Little Mary Sunshine: As ever, Theater Works is courting its Sun City audience with this less-than-hip chestnut that spoofs musical theater. Set in the Rocky Mountains in the early 20th century, this one has villains twisting the ends of their pointy mustaches, and rugged, upright heroes rescuing damsels in distress…
Joshua Dean Wiley, 34, has become known in local galleries for his serene, high-color landscapes and lively abstracts, and is a mainstay at the weekly Downtown Phoenix Public Market, held Saturday mornings at the southeast corner of Central Avenue and McKinley Street (www.phoenixpublicmarket.com). But the Iowa transplant’s work has lately…
The swanky brownstone interior that Black Theatre Troupe scenic designer Michael Jones has created for Knock Me a Kiss is some kind of triumph. Jones’ set — filled with overstuffed furniture; pounds of dark, shiny wood; even an imposing crystal chandelier — is glamorous but not ostentatious, and telegraphs a…
The Bird likes nothing better than seeing locals getting a little national recognition, especially when props don’t involve somebody like Sheriff Joe Arpaio disgracing himself in public. And so this pretend pigeon was pleased when Glendale mom Alice Rubio, who can safely lay claim to being the biggest Howard Stern…
David Hemphill is more than just the Black Theatre Troupe’s executive director. He’s an actor who’s been asked to pray during an audition; a singer who occasionally kisses corporate ass; and a director who’s told the folks from the Zoni Awards where they can go. Here’s proof: I knew I…
Kiss of the Spider Woman: Richard Trujillo gives a thrilling performance as Valentin, a puffed-up political prisoner trapped in the tenets of Marxism who, at the start of Manuel Puig’s dreamily claustrophobic play, is harshly intolerant of his cellmate, Molina, whom he sees as less of a man because he…
As fans of the Vatican and altar boy porn already know, Monsignor Dale Fushek, founder of America’s largest Catholic youth ministry, has been under house arrest for the past several months while he awaits trial on 10 counts of sexual misconduct. What Fushek followers may not know is that Father…
Underneath the Lintel: Try though they might, neither actor Christopher Haines, who appears in Glen Berger’s one-man one-act, nor Charles St. Clair, its director, can save this sinking ship of a show. Lintel is an exploration of faith that comments on man’s place in the universe; one that’s couched in…
Richard Trujillo may one day give a more thrilling performance than the one I witnessed on opening night of Actors Theatre’s production of Kiss of the Spider Woman. If he does, I hope I’m present to see it. I usually find Trujillo’s performances stamped too strongly with his own personality,…
Phoenix has scored another national ranking, and The Bird doesn’t mean Mr. Blackwell’s “Best Dressed” list, either. According to a list compiled by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, Phoenix is number 17 among the 20 “meanest” cities in the nation…
I am what is known in polite circles as a collector. I own 16 children’s phonographs, 213 Old Maid card games, 47 LPs by Jerry Vale. Although many people see my endless hunting and gathering of useless ephemera — century-old bars of still-wrapped soap, 1970s breakfast-cereal premiums, thrift-store paintings of…
Try though they might, neither actor Christopher Haines, who appears in Glen Berger’s one-man, one-act Underneath the Lintel, nor Charles St. Clair, its director, can save this sinking ship of a show. Lintel is an exploration of faith that comments on man’s place in the universe — one that’s couched…
After years of sucking the wind from famous people’s sails, New York journalist Jeannette Walls has achieved some fame of her own. Her best-selling childhood memoir, The Glass Castle (the title refers to a solar-powered house that Walls’ father dreamed of one day building in the Arizona desert), has gathered…
Letting a couple of cops off the hook after they beat the hell out of a Mexican national isn’t enough for County Attorney Andy Thomas. And he’s not content with declining to press charges against a white vigilante who drew down on Mexicans at a rest stop. Or with collaring…
Four-time Emmy Award-winning director Charles St. Clair must be exhausted. In between classes at ASU West (where he’s a professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance), the co-founder of both the Fairmount Theater of the Deaf and Phoenix’s Black Theatre Troupe is directing Theater Works’ Underneath the Lintel; is shopping for…
Okay, so I saw a bunch of crap this past year. But I also saw some amazing stuff on local stages — things that made me hopeful that local theater is not destined to repeat the same four musicals (another production of Cabaret, anyone?) and three Neil Simon comedies (my…
Hear that squawking? It’s not The Bird. It’s that group we’ve come to know as “downtown artists.” This time they’re not shrieking about city fathers trying to police the lawlessness of their monthly First Friday gatherings (one of which is coming up just next week) along that stretch of galleries…
The Bird’s been keeping a beady eye on the competition of late — and not because it wants to learn how to bore its readers to death. No, this faux falcon has been flying over Cancer Corner, that downtown spot formerly known as Second Street and Van Buren, just outside…
1. Begin, from your earliest days, to greet each moment as if it were an opportunity for a graceful expression formed by your limbs as a gift to the world. Then learn to tap dance. Steal the show in your nursery school recital as the first-ever student to perform a…
At last, a means of upstaging actor Jon Gentry — whose huge presence swipes every scene in every play he’s ever appeared in — has been discovered: Surround him, as has been done in Childsplay’s Seussical, with wildly costumed, maniacally energetic players, a frantic and noisy score, custom choreography, and…
Crystal Not-So-Clear The Bird wouldn’t be surprised if readers who’ve been following New Times’ series “The Perfect Drug,” on crystal meth in Arizona (the final installment of which is in this issue), are left with a certain distrust of the so-called “facts” presented by our fearless civic leaders. After all,…
Attention, fight fans: The Bird would like to direct your attention to Scottsdale, where anxious strippers are gearing up for a battle that may prove epic. In this corner, the City of Scottsdale, armed with the best legal advice money can buy and a burning desire to save its citizens…
