Email Author Robrt L. Pela

2010 Stories by Robrt L. Pela

• Woody? You Betcha.

  published December 30, 2010

  Just when you thought it was safe to go back to forgetting who the godfather of folk music is, Arizona Theater Company stages a musical that... More >>

• Actors Theatre's A Christmas Carol Ends Its 19-Year Run

  published December 23, 2010

  I long to take the month of December off from writing, so that I can focus on tree-trimming and card-making and other seasonal events. December... More >>

• Humbug is Here

  published December 23, 2010

  Just as one eventually must set aside one’s belief in Santa Claus, it’s now time for another holiday tradition to be laid to rest.... More >>

• How, Indeed

  published December 23, 2010

  Once upon a pre-PC time it was considered okay -- even humorous -- to depict Native Americans as savages. In everything from cartoons to... More >>

• For Local Dance Troupes, It All Starts With the Holiday Season

  published December 16, 2010

  Last winter, I attended a holiday dance show — one of those Christmas-themed musical pageants where the stage is overtaken by crowds from... More >>

• Tutu Much

  published December 16, 2010

  Don’t be confused. It’s not staged in Moscow, but in Phoenix. And it’s not taking place at the Dodge Theatre, because that venue... More >>

• The Food of Love

  published December 16, 2010

  Don’t tell Malvolio, who would that we have no more cakes and ale, but Southwest Shakespeare has forgone a traditional holiday show (thank... More >>

• The Last Noel: After 19 Season, Actors Theatre Is Putting A Christmas Carol on the Shelf

  published December 16, 2010

  I long to take the month of December off from writing, so that I can focus on tree-trimming and card-making and other seasonal events. December... More >>

• Hairspray Dolls Up Phoenix Theatre

  published December 9, 2010

  D. Scott Withers made me forget Divine. That's not easy to do, and not just because I think rather often of the late cross-dressing... More >>

• Maternally Yours

  published December 9, 2010

  Time was when Grandma could be counted on to have iron-grey hair, always wrenched into a bun, and would only ever be found either tatting lace... More >>

• Christmas Crime Is Beauty

  published December 9, 2010

  John Waters is a gentleman, and so it’s unlikely that he will throw a Christmas tree at anyone who fails to gift him with a pair of... More >>

• Phoenix's Pathetic Attempt at Christmas Decorations Makes Us Say, "Bah Humbug"

  published December 2, 2010

  It's funny, the things you remember. In 1979, I was the photographer for my high school newspaper. Our new journalism advisor, a... More >>

• Saskia Jorda's "Cartograms of Memory" Makes Maps Worth Remembering

  published December 2, 2010

  Saskia Jordá has no sense of direction. "I am directionally challenged," the Venezuelan artist admits. "If you let me loose... More >>

• The Amazing Race

  published December 2, 2010

  It may have lesbians, dance breaks and Johanna Carlisle, but what’s really got people talking about Stray Cat Theatre’s production of... More >>

• For Sale

  published December 2, 2010

  What makes an artist tick? What makes him glue old bottle caps to a photograph of his dead grandmother and then piss all over it?Ask... More >>

• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Gets to the Heart of the Blues

  published November 25, 2010

  "You don't sing to feel better," actress Jevetta Steele says at one point in her electrifying lead performance in Arizona Theater Company's... More >>

• Don't Needle Me

  published November 25, 2010

  The past was when quilting was a stay-at-home thing, the purview of grannies who made blankets and groups of backwoods gals who wanted an excuse... More >>

• Chicken of the Sea

  published November 25, 2010

  Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's The Muckle Man tells the story of a marine biologist who’s searching for giant squid, and who drags his... More >>

• Don't Needle Me

  published November 25, 2010

  The past was when quilting was a stay-at-home thing, the purview of grannies who made blankets and groups of backwoods gals who wanted an excuse... More >>

• Paging E.T.

  published November 18, 2010

  Scoff if you will, but why wouldn’t there be intelligent life on other planets? And, if there is, why wouldn’t they drop in on us... More >>

• Jubilant Psychs

  published November 18, 2010

  It’s Spanish for “joy,” but Alegría – one of Cirque du Soleil’s earlier shows, now in revival – is... More >>

• What Will Become of Van Buren Street's Mahoney Building?

  published November 18, 2010

  Editor's note: This is the third piece in an occasional series about Van Buren Street. I have been to the... More >>

• Good Fellas

  published November 11, 2010

  It can’t be true. A festival devoted solely to celebrating Arizona’s locally owned businesses? A beer and wine garden offering... More >>

• Lady Sings the Blues

  published November 11, 2010

  Ma Rainey was a real person. One of our earliest professional blues singers, she performed and recorded throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and her... More >>

• In the Next Room (Or the Vibrator Play) Hits the Spot Despite Being a Bit Overstuffed

  published November 11, 2010

  It turns out that one can, in fact, have too much of a good thing. Witness Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Actors... More >>