How do we love and find hope when we don’t have the words? As part of RomeroFest, a month-long celebration of the diverse, thoughtful and impactful works of Arizona Theatre Company Playwright-in-Residence Elaine Romero,
The Arizona Theatre Company staff, volunteers, artists and Board of Trustees extend a heartfelt thank you to Carol DuVal Whiteman for her visionary leadership and support of the arts and education in Tucson. She had a love of the stage.
We’re so proud of ATCteen improv team FUSAI (or the Future Underground Society of Arizona Improv) for performing two shows in February! Earlier this month, they performed in Unscrewed Theater’s Sunday Smashup alongside other teams.
In collaboration with The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre and Winding Road Theater Ensemble, ATC is producing RomeroFest, a month-long celebration of the diverse, thoughtful and impactful works of ATC Playwright-in-Residence Elaine Romero
We Reached Our Goal! Every dollar that was donated to our Bring Us Back to Live campaign has made it possible for us to return to live professional theatre later this year. Along with our anonymous matching funds donors, we couldn’t
The first Coronalogs: Explorations of Identity, Culture and Well-Being During COVID-19, a partnership between Arizona Theatre Company and local community colleges to create new works by student playwrights focusing on the human
Carey Pena speaks with Associate Artstic Director Chanel Bragg about how ATC moved quickly to keep subscribers and supporters engaged. Throughout these last 10 months, we have launched a Podcast, Digital Season, and Matching Funds Campaign.
Real Estate Mogul, Avid Athlete, Philanthropist By David Pittman From the January edition of BizTucson I. Michael Kasser has many interesting accomplishments to his name after 80 years on this planet. His greatest business success is unquestionably
The Arizona Theatre Company staff, volunteers, artists and Board of Trustees extend a heartfelt thank you to Gerry Murphy for his support. Gerry had a lifelong respect for the ability of the arts to nourish a more civilized society.
Nine students from the Tucson area, Mesa and Laveen participating in our ATCteen program are playing key roles in the digital premiere of seven winning plays from #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, a national short play competition
In November, over 300 students from six schools in three different Arizona Counties, tuned in to watch our Digital Reading of The Realness. In addition to watching the digital production, schools received a worksheet with discussion questions.
T.O. has escaped the suburbs and comes to the big city to immerse himself in authentic, “REAL” hip-hop culture. It doesn’t get much more real than MC Prima. The moment he meets her, T. O. falls madly in love. But when he becomes
Arizona Theatre Company Launches New Fundraising Campaign ‘Bring Us Back to Live’ will help ensure the show will go on A “ghost light” is a small, single-bulbed light that shines whenever a theater is dark. Some say it chases away spirits;
Things I Know To Be True, the Andrew Bovell play that ATC co-produced the American premiere of, is in the works to become an Amazon series starring and executive produced by Nicole Kidman. ATC co-produced the American premiere of
The Arizona Theatre Company staff, volunteers, artists and Board of Trustees extend a heartfelt thank you to Slivy Edmonds for her visionary leadership and support of the arts and education in Tucson. As a longtime ATC trustee and honorary trustee,
In an Arizona Theatre Company exclusive, award winning singer-songwriter/children’s-book-author Benjamin Scheuer streams in from England, performing one of London’s first in-person concerts. The video will be available to ATC subscribers on October 15th
Irene and Peter just want to have a nice meal out on their big anniversary in Palm Springs. But their highly neurotic waiter, Stephen, will not bring them their food, and everything goes horribly, ridiculously wrong. This absurd server will have
Eliana Pipes, a playwright, actor and filmmaker, has won Arizona Theatre Company’s 2020 National Latinx Playwriting Award for Dream Hou$e, which follows two Latinx sisters on an HGTV-style show who are selling their family home,
Dear ATC Friends and Supporters, Arizona Theatre Company’s board and staff are determined to continue bringing you high-quality theatre virtually and as soon as it is safe in-person on our stages. Hear from our Managing Director Geri Wright
Audiences will be able to enjoy the launch of our first of in a series of creative digital performance offerings with Alma, the story of a daughter and her mother and the thread of the American dream. Written by Benjamin Benne, our 2019 Latinx
10 Questions with Char and Alan Augenstein: Philanthropists and arts supporters. From the August 2020 Issue of Frontdoors Magazine 1. Where did you move to Arizona from, and when? CHAR: We were excited to have the opportunity
The 24 Hour Plays will partner with Arizona Theatre Company on an exciting edition of The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues, available July 14th on IGTV @24hourplays, on The 24 Hour Plays’ Facebook and YouTube channels, and on their website.
Arizona native Chanel Bragg, an artist and passionate advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion, has been named Associate Artistic Director. A graduate of Northern Arizona University and Cortez High School, Bragg is a producer, director,
Arizona Theatre Company has launched a podcast! Available on Facebook, Youtube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Hang & Focus Live allows us to share the connection to the art we create, the artists we love and support, our staff and you, our patrons – all the people that ARE Arizona Theatre Company!
The original Off-Broadway cast of The White Chip will perform a live reading for audiences to see of ATC’s Sean Daniels’ play about his unusual path to sobriety as a fundraiser for The Voices Project, a grassroots recovery advocacy organization, and ATC.
Dear Friends, First and foremost, I hope you and your family are safe and sound. I know for me, I’m waking up every morning grateful to be in this community, working at and fighting for the theater that changed my life when my parents brought me
While we get ready for The Legend of Georgia McBride to hit our stage, our Production is already hard at work building the set for our next show, Women in Jeopardy! As part of that set build, they are creating some amazing trees! Click through
Spotlight on Patrick Holt (Tempest DuJour), Costume Designer for The Legend of Georgia McBride. When strangers discover that I do drag I get one of two responses. There’s either an exclamation of fabulosity and delight, or an uncomfortable pause
ATCteen Phoenix was asked by our friends at the Arizona Department of Education to perform at their Youth Arts Showcase Event on March 6th. A group of our students will be devising a piece of theatre based on a painting by the Arizona winner
ATC would like to thank ASU’s Dr. Mathew Sandoval and his 40+ students from Barrett, The Honors College who attended a performance of “Master Harold”…and the Boys as part of their Human Event course work. Dr. Sandoval integrated the important
Don’t miss our ATC@FilmBar film series! Our last film screening of the season is, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Wednesday, March 25, 6:00 p.m. Arizona Theatre Company, in collaboration with FilmBar, presents ATC@FilmBar, a short series of films
ATC donors and friends had an amazing month of events at Arizona Theatre Company. Great Food, Good Friends and Stimulating Conversations are what you can expect at Opening Night Dinners at ATC! The Giving Circles Opening Night Dinner at
“Master Harold and the Boys”, Opening Night, January 24th, 2020 One of the privileges of being in the Cohort Club is to see the evolution of a play from the first rehearsals all the way through to its opening night. One can enjoy the whole
Cohort Club, “Master Harold and the Boys”, January 14th, 2020 This was the first day of tech rehearsals in the theater with the stage manager and lighting and sound personnel situated in the middle of the theater with their equipment and computers. The first part of this (first session) was spent discussing
Cohort Club, “Master Harold and the Boys”, January 10th, 2020 First morning session. This session focused on the first part of the play up to the end of Hally’s first phone call with his mother. The director’s emphasis was on the nuances of mood and mood shift. One concern of the director was to ensure […]
Opening night (December 6th 2019) One of the great things about being in the Cohort Club is that one gets to see the evolution of a production from its earliest beginnings all the way through to opening night. In the case of Cabaret I was able to attend the earlier rehearsals but, unfortunately, had to […]
The final session of the day (4:30pm – 7:30pm) in the rehearsal room was a “stumble through” of Act I with the entire cast present. And yes, “stumble through” is official theater terminology! Before the start of the scene the director pointed out that up until now the cast had been working
By Howard Allen & Royce Sparks On my first day in the Arizona Theatre Company’s new Cohort Club, I listened to a table read of “The Royale,” the first play of the season and the first play choice of ATC’s new Artistic Director Sean Daniels (who brought the Cohort Club community sharing idea with him […]
There are many reasons why we go to the theater: to be amused by wit, parody, and satire; to learn something new or to see something we thought we knew in a new way; to be provoked and sometimes infuriated. But why the theater, that most ancient of art forms, when we could be at […]
Day 18, September 1st, 2019 This Sunday was the last day of rehearsals in the rehearsal room before the technical rehearsals begin in the theatre next week. The last two afternoon sessions involved going over certain the details at end of Scene 5 and the beginning of Scene 6, a
Day 11, August 24th, 2019 The last two sessions of the day were devoted to scene 6. This is the climax of the play. It is a complex scene with many moving parts that have to mesh together at the end to deliver, as it were, the knockout punch. The scene centers on the confrontation […]
Day 8, August 21st, 2019 The last two afternoon sessions focused on Scene 5. This scene is set in the locker room just before the big fight between Jay and Bixby. The three main components are: (i) Fish presenting Jay with a gramophone; (ii) The meeting between Jay and his sister,
Day 5, August 17th 2019 The cast are now rehearsing on their feet. They are, as it were, finding out where they stand in the play and where they stand on the stage. The focus of the first morning session was Scene 1, the fight between Fish and Jay. The director emphasized precise positioning of […]
Day 2, August 14th 2019 I attended the “Table Work” sessions from 12 – 3pm (the day ended at 6pm). Scenes 1 and 2 were read through, two or three times each, and the concepts and characters were refined in the course of this iterative process. A couple of things stood out to me. In […]
VIDEO: Courtesy of Second Nature Productions, LLC. Click here to watch the video interview. Vicki Smith is the scenic designer for ATC’s production of Low Down Dirty Blues and a longtime collaborator at ATC. Most recently, she designed the set for our production
AUTHOR: Lorraine Koleski, ATC Dramaturgical Volunteer, with Erin Treat Schauer, Dramaturg In part, Outside Mullingar revolves around four characters who are deeply tied to the traditions of Irish family farming. The characters’ essential connection to the land, to their ancestors,
We’re thrilled to be producing Marisela Treviño Orta’s magical play The River Bride. The play is one of a trilogy of grim Latino fairy tales penned by the playwright, including Wolf at the Door (premiering at the New Jersey Repertory Company next fall) and Alcira. In addition to writing for the theatre,
AUTHOR: Erin Treat, Online Engagement Coordinator As part of our renewed commitment to our Arizona communities, Arizona Theatre Company is proud to share the details of a burgeoning partnership with Chapel Haven West! Chapel Haven West (CHW) is a private nonprofit agency in Tucson
VIDEO: Second Nature Productions, LLC. Click here to watch the video interview. Marsha Mason is the director for ATC’s 2017/2018 season opener, Chapter Two. Ms. Mason returns to ATC this season after directing last season’s production of An Act of God. She has received four Academy Award
AUTHOR: Chloe Loos, Artistic Intern ATC’s Holmes and Watson carries on a long and storied tradition of reimagining the canon (which refers to the short stories and novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), characters, situations, and even time or location of the famous detective. Why has he survived
AUTHOR: Chloe Loos, Artistic Intern Did you know that some of your favorite songs have been in the making since the time of your great-great-(maybe even great)-grandparents? Due to America’s history of immigration and colonialism, our early music came from a wide variety of people.
AUTHOR: Chloe Loos, Artistic Intern Not many artists can say that they’ve had a music career spanning over fifty years, released 96 records across multiple different labels, and sold over 90 million copies, but Johnny Cash can. That – and his inclusion in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame,
Re-published with permission from OnMedia Publications. Meet Geri Silvi, Arizona Theatre Company Box Office Manager and the March Arts Hero. Geri is often the first point of contact for theatregoers, and she uses the opportunity to make their experience positive.
AUTHOR: Chloe Loos, Artistic Intern Despite the striking set design and incredible use of sound and lights in La Esquinita, USA, perhaps the most striking feature is the unique aesthetic attitude the show maintains. As the show’s first regional production,
AUTHOR: Chloe Loos, Artistic Intern La Esquinita, USA was developed at El Teatro Campesino, the longest running Chicano theatre in the United States. The company was founded in 1965 by Luis Valdez on the Delano picket lines of the United Farmworkers Union
AUTHOR: Rubén C. González, Playwright / Performer of La Esquinita, USA I began writing La Esquinita, USA in 2007. I was working as a substitute teacher in Southeast Los Angeles to subsidize my acting career, when I was asked to teach a class of troubled high schoolers for ten weeks.
AUTHOR: David Ira Goldstein, ATC Artistic Director and Director of Fiddler on the Roof When Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway in 1964, it was instantly embraced. Fiddler became the first Broadway show to run for more than 3,000 performances, it spawned hundreds of productions
AUTHOR: Arizona Theatre Company We can’t invite you directly into the rehearsal room (we wouldn’t all fit!), but we’re giving you the next best thing! Our first-ever video blog gives you a special, behind-the-scenes look at the first week of rehearsals for Fiddler on the Roof.
AUTHOR: Erin Treat, Online Engagement Coordinator G. W. Mercier is the scenic designer for ATC’s 50th Anniversary Season-opener, King Charles III. His past work includes Head of Passes (Public Theater), for which he received Lucile Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations;
AUTHOR: Erin Treat, Online Engagement Coordinator Mark Gagliardi plays Charles Dickens in ATC’s much-loved production of The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord. He has appeared on stage (and online)
AUTHOR: Erin Treat, Online Engagement Coordinator Larry Cedar plays Thomas Jefferson in ATC’s current production, The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord. His work spans theatre, film, television, voice acting, and more.
AUTHOR: MERLE REAGLE Merle Reagle, who passed last August, was the Sunday crossword creator for the Arizona Daily Star, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and 50 other major papers. Merl grew up in Tucson and was a longtime friend of Discord playwright Scott Carter.
AUTHOR: Erin Treat, Online Engagement Coordinator Armin Shimerman plays Count Leo Tolstoy in ATC’s latest production, The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord. He’s best known for his work on the science-fiction series
Author: Katherine Monberg, Literary Associate Meet Lola! Lola is a nine-year-old shepherd mix, and our esteemed canine guest for the Tucson run of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. In the text of Steinbeck’s novella and on the stage, Lola is a symbol: of love and connection
AUTHOR: Lydia Lopez, Scenic Art Intern How does a scenic artist tell a story? A painter of theatrical scenery brings the set to life by way of paint color matching, style of application, texture, and surface finishes. Sometimes it’s a very realistic set, other times it’s about cleanliness
AUTHOR: Erin Treat, Online Engagement Coordinator James T. Alfred plays Lyons in ATC’s critically acclaimed production of August Wilson’s Fences. Other ATC credits include Jitney, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, To Kill a Mockingbird, and most recently, The Mountaintop.
AUTHOR: Chloe Loos and Katherine Monberg “People don’t read things!” A common complaint around my desk and my dinner table, as my colleagues and family will attest, from a dramaturg whose craft revolves around literature and language. But my assertion really isn’t quite true;
Among other things, Sex With Strangers deals with a writer’s life in the blogosphere. Many up-and-coming writers and artists are now getting their start online – writing blogs, self-publishing e-books, hosting podcasts and YouTube channels, etc.
Author: Ron May, Stray Cat Theatre Artistic Director Arizona Theatre Company has added a seventh show to the 2015-16 season as it presents Sex With Strangers, a very special production from Stray Cat Theatre, one of Arizona’s leading indie theatre companies. Stray Cat Theatre
Author: Katherine Monberg, Literary Associate August Wilson’s American Century Cycle is a collection of ten plays that chronicle a collective century of the Black American experience, with each of the ten plays set in a different decade spanning the 20th century. Nine of the ten plays
If you’re a fan of Wicked, Godspell, or Pippin, chances are you recognize some of the tunes in ATC’s latest show, Snapshots. But can you name all 28 songs? We’ve put together a playlist of some of the songs that appear in Snapshots, sung with their original lyrics, to help you “name that tune” when […]
John Ezell is the Scenic Designer for ATC’s exciting Arizona premiere production of Disgraced. We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Ezell to discuss his work on the production. ATC: Your original background is in painting. How did you transition from painting to scenic design?
AUTHOR: KATHERINE MONBERG, LITERARY ASSOCIATE Hello, and welcome to the ATC blog! My name is Katherine Monberg, and I’m the Literary Manager at ATC. Among the many theatrical aspects that all combine to make a production is the wonderful world of dramaturgy:
AUTHOR: KATHERINE MONBERG, LITERARY ASSOCIATE Tin Pan Alley is the designation given to the collection of music publishers and songwriters that developed and dominated the music publishing industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
AUTHOR: RON MAY, STRAY CAT THEATRE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR I’m on Facebook a lot. I tend to be a colossal smartass: my posts are rarely safe for work, I have a total potty mouth, and I also have a running gag of posting what people have called my “guy on scruff” posts. They are interactions I […]