Email Author Robrt L. Pela

2010 Stories by Robrt L. Pela

• Gil Avenue

  published March 18, 2010

  It’s likely, if you haven’t heard of Gilberto Gil, that you’re either not Brazilian or have been hiding under a pop-music rock... More >>

• Four Play

  published March 11, 2010

  You awaken one day to find yourself alone in a strange room with four beds. One by one, three other people join you, although you don’t... More >>

• Tangelico and A Cube with a View Bring the Avant-Garde to Life

  published February 18, 2010

  A door slams. A man in a black unitard angrily stalks onto a bare stage, carrying a bar stool. He sets the stool down, then spends the next... More >>

• Self Reflection

  published February 18, 2010

  In 1966, proto-performance artist, Kendrick Washington, stood before an audience in Los Angeles’s Coronet Theater and held up a large... More >>

• Death of a Record Store: Robrt Pela Spins Through His Life as a Vinyl Geek at the Soon-Defunct Associated Distributors

  published February 11, 2010

  All I'd ever wanted to do was work in a record store. I'd begun collecting LPs in earnest during my freshman year in high school. I joined... More >>

• Senator Linda Gray Seeks to End the Tax Break Benefiting Historical Homeowners, but Will She Change Her Mind When She Sees the Dilapidated, Unloved Homes?

  published February 11, 2010

  Ugly Trellis House is finally gone. This large, ramshackle 1920s bungalow, kitty-corner to my own, has been glowering at me ever since I... More >>

• Buffalo Wild Wingnuts

  published February 11, 2010

  David Mamet’s American Buffalo is that rare, much-loved play that seems never to age or grow threadbare, no matter how often... More >>

• Mommy Issues

  published February 11, 2010

  It’s unfortunate that Ellen Snortland’s Now That She’s Gone: Unraveling the Mystery of My Mother is so often compared to... More >>

• Not Even a Sock Puppet Can Save Nearly Naked’s Fuddy Meers from Over-Acting

  published February 4, 2010

  I found that if I squinted, I could pretend I was watching a master acting class led by thespian Debra K. Stevens, and not a failed production of... More >>

• Van Buren Street: Phoenix’s Former Main Drag Is Now Just a Drag

  published January 28, 2010

  Editor's note: This begins an occasional series about Van Buren Street. I'm obsessed with Van Buren Street. I spend way too... More >>

• Going Vogue

  published January 28, 2010

  The exhibit “Geoffrey Beene: Trapeze” is neither a fashion show nor a high-wire act. It’s a tribute to the pioneering fashion... More >>

• Ghost Writer

  published January 28, 2010

  Boo. Okay, so Medea's Ghost isn’t that kind of ghost. It is, instead, a world premiere of a new play by Arizona playwright... More >>

• Stop Exercising

  published January 21, 2010

  I don't exercise. And I don't mean I've allowed my membership to the gym to expire. I'm not talking about how I should really increase the... More >>

• Florence Foster Jenkins was Glorious, Phoenix Theatre’s Take on Her Life Is Not so Much

  published January 21, 2010

  Those of us who get our kicks collecting recordings of people who can't sing (my current fave: Telly Savalas' 1975 vinyl opus Who Loves Ya,... More >>

• Melrose Pace

  published January 21, 2010

  It’s called the Melrose Crawl, but it’s neither a groovy new dance nor a limb affliction. It is, instead, a monthly evening of... More >>

• One-Man Shot

  published January 14, 2010

  If there’s a moral to David Barker’s Dodging Bullets, playing again (hurray!) at ASU for one night only (boo!), it probably... More >>

• Father Time

  published January 14, 2010

  In an early nod to Black History Month, Black Theatre Troupe is presenting Jeff Stetson’s riveting Fathers and Other Strangers this... More >>

• August: Osage County Heads to Gammage Ushering in a New Year of Theater

  published January 7, 2010

  Things were not going well. I was at a holiday party, and people were doing that thing where they try to get me to talk about theater.... More >>

• Family Dysfunction

  published January 7, 2010

  It’s safe to say that Americans have made as much as we can of the construct of the “dysfunctional family,” and can now... More >>