“The reason we play music is to celebrate our sorrows and our joys. To try to help make sense of something that oppresses you or celebrate something that lifts you up.” —Linda Ronstadt, Linda and the Mockingbirds
Join local performers from the Arizona theater community as they narrate spooky ghost stories, haunted short plays, mysterious monologues, scary poetry and original Halloween themed works this month.
Phoenix Art Museum will reopen to members Oct. 1 and to the general public Oct. 14 with comprehensive safety procedures developed in line with recommendations from federal and state public-health officials.
Cultural Coalition, Inc. and Pueblo Grande Museum present the Second Annual Portal to the Past Festival as a free virtual event Sunday, Oct. 4, from 2–4pm. Live streamed on Facebook and YouTube, the event features cultural performances of dance, music and storytelling celebrating the enginee…
With many galleries closed and art shows canceled, patrons can support artists from the comfort of their homes by taking part in the Creative Connections Fine Art Online Auction Fall 2020, Sept. 20–27. In addition, supporters will also help the nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK), feeding …
Act One Youth Theater is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on a mission to provide children the opportunity to participate and experience performing arts, at a nominal expense to them or their families. The volunteer operated children’s theater has been in existence for six-and-a-half years, according t…
Live performing arts organizations, artists and patrons alike are eagerly awaiting the day they can gather for in-person events. Some local venues plan to reopen as soon as fall 2020, while others have moved programming 100 percent online. As The Phoenix Theatre Company develops plans for di…
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This season will be one like no other for Valley performing arts organizations. As seasons ended abruptly across the state this spring, companies had to quickly adapt. Theaters were shuttered, employees were furloughed. Many fall seasons were reinvented while others were postponed and some, …
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle What happens when you take three juvenile delinquents and one home-schooled teen from the big city to the Scottish Highlands for some good-old-fashioned scouting? You might not expect a thriller-comedy, but that’s exactly what Get Duked! delivers. Origina…
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Encompassing nearly 13,000 square feet and spanning four gallery spaces, including the Virginia G. Piper Grand Gallery, Larger Than Memory: Contemporary Art from Indigenous North America is an inspirational and timely exhibition by the Heard Museum. Organized by Fine Arts curator Erin Joyce …
Although the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) is closed for in-person visits, art lovers can still find inspiration online through the Museums virtual visits. The Museum checked in with artist Brad Kahlhamer in his Valley studio with Museum Musings. Kahlhamer’s upcoming exhibiti…
For more than a century, the Arizona State Fair has been a gathering place for residents from across the state — and an eagerly anticipated event that marks the beginning of the fall season in Arizona. Then, along came 2020. Yesterday, the Arizona Exposition & State Fair Board announced …
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, in partnership with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation, announced Monday the next evolution of its popular social media video series, Wright Virtual Visits, which highlights Frank Lloyd Wright-designed public…
In 1999, a friend and I were traveling late at night from Los Angeles back to Phoenix. I dozed off; he took a wrong turn. I woke, disconcerted, in an endless desert landscape with no recognizable landmarks, not even the moon to light the way. I rolled down the window and let the cool night […]
This past week, Phoenix Art Museum announced that it anticipates re-opening its doors to members Oct. 1 and to the general public Oct. 14, with new health and safety precautions that will help keep guests as safe as possible during their visit. In the meantime, the Museum continues its new w…
Alma is the story of a daughter and her mother and the thread of the American dream. Written by Benjamin Benne, Arizona Theatre Company’s (ATC) 2019 Latinx Playwright Award winner, the production will launch the first of the company’s series of creative digital performance offerings. Alma wi…
VYTal Affair-athon event will feature 132 former cast members from the past 32 years “I believe VYT has always been at the right place at the right time and that we can always find the silver lining in anything that might come our way, including this pandemic.” —Bobb Cooper, producing artist…
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle Netflix The Fundamentals of Caring (2016) This film, starring Paul Rudd, is not only funny, but also sentimental and heartwarming. Out of work Ben (Rudd) decides to register as a caregiver while struggling through a divorce. He is quickly hired to care fo…
Blake Shelton, with special guests Gwen Stefani and Trace Adkins, will headline a drive-in concert experience slated for Saturday, July 25, at WestWorld of Scottsdale’s Polo Fields. The concert will appear at 300 select drive-in screens across the U.S. and Canada, produced exclusively for th…
“Now more than ever, support for Arizona Theatre Company is essential for our survival and our robust return to live theatre. Help us as we continue to be a leader in the arts in Arizona.” —Sean Daniels, Arizona Theatre Company A group of Arizona actors and writers will work together to writ…
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle With the death of George Floyd, Dion Johnson here in Phoenix, and many other people of color, conversations about race, racism, policing and the abuse of power are back on center stage. Hollywood has not been immune to promoting hurtful and tone-deaf narr…
LUNAFEST, a fundraising film festival dedicated to championing women filmmakers and bringing women together in their communities, has been rescheduled as a virtual event, set for Sunday, Aug. 2, at 4pm. It was originally scheduled to be held at Madison Center for the Arts in March but was ca…
Community invited to submit photographs for visual storytelling project COVID-19 has forever changed the lives of people around the world, and FOUND:RE Phoenix Hotel wants to help tell the stories of those lives, but with a local focus. With this goal in mind, it launched #Together4PHX, a vi…
Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) announced today that Arizona native Chanel Bragg has been named associate artistic director for the company. A graduate of Northern Arizona University and Cortez High School, Bragg is a producer, director, teaching artist and performer whose mission is to open d…
Live music has officially returned to JOJO Coffeehouse, a locally owned Scottsdale breakfast spot. JOJO announced that it will host country music artist Jacob Morris Saturday, June 27, 2–4pm. Morris has opened for artists such as Scotty McCreery, Billy Currington, Chris Janson, Thompson Squa…
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle The state might be reopening a bit, and we at Whiskey and Popcorn are emerging from our home theaters a bit bleary-eyed. It will still be some time before movie theaters choose to reopen, despite getting the green light from the governor. But not to worry…
Mikel Jollett broke my heart. And I encourage you to let him break yours, too. Sadness, loneliness, grief, despair and rage; understanding, gratitude, love, passion, joy and hope — Jollett brings all of this and more to his forthcoming memoir, Hollywood Park. Full disclosure, this book is …
23 Valkyries, composed of Cameron Kulik (guitar, vocals, bass) and Chris Kontos (drums, backing vocals), has been writing, performing and recording together since early 2018. Last month, the band released what Kulik describes as one of his “bucket list” items: its first EP. The duo met in …
The Phoenix Theatre Company will host a virtual concert An Evening with Friends Monday, May 11, at 6pm PST. Celebrity guests include The Phoenix Theatre Company alumni Nick Cartell, Kathy Fitzgerald, James Gish, Brittney Mack and Sam Primack. Proceeds will support The Phoenix Theatre Compan…
Students taking the Acting III course at Scottsdale Community College (SCC) this Spring semester were tasked with creating a theater company, under the leadership of film director and SCC instructor Don K. Williams. The objective of the course called for students to produce and act in an ope…
ASU Kerr Cultural Center will present “Gather,” a new digital storytelling event, Thursday, April 23, at 6:30pm via the venue’s Facebook Live page. Co-presented by ASU Cultural Affairs venues ASU Kerr and ASU Gammage, the first installation of this new digital event series will feature three…
Arizona Broadway Theatre (ABT) announced the launch of an all-new storytime series to air weekly on Saturdays at 10am MST on the theater’s Facebook page. Episode 1 will air Saturday, April 18. Storytime-Saturdays with ABT’s Mary Poppins is a 30-minute storytime led by ABT alum Renee Koher, w…
The Scottsdale Arts Festival was scheduled to host its 50th anniversary celebration March 13–15, but the decision was made to cancel the in-person 2020 Festival out of an abundance of caution, given rising concerns around COVID-19. In light of the cancellation, the Festival is now online to …
Join North Valley Symphony Orchestra (NVSO) as they recognize the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage by performing music written by women. These talented composers do not receive as much recognition as their male counterparts but are equally talented. NVSO music director Kevin Kozacek sai…
Throughout March and April, participating IKEA U.S. stores will host events dedicated to spending time with family and inspiring customers around how to spruce up their homes this season — indoors and out. During the Arizona event, March 8–14 in Tempe, families will have the opportunity to p…
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle Radha, a once-promising playwright, is facing the “Big 4-0” with little, in her mind, to show for it. Caught questioning her abilities as an artist and frustrated with being pigeon-holed as a black artist, she breaks away from it all to become a rapper. T…
Thunderbird Artists will bring its 9th Annual Waterfront Fine Art & Wine Festival to Scottsdale Feb. 7–9. The event features mixed media sculptor Gary Moser and more than 125 world class artists from across the globe. This event also features live musical entertainment, optional wine and…
Phoenix is about to get its own taste of the red-carpet treatment. Valley Youth Theatre (VYT), a local nonprofit focused on teaching kids the performing arts, will host an exclusive “Oscars at the Oscars” Academy Award viewing party complete with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, glamorous attire a…
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle The Oscar nominations are out and with them come questions, confusion and snubs. For the second year in a row, no women were nominated for the Achievement in Directing — aka “best director” category. And while many film critics and industry watchers bemoa…
In support of their upcoming Gigaton album release, Pearl Jam will embark on a North American tour including a stop at Gila River Arena Saturday, April 11. Pearl Jam’s North American tour is in addition to the band’s previously announced European summer tour. Full details can be found at pea…
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle When it comes to the world wars, the Second World War seems to capture much of the imagination and romance of Hollywood. World War I not so much. And perhaps that’s due to there being a “less clear” enemy. There aren’t Nazis in WWI. But the First World War […]
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle Shia LaBeouf explores his own childhood in the highly meta and cathartic film Honey Boy. In this film, the child star is 12-year-old Otis. His father is an ex-rodeo clown and convict who now acts as his guardian. We come to discover that Otis, and by exte…
Valley residents are invited to join Amazon Prime Video Saturday, Nov. 30, for The Aeronauts’ Incredible Journey. Prime Video is bringing its immersive fan experience inspired by The Aeronauts film, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, to Phoenix’s Steele Indian School Park from noon …
Arizona largest and longest-running artist studio tour, the Hidden in the Hills Studio Tour and Sale, returns for a 23rd consecutive year during the last two weekends of November (Nov. 22–24 and Nov. 29 – Dec.1). A signature event of the nonprofit Sonoran Arts League, the free, self-guided t…
Enter to win a pair of tickets to Arizona Theatre Company’s Silent Sky. The inspiring story of a 19th-century astronomer who changed our view of the universe. Henrietta Leavitt was instrumental in the understanding and mapping of the galaxies, but her gender meant her work went largely uncre…
A lot of excellent music and theater performances will be gracing Valley stages both big and small in November — here are just a few of them. —CST Nov. 1–24 Chato’s Kitchen Childsplay http://www.childsplayaz.org; 480.921.5700 Nov. 2 Patti LuPone Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts http…
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle Darkly humorous with a biting edge, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite is a masterpiece of cinematic storytelling. Greed, classism and horror are wrapped in a hysterical package that will leave you in stitches. The poor Kim family finds a way to easy street only to …
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) will premiere its first large-scale group exhibition of performance art, “Counter-Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s – Now,” accompanied by a catalog and collaborative components, Oct. 26 — Jan. 19. In the history of the Museum, this…
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, and as part of the Paint Phoenix Purple Campaign the Northeast Valley Artists League (NEVAL) will hold its Sixth Annual Silent Auction and Gallery Show. The auction begins Friday, Oct. 11, and ends Thursday, Oct. 17, at 5pm. Guests are invited to…
—By Kaely Monahan and Tuesday Mahrle Nearly four years after the final episode of “Downton Abbey” aired, we return to the home of the Crawley’s. Fans of the show will be delighted to know that the creator Julian Fellowes helmed the movie. It fits seamlessly into the Downton narrative. For th…
Scorpius Dance Theatre will present its annual production of A Vampire Tale Oct. 3–12. Dubbed “The Nutcracker of Halloween,” the popular fall haunt is celebrating its 16th season. Fans won’t want to miss this year’s show, as the performance includes exciting new changes with the arrival of l…
