Email Author Robrt L. Pela

2005 Stories by Robrt L. Pela

• Bowing to Royalty

  published July 21, 2005

  b royalty, 37, painter, day-care artist and self- proclaimed mediocre violinist, says she paints "to make me visible to myself." Visible to the... More >>

• Overkill

  published July 21, 2005

  Murderball is a gem of a little film, one that's at very least worth renting in its inevitable DVD release. It's also one of the most... More >>

• Have a Heart

  published June 30, 2005

  Until scientists master the secret to immortality, local businessman-jock-turned-philanthropist Bill Wohl has the answer: Donating your organs... More >>

• Robrt's Rules

  published June 30, 2005

  We're a town lousy with theater awards: the ariZonis, the Scotties, the Milties and the Tilties. Chris Page at the Tribune has his... More >>

• Crafter Thought

  published June 23, 2005

  Just when you think you've seen everything Phoenix has to offer, someone drives you down to the warehouse district and walks you through a... More >>

• Witch Fix

  published June 23, 2005

  I envy people whose favorite television show is something well-written or intelligent. My cousin John loves The Mary Tyler Moore Show; my... More >>

• Hauling Gary's Ashes

  published June 16, 2005

  "He's pretty heavy," Diane Putnam says of her late husband, Gary. "But I'm used to toting him around." She's talking about the big-as-a-brick box... More >>

• The Emperor Has No Clothes

  published June 16, 2005

  I won't add my voice to the cacophony of complaints about the gratuitous nudity forever on display at Nearly Naked Theatre, in part because I... More >>

• Dinner at 8

  published June 16, 2005

  High on the list of life's great mysteries, way up near "Why do we wait until a pig is dead to cure it?" and "Why do women sometimes shave off... More >>

• Mistressed Out

  published June 9, 2005

  Ah, progress. It's given us better medicine, faster computers, tastier snack cakes. But often as not, progress in Phoenix involves the... More >>

• The Great Indoors

  published June 2, 2005

  I'd like to meet the jerk-off who decided that founding a city in the middle of the desert was a good idea. I've been gunning for this guy... More >>

• Idol Cafe

  published June 2, 2005

  Last Wednesday night, while the rest of America was watching Bo and Carrie duke it out in the final hour of American Idol, I was watching a... More >>

• The Fandom Menace

  published May 26, 2005

  In front of a movie theater, far, far away, a family sits and waits. Dad is chatting with some cyber buddies, and Mom is reading. She reaches over... More >>

• Little Cat Feat

  published May 19, 2005

  It's 10 a.m. Do you know where your cats are? According to Nohl Rosen, they're probably crapped out in front of the television, enjoying reruns of... More >>

• Kiss and Tell

  published May 19, 2005

  Two women kiss on a deserted Manhattan street, and the consequences of that kiss change their lives forever. Diana Son's Stop Kiss... More >>

• Just a Stage?

  published May 19, 2005

  It happened again the other day. I was asked what I do for a living and, when I confessed that I'm a theater critic, I got the same response I've... More >>

• He Is the Ape Man

  published May 12, 2005

  I arrive early at America West Arena and feel especially imbecilic telling the parking attendant that I'm there "to see the gorilla." But I'm... More >>

• What a Sight

  published May 5, 2005

  Gifted playwright alert: Donald Margulies is in town, or at least one of his better plays is, in time to help wind up what's turned out to be a... More >>

• Love to Hate Me

  published May 5, 2005

  I love hate mail. Next to the envelope that arrives at my home each week filled with what screenwriter Joseph Mankiewicz once called "the most... More >>

• Love Bug Off

  published April 28, 2005

  Wendy Cashaback is wearing a stiff upper lip these days. She's also wearing a tiny Danskin dress and flashing a warm smile at everyone who visits... More >>

• Saint Misbehavin'

  published April 21, 2005

  Even before its publication, Phoenix author Martha Beck's Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith was causing cramps... More >>

• Cuckoo for Koko Poofs

  published April 21, 2005

  I knew it was going to be a long night when Koko! The Island Adventures of Miss Koko Neufchatel began with the show's lone actor dragging a... More >>

• The Smell of the Crowd

  published April 21, 2005

  It's the bane of my existence, a hideous blight to which I've been witness countless times, a painful bore that causes me to shrink in my theater... More >>

• Minuteman of the Hour

  published April 14, 2005

  Chris Simcox is not a racist. And he's not a vigilante. He's just a nice guy from Tombstone who's tired of all those nasty Mexicans sneaking over... More >>

• Never Been Funnier

  published April 14, 2005

  I confess: I didn't want to see Never Been Thawed when it premièred here about a year ago. I went to the film's screening as a favor... More >>