Email Author Robrt L. Pela

2003 Stories by Robrt L. Pela

• Bye-Bye, Guv?

  published December 25, 2003

  Yo, Janet Napolitano! Charles Goodson is still gunning for you. The Tempe resident and dyed-in-the-wool Confederate soldier is pressing on with... More >>

• Angel on My Back

  published December 18, 2003

  Preteen boys may dog Michael Jackson, but at least he's not saddled with a bunch of dead kids who want to become famous. Schoolteacher turned yoga... More >>

• A Dickens of a Christmas

  published December 18, 2003

  November 17: It must be Christmastime -- I'm averaging three calls a day from publicists trying to persuade me to review their upcoming holiday... More >>

• And Juliet Is the Son

  published December 11, 2003

  While the inanities of the Phoenix Festival of Lights schlepped noisily past last Saturday night, Nearly Naked Theatre wowed an almost full house... More >>

• Gay Old Time

  published December 4, 2003

  Old and gay with nowhere to go? Fear not -- there's a place for you, thanks to Vern Johnson, a former health-care worker who's just launched... More >>

• Sweet Success

  published December 4, 2003

  Normally I cower under furniture when a Neil Simon play takes any local stage, but I'd heard that Shawna Quain was doing a bang-up job in the... More >>

• Morality Tale

  published November 27, 2003

  LeeAnn Dobbs was framed. The 15-year-old Ironwood High School student showed up at Tent City to do a story about Sheriff Joe Arpaio's SMART Tents... More >>

• Boy Oh Boy Bands

  published November 27, 2003

  Playwright Charlotte Mann has, according to her playbill bio, an outstanding handbag collection. What she doesn't have, unfortunately, is a... More >>

• Sonic Bloom

  published November 20, 2003

  Move over, Howard Stern. Rick Bloom is ready to take over the airwaves with his own peculiar blend of low-concept radio entertainment. Bloom's... More >>

• Some Folly

  published November 20, 2003

  To this critic's eye, a stage full of fake plants never looks like the real thing, and usually prefigures a production as false as silk-and-wire... More >>

• Head Case

  published November 13, 2003

  Pity Brian H. His life hasn't been the same since a mysterious government agency, devoted entirely to controlling his mind, began dogging his... More >>

• Private Nightmare

  published November 13, 2003

  It's been said that Noel Coward's Private Lives is foolproof; that it's such a well-written, tightly strung play that even a third-rate... More >>

• World Beat

  published November 13, 2003

  11/13-11/122 The Brazilian art form/dance/martial art Capoeira has been described as "a conversation between two bodies in motion," a... More >>

• Art for Pete's Sake

  published November 6, 2003

  Peter Petrisko is back from the dead. Literally. After a near-death experience a decade ago, the onetime wunderkind of Phoenix's underground arts... More >>

• Frame Works

  published November 6, 2003

  Over at the Herberger Theater Center, Cathy Dresbach is playing an extraordinarily ordinary woman. In Actors Theatre's Frame 312, Dresbach... More >>

• Bad Manners

  published October 30, 2003

  There are things about On Strivers Row -- a handful of performances, a couple of funny line readings -- worth waiting around for. But only... More >>

• Jay Talking

  published October 23, 2003

  Famous people are often boring, and Jay Leno is very, very famous. A chat with the Tonight Show host and former Doritos pitchman often... More >>

• So Farce, So Good

  published October 23, 2003

  at the.. More >>

• Lock Up Your Daughters

  published October 16, 2003

  Like a lot of tract homes in Sun City, Stanley Lescewicz's house is littered with Hummel figurines and cute snow globes and framed photos of a... More >>

• Gus the Theater Cat

  published October 9, 2003

  In a town where every arts organization is struggling to stay afloat, who would risk bankrolling an experimental, ethnocentric theater company... More >>

• Bitter End

  published October 2, 2003

  Marcia Rowlette's life was full of pain and suffering. At age 2, a case of spinal meningitis left her mostly crippled. She lived her adult life in... More >>

• Cat's Meow

  published October 2, 2003

  It's a safe bet that one of the very first performances of the season will almost certainly live on as the best of the season, because it's hard... More >>

• The Veal Deal

  published September 25, 2003

  Maybe she read Charlotte's Web one too many times as a kid. Maybe she got a bad slice of veal shank. Whatever the reason, Kari Nienstedt is... More >>

• Dangerous Curves

  published September 25, 2003

  Paula Vogel is some kind of a genius for having written a play about pedophilia that's both amusing and provocative. While ASU's mainstage... More >>

• Reality Schmeality

  published September 18, 2003

  Just when you thought it was safe to watch a reality TV show or two, television producers and former Phoenicians Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese have... More >>