Aunt Pearl Burras (Joe Sears) finds herself in Las Vegas with Maurice (Jaston Williams) in "Tuna Does Vegas." The two actors play many roles in the production.

The costumes upstage the actors in the new adventures of those eccentric rednecks from Tuna, Texas, the state’s third-smallest community.

Not that the actors in “Tuna Does Vegas” are bad. Far from it. But the costume designs are even more hilarious in this nationally touring production presented by Broadway in Tucson.

Jaston Williams and Joe Sears are onstage playing all the characters, just as they always have since first creating “Greater Tuna” back in 1981 with Ed Howard, who is also the director.

This triumvirate then created “A Tuna Christmas” in 1989, which went on to enjoy a successful holiday run on Broadway in 1995. That triumph was followed by “Red, White and Tuna” in 1998. While all three plays have become popular moneymakers in regional theater, Williams and Sears still like to go on tour now and then to show the rest of the country how it’s done.

On the opening night of their most current production, “Tuna Does Vegas” at the downtown Fox Theatre, Williams and Sears were up there once more giving life to Arles Struvie, Bertha Bumiller, Petey Fisk, Vera Carp, Didi Snavely and all the others.

Lifetime fans – shall we call them the Tuna Nation – will be happy to learn a few more characters have been added who are uniquely Las Vegas. Which brings us back to those fabulously vivid get-ups designed by Linda Fisher. For openers, Bertha makes her entrance wearing a lime green vest over a shocking pink blouse, with pink and green flowered slacks contrasting nicely with her helmet hair.

Aunt Pearl Burras spins the chaotic color wheel even faster when she walks out wearing a dress that looks to be designed by Omar the tent maker. Scarcely more than a muumuu, it is covered in a busy print flaunting flowers with red, yellow, green and blue petals. To this she adds a little lime green hat adorned with more plastic flowers and fruit, plus a sturdy pair of black shoes with squatty, comfortable heels.

You get the idea. But while the women dress like peacocks on a suicide mission, the loudest and most spontaneous applause broke out when the Vegas hotel elevator doors opened to reveal a gargantuan Elvis impersonator. To say that he is larger than life doesn’t even begin to be large enough.

Plotwise, the story opens early one morning at radio station OKKK where Arles and Thurston Wheelis are still doing the farm reports and playing vintage country music from the 1950s. Arles and Bertha have been married so long they want to fluff up their love life by renewing their vows with a second honeymoon in Las Vegas. After Arles innocently mentions this on the air, all the Tuna townsfolk suddenly find reasons for a Vegas visit, too.

It takes all of Act 1 before we have been reintroduced, as well, to the station owner Leonard Childers, the waitresses Inita and Helen, hapless little theater director Joe Bob Lipsey and the gun-loving Didi, who runs Tuna’s only secondhand gun store. Just before intermission, all of them are heading for their rooms in the low-rent Hula Chateaux Resort and Spa.

When they return for Act 2, the seductive side of Sin City begins to warp some of the more rigid among Tuna’s traveling townsfolk. Those less committed to maintaining their morals find opportunities for self-expression are beginning to blossom.

The humor gets a little edgy from time to time. There’s a good bit of drinking, some profanity, a doobie is smoked, raunchy winks about sex are bandied about. Not that anything is R-rated, but it still seems a bit surprising for a family show. Several politically incorrect jokes about Mexico were greeted with more gasps than laughter. Other parts of the country probably don’t feel as sensitive about border issues.

Even so, Williams and Sears got a standing ovation. Their comedy may be getting a little dated, their politics stuck in the 1980s, but on opening night, nobody cared.

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IF YOU GO

What: Broadway in Tucson presents “Tuna Does Vegas” performed by Jaston Williams and Joe Sears

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St.

Price: $25-$50

Info: 903-2929, www.broadwayintucson.com

Grade: B-

Husband and wife duo Greg Fishman and Judy Roberts will perform at a Tucson Jazz Society concert on Sunday.

One of the things we know for sure, if more musicians had as much fun as Judy Roberts does playing for an audience, jazz would be a lot more popular. This energetic Chicago pianist, vocalist and singer of scat is a bundle of irrepressible energy with a big Tucson fan base.

Roberts’ musical chops and decades in the business have earned her several Grammy nominations, as well as first-place awards, in jazz polls by Downbeat and Playboy magazines. Her discography lists more than 20 albums.

She had a popular jazz hit with “Señor Blues,” based on the Horace Silver tune. Her rapid-fire delivery of the lyrics to Dave Frishberg’s “My Attorney Bernie” is a total hoot.

But most amazing is how it is impossible not to like this straight-ahead jazz entertainer. Even a world-class grump would finally have to lighten up in her presence because Roberts would just keep on playing her sunny songs filled with dazzling virtuosity until she got a grin.

The Los Angeles Times said it more simply. “At the piano (Roberts) smiles and her joy is obvious. She is simply a woman in love with her work.”

This weekend Roberts returns to the Baked Apple in company with her tenor sax-playing husband Greg Fishman, for a full-blown concert in St. Philip’s Plaza, presented by the Tucson Jazz Society. They will be joined onstage by Tucson’s own tenor colossus, Brice Winston. The possibility of some saxophone shoot-outs are ample.

For Roberts’ many fans here, the concert has been a long time coming.

“Back in the ’80s I played a lot in Tucson, at the Doubletree Inn,” says Roberts on the phone from Phoenix. “That’s where I met Yvonne (Ervin, former executive director of the Tucson Jazz Society) who invited me to be in the first TJS Prima Vera celebration of women in jazz.

“After Yvonne left TJS, it just wasn’t the same there anymore. But I’ve always loved Tucson. My sister Hallie Loewy lives there. She’s a massage therapist.

“Greg loves it there. He has some students there and always says we picked the wrong city to move to.”

Last year Roberts and Fishman moved permanently from Chicago to Phoenix, where she has wintered now and then over the years. It was during those Phoenix winters that she would jump down Interstate10 for sisterly visits here and a string of very hot club dates, which were always packed.

“We had some incredibly successful shows at the Old Pueblo Grille,” Roberts remembers. Those were in more recent times. What kept eluding Roberts was a return to TJS’ big stage events like the Prima Vera showcase. Now she is coming back to town and expectations are high.

Roberts simply has the knack for engaging an audience and holding everyone’s attention. She says it all begins with the musicians.

“Communication is all about sharing. So the first thing I do is catch the eye of the other band members. When that happens and we are all communicating with each other, the audience instantly feels that, which makes the audience light up.” Roberts makes it sound so easy.

Choosing the right songs is also important. She begins with the Great American Songbook.

“That’s where the good stuff is,” Roberts insists. From there she adds bebop tunes (often with a scat line), Latin, blues and soulful ballads, stringing together play lists that stretch from “Route 66″ to “Take the A Train,” from “A Night In Tunisia” to “What A Difference A Day Makes.”

For sure, Roberts will spend her evening in Tucson slinging notes in all directions. But the one thing you can count on, she will be loving every minute of it.

Judy Roberts

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IF YOU GO

What: Judy Roberts and Greg Fishman in concert with Brice Winston

When: 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: St. Philip’s Plaza, 4280 N. Campbell Ave., at East River Road

Price: $20 general admission, $15 members, $10 students

Info: 903-1265, www.tucsonjazz.org

Political pundits are always fond of saying, “We get the government we deserve.”

Now the pop culture pundits can chime in with “We get the movies we deserve.”

If thousands of teens buy tickets to see thrill-ride action pics, and only a few thoughtful adults stop by the multiplex to enjoy an intellectually stimulating film, guess which genre gets all the attention from high-rolling studio execs with personal income equal to the national budgets of a smaller Third World country.

Hollywood has now reached the point where studios can turn out 100 special effects extravaganzas for every drama of substance aimed directly at getting an Academy Award nomination.

So write this date down in your movie diary and remember it: April 17, 2009.

That is the day Russell Crowe’s $60 million “State of Play,” a serious film of ethical consequences, opened against “17 Again,” a sophomoric comedy with an infinitely smaller budget, starring youthful Flavor-of-the-Month Zac Efron. Of course Efron’s box office returns stomped all over Crowe’s turnstile earnings.

It’s just like how guys will buy a hefty pickup truck instead of some wimpy little car that’s good for the ecology.

Duhhhh.

So what happens to the true cineast? Where is the art part? Surely our educated citizenry with all that disposable income can’t spend all its time hunched over a laptop on Wi-Fi. Wouldn’t these intellectually curious folks take a little time out to read a book or wonder what’s playing this weekend at the Loft Cinema?

For years, we’ve been saying all the interesting films are smaller budget, independent films. In recent years, a number of famous and bankable actors have gone a little dilettante on us – such as Heath Ledger doing “Brokeback Mountain” – putting out pictures that nobody sees on the big screen but that become little treasures as video rentals.

Sure we all know about that, but here’s the big twist. After the major studios bought up all the little, so-called boutique studios to make the arty movies, audiences still didn’t show up in very large numbers. The extremely excellent “Frost/Nixon,” with one of the most unappreciated performances of all time by Frank Langella as Nixon, couldn’t even reach $19 million in ticket sales.

It is especially cruel that what we remember most about “Frost/Nixon” is its weak performance at sucking money out of people’s pockets. Instead, people should remember that Langella’s profound portrait of Nixon as a world leader in decline is worthy of Shakespearian tragedy.

Believe it or not, with the free-market forces having no hesitation stuffing art up the fireplace, those of us who love moving pictures as an art form are turning to television!

Once you’ve seen each week’s movies at the Loft, there is plenty of week left but no where else to turn. Believe it or not, in the byzantine bazaar of cable TV there are nooks and crannies that resemble the unappreciated FM radio stations of the 1960s.

Remember how the boomer version of rock ‘n’ roll was midwifed by FM radio? Once the kids who were janitors sweeping out the FM radio stations at night could pick the records those stations played in the daytime, rock ‘n’ roll filled the air.

Of those fabled 500 channels of TV, only 400 (more or less) are dedicated to reality reruns. The other cable channels are opening up when low budget but idealistic filmmakers come knocking.

What this means, fellow cineasts, is that we can’t snub television any longer. Too many of the indie flicks are cramming themselves onto those little screens. True, it will be like watching art displayed through a knothole, but we’ll just have to squint a little more and like it.

Jaston Williams (left) and Joe Sears take their entire cast of zany characters on the road to Nevada in "Tuna Does Vegas."

Those wacky west Texas folks from Greater Tuna, proud to be known as the “third smallest town” in the Lone Star State, are getting out of town.

For the first time since this trilogy to rural life became a four-part series, fans will get to watch as “Tuna Does Vegas.” The nationally touring production opens Tuesday for a week of shows in the downtown Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St..

Think of the Beverly Hillbillies without all that oil money. Think of Greater Tuna’s own Vera Carp with her tight-jawed Christian values, convinced those Sodomites of Gomorrah are discovering new naughty words in Las Vegas. As a card-carrying member of Smut Snatchers of the New Order, it is her god-given duty to see these new words are banned as soon as possible.

“Gomorrah is what she calls Las Vegas,” says Joe Sears, on the phone with a smile in his voice.

Maybe that name Gomorrah has the weight of the Old Testament behind it, but Sin City would have been easier to spell. Even so, Sears co-created the character of Vera and a dozen other dusty eccentrics, working with Jaston Williams and Ed Howard. Sears and Williams also do all the acting. Howard directs.

Back around 1980, these three pals living in Austin, were creating a string of skits using corn pone humor to satirize political issues of the day. Right-wing religious groups were in the news a lot. But then it turned out that one of the most popular characters was Petey Fisk, a worried soul determined to prevent cruelty to all animals.

“Greater Tuna” was the right show at the right time, and its popularity soared in regional theater. Sears, Williams and Howard followed up |with “A Tuna Christmas” in 1989, then the Independence Day-based “Red, White and Tuna” in 1998. This rednecked Tuna Trilogy was keeping the three lads busier than a hound dog in a rabbit pen.

Back in 1995, “A Tuna Christmas” even enjoyed a box-office-smashing, Tony Award-nominated, run on Broadway. As always, Sears and Williams played all the roles, male and female, becoming remarkable quick-change artists in the process.

“We are professionally trained character actors who are keen observers of humanity,” Sears explains proudly.

For the last couple of years, this team has been developing “Tuna Does Vegas” on the road. The show’s premise is that Bertha Bumiller, with a closet full of polyester pantsuits, and Arles Struvie, her conservative radio talk show host husband, have decided to renew their marriage vows with a meaningful ceremony in Las Vegas. Suddenly all those beloved Greater Tuna residents find reasons they should go to Las Vegas, as well, at exactly the same time.

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IF YOU GO

What: Broadway in Tucson presents “Tuna Does Vegas” with the original cast of Joe Sears and Jaston Williams

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St.

Price: $25-$50

Info: 903-2929, www.broadwayintucson.com

Tucson Jazz Institute students will play songs from the 1930, '40s and '50s at the Mother's Day Big Band Bash.

There will be a swinging side to Mother’s Day this year.

With three separate groups planning jazz events, moms with happy feet can enjoy their favorite music from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Opening the day is the poolside Jazz Brunch at the Sheraton Tucson Hotel & Suites, 5151 E. Grant Road, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The hotel has a variety of pampering activities to celebrate Mom as the center of family life, including her own special drink: the Mom’osa. Music will be the bright and bouncy sort of traditional jazz played by the Arizona Roadrunners.

After that, it will be time to scurry downtown for the Mother’s Day Big Band Bash at 3 p.m., sponsored by the newly organized Tucson Jazz Institute, at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. The institute’s students are steeped in the sounds of big bands from the 1930s to ’50s. Their talents will be framed within ensembles named after jazz luminaries Stan Kenton, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson.

All the groups will be joined by Grammy Award-winning sax soloist Brice Winston, a TJI faculty member and a touring regular with New Orleans’ trumpeter Terence Blanchard. Special guests the Blue Note Jazz Combo will perform, introducing a new piece by Max Goldschmid, “Omar’s Enlightenment.”

The Mother’s Day Big Band Bash will include a special package of gifts for every mother and grandmother (and great-grandmothers, too).

In the evening, jazzy families can add Latin spice to the day by taking their moms to St. Philip’s Plaza, 4280 N. Campbell Ave., at East River Road, for a 7 p.m. concert and dance presented by the Tucson Jazz Society. Headlining is the 10-piece Orquesta La Unica led by pianist Amilcar Guevara. Employing musicians from Venezuela, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Mexico, the band’s repertoire includes traditional and contemporary sounds of Latin America and the Caribbean, including the Cuban-style charanga.

Dancing will be encouraged, with several of the city’s Latin dance clubs using the event to showcase their polished interpretations of these popular steps.

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IF YOU GO

What: Mother’s Day Brunch

When: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Sheraton Tucson Hotel & Suites, 5151 E. Grant Road

Price: no cover; brunch and other events priced individually

Info: 321-7621, www.sheraton.com/tucson

What: Mother’s Day Big Band Bash

When: 3 p.m. Sunday

Where: Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.

Price: $20 adults, $15 students and senior citizens

Info: 514-0935

What: Mother’s Day Latin dance and concert, featuring Orquesta La Unica led by Amilcar Guevara, presented by the Tucson Jazz Society

When: 7 p.m.

Where: St. Philip’s Plaza, 4280 N. Campbell Ave. (at East River Road)

Price: $20 general admission, $15 TJS members, $10 students

Info: 902-1265, www.tucsonjazz.org

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OTHER MOTHER’S DAY EVENTS

“FESTIVAL DE REBOZOS” – THE BEAUTIFUL SHAWLS OF MEXICO: The event, presented by the Latin American Art Patrons, a support group of the Tucson Museum of Art, culminates with two public events: the Gala Celebration of Music and Dance and a Mother’s Day/Día de las Madres family celebration. A wide range of handmade rebozos from the finest silk to colorful cotton will be for sale in the museum store during the six-day event. All proceeds will benefit Latin American Art programs, exhibits and acquisitions at the Tucson Museum of Art. Viewing hours are: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-4 p.m. Sundays. Here’s the schedule: • 6 p.m. Saturday: Gala Celebration will feature Mexican appetizers, and a program on the history of rebozos in music, poetry and dance. Mariachi Luz de Luna and Folklorico San Juan will perform and the night’s guest MC will be Lupita Murillo of KVOA News 4. A fashion show demonstrating the many ways of wearing them will conclude the evening. Tickets are $30 a person. No- host bar will be available. • Noon-4 p.m. Sunday: Mother’s Day/Día de las Madres. A family celebration in which people can bring in rebozos from their family for expert evaluation, and watch a master weaver demonstrate her craft. There will be booths selling aguas frescas, churros and paletas (fresh fruit popsicles), and a photo booth for a family portrait. Admission to the event and museum is free. Where: Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block, 140 N. Main Ave. Info: 624-2333, www.tucsonmuseumofart.org

MOVIES WITH MOM: “ALL ABOUT EVE”: Spend a special Mother’s Day with the woman who brought you into the world and the ever-fabulous Bette Davis in one of her more notorious roles. “All About Eve” is all about women clawing their way to the top. Davis stars as Margo Channing, a New York theater star whose protégée Eve (Anne Baxter) turns out to be quite the backstabber. But don’t worry, Eve doesn’t sit back and take it. All moms in attendance will receive a fresh-cut flower while they last, and there will be a free raffle for a basket of goodies that will make your mama feel special. The cherry on top? Mimosas will be for sale. (As the Loft says, “everyone in the movie is drinking, so why shouldn’t you?”) When: 1 p.m. Sunday Where: The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Price: $7 Info: 795-0844, www.loftcinema.com

SUNDAY

“MUSIC UNDER THE STARS”: Enjoy sweet music in the park with mom. The Tucson Pops Orchestra kicks off its “Music Under the Stars” 2009 season directed by Laszlo Veres. Performing with the orchestra will be local artist Crystal Stark. A magna cum laude graduate of UA, Stark was one of American Idol’s top 44 contestants in 2006. Adding to the entertainment, the Tucson Girls Chorus will perform under the direction of Marcela Molina. When: 7 p.m. Sunday Where: Reid Park – DeMeester, 900 S. Randolph Way Price: Free Info: 722-5853, www.tucsonpops.org

Here in the summer of 2009, when virtually all the strutting tent-pole pictures are action movie sequels, audiences hungry for mythic conflicts between an unstoppable power and an immovable force can feast on every kind of big-screen crackle and crunch in wrap-around deep seated stereo.

My advice is to just think of your favorite multiplex as an amusement park and go with it. We get the massive clang of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (partly filmed in Tucson), the personal tragedies on an operatic scale of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” the fire power frenzy of killing machine madness in “Terminator Salvation” and – in outer space – the roots of science fiction philosophy with “Star Trek,” taking us back to the day when Kirk and Spock were scarcely more than space cadets manning the recently commissioned starship Enterprise.

And that is just in May. Well, OK, “Transformers” had to settle for a release date in June, but even then the percussive echoes of all the others will still be ringing in your ears.

Religion scholars and conspiracy theorists finally get to gnaw on more of Dan Brown’s convoluted Catholic theories in “Angels & Demons,” with Tom Hanks coming back as the intrepid code breaking academic Robert Langdon.

Moviegoers with children do have a little something to anticipate in May, the new Disney-Pixar fantasy “Up.” Not that anyone is counting but all nine animated films Pixar has released, beginning with “Toy Story,” have been hits. Will “Up” keep the string alive?

June and July mix it up a little more, introducing some actual comedy from such diverse talents as Sacha Baron Cohen (“Bruno”), Will Ferrell (“Land of the Lost”) and Woody Allen (“Whatever Works”). We do have to wonder if Allen’s films are still relevant, though his last picture “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” did well enough.

But the big bucks are riding on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” racing to keep ahead of the real life adolescence of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. All three actors have literally grown up playing the parts of Harry, Ron and Hermione. The best news about this astounding series is that British director David Yates is back on the set for his second Potter assignment after directing “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” in 2007.

Tucsonans may feel a more personal connection to Johnny Depp’s performance as John Dillinger in “Public Enemies.” No word yet if there is any mention of Dillinger’s stay at the downtown Hotel Congress and eventual capture here in 1934. We do know Christian Bale plays the FBI agent Melvin Purvis, the nemesis of Dillinger. The bank robber was finally gunned down in front of the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

People who enjoy films with actual content can come out in August, as the cinema offerings get a little more arty. The month will be owned by Meryl Streep, doing another accent as television personality chef Julia Child in “Julie & Julia.” Cast as the ingenue fascinated by the older woman is Amy Adams.

Streep fans know summer has been very good for the actress of late, with those hits “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Mamma Mia!”

August also brings a new movie from director Ang Lee, adapting “Taking Woodstock” from the memoir written by Elliot Tiber. The story is a comedy, with some gender identity issues involved, about Tiber’s plans to stage that pivotal rock ‘n’ roll weekend.

To end the summer on a sweet note is “Ponyo,” created by the Japanese animation genius Hayao Miyazaki. After sneaking up on American audiences with “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” that won many awards, the artist now has the backing of Disney’s John Lasseter.

“Ponyo” will be voiced in English by such established names as Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson and Tina Fey. Also in there are the younger siblings of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers – little Noah Cyrus as the small fish that longs to be a human girl and Frankie Jonas as the boy who wants to be the fish’s friend.

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CHUCK’S PICKS

What with getting bombarded by Hollywood’s massive special effects machine all summer, we turn to the people making movies for people who love movies: independent filmmakers.

Sure, some of the actors and directors are famous, but the film budgets are lower and the stories are better. Some of the stories sound like they could be about actual human beings.

• “Cheri,” directed by Stephen Frears, stars Michelle Pfeiffer, who has gone from being Catwoman in 1992 to playing a present-day cougar, enchanting a 19-year-old lad played by Rupert Friend. According to the bio material, Pfeiffer is 50. According to the press photos for “Cheri,” she is also ravishing.

• “Brüno” brings back performance artist and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in another of his improvising roles designed to make small-minded people look even smaller. Who can resist that combination? The early buzz is that this character, a gay fashion reporter from Austria, is as funny as Borat, the guy from Kazakhstan.

• “Dead Snow” is from Norway, where in 1945 German soldiers were slaughtered by angry locals. Now it is the 21st century and those undead souls are restless Nazi zombies who begin feeding on local college med school students. What’s not to like?

• “The Boat That Rocked” brings Philip Seymour Hoffman together with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh to tell the story of a pirate radio ship in 1966, assaulting England from international waters with the finest rock ‘n’ roll of the day. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, all that crowd are in the air 24/7.

• “Cold Souls” stars Paul Giamatti in a surreal comedy about a mildly famous actor who decides to have his soul, rather than his body, placed in cold storage to wait for better times when he could become more famous. The setup is being compared to “Being John Malkovich.” Being Paul Giamatti definitely sounds more twisted.

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RELATED STORIES

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Local psychology professor Gary Schwartz is among the insightful interviewees in Renée Scheltema's documentary.

Art always goes in search of deeper truths. Otherwise, it isn’t really art. But sometimes, that deeper truth comes looking for the artist.

Just ask Renée Scheltema. The Dutch filmmaker traveled to the Arizona International Film Festival recently with a story of spending her own money and eight years of her life to develop and produce the documentary, “Something Unknown Is Doing We Don’t Know What.”

She insisted Tucson be the city for the world première of this film connecting quantum physics and the paranormal because a similar documentary “What The (bleep) Do We Know?” was warmly received here back in 2004. That controversial picture, using quantum physics to explain spiritual forces, played in the Old Pueblo for more than six months.

“I started thinking of my film in 2000,” says Scheltema, “Long before ‘What the (bleep)’ came out.”

Her inspiration was far more direct, a series of three seemingly mysterious examples of telepathic forces in her personal life. Those events convinced Scheltema deeper truths were being discovered in the present-day pioneering work of psychic phenomena specialists as well as physicists doing research in the quantum realm.

“I just started writing. I had more than 350 pages. It was philosophy, it was also a story. Then I reduced it down to 150 pages, and asked two people I respected if they thought this had promise as a movie script,” Scheltema explains.

Fortunately, one of those people was the Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (“Basic Instinct,” “Robocop,” “Total Recall”). He encouraged her.

While continuing to work as an independent filmmaker in Dutch and South African television, Scheltema was funneling her own money into this special project. Using the working title “Soul Safari” she ended up with 100 hours of videotape.

Oops, that would be a really long movie. Feeling that every edit was like slicing off another pound of her own flesh, she painfully trimmed the videotape down to six hours.

Exhausted, she hired a merciless editor who reduced those six hours to 90 minutes. But then Scheltema couldn’t stand it. She added back 15 of those precious, edited minutes.

Sometimes too much editing is just too much. All those brutal cuts and then changing to that long, intriguing title must have worked, though. At the Arizona International Film Festival, her 105-minute “Something Unknown Is Doing We Don’t Know What” received the Special Jury Award. That honor sets the pace for recognition from the 12 additional festivals she has submitted to.

Scheltema has taken a hard line in her investigation, using techniques much like a journalist.

“I wanted to avoid any religious connection,” she says. “And I knew the scientists would give the film credibility, but I also wanted to go beyond quantum physics.”

Basically, Scheltema’s objective is to demonstrate that psychic abilities are part of our inherent nature; that these mysterious forces are examples of real forces following the same laws of physics as everything else. Forces that only now are beginning to be explained with laboratory experiments.

The five fields are: telepathy (mind reading), precognition (seeing into the future), psychic healing, telekinesis (using the mind to move objects) and clairvoyance (remote viewing).

The most convincing interview is with Gary Schwartz, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, no less. His lengthy explanations connect psychic energy to electrical energy. He uses logic similar to the connections quantum physicists made that raised so many eyebrows in “What The (bleep).”

The truth that pursued Scheltema so doggedly, pushing her to record some of these early scientific explorations along the frontier of inner knowledge, has been rewarded with a worthy display of ideas. See for yourself at somethingunknown.com.

A teenage boy (Christopher Johnson) moves in with his estranged father and meets his new family, including two teen foster children (Marina Jarrette, left, and Allegra Breedlove).

The irony is intense in Live Theatre Workshop’s gripping production of “Lemon Sky,” a play that seems more prescient now than when Lanford Wilson wrote it in 1970. Glen Coffman as director gives all the nuance a razor’s edge.

These days, we believe without exception: that inside every obedient housewife there was a stunted female screaming to get out; that every teenager of the early 1960s was a ticking time bomb of rebellion; and every authoritarian middle-aged white father who thought he knew best was about to be told differently.

Not that society is any better off today. It just seems like the cultural pressure cooker of conservative values in the 1950s was hissing and shaking, making so much noise we should have known the big blow was coming.

Sort of like how we should have known last year that the economy was going to collapse this year.

The first act of “Lemon Sky” sets up the scene, re-creating a happily positive thinking, Norman Vincent Peale-reading, Dr. George W. Crane-believing, Dale Carnegie-inspired 1950s suburban family in southern California riding the crest of a booming postwar economy.

Subdivisions were filling up the farm land just outside San Diego. Everybody lived in a new house. Americans were winners and the whole world knew it.

But even in Act 1, cracks were beginning to appear in this smiley-face facade. Now that the world was made safe for democracy, everyone wanted more freedom.

So divorce was becoming more common. A lot of those second-marriage families were setting up housekeeping out in the freshly minted ‘burbs.

Christopher Johnson with a shiny 1950s haircut and a nice touch of innocence plays 17-year-old Alan, who occasionally steps outside the scene to tell the audience about his dad, Doug, getting a new wife in Nebraska and moving to one of those tract homes near San Diego.

As the play set in 1959 opens, Alan hasn’t seen his dad for 12 years, but is moving in to stay. Doug (Roger Owen) and Doug’s new wife, Ronnie (Kristi Loera), are a bubbly couple with two young boys, Jack (Ryan Callie) and Jerry (Cole Gregory). The family has also taken in two teen foster children, Carol (Allegra Breedlove) and Penny (Marina Jarrette).

Carol is a flirty 17-year-old, either promiscuous or adventurous, depending on your personal values. She also pops a lot of pills for her anxiety.

Penny is a few years younger, and holds the honored family place as Daddy’s darling. He is teaching Penny all about photography, the science of developing film and the art of making prints.

As Doug, this is Owen’s strongest performance yet. Tall and broad-shouldered, he portrays the disciplined father as a positive guy who believes in a hard-line approach. These days, he would be applauded for his military insistence on law and order.

Owen does a fascinating job depicting the collapse of a man committed to this rigid way of life, even as human nature wins the struggle to maintain all those idealistic values.

Loera also displays a finer appreciation for subtle expressions. We see her outside appearance as the proper housewife who dresses extra-nice to fix dinner while waiting for Doug to get home from work.

But we can also feel her frustration at being helpless to deflect the train wreck momentum of Doug’s life. As with any train wreck, most of the casualties are innocent bystanders.

———

IF YOU GO

What: Live Theatre Workshop presents “Lemon Sky” by Lanford Wilson

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays through May 31

Where: Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd.

Price: $14-$17

Info: 327-4242, livetheatreworkshop.org

Grade: A

Jazz guitarist and former Jefferson Starship member Craig Chaquico will play Saturday.

Smooth jazz guitarist Craig Chaquico (once a member of the high-flying Jefferson Starship rock band) steps onstage in Tucson this weekend, joined by the Phoenix-based Turning Point, a genre-blending quintet that fuses elements of rock, funk, blues, Greek and Latin.

For Chaquico, this is just the latest twist in a career that’s been a long and winding road. The musician’s living room walls are lined with 20 neatly framed gold records, mileposts of a career that began when he was 16 and an unofficial member of Jefferson Airplane.

Then Grace Slick and Paul Kantner invited young Chaquico to be a permanent member of the re-tooled Jefferson Starship, which morphed into the more galactic Starship before its rockin’ rocket ride crashed back to Earth.

Reinventing himself in 1993, Chaquico recorded his first take on smooth jazz with “Acoustic Highway.” That was followed by the Grammy-nominated “Acoustic Planet” in 1994.

As the smooth jazz sound was developing into its own genre, those two albums attracted the attention of such pioneers in the movement as Richard Elliot, Warren Hill and Peter White.

Meanwhile, up Interstate-10, the Sahnas brothers were developing their unique multiple-fusion sound that would become Turning Point.

“We’re players with diverse musical influences that stuff as many different genres as we can into a contemporary jazz box,” said Thano Sahnas. With sibling Demitri, the two began began playing traditional Greek instruments. Moving to Spanish guitars, they developed their native Greek music into a broader Mediterranean sound. Soon their repertoire stretched from Mykonos to Madrid.

After that, their southern Arizona influences took over. Latin rhythms were filled out, jazz improvisations were added. Turning Point became the Sahnas brothers plus three, a band quickly noted for its versatile sound.

The other members are John Herrera, drums and percussion; Steven Culp, keyboards; and Dominic Amato, saxophone.

“We are going to play all the songs that people hope we’ll play, Turning Point favorites through the years,” Sahnas said. “A large part of the program is completely improvisational, as you’ll see when we collaborate with Craig.”

———

IF YOU GO

What: Guitarist Craig Chaquico joins Turning Point in concert

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Where: The Arizona Ballroom of the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort, 3800 W. Starr Pass Blvd.

Price: $30 in advance, $35 day of the show, $75 VIP seating; children 12 and younger are admitted free

Info: 429-9803, www.azentertainmentandevents.com

Brian Hanson and Tristyn Tucci play 20-somethings who have a hard time connecting with like-minded spirits in "I'm Sorry I Liked You."

The poignancy is palpable in “I’m Sorry I Liked You” written by Brian Hanson, who also plays the main guy.

In the late night production that opened last weekend at Beowulf Alley Theatre, Hanson is helped out by seven of his friends. Joshua Parra directed the whole thing, which looks and feels exactly like it is supposed to – people in their early 20s with no idea how to find and connect with any like-minded spirits out there.

For one thing, they aren’t even sure about the nature of their own spirits, so how can they hope to find any like-minded ones?

Hanson uses a series of conversational scenes set in casual places. There is no plot, per se, just this gradual deepening of frustration over always being misunderstood. Hanson’s self-named character Brian is the focus of this runaway storm. But all the characters have problems. Many have tried the escape route of recreational drugs.

So has Brian.

He is the stereotypical loser. A skinny kid in a loose-fitting black T-shirt and blue jeans who has spent so many years in public school sitting at the back of the class, drawing pictures in his notebook, that he’s become a pretty good cartoonist. In the opening scenes of the play, his sketch pad is always handy. It becomes an important means of communication for him.

Getting his ideas across has never been easy for Brian. Way too smart for his own good, completely lacking in social skills and having absolutely no interest in sports, Brian is still optimistic enough to believe life would be all right (or at least endurable) if he could just meet the right girl.

Or any girl, really. The more desperate he gets, the less particular he becomes.

At a time in our cultural history when self-image is being shaped mainly by the way people act on TV and in video games, guys like Brian are really out of luck. They don’t get any positive images, not even in all those slacker flicks.

Did you see “Adventureland,” the currently reigning movie for losers? The main loser becomes a winner at the end, of course, but the main loser’s buddy is sardonic Joel (Martin Starr), an even bigger loser. Joel majored in Slavic studies and defiantly smokes the kind of pipe we associate with old men. He also has a keen eye for the real world’s inequities. Bitter and cynical, he is the misfit who discovered in second grade that being smarter than all the other kids would never make him popular. At the end of “Adventureland,” Joel is still by himself, sucking on that pipe.

That is Brian, too, sucking in more emptiness with every breath, absorbed in the certainty that the only thing he is really good at is being a loser.

Brian’s friends in the play may not be quite that depressed, but neither are they living large. Ryan (Marcus Palm) is an energetic, lonely guy throwing himself into the gore of zombie movies. He thrives on them, running fast and never looking back.

Lana (Tristyn Tucci) is looking for love on the lesbian landscape, though she isn’t finding that much happiness. Stacy (Mindi Watts) has a chance to cross over into the social circles of successful people, but she can’t quite cut the cord on her friends from childhood who turned out to be less successful once they passed through the looking glass of adolescence.

What makes “I’m Sorry I Liked You” special is the dialogue. Hanson’s future is as a playwright. Although the language he gives these characters is filled with profanity, it also contains masterful psychology. Whether he is writing with a gift for intuition or the wisdom of masterful insight, Hanson nails it.

“I’m Sorry I Liked You” is more than a slacker’s memories set on stage. There is real life here, and for parents who want to look deeper, there are clues to what makes their children tick.

The other cast members are Ashley Kahaat, Antonio Ross, Evan Engle and Clinton Grozdanich.

———

IF YOU GO

What: Late Night Theatre at Beowulf Alley presents “I’m Sorry I Liked You” by Brian Hanson

When: 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Where: Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave.

Price: $8

Info: 882-0555, www.beowulfalley.org

Grade: B

The best thing about adult fairy tales is the same thing as regular fairy tales. You can enjoy them over and over, and never get tired.

One of the most tuneful of these is “Mamma Mia!” – a show that has become as enduring as “Cats.”

“And why is that?” you may ask. On the opening night of “Mamma Mia!” at the Tucson Music Hall, one reason could be the national touring company’s stage fantasy of life on a Greek Island. Or the chance to look back nostalgically to 1979 when youth got the best of reason.

Or the conviction that a good memory deserves lots of bright colors, bouncy dancing and mock-acting with piles of hammy gestures.

Although all the songs are those totally irresistible, bass line-driven disco ballads by ABBA, one of the clues about the audience for this show is in the laughter when Sophie talks about 1979 as “the olden days.”

Such nostalgic time jokes keep slipping into the dialogue between songs, although most of the show is the songs themselves. And nobody goes to an ABBA concert expecting the muscle of the Rolling Stones or the depth of Leonard Cohen.

ABBA is closer to those surf and sports car songs of the Beach Boys.

“Mamma Mia!” wants to be cross-generational – feeling good about the past for one generation, and facing the future with a sunny smile for the new generation. If things can turn out well for Donna, who is happy for daughter Sophie, who is getting married to a nice young man, then there is still a chance for anyone who might have regrets about being too impetuous.

If “Mamma Mia!” has a secret to its enduring popularity, this must be it. Aside from celebrating the songs of ABBA, this show with its book by Catherine Johnson celebrates the sanctity of marriage. But even more than that, young Sophie insists not only on getting married but on setting her mom straight by discovering the identity of Sophie’s father.

Since she makes the biological lineage important, instead of just throwing up her hands with a hazy smile toward the fickle finger of fate, “Mamma Mia!” plants itself firmly in the conservative camp of tradition.

Meanwhile on the surface, a cast of 30 bright-faced young performers keep jumping around on a stage full of goofy costumes splashed with cascading colors that pump up their enthusiasm. The message is that we may be crazy on the outside, with all these frothy songs full of adolescent yearning, but deep down inside we want the stability of family values.

The cast in this particular production is equally balanced. There aren’t any stars of the future, no sparkling performers who have that “it” quality, but all are solid talents who keep the performance running smoothly at a very satisfying level.

Michelle Dawson as Donna, the mom, doesn’t look that much older than Liana Hunt, who plays Sophie, the daughter. But it doesn’t take much suspension of disbelief once Dawson starts to sing. Her big show-stopping finale in “The Winner Takes It All” is the show’s emotional peak.

Also good is John Hemphill as Sam, the regular guy whose dream is to settle down with his happy family in a home of his own design.

Sam’s big numbers are “S.O.S.,” and the more tender “Knowing Me, Knowing You.” Adding comedy relief is Rachel Tyler as sophisticated Tanya doing the older woman-younger man thing with Pepper (Adam Michael Kaokept) singing “Does Your Mother Know.”

By the time this eager cast got to sing the title tune, “Mamma Mia!,” the audience had turned the evening into a Broadway musical singalong.

———

IF YOU GO

What: The national tour of “Mamma Mia!”

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.

Price: $25-$69, discounts for seniors and military personnel

Info: 903-2929, www.broadwayintucson.com

Grade: B

Tarreyn Van Slyke (from left), Joe Cooper, Deborah Klingenfus and Sarah Vanek star in "Harlie's Angels."

Are you ready for the 1970s? This time around, The Gaslight Theatre gang has given their time machine a little extra tug to get past the 1950s and into the TV wonderland of “Harlie’s Angels, or Clues But No Cigar!”

The 1970s were a decade of shameless excess and fashion extremes that held no fear of bad taste. We’ve got the videotape to prove it. The research staff at the Gaslight, ever relentless in its search for the truth, has dug up period details that will inspire a nostalgic smile from anyone still able to remember that psychedelic decade.

Samantha, Jessie and Kimberly are the three drop-dead beautiful angels who work for Harlie’s detective agency. In the finest feminist traditions of that period, they can outshoot, outfight and outsmart any guy. Fortunately for the rest of us, these angels aim only their talents at the bad persons.

Since all Gaslight shows are double cast, the roles become more important than the actors. At the performance I attended, Sarah Vanek, Deborah Klingenfus and Tarreyn Van Slyke play the angels Samantha, Jessie and Kimberly, respectively.

The unseen Harlie is heard onstage, but his voice gets no credit line in the program. The closest we get is Beasley (Joe Cooper), the dapper dude who works for Harlie and gives the girls – oops, women – their assignments. Beasley sort of watches over them, too, but just in an administrative way. Not in a sexist “I’ll protect you, baby” way that would be sooo wrong.

This was the Seventies, after all, when the pounding bass beat of disco had pushed those airhead folk singers in their Birkenstocks and blue jeans right out of the pop culture spotlight. Anybody who wanted to save the whales would have to do it after hours on their own time.

Stepping up to be a hero is Flavio Suave (Todd Thompson), the international disco superstar who never met a female he couldn’t charm out of her entire wardrobe. That is, until he met Harlie’s Angels.

OK . . . well . . . as longtime fans of the Gaslight are fully aware, a meaningful plot is never expected. So don’t expect the story line to make much sense, either.

There are four Soviet-like characters – the head of the Slobovian Secret Services (David Orley), a member of the Slobovian Central Intelligence Committee (Nancy LaViola), plus the two wild and crazy guys, Serge Piroshki (Mike Yarema) and Yerge Piroshki (Charlie Hall) – who are convinced the power that rules the world of disco can rule the world.

They will come to America, dominate the disco scene and rise to world domination. But first, they must put themselves into the Discosizer. Wearing drab Soviet-style uniforms they step into the whirring, smoking, flashing device. More stage effects stimulate the Discosizer and . . . viola!

The government Slobovians step out transformed into devilish disco dilettantes, one in bright orange pants, another in deep purple. That wild and crazy commissar even gets to wear a red velvet jacket and flaunt his massive blond afro. Within seconds they are all singing about a “Brick House” or something.

So the Slobovians’ plan to destroy the totally awesome new discotheque that Flavio in his ankle-length orange fur coat plans to open. Harlie’s Angels, always fluffing up their fabulous hair, are assigned to protect Flavio and stop the Slobovians.

You can be sure, bright colors in vigorously clashing styles will prevail.

The Gaslight’s aftershow olio is called “Hurray for Hollywood,” but the absolute best part is a lengthy salute to “The Wizard of Oz.” This 15-minute segment alone is practically worth the price of admission. Alas, the players present only the first half of the story – getting Dorothy and her three pals into the Emerald City. We get no flying monkeys, dissolving wicked witch or little man behind the curtain.

Everyone should demand Gaslight management put up the money to produce the rest of the story (as the late Paul Harvey would say). Then they can start working on a Gaslight version of “Gone With The Wind.”

———

IF YOU GO

What: The Gaslight Theatre presents “Harlie’s Angels or Clues But No Cigar!”

When: various times Tuesdays through Sundays through June 13

Where: The Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. Broadway

Price: $17.95 adults, $15.95 seniors, $7.95 ages 12 and younger

Info: 886-9428, www.thegaslighttheatre.com

Grade: B

Not too late to check out premiere Arizona event

"Chaturanga," which some say is Bollywood's "Gone With the Wind," screens Friday and Saturday at Crossroads.

Wait, wait. . . . don’t touch that dial (or channel changer, whatever). The Arizona International Film Festival still runs through the coming weekend. There are lots more films to see, and the buzz is building for some of the formerly unknown titles that are suddenly demanding more attention.

Every year the AIFF has one or two films, quite often documentaries, that went on to spark the audience’s fancy at later festivals in other cities and become known nationally. People who saw those pictures here were in the know before anyone else.

One of the more recent examples was “Spellbound,” documenting the national spelling bee, that caught on in a big way. Spelling bees even inspired a Broadway show. “Spellbound” played here first . . . maybe you were one of the lucky few who saw it.

There are no suggestions here about which film in Tucson’s festival will become a high-profile success, but these are my picks for the rest of the fest.

Go to filmfestivalarizona.com for the remaining schedule.

Thursday: At the downtown Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., at 6 p.m., “Cine Español, Take 1″ presents five short films from Spain, each one rich with human emotions. Admission to this screening is free. Then at 8 p.m. comes “Latino Shorts,” a collect of six short films examining the Latin American experience. Tickets are $8.

Friday: Continue to feel very international at the Crossroads Festival theater, 4811 E. Grant Road, with a 6 p.m. showcase of “Global Shorts,” a quintet of entries from the U.S., Spain, Germany, Canada and England. Then at 8 p.m. comes the sweeping Indian film “Chaturanga (Four Chapters)” based on the novel by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Some say “Chaturanga” is Bollywood’s “Gone With the Wind.” The running time, though, is just 125 minutes.

That title refers to an ancient Indian game said to be the forerunner of chess. There is a lot of strategy and game-playing as the film’s main characters battle for undying love. Admission is $8.

Saturday: Look to the afternoon for another of those spiritual films that seeks to combine parapsychological phenomena and quantum physics. “Something Unknown is Doing We Don’t Know What” is the curious title, taken from a painting discussed in the film.

One of the featured scientists is Gary Schwartz, a professor at the University of Arizona. He is one of the panelists discussing the film after the 3 p.m. screening at the Crossroads Festival theater. Admission is $8.

The festival-closing party starts at 9 p.m. at Casa Vicente, 375 S. Stone Ave. One highlight will be naming the 2009 Festival Awards winners. Meet your favorite filmmaker, too. Admission is free.

Sunday: Enjoy the pick of the litter at the Best of the Fest screenings at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. in the Screening Room. Admission is $5.

———

THURSDAY

• 6 p.m. – The Screening Room – free

CINE ESPAÑOL, TAKE 1: Five Spanish tales: • “La Tuerca” – A girl discovers magic in a metal nut • “Mofetas” – Two young Moroccan stowaways wait and dream. • “Manuel Practico del Amigo Imaginario” – An imaginary friend grows jealous of his real-life competition. • “Una Vida Mejor” – Desert-crossing by three young children. • “Gólgota” – A village tale of tragedy and burlesque.

• 8 p.m. – The Screening Room – $8

LATINO SHORTS: Eight short films examine aspects of the Latino experience: • “The Coin Collection” – Father and son, both veterans, confront the experience of combat. • “Immersion” – A young immigrant struggles with the language gap in his new American school • “UNSUNG: RC Tomlinson’s Story” – A veteran reggae singer’s struggle to be heard. • “Trece Años” – A brother returns to visit family in Cuba • “El Ladroncito” – A boy from the Nicaraguan barrio resorts to theft to buy the latest video game system. • “The First Kid to Learn English from Mexico” – A 9-year-old fights, cajoles and bribes his way through third grade. • “Shine” – An East L.A. youth wants to drop out of college and become a dancer. • “Una Y Otra Vez” – An immigrant factory worker learns to live without love and work. Several filmmakers will be present to introduce their films.

FRIDAY

• 5 p.m. – The Screening Room – free

INDIEFILMS FOR INDIE YOUTH: Teens, preteens and tweens may be the audience for mall-theater blockbusters and cross-promotional marketing juggernauts, but that doesn’t mean they don’t sometimes want more. These funny, inspiring and thoughtful shorts, made for youth, show that “indie” is for everyone.

• 6 p.m. – Crossroads – $6

“GLOBAL SHORTS”: • “Hot Dog” – In Anytown, USA, an inept pooch becomes a fire dog. • “El Ataque de los Robots de Nebulosa-5” – A Spanish man prepares for the robot apocalypse. • “Milbe” – Enormous dust mites overrun a German grandmother’s home. • “Princess Margaret Blvd.” – A Canadian woman struggles with Alzheimer’s • “Wish” – Four British teenagers play a game nobody wins. • “This is Her” – In life there are no fairy tale endings.

• 7 p.m. – The Screening Room – $8

“UPSTREAM BATTLE”: Salmon thought their only challenge was swimming upstream . . . until they ran into the dams. Now, members of Klamath Basin tribes fight to remove the dams they believe are killing the fish. This documentary of their struggle deals with survival of Native American lifestyles, of the salmon and the river, and of the commercial fishermen and farmers who benefit from the river water. Filmmaker Ben Kempas will introduce film.

• 7:30 p.m. – Crossroads (U.S. Premiere) – $8

“CHATURANGA” (FOUR CHAPTERS): Based on a controversial novel by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, this haunting narrative set in colonial Bengal grapples with two grand, intertwining themes: what happens to love when it’s caught between conflicting worlds of ideas? And what are the human costs of life’s disillusioning search for meaning?

• 9:30 p.m. – The Screening Room – $5

EDGY SHORTS: • What does dialectical materialism have to do with the abstract movements of red blood cells? (“Hemorrhage”) • Where can one see a surrealistic musical about the love between a woman and a talking photocopier (“The Ballad of Beatrice”) • Why would anyone feel the need to re-enact the Soviet space program with exploding cars? (“Vostok”) • How do a troubled man’s visions of blood connect to the ominous red door in his office? (“Red Door”) – The answers to these questions, and more, can be found in this series of after-hours shorts.

SATURDAY

• 10 a.m. – The Loft Cinema – free

GLOBAL DIGITAL STORIES BY YOUTH FROM TUCSON TO SOUTH AFRICA: Short works by Tucson youths from Afghanistan, Central America, Iraq, Somalia and Zimbabwe offer a unique window into their lives and cultures. Program also includes digital stories created by Tibetan refugees and youth from the townships of South Africa. Sponsored by Owl and Panther Project, Bridges to Understanding & Tucson Youth Week.

• 1 p.m. – Crossroads – free

CINE ESPAÑOL, TAKE 2: • “5 Segundas” – An injury results in altered vision. • “Paseo” – A poet and a peasant help a lovesick soldier. • “Go Home” – A Spanish baseball team dreams about the Yankees. • “Test” – Four unrelated women take pregnancy tests. • “El Palacio de la Luna” – A mother writes of life’s gravity. • “Porque Hay Cosas Que Nunca Se Olvidan” – Let there be soccer – or else.

• 2:30 p.m. – The Screening Room – free

INDIEFILMS FOR INDIE-YOUTH: See the world portrayed the way you see it. Youth-made films will be the order of the day, sent from all over Tucson and all over the country to give viewers new perspectives on the world we live in.

• 3 p.m. – Crossroads – $8

“SOMETHING UNKNOWN IS DOING WE DON’T KNOW WHAT”: Telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis and psychic healing: these, the “Big Five” mind phenomena, are the subject of this mystical documentary, where prominent scientists weigh in to unravel the mysteries of psychic occurrences and discover the boundaries between “real” and fraudulent magical powers. Filmmaker Renee Scheltema will introduce the film and participate in a panel after the screening to answer paranormal questions.

• 4:30 p.m. – The Screening Room – $8

“THICKER THAN WATER”: 11-year-old Tony loves hockey. He also has severe hemophilia, which means his hockey-playing days are numbered. An engrossing mix of home movie footage, interviews and lots of hockey action communicate a touching message about loving life and playing your last game as well as you can. Filmmaker Bradley Rappa will introduce the film. Preceded by “Everyone Needs a Heaven,” an animated documentary about a young girl’s view of the afterlife.

• 6 p.m. – Crossroads – $8

“CHATURANGA” (FOUR CHAPTERS): See Friday listing.

• 7 p.m. – The Screening Room – $8

“WC”: Racism, social integration, sex trafficking and underpaid labor form the backdrop for this colorful story of a friendship between two bathroom attendants in a Dublin jazz bar. Filmmaker Liam O’Mochiam will introduce the film. Preceded by the comedy short, “A-hole.”

• 9 p.m. Casa Vicente

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY: Celebrate with Indie Coyote and visiting filmmakers as the Arizona Most Wanted filmmakers are released for good behavior and good filmmaking. The 2009 Arizona International Film Festival Awards will be announced.

SUNDAY

• 1 p.m. – The Screening Room – $5

BEST OF THE FEST: An opportunity to see the award-winning films of this year’s festival, as well as films that caused a buzz. Free admission to those who wear their 2009 Festival T-shirt.

“The Kite Runner” among offerings

Lynn Redgrave soon will bring her one-woman show to town.

Now is the time to prove that old saying, in difficult times people spend more money on entertainment. We have to hope the old saying doesn’t just apply to movies.

Some of the local theater company seasons announced for 2009-2010 are packing real beef. Unlike the collapse of imagination that neutered most of the city’s stages after 9/11, this time around there is good stuff going up on the marquee.

Let’s begin with Tucson’s big boy, Arizona Theatre Company. A pair of comedies and a musical are the heart of the season – scarcely risky fare – but one of the comedies is “George is Dead,” written and directed by Elaine May. Her droll sense of what’s funny will be a much appreciated antidote to the adolescent humor so popular in movies and television these days.

More importantly, ATC is opening its season with a stage adaptation of “The Kite Runner.” If the play is as good as the movie adaptation of the novel by Khaled Hosseini, we are all in for a thoughtful treat.

Down the block at Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, mental stimulation is pretty much the standard. David Hare brings modern Middle Eastern influences into metaphorical issues that involve the conflicted personal lives of three friends.

David Lindsey-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Rabbit Hole” is also there. So are the surreal Jane Martin comedy, “Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage”; echoes of the Vietnam War in “Last of the Boys” by Steven Dietz; and Sam Shepard’s modern classic, “Fool for Love.”

That is quite a lineup.

The Rogue Theater is moving into new digs near the Historic Y and also pitching a wider choice of plays. By Rogue’s lofty standards, this is a very accessible season.

Imagine Thornton Wilder (“Our Town”) and Samuel Beckett (“Krapp’s Last Tape”) in the same room with William Shakespeare (“Othello”). But here’s the kicker – Rogue’s season opens with Andrew Periale’s stage version of “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. Wow.

Heading uptown to Invisible Theatre, everybody lightens up a bit. There is often substance mixed in with the laughter, however. “Iron Kisses” from James Still looks the best on paper. It’s a domestic tale of one family where mom and dad struggle to love their two children equally – even though the son is gay and the daughter packs some personal baggage of her own.

In the celebrity game, IT is bringing in Lynn Redgrave to perform her one-woman show “Rachel and Juliet.” Former NFL defensive back Bo Eason plays on a different stage now, performing his semi-autobiographical one-man show “Runt of the Litter.”

Both productions will be presented at the Berger Performing Arts Center.

Much further east at Live Theatre Workshop, where comedy is always king, some fiber has been added to the season. Most noteworthy, LTW has chosen Sarah Ruhle’s introspective comedy “The Clean House” which received such a delightful production at ATC last year.

We are reminded the courageous little East Side storefront theater turned out an excellent production of “A Perfect Ganesh” even though ATC had given that play its big ticket treatment a few years earlier.

Having proved real art is possible on a shoestring budget, LTW wants to do it again.

Also exciting will be seeing the company do “Picnic” by William Inge. The power of intimacy in this theater space could be explosive.

Supplying the angst and nudity is LTW’s Late Night support of ETCETERA, now led with enthusiasm by Christopher Johnson. In fact, the season’s real gut-wrencher could very well come from Johnson himself in the world première of his blatantly autobiographical memory play “Knuckle Sandwich” with stage roles for his own family and friends.

So if you are going away for the summer, be sure to come back. The upcoming theater season will be a whopper.

You want an aisle seat for that?

Jazz musician Brice Winston will perform at this year's Tucson Jazz Fest, leading the student ensemble JazzWerks.

This weekend, jazz musicians will be setting up their gear at Plaza Palomino on the southwest corner of North Swan Road and East Fort Lowell Road, for the all-free Tucson Jazz Fest featuring six hours of straight-ahead jazz in a format that guarantees all jazz all the time.

“Each band plays an hour, with 15-minute breaks to change bands. During the breaks, Nick Stanley will play piano,” says Tony Frank, the festival director. Frank is also a trumpet player, bandleader and the founder of TucsonJazzRadio.org, one of the festival sponsors.

Also pitching in to help provide a free event are the merchants of Plaza Palomino and community radio station KXCI 91.3 FM.

“Every major city has an annual free jazz concert,” Frank says emphatically. “Detroit has the best one. But I wanted this to be a free jazz gift to the community.

“This is our art form. It belongs to all of us, so I wanted everybody to come, not just the people from the foothills.”

The Tucson Jazz Fest lineup is a blend of polished professionals and enthusiastic students. Brass instruments lead the professional lineup.

There is Tuba Madness with bottom-end virtuosos Daniel “Sly” Slipetsky and Hank Feldman. The two have recorded an album together, “Vida Rica,” and plan on some dueling banjo-type competition jams worthy of those dancing hippos in Walt Disney’s classic “Fantasia.”

Slipetsky appears more frequently around town as a pianist but has played both instruments since his early student days. Feldman is a career educator and former director of the University of Arizona marching band.

Taking the co-headliner role is Trombone Madness featuring trombonists Rob Boone, Andrew Thompson and Jose Barnett. All three ‘bone men have deep performance experience in jazz, as well as with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Boone is a member of both the Original Wildcat Jass Band and Big Band Express. Thompson and Barnett pump up the trombone line for the Latin jazz band Descarga.

Slipetsky will double on piano for Trombone Madness. Boone will double on piano for Tuba Madness. Accompanying all that brassy madness will be Jack Wood, bass, and Doug Davis, drums.

Representing the emerging talents are members of the Pima Community College big band led by saxophonist Mike Kuhn and guest trumpet artist Glenn Gross, the Central Arizona College Jazz Ensemble led by trumpeter Rick Moore, and the Tucson Jazz Society’s own student big band JazzWerx led by touring tenor saxophonist and recording artist Brice Winston.

While the entrepreneurial Frank has produced other daylong jazz festivals in the Baked Apple over the years, this one is particularly special. He is dedicating the event to his mother Leah Betts and to his friend Steve Emerine. Both died recently.

“My mom and I always worked together on the celebrity fundraising golf event Swing For Life,” Frank says. “We produced them annually for 10 years. She was such a positive influence for me.”

“Steve was one of my mentors, and he was always the first guy to throw $10 in the tip jar at my gigs,” Frank continued. “He’d never ask me, ‘How are you doing?’ He’d ask, ‘What are you thinking?’ He had that spirit right up to the end.”

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IF YOU GO

What: Tucson Jazz Fest

When: noon-6 p.m. Saturday

Where: Plaza Palomino, North Swan Road at East Fort Lowell Road

Price: admission is free

Info: 203-7901, or e-mail tucsonjazzradio@hotmail.com

The performance schedule is:

noon – JazzWerx led by Brice Winston

1:15 p.m. – Central Arizona College jazz ensemble led by Rick Moore

2:30 – Tuba Madness with Hank Feldman and Daniel “Sly” Slipetsky

3:45 – Trombone Madness with Rob Boone, Andrew Thompson and Jose Barnett

5 – Pima Community College big band led by Mike Kuhn with Glenn Gross