Prague appears. He comes not as a miraculous... More >>