Decisions, decisions. “Should we lop off their heads or leave their heads on?” So went the discussions as Michelle Dock, gallery coordinator for The Gallery at Tempe Center for the Arts, prepared to open “Merely Players,” an exhibition featuring costumes, design sketches, and a costume shop replica. “It’s been a…
Some time ago, I adopted a rule about not reviewing theater students while they’re learning their craft. But last fall, I bumped into actor/director Pamela Fields, who told me about the upcoming production of Lasso of Truth she was directing at ASU. Fields made it sound so interesting, I resolved…
This summer will mark three years since George Zimmerman’s trial ended in acquittal. After a jury found Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, three women launched a movement via social media using three simple words and a hashtag: #blacklivesmatter. Today, the national Black Lives Matter organization works to affirm…
“The Sleeping Beauty truly is the best ballet,” Ib Andersen writes in the program notes for Ballet Arizona’s production of the classic ballet, which runs through Sunday, February 14, at Phoenix Symphony Hall. “The Nutcracker is good, Swan Lake is good, but The Sleeping Beauty is the ultimate classical ballet…
By the end of 2017, Mesa will be home to about 50 new units of artist live/work space, created through a partnership with Artspace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that specializes in art-friendly residential developments. The City of Mesa invited Artspace to explore creating an artist live/work space development in Mesa during…
If you’re looking to laugh sometime in the next few months, we’ve got good news for you. There’s a ridiculous amount of comedy coming through the Valley in the next few months. Which is why we created a list of the 20 best for you (in chronological order). Cotter &…
New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from February 1 to February 4. It’s Not for Everyone Though this show is called “It’s Not For Everyone,” there’s a good chance it’ll be a laugh riot for you. Comedians Erick Biez and Angela Merkin Haines host a new…
Phoenix sound artist Tony Obr sat behind a table topped by a silver Apple laptop computer Friday night, amplifying the sounds created as visual artist Heather Couch pounded a large clump of clay on the stage at Tempe Center for the Arts. Fumihiro Kikuchi, the choreographer and dancer whose Amalgamations opened…
Last month, I met an actress who told me I’d once compared her performance in a play to “a dank flatulence.” I don’t remember this, but it sounds like something I might have written, so I believed her. She may be relieved to know I found her neither humid nor…
Gracie Whyte and Laura Berg have a thing for dancing in unexpected places. The women behind the Los Angeles-based dance duo known collectively as WHYTEBERG have performed to Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” in the left turn lane of a street in Echo Park, and to the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me…
Break out your best happy dance. Choreographer, performer, writer, and educator Liz Lerman recently joined the faculty for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU. As Institute Professor, she’ll lead programs and courses that span disciplines within and beyond the Herberger Institute. Lerman founded the Liz Lerman…
Next month, Scottsdale will have a new space for getting its laugh on. Stand Up Scottsdale closed on January 3 and will be moving from its current Old Town Scottsdale location back to a brand new version of its spot, set to open on February 4. “We actually started the…
Doug Stanhope stands atop a tiny stage the size of a wooden coffin, ready to unleash his vitriolic humor upon an audience whose members have come like willing lambs to slaughter. He’s a misfit, a carnival barker dressed in a pea-green thrift-store sports coat and sickish-yellow shirt, topped off by…
Hey, the 1990s called. And actually, they are mad stoked about your nostalgia for them. Not only are all your favorite shows from the era — Full House, Twin Peaks, The X-Files — getting the reboot treatment, but ’90s Saturday Night Live heavyweights are banding together and stepping into the spotlight, too. Case…
New Times picks the best events and things to do in metro Phoenix from January 4 to January 10. “Ecosystem” Are you one of those people who sees bubble wrap and can’t keep your hands off its plastic pearls? That overwhelming desire to pop those little pods is something you must…
Masses of nude bodies photographed floating in the Dead Sea, fine art paintings by graffiti artist El Mac, and plays performed on Valley Metro Light Rail trains — they’ll all be part of the 2016 arts and culture scene here in metro Phoenix, where works of visual and performance art…
For 32, dancer and instructor Liliana Gomez has a lot under her belt. She’s family- and community-oriented, patient, informed, and incredibly sweet. Gomez’s dance classes are bright and positive, billed as Contemporary Modern with Liliana Gomez on Monday nights at Metropolitan Arts Institute. She claps, she snaps, she laughs. She…
As the year winds down, I find myself wanting a lot—especially from the local creatives, and their audiences, in our fair city. A higher level of sophistication about the local arts scene Pretty much everyone who lives in Arizona knows that the Cardinals are not a baseball team, so why…
New Times picks the best events and things to do in metro Phoenix from December 28 to January 3. Holidays at the Heard There’s no place like Heard for the holidays — for a few reasons. It’s one of the premier Native American art and culture museums, for starters. But during…
The audience was sparse one late October evening at Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. A curtain opened to reveal dancer Lenna DeMarco seated center stage atop a simple, pine-colored chair. With her short, silver-streaked hair tucked behind her ears, the 67-year-old dance faculty emeritus with Glendale Community College wore…
Between scoping out the best holiday lights displays throughout the Valley, wrapping up last-minute shopping, and balancing out your cookie consumption with hiking, here are 11 things to add to your to-do list that’ll be totally worth it. Hannibal Buress It’s been a big year for Hannibal Buress, the stand-up comic…
Hannibal Buress had a very busy 2015 — and the comedian isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon. He’s been on numerous episodes of Broad City, of course, where he plays the laidback Lincoln Rice (a.k.a. the on-again/off-again paramour of main character Ilana Glazer), and starred in his own Comedy…
