Thursday, September 28, 2017
Theater and Shows
Oro Valley Music Festival. Ring in October with this two-day festival full of music, food, drinks and vendors. Of course, the music is the main event, and Oro Valley is really delivering, with performances by big names like Train, LeAnn Rimes, Lee Brice and Gavin DeGraw. There will be vendors, a “selfie spot,” exclusive VIP areas, and even OVMF swag, like socks and T-shirts. Gates open at 12:30 p.m., opening act starts at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30 and Sunday, Oct. 1. The Golf Club at Vistoso, 955 W. Vistoso Highlands Drive. GA: $59.50 for one night or $89.50 for both nights. VIP $129.50 for one night (sold out for Sunday, so Saturday only. Travis Mathew “Awesome VIP” Experience $199.50 for one night or $329.50 for both nights. Martial Artists & Acrobats of Tianjin. Martial arts, circus acts, illusions and more! More than 100 performers take the stage in martial arts, balancing acts, acrobatic stunts, contortion and juggling, all accompanied by traditional Chinese music. The award-winning act has traveled throughout the world, and is an audience favorite! 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3, Fox Theater, 17 W. Congress St. $24-$48 (depending on seating, $2 increase for tickets purchased at the door).
Día de los Muertos: The Musical. This new musical hits the stage with Día de los Muertos just around the corner. The original story and music from Michael Martinez tells the story of a young woman who travels to the the world of the dead after losing her beloved pet. While in the world of the dead, she befriends a monster who teaches her how to celebrate life, and helps her return home from the world of the dead before she is trapped forever. Sunday afternoons at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 1-Nov. 5. Live Theater Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd. $10 for adults, $7 for children.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Feel the earth move under your feet at "Beautiful," which tells the true story of Carole King's rise to fame. From being part of a songwriting team with her husband, Gerry Goffin, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music, King wrote songs considered to be the soundtrack to a generation. Times vary based on date. Oct. 4 through Oct. 8. Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. Price varies by seating: $29-$80.
Organic, Origami and Open Studios
Between Folds: Classical Origami. There’s something really magical about origami: creating these little sculptures by hand, without using any scissors, glue or tape. And if you’ve ever made a cootie catcher, you know that that origami has the power to unlock worlds of unparalleled fun. Seasoned origami vets can create everything from insects to shores to samurai to cranes with movable wings. See all of these things (except the cootie catcher, probably) and more at this Japanese Yume Gardens exhibit, which runs from their reopening on Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Yume Japanese Gardens of Tucson, 2130 N. Alvernon Way. Free with museum admission: $9 adults, $8 seniors, $7 students and military ID, $5 children 3 to 15, free for children two and under.Tags: Oro Valley Music Festival , Train , LeAnn Rimes , Lee Brice , Gavin DeGraw , dia de los muertos , Michael MArtiniez , Travis Mathew , Martial Artists & Acrobats of Tianjin , Beautiful: The Carole King Musical , Carole King , origami , Yume Japanese Gardens , Tucson Organic Gardeners Fall Fair , Geronimo’s Revenge , organic gardening , Southern Arizona Open Studio Tours , SAACA , Nightfall at Old Tucson , October is here , spooky , scary , Pussy Power , planned parenthood , planned parenthood art show , bentley’s house of coffee & tea , breast cancer awareness , pin me up chicane style , pink , breast cancer , oktoberfest , trail dust town , Bouncing Czechs , Iron John’s brewing company , thunder canyon brewstillery , sentinel peak brewing company , uncle bear’s brewery , Mexican baseball fiesta , Kino Stadium , Jim Click’s Run ’n’ Roll , Jim Click , race , baseball , tacos , SAR , Southern Arizona Roadrunners , Meg Kearney , Dusenberry-River Library , Jewish History Museum , Sukkoth , food trucks , free science day , science , S.Y.STEM coalition , Hail the Sun , Nas , Y La Bamba , PInegrove , Florist , Lomelda
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Coming up next weekend: It's the second annual Dusk Music Festival, featuring more than a dozen acts on Friday, Oct. 6, and Saturday, Oct. 7. The Weekly is highlighting some of the performing artists ahead of the festival kickoff. Today: DJ Jazzy Jeff!
"In west Philadelphia born and raised, on the playground was where I spent most of my days."
DJ Jazzy Jeff wrote lyrics for the Fresh Prince that were true for himself. West Philly native, DJ Jazzy Jeff has has a successful career spinning records and working with Will Smith as well as opening his own production company called A Touch of Jazz. As a critically acclaimed DJ, he has won a DMC Championship and has many Grammy and American Music Awards and nominations. He will take the stage at Dusk Music Festival on Friday, October 6 at 5:55 p.m.
For more information about DJ Jazzy Jeff at Dusk Music Festival, click here!
Tags: Music , Dusk , Festival , DJ , DJ Jazzy Jeff , Fresh Prince , Will Smith , Video
Thursday, September 21, 2017
The sacrifice has so far been worth it. His comedy life is well-populated and fun-filled, and the rest of us get to enjoy its output. His latest project, in collaboration with standup comedian Matt Ziemak, is a unique mash up of stand-up and improv: “Set Unlisted.” The show makes its second appearance at Laff’s Comedy Caffe at 8 pm, Sunday, September 24. It’s free, but the club has a two-item minimum.
Set Unlisted, the name, comes from comedians’ common practice of making a “setlist” of their jokes as they warm up for a show. These pre-show setlists can be on bar napkins, in notebooks, on cellphones and often on the palms of a comedian’s hands.
Paper is the setlist medium of choice for Set Unlisted, the show. After each standup set, Long appropriates the setlist, slices it up, and gives its delisted contents to a team of improvisers. The team uses them as prompts for a whole different set of jokes, delivered in improvised scenes. Occasionally, the improvisers find the joke the comedian intended. Since the improv team has been sequestered out of earshot of the standup routine, these congruences can be magical. Only the audience gets them. The joke is on the jokers!
Standup comedians scheduled for Sept. 24 are Rory Monserat, co-host of a weekly open mic at The Loudhouse, Monte Benjamin, the comedian featured in our Aug. 7 column; Nancy Stanley, who organizes the long-standing Estrogen Hour, and several other benefits around Tucson; and Chris Thayer, recently emigrated to Tucson from Los Angeles and featured in our June 15 column.
Long recruited the improvisers from Tucson Improv Movement, where he is a performing member of the company. They are Andrew Hatch of TIM’s premier team The Soapbox, TIM artistic director Daniel Kirby, Esther Brilliant of TIM’s long-running all-female team The Riveters, and geo-scientist Jason Burwell, because improv.
Long says he “fell in love with improv” while watching a friend perform at the UA. He couldn’t make the team, so the friend suggested taking lessons at TIM. The same friend led him into standup comedy. Long says, “Laff’s was the only place I could do standup underage because I could stay in the green room.” That’s where he met Ziemak and they started writing together.
Tags: Set Unlisted , Leland Long , Matt Ziemak , Rory Monserat , Monte Benjamin , Nancy Stanley , Chris Thayer , Andrew Hatch , Daniel Kirby , Esther Brilliant , The Riveters , Jason Burwell , The Soapbox , Tucson Improv Movement , Laff's , Laff's Comedy Caffe
“All of them, in a way, present me to Tucson,” Gomez said. “It’s like a way of saying, ‘hi, this is me.’”
Tags: Zhang Zuo , Jose Luis Gomez , Beethoven , Mahler , Carreno , TSO , Tucson Symphony Orchestra , classical music
Flavor by Loews Hotels. Loews Ventana Canyon Resort is now participating in the hotel’s initiative to offer guests lovable local flavors by partnering with the companies behind some of Tucson’s tastiest treats. The hotel will be offering tamales from the Tucson Tamale Company (called “the best tamales in the USA” by Alton Brown of The Food Network), French toast made with bread from Barrio Bread and beer on tap from Dragoon Brewing Company throughout the resort. It’s the perfect place for visiting friends and relatives to stay to get a taste of the city, and many Tusconans will probably now be tempted to stay at the resort themselves. Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, 7000 N. Resort Drive.
Tags: Mr. Bing’s The Supper Club Experience , Hacienda del Sol , Loews Hotels , Tucson Tamale Company , Barrio Bread , Dragoon , Zinburgre , Butterfinger Shakes , Lock in Hope , PY Steakhouse , Casino del Sol , Dinner with Chefs , Ramiro Scavo , Red’s Smokehouse + Tap Room , chili , Southwest chili cook , dinner detective murder mystery show , born and brewed , hotel congress , beer , Beer , BEER , Jim Click , Arizona Wine Dinner , Maynards , Fourth Fridays , Tucson Botanical Gardens , Greek Fest , Farmer’s Market , what do you mean he DON’T EAT NO MEAT? , That’s okay , I make lamb , greek , Greek fest , My Big Fat Greek Festival
Art
Art Now! With Chuck Nanney. Artist Chuck Nanney’s sculptural works from the last three years, which are equal parts minimalist modern and whimsical chic, are showing at MOCA through Oct. 1. For this event, Nanney comes to the museum to talk about his work (which includes sound pieces) nal art lecture format by allowing audiences to engage in discussion about all of the forms that the art of today’s world takes. 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26. MOCA Tucson, 265 S. Church Ave. $10, free for MOCA members.Diana Madaras Signing Event. It’s hard to believe that calendars for 2018 are already out, but it makes sense, really. After all, 2017 is no spring chicken anymore. Diana Madaras’ 2018 Southwest Art Calendar is out, serving the tri-purpose of helping you keep track of the days, decorate your house and support local art. This week, she’ll even be signing them, so they serve the fourth purpose of showing off your impressive connections in the art world. Also, calendars make fantastic gifts for everyone from your mom to that one coworker you don’t know very well and gave gift cards and lotion to for the past three Christmases. 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21. Madaras Gallery, 3035 N. Swan Road. Free.
Equinox Poetry Chalking. Chalk, meet poetry. You two should have a lot in common, because you’re both versatile, colorful and good at bringing people together. At this Sam Lena-South Tucson Library event, both will be provided for people of all ages to chalk poems in both English and Spanish celebrating the beginning of fall and the beauty of libraries. Feel free to bring a favorite—or original—poem of your own, and to try out some futuristic glitter chalk, and even spray chalk. 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22. Sam Lena-South Tucson Library 1607 S. Sixth Ave. Free.
Music and Theater
The Astronaut Farmworker. Pima Community College’s run of José Cruz González's play inspired by the story of real-life astronaut José Hernández runs through Oct. 1. In the show, Pepito, the son of migrant farmworkers, is struggling to learn English and make friends in his new home. When he watches Apollo 11 land on the moon, he knew from that day forward that he wanted to be an astronaut. A feel-good story about following your dreams and the power of education, it’s a must-see for kids, parents, grandparents and everyone in between. Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. ASL interpreters Friday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. Scout Theatre Adventure (for girl and boy scouts and their leaders at a discounted price). Saturday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. Through Oct. 1. Proscenium Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Road. $8 (or $6 for groups of 10 or more)Tags: MOCA , ArtNow! Chuck Nanney , Diana Madaras , Madaras Gallery , calendars , that one coworker , Equinox poetry chalking , library , Sam Lena-South Tucson Library , chalk , poetry , The Astronaut Farmworker , Proscenium Theatre , Pima Communit College , Jose Hernandez , Titan , Beethoven , Mahler , TSO Inaugural Season Opening , Jose Juis Gomez , Zhang Zuo , Zee Zee , Healing Sounds from Around the World , Bob Effertz , Hakuna Matata , it means no worries , for the rest of your days , Ting-Sha Bells , Tibetan Singing bowls , didgeridoo , jazz legends live , Ella Fitzgerald , Dizzy Gillespie , Buddy Rich , marshmallow fluff , jazz , Peppersauce Roundup Adventure Festival , gravel grinder bike race , stampede trail runs , zip-lining , camping , outdoors , Oracle , Mr. and Miss Tucson Pride , pride , Miss Gay Tucson , Demi LaRaye , Romeo White , AEY King , WBO Boxing , Tucson Pride , Pride 40th Anniversary , Autumnal Equinox Celebration , Cirque Roots Fire Troupe , Bennu , Danny V. Patrons , National Day of Remembrance Candlelight Vigil , LUMIES , Odaiko Sonora , Axe Capoeira , Flam Chen , Fall Pumpkin celebration , it’s the great pumpkin Charlie Brown , Apple Annies , Pumpkins , fall , Adulting 101 , Joel D. Valdez Main Library , Split End Race , Bookman’s Local Comic Artist Extravaganza , free breakfast , evil rob productions , silly monkey comics , Natalia Lopez , Nightcrawler , King Chiefs , Dizzy Wright , Natalia LaFourcade , TOKiMONSTA , tokimonsta
Thursday, September 14, 2017
The show will begin with a set by Unscrewed’s own popular musical improvisers, From the Top, with special guest Rick Hall. Laura will accompany. Then Rick and Laura will improvise a set with the students of an advanced workshop they are giving earlier in the day. Players may include improvisers from Tucson’s more sketch-oriented musical comedy group, Musical Mayhem. Mayhem appears monthly at Unscrewed Theater, rewriting Broadway hits into satire.
“I started in my early 20's in Chicago as a waitress at Second City,” Laura says of her improv career. “That’s 30 years ago!” It was a school job; she was working on a degree in piano, emphasizing composition. "I never really considered doing the music side of improv. But once I was there, I thought, ‘This is really cool! It was cool the way that the musicians functioned with the actors.” Hall went from being a waitress to playing for the Second City touring company, where she met Rick.
“We always had one musician and six actors,” Laura says. “What the musician does is more subliminal. We play transitions, like transitions in a movie that get you from scene to scene. We also play to underscore parts in the scene. There's music playing underneath, but the audience may not even be aware that it's helping shape and underpin the scene.”
That's got to require some pretty intense group mind among the actors and musicians. “They definitely have to be simpatico,” Laura says. “None of us know what we’re doing. We find it together as we go. The timing is what's challenging about it.”
Laura has proven the master of the timing. She accompanied six years of the ABC series Whose Line Is It Anyway with Drew Carey, then toured several more years with Drew Carey and the Improv Allstars. She’s also accompanied recent revivals in London and on the CW.
“People like the energy of musical improv so much,” she says. “You don’t have to be a fabulous singer. What you have to be is committed to it.”
Tags: Whose Line Is It Anyway , musical improv , improv , Rick and Laura Hall , Unscrewed Theatre , Musical Mayhem , From the Top , NCIS , Rick Hall , Laura Hall , Kids in the Hall
Steff and the Articles’ Timekeeper album release
With Birds & Arrows and Infinite Souls
8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15
Club Congress
311 E. Congress St.
$5, 21+
622-8848
hotelcongress.com
Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years… Time never stops.
For Steff Koeppen, working on a new album with her band the Articles over the last several years, that insistent march of time weighed on her mind, framing her goals as a musician, her relationships and her day-to-day work in a way that brought more focus to everything.
It wasn’t a conscious theme to the album until it became time to shape it all into one whole thing and by that time, the name Timekeeper fit it all perfectly.
“In the past, I’ve always taken a phrase from a lyric in a song to name the album,” she says. “I was trying to do the same thing and I found the word ‘timekeeper.’ It helped me put the songs together, all in a place. For me, even though there’s not a concept that ties these songs together, lyrically it was all during a time just after I graduated college and felt a lot of stress. I felt the anxiety of time pressing down on me and that’s in a few songs. Like I’m my own timekeeper.”
The songs were written over years—with two already released as singles to help promote the band on tours—and sprung from different origins, not meant to offer different perspectives on any one theme. But once they were all collected and titled, Koeppen began to see there was more to unite them than she’d thought.
“I started to look at the songs a little differently,” she says. “There’s my personal disposition, where I was coming from at the time, that was always hanging over the songs.”
Books
Tucson Analog Hour. How many of us love reading but can’t seem to find a moment to sit down and focus on actually doing it? It’s no fun to admit, but maybe we just don’t have the attention spans that we used to. Between comparing ourselves to others on social media, checking our phones 46 times a day (that’s the American average) and looking up all the coolest things to do in Tucson this week, we’re collectively exhausted. Set aside some time for just you and a book, no phones allowed, and rediscover the joys of reading, or having a conversation without being distracted by your phone, or even playing a board game. 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17. Exo Coffee and Tap & Bottle, 403 N. Sixth Ave. Free.JA Jance comes to town. The bestselling mystery author’s book tour is hitting Tucson this week, and she’ll be making two local appearances. In the ’60s, Jance was denied entry into UA’s creative writing program because of her gender, but now she's been writing for over three decades. (Take that, patriarchy!) This tour is to promote her new book, "Proof of Life," which brings the character Seattle lawman J.P. Beaumont out of retirement. Saturday Sept. 16, at 5 p.m. at Mostly Books, 6208 E. Speedway Blvd. and Sunday, Sept. 17, at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 5310 E. Broadway Blvd. Free.
Theater
Celia, A Slave. The Rogue Theatre brings Tucson this play by Barbara Seyda, winner of the 2015 Yale Drama Series Prize. The haunting story is based on court records from the 1855 case State of Missouri vs. Celia, a Slave, in which a young woman was convicted and hanged for killing her prosperous owner. It brings to light the horrific violence and harsh realities of America less than 200 years ago. Vain Suitt stars as Celia, Cynthia Meier directs and Jake Sorgen does music direction and original composition. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays, plus 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday, Sept. 16 and 23. Through Sept. 24. The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y, 300 East University Boulevard. $38, or $15 for student rush tickets (15 minutes before curtain call, pending availability). Tags: Tucson Analog Hour , reading , technology , JA Jance , Proof of Life , J.P. Beaumont , Celia , a Slave , Rogue Theatre , Chapter Two , Arizona Theatre Company , Neil Simon , Shakespeare in the Park , El Rio Theatre Project , A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Tigers Be Still , Arizona Repertory Theatre , Tornabene Theatre , Dash & Walk Like MADD , MADD , 5k , mothers against drunk driving , Loop the Loop , el Tour , Felt bicycle , WBO , Oscar Valdez , Genesis Servania , Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez , Jesse “Hard Work” Hart , boxing , apple pie weekend , country craft fair , apple burgers , apple picking , apple pancakes , Apple Annie’s , Oracle Ford Peppersauce Roundup Adventure Festival , stampede trail runs , gravel grinder bike race , Mr. Nature , Arizona Zipline Adventures , Santa Cruz County Fair , horse show , Sonoita , Greek Fest , dolmathes , baklava , spanakopita , Downtown Radio 2-Year Anniversary Bash , 2 years , motor skills , Los Guapos , Shooda Shook it , Lemon Drop Gang , Tucson Light the Sky Lantern Festival , Tangled , princesses , magical , oooooh , Pet portrait series , dogs , cats , pigs , birds , pets , The Drawing Studio , Arizona Living Economy Forum , Mrs. Green’s World , YWCA of Southern Arizona , Adulting 101 , flat tires , handshakes , dinner that isn’t ramen , the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell , nightcrawler , Her Name Echoes , Pyrotechnica , Thic as Thieves , The Rock , Thee Commons , Vox Urbana , Club Congress , Reverend Horton Heat , The Mighty Fishbone , Strung Out , Los Kung-Fu Monkeys , Rialto Theatre
Friday, September 8, 2017
But better teachers? This is not what we expect to hear when we ask how Reid knows the class is successful. “I've had teenagers. active duty military, shamans, private school teachers, writers, people from law enforcement and people for whom English is not their first language.” Ron says. What they have in common is what he calls “a huge fear factor in speaking in public.”
Several former students eventually became working comedians in the U.S. and Europe. But the core of Reid’s course involves helping students of all sorts to find their comic voice and gain confidence in public speaking.
“Comedy is actually the only performing art that is not collaborative by nature. The way this class works is very simple. People say whatever it is they want to say with the intention of making people laugh. The rest of the people in the group give them some input. And then they do it again. Essentially it becomes a support group and echo chamber and a rehearsal studio.”
The writing is the least of it, though. “I always give my class a quote from (comedian) Bill Burr. He said to concentrate on the performing aspect, and the jokes will come.
“The emphasis I put in this class is on performance There's plenty of opportunity for folks to learn how to write jokes. There are workbooks. You fill in the blanks. But there is almost no opportunity to learn how to perform standup comedy. It's at least 50 percent performance and less than 50 percent content.”
Perhaps the longest-lasting benefit is the bond. “I make friends. Everybody makes friends. It's a bonding experience for the people who take these classes. Some of them have gone on and had great success, and others have never done it ever again. They all stay friends.”
Reid presents his class in collaboration with Laff’s Comedy Caffe, 2900 E. Broadway, over four consecutive Tuesdays beginning Sept. 12. The fourth class is a performance in front of an audience. Reservations for the $150 course are via LaffsTucson.com/classes.
Tags: Ron Reid , Bill Burr , Laff's Comedy Caffe , learn comedy , Artists West Management , the bond
