Things get pretty dead around these parts during the dog days of summer, especially when it comes to nationalistic celebrations. After getting hammered by the one-two punch of July 4 and Bastille Day, patriots and expatriates alike have to wait until the Labor Day weekend for frenetic flag-waving fun. Heck, why not celebrate some other country's holiday? It's August, what else do you have to do? The celebration of "Jashan-e-Azadi" (the annual Pakistani day of freedom) on Saturday, August 14, at the Orpheum Theatre, 225 East Adams, will have you noshing on potato samosas or chicken boti while grooving to the Pakistani pop of singers Faakhir Mehmood and Khatija Haider. The Tehreema Mitha Dance Company also provides some Islamabad medicine with seven splashy dance routines. Pak-man fever starts at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for children. Call 602-262-7272. -- Benjamin Leatherman
Two for Lunch?
Sarah Bowman, Louise Marshall honored in a one-woman show
8/17-8/19
You've likely heard of the Wyatt Earps and Zane Greys of Grand Canyon State lore. But let's hear it for the ladies, eh? Dorothy Anderson (pictured) pays homage to Sarah Bowman and Louise Marshall, "two of the most fascinating women in our state's history," from Tuesday, August 17, through August 19, during Lunchtime Theater performances of Two Women From Arizona at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 East Monroe, at 12:10 p.m. The one-woman show has Anderson, clad in turn-of-the-century (20th, that is) garb, acting out the lives of two southern Arizona pioneers. Tickets are $5. Call 602-254-7399, extension 106, for details. -- Joe Watson
Dead Men Plaid
They do wear Plaid
8/12-9/11
Plaid is rarely pretty, and sporting the pattern can be downright dangerous. This harsh fashion lesson becomes painfully evident to four former audio/visual geeks turned crooners in Forever Plaid. The musical revue, which opens at Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre-West at 5247 East Brown in Mesa on Thursday, August 12, tells the cautionary tale of the Forever Plaids -- an aspiring harmony group from the 1960s on the verge of making it big. Then, while en route to pick up matching plaid suits, they're mowed down by a busload of rabid Beatles fans and die instantly. But with less than adequate exposition (because writing is not the strong suit of this little show), the still-dead Plaids return to perform and don their horrible outfits. Oh -- and it's dinner theater, so you get to eat, too. For tickets, $37 to $45, call 480-325-6700.-- C. Murphy Hebert
