Actors Alchemy’s Short Play Festival at PHX:fringe

Actors Alchemy is a group of Valley performers who allegedly get together every week and work on their craft. This is a good thing. Plenty of acting teachers charge money, and some of them deserve to, but you can accomplish a lot in a cooperative with your peers, too, while…

hair & fingernails from Orange Theatre Group at PHX:fringe

Phoenix Center for the Arts is right in the middle of building an elevator. It isn’t finished yet, though, so please keep in mind that unless you can get up stairs somehow, you won’t be able to attend any PHX:fringe performances that are scheduled in PCA’s studio, which is on…

PHX:fringe Starts Friday — Get Schedule, Updates, Previews

We’re getting all jiggly with excitement for the unknown quantities that are the performances of PHX:fringe. Since sharing this preview, we’ve made plans to see and review a whole bunch of shows. And because we can’t be everywhere at once, we’re stopping by again to share what else we bet…

Scorpius Dance Theatre Hosts Dance Class Marathon This Weekend

Before you hit the dance floor, you might want to take a few pointers from the pros. And this weekend, members of Scorpius Dance Theatre are dishing out some serious moves. On Saturday, March 3, the local contemporary dance company is hosting Dance Marathon 3, a day-long series of classes open…

Theatre Artists Studio’s The Unexpected Man Is Early, “Fun” Reza

Don’t worry — the characters in The Unexpected Man are still both relatable and ridiculous. The two people are still trapped together for a finite period by social convention, driven like pack mules by their pride and insecurity. But it’s just enough gentler, warmer, less pessimistic than playwright Yasmina Reza’s…

Desert Stages Theatre Does McDonagh’s The Pillowman

Desert Stages Theatre artistic director Terry Helland clearly is mad. Onto the tiny black box stage of his Actor’s Café, he continues to wedge dark, offbeat plays that no doubt strike terror in the hearts of the mainstream theatergoers who turn up in droves for the more bland fare on…

ASU Gammage Holds Lottery For Cheap Wicked Tickets

No one gets stoned to death, and you only have to pay if you win — doesn’t get much better than that. Tickets for the Broadway tour of Wicked, which started its current Tempe run on Wednesday, are scarce and/or spendy. To make your last-minute, fingers-crossed bottom-feeding more potentially productive,…

PHX:fringe Starts March 2 — It’s Almost Time to Get Some Strange

For 11 days in March, we’ll get to revel in off-the-beaten-path (ideally) performances — 23 different ones, in 88 time slots at five locations — in the fifth annual Phoenix Fringe Festival. Local alt-Christian glam-rock-opera dude Paisley Yankolovich is back on the schedule (we missed him last year!), and some new…

9 Circles at iTheatre Collaborative Showcases a Very Good Actor

This month has been a whirlwind of great performances in relatively unfamiliar plays. And this weekend’s your last chance to catch iTheatre Collaborative’s 9 Circles, an example of just such a production. This small company, playwright Bill Cain, and local director/designer Steven J. Scally all have fine pedigrees, and the…

The Musical Instrument Museum Celebrates Chinese New Year This Weekend

On January 28, the Musical Instrument Museum is partnering with the American Chinese Arts and Culture Exchange Association to celebrate the Chinese New Year. According to Courtney Tjaden, Events and Volunteer Manager at the museum, there will be a number of events and performances that pay tribute to 2012, the year…

Macbeth from Arizona Curriculum Theater Is Fair and Foul

A good friend of mine used to manage a bookstore. (A lot of people used to manage a bookstore.) In their proud, intellectual geekiness, her employees tended to look just terrible. It wasn’t that anyone expected them to spend money on clothes; if they’d just made the effort to be…