Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

CHUCK GRAHAM

cgraham@tucsoncitizen.com

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.

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.

Freelance
Shelf Life

FICTION

‘No Such Creature’

By Giles Blunt (Henry Holt & Company, $25)

Mangus “Max” Maxwell and his 18-year-old adopted nephew, Owen, team up to tour the country in a tricked out Winnebago. Their plan is to swindle the rich, but things take a deadly turn in Las Vegas when they come in contact with the “Subtractors,” a gang of crooks who target fellow thieves and “subtract” body parts one by one until they surrender their loot. There is so much to admire in this fascinating novel, a brilliant concept, interesting characters and unexpected plot twists, all guaranteed to keep readers engaged until the very last page.

‘Darling Jim’

By Christian Moerk (Henry Holt & Company, $25)

In this masterfully written suspense thriller, two sisters and their aunt are found dead in their home just outside of Dublin. A third sister is missing. The plot thickens when Niall, a young mailman, finds a mysterious diary in the post office’s dead-letter bin that provides information about a mysterious itinerant storyteller at the very heart of the murders. Set against the bucolic backdrop of the Irish countryside, this is an enthralling tale of love, jealousy, deep family feuds, resentment, sexual obsession, envy and murder.

‘The Faraway War’

By Enrique Clio (Thomas Dunne Books, $24.95)

Nineteen-year-old Henry Reese leaves Brooklyn for Cuba in 1853 to join Cuban insurgents who are fighting the Spanish Army. Captured during his first battle, he is lined up before a firing squad and shot. He survives his wounds, is rescued and rejoins the fight, eventually becoming a brigadier general in the Liberation Army. Based on the life of a real character, this engaging novel is lively, entertaining and a page-turner of the highest sort.

‘The Contractor’

By Colin MacKinnon (St. Martin’s Press, $24.95)

Rick Behringer uses his small telecom company located near Washington, D.C., as the perfect cover for his second, more secretive job as a spy for the CIA. When he learns that a mysterious Pakistani Islamist is attempting to acquire highly enriched uranium, his colleagues at the CIA encourage him to track down the elusive man and find out more. As, perhaps, the only man who can stop “an Islamic bomb” from bringing disaster to America, he has his work cut out for him in this fast moving, nail-biting thriller.

‘Germania’

By Brendan McNally (Simon & Schuster, $26)

In this remarkable debut novel, the Flying Magical Loerber Brothers, once the biggest stars on the German cabaret circuit, find themselves in danger during the final days of World War II. Determined to defeat the Nazis from within, two of the four become spies for the Allies, using their positions to supply the British and Russians with much needed intelligence. A third brother joins the German navy and the final member of the team is presumed dead but in reality has joined the radical group The Blood of Israel. Thrilling and laced with dark humor, “Germania” is unpredictable and highly entertaining.

‘Choral Society’

By Prue Leith (St. Martin’s Press, $25.95)

This crisply written story pivots around three women who meet when they join a choir. One widowed, one divorced and one never married, they form a tight bond. In this delightful story of friendship and discovery, three women share their disappointments, hopes and dreams while in the process discovering the possibility of love – if they dare to open themselves up to it.

‘Feathered Serpent’

By Xu Xiaobin and translated by John Howard-Gibbon and Joanne Wang (Atria, $25)

This Chinese novel, first published in 1998, was a literary breakthrough, selling a record number of copies in Chinese women’s literature. Powerful, lyrical and haunting, the central story spans a century, from 1890 to the 1990s, following five generations of women from one family. Xu Xiaobin, born in Beijing in 1953, and one of China’s most celebrated writers, has written a passionate story that is a deft blend of women’s fiction, mysticism and socio-political literature that is both rich and insightful.

NONFICTION

‘The Talent Code’

By Daniel Coyle (Bantam, $25)

Coyle, an Alaskan-based writer and frequent contributor to Outside magazine, focuses on nine of the world’s most prolific hotbeds of talent to uncover the key to unlocking human potential. Along the way he discovers why one impoverished Russian tennis club is able to field more Top 20 women players than any other country, how all three Brontë sisters became literary all-stars and the methods used by a music school in a mall in Texas that enables it to produce a string of pop stars including Jessica Simpson and Demi Lovato. The secret, according to the author, boils down to three elements: the right kinds of practice, coaching and motivation. Combining vivid examples with expert analysis, this book is geared to help you reach your full potential.

‘All My Patients Have Tales: Favorite Stories from a Vet’s Practice’

By Jeff Wells, DVM (St. Martin’s Press, $24.95)

Wells grew up in Iowa, surrounded by pets that ranged from cats and dogs to cows and pigs. His dad, who made a living teaching agriculture at the local high school, was the reason why the author’s home was much like a petting zoo and why he eventually became a veterinarian. His new book documents his first job in the farmlands of South Dakota and follows his career as he relocates to the foothills of Colorado where he establishes a successful practice. As he points out, vets need not only animal skills but people skills as well. This touching, poignant look at the daily life of a busy, dedicated veterinarian is witty, inspirational and an absolute treat.

‘Warren Oates: A Wild Life’

By Susan Compo (University Press of Kentucky, $34.95)

Even though Warren Oates never reached leading actor status, his work, especially during the 1970s, made him one of the more interesting and talented supporting actors in the business. In the first published biography of Oates, the author serves up a lively and studious look at this extraordinary man, chronicling his early life in Kentucky as well as his later achievements and misadventures. Drawing on interviews and new materials, Compo builds a convincing case that Oates was a talented rebel often haunted by long periods of hard drinking, drug abuse and infidelities.

‘Real Solutions for Busy Moms’

By Kathy Ireland (Howard, $23.99)

Ireland, chief designer and CEO of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, is convinced that no job is more rewarding, fulfilling or empowering than that of a mom. Sometimes that job can be difficult, demanding and overwhelming. Ireland believes that moms can do it all – just not all at once. This supermodel, entrepreneur and mom of three provides a road map for dealing with tough times. She addresses such tough issues as managing money, establishing a happy home environment, developing a healthy lifestyle, keeping children safe and balancing tasks and responsibilities. With compassion, encouragement and empathy, she offers both tools and solutions to cope.

‘Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt’

By Leslie Miller (Simon & Schuster, $25)

Miller, A Baltimore-based writer, graphic designer and photographer, is a self-confessed cake addict. Her new book is a lively, loving testament to cake that explores its long history and legends, its celebratory significance, its quirky practitioners and even Miller’s own successes and failures in baking the perfect pastry. One of the more intriguing episodes in her book is when she insinuates her way into what she calls the underbelly of cake, namely the lives and bakeries of Baltimore’s bakers, including celebrity baker Duff Goldman, the darling of the Food Network.

‘How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror’

By Reza Aslan (Random House, $26)

Reza Aslan is a Senior Fellow at the Orfalae Center for Global and International Studies at U.C. Santa Barbara and a frequent commentator on CNN, CBS and NPR. In his new book, he provides both an in-depth study of the ideology behind al-Qaida, the Taliban and like-minded militants throughout the Muslim world, and the tradition of religious violence found in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Surveying the global scene from Israel to Iraq, and from New York to the Netherlands, he concludes that the only way to win a cosmic or religious war is by, first, addressing earthy grievances. This will, he writes, remove the appeal of Jihadism as a social movement. He believes the next steps are to change the narrative between Islam and the West, support the democratic aspirations of Islamist parties in places such as Indonesia, Morocco, Palestine and Turkey, and – perhaps more importantly – recognize that our present War on Terror cannot be won militarily.

‘The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today’

By Andrew J. Cherlin (Knopf, $25.95)

Cherlin, one of the nation’s leading experts on the American family, concluded after more than three decades of study that marriage in the United States is different than in other Western countries and in a way that no one was writing about. He points out that marriage in the United States is seen as a cultural ideal and our government spends a great deal of money to promote its continuation. He adds that Americans have come to embrace two contradictory models of personal and family life: marriage, a formal commitment to share one’s life with another; and individualism, which emphasizes personal growth and development. Each model is culturally reinforced by two basic, powerful institutions: religion and law.

‘The Body Broken: A Memoir’

By Lynne Greenberg (Random House, $25)

When she was 19, Greenberg narrowly survived a terrible car crash. Her fractured neck eventually healed, or so she thought, and she resumed an active life that included a devoted husband, two wonderful children and a fulfilling career as an English professor in New York City. Twenty-two years later, the crippling pain returned. After two years of doctors, specialists and tests, it was determined that her neck had not healed as originally thought. Her heartbreakingly, honest memoir is how she had to learn to cope with chronic pain while finding the strength to return to a productive yet irrevocably changed life.

‘When I Married my Mother’

By Jo Maeder (Da Capo, $25)

Maeder was a DJ on New York’s WKTU when she realized that her estranged mother could no longer live alone. Against the advice of her colleagues and friends, she left the bright lights of the Big Apple, bought a house in Greensboro, N.C., and moved her mother in so they could live together. This book highlights the growing trend of intergenerational households in America, a 57 percent increase since 2000. This insightful, true-to-the-bone account documents one woman’s decision to leave her glamorous career in New York City to become an informal caregiver for her mother in the Bible Belt.

PAPERBACKS

‘Stone Me: The Wit and Wisdom of Keith Richards’

Compiled by Mark Blake (New American Library, $12.95)

This little book is apparently as thin as Richards’ intellect. For example, one of his more colorful observations compares The Beatles to an enema, adding that their impact made the Rolling Stones a great toilet bowl. While you’re mulling that one over, there’s more. He claims you are never alone with a Smith and Wesson, that Mick, when drunk, is a sight to behold, and that occasionally you want to strangle even the closest of your friends.

‘The 7th Infantry Regiment: Combat in the Age of Terror, the Korean War Through the Present’

By John C. McManus (Tor/Forge, $15.95)

Acclaimed military historian McManus provides readers with a compelling glimpse of the history of the 7th Infantry Regiment. This collection of unremarkable, ordinary soldiers who through their struggle, anguish, fear, sacrifice, triumph and pride, have established themselves as the very soul of the U.S. Army. This is required reading for anyone interested in the true and gritty stories that have made this special unit so extraordinary.

‘Summer in Tuscany’

By Elizabeth Adler (St. Martin’s Griffin, $14.95)

Gemma Jericho is an overworked New York doctor. When her mother, Nonna, learns of a mysterious inheritance in Tuscany, she talks Gemma and her teenage granddaughter into accompanying her to Italy to claim it. When the three women get to Tuscany, they find a divided village and Ben Raphael, an unnervingly handsome American, occupying their villa.

‘Who Do You Think You Are?’

By Alyse Myers (Touchstone, $15)

Raised in a housing project in Queens, Myers, the oldest of three girls, spent most of her childhood witnessing the disintegration of her parents’ marriage and her father’s constant vanishing acts. She came to the conclusion that she didn’t care much for her mother and suspected she felt the same about her. When her mother dies, she becomes obsessed by a locked wooden box. Could the contents shed some light on her stormy history with her mother and, perhaps, even her parents’ troubled relationship? More importantly, does she have the courage to open the box? This heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting memoir of a mother and daughter is powerful and unforgettable.

‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’

By Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (Quirk, $12.95)

“Pride and Prejudice” is one of the most beloved novels ever written. It has been adapted into several Hollywood films, a Broadway musical, a BBC miniseries, and is even the basis for Bridget Jones’s Diary. Who could have imagined that in 2009 it would be given the zombie treatment? The real shock in this book is how well it works. This book features most of the original 1813 text with zombie narratives neatly inserted. Featuring 20 illustrations and a reader’s discussion guide, this is perfect summer reading. Can a heart-pounding edition of “David Copperfield: London Vampire” be far behind?

CAPSULE REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

CHUCK GRAHAM

cgraham@tucsoncitizen.com

Audiences aren’t the only people who feel special at a world première theater performance, getting to see something no one has seen before. The actors feel special, too, getting to create characters no one has seen before.

This weekend, Arizona Theatre Company officially opens the world première run of the pop culture comedy “Somebody/Nobody” by Jane Martin. That title refers to being a show biz celebrity – either you have it, or you don’t.

Jon Jory returns to ATC as the director, after his triumph last season directing “The Clean House,” starring Alexandra Tavares. She’s coming back, too, cast in the role of Sheena, the Hollywood actress obsessed by the fear that people are looking at her.

This may be a rare condition, but you can appreciate the potential pain for someone who makes her living as a celebrity. It’s much worse than stage fright. Especially if the people looking at you have cameras, such as those shameless paparazzi.

They will take a picture of you wearing a muumuu with your hair up in curlers, and put it on a grocery store magazine cover. In a sense, Sheena feels perpetually pursued by photographers with very long lenses. That fear is practical, at least.

“I think it’s a theme the playwright has been interested in for a long time. She had already written a draft, I believe,” says the actress.

That theme would be to explore the nature of celebrity, asking why our society is obsessed by it, what being a celebrity is really worth on the open market.

“Sheena is more like a B-list movie star,” Tavares continues. “One of those celebrities who has never done anything. If she’s cast in a horror movie, she’s one who never makes it to the end,” Tavares chuckles, thinks a bit and suggests Nicole Ritchie as an example.

Creating a stage character out of thin air, with nothing to go on but clues in the script, also requires considerable work on a back story. Tavares has given a lot of thought to the life Sheena must have led before the play started, the tensions that created her phobia for being looked at. The actress compares it to agoraphobia – illogical but very real to the person who is afflicted.

“Sheena physically finds it uncomfortable to be seen. She can’t stand to be looked at, which could be the manifestation of a deeper problem.

“I’m still trying to figure that out,” Tavares says. “I’m also thinking, when she was little, her mother must have pushed her into being in movies in the first place.”

In the script, Tavares plays opposite Jessica Martin as Loli, a diesel truck mechanic as starry-eyed as any TV addict carried away with the magnetism of those winners on “American Idol.”

Loli is the “Nobody” in that title, lost in Los Angeles anonymity, truly a fate worse than death if you grew up in Flatt, Kan., reading movie magazines and dreaming of what life is like at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles.

“But Loli wants more than fame. She wants to be acknowledged, to find her own place in life.

“The play really is about the importance of identity. In a way, it is also about self-discovery,” Tavares says with a smile.

But first and foremost, “Somebody/Nobody” is a wacky comedy set among brightly costumed people caught up in the Hollywood hustle. They keep bursting in and out of Loli’s somewhat drab apartment.

That’s where that story starts, at Loli’s front door. Sheena is frantic and on the run in Los Angeles after appearing on one of those endless movie industry awards shows. She picks Loli’s door totally at random and starts pounding away. Sheena is wearing a disheveled gown Tavares describes as being “a bright color in the pink arena. I’m not sure what it would be called.”

When the desperate person who wants to hide out and become nobody meets the lonely person who wants to become somebody, Tavares says, “chaos ensues.”

“Sheena is completely different from any character I’ve ever done before. Usually I’m doing more subtle parts,” the actress continues. “Sheena’s personality is so far out there, so full of eccentric qualities. And she’s a bit of a sensual movie star goddess, too.”

Letting the character grow from the inside out is Tavares’ method. She calls it “a treat” to be working on a world première, “to feel like you have a stamp on something. I haven’t done many world premières.”

Sheena’s personality has grown right along with the script. Jory, Tavares and Jessica Martin all live in the Seattle area. On some of those rainy nights they would be working on lines, trying out ideas.

“Jon would suggest those ideas to the playwright, Jane Martin, and we might get new lines,” Tavares remembers. “I think I came into rehearsal here with more of an understanding of the play than usual. And so much of it is taken straight from today’s pop culture that is all around us.”

Well, maybe not all. Jory has tossed a vampire wannabe into the mix. You don’t see one of those every day.

“It’s more like, there are so many vampire movies these days, and people dressed in black Goth style,” Tavares says.

“We know every movie star has to have a stalker.

“It’s just that this one wants to suck the famous movie star’s blood.”

But the way Tavares describes it, Sheena the B-list celebrity won’t be getting a glamorous A-list vampire stalker. This one isn’t even a vampire, really, he’s just a wannabe.

Whether a somebody or nobody, everyone needs an identity

IF YOU GO

What: Arizona Theatre Company presents “Somebody/Nobody” by Jane Martin

When: Previews at 8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-March 13; opens at 8 p.m. March 14 and continues at various times Tuesdays-Sundays through March 28.

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

Price: $26-$50

Info: 622-2823, www.aztheatreco.org

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

CHUCK GRAHAM

cgraham@tucsoncitizen.com

Make no mistake about it, some very well-dressed millionaires are quite worried about Oscar’s health. The Academy Awards show isn’t drawing audiences as it used to. There’s a lot of manicured finger-pointing going on. Just like the prettiest girl in high school, the big studios get worried if their popularity starts to fade.

One reason for the decline is obvious. Just as family-friendly ticket prices have disappeared from the multiplex, so have family-friendly movies. So is it any surprise families aren’t sitting around the living room TV to see if their favorite flicks capture a gold statuette?

Obviously, say many of Hollywood’s self-proclaimed experts, the people who select the nominees are picking the wrong movies! If more popular movies were picked as nominees, the Academy Awards show would be more popular. This backlash against quality began building last summer with the pointy-eared box office success of “The Dark Knight.” Then came the action-comedy “Tropic Thunder” featuring Robert Downey Jr. in blackface.

Like a pack of hounds picking up the scent, one by one the big screen moguls began to influence the nominating process. A new production team was picked specifically to shake up the Awards show structure – no more comic monologues, boring thank-you speeches and cheers for quality movies that did no business at the box office.

So here we are with Australia’s manly man Hugh Jackman (most famous as the tormented superhero Wolverine in “X-Men”) being the emcee and promising lots of ad-libbed moments on Sunday’s telecast. He’s making the awards ceremony sound like it will be a reality show for celebrities. Just a little bit of script, but lots of spontaneous emotions. A big live-action party, Australia style.

Running down the list of movies and actors does, indeed, reveal a smattering of pictures lots of people have seen. If this year’s Academy Awards show pulls in a bigger audience than last year – which hit a record low on the viewer ratings chart – you can bet there will be lots more popular films nominated next year. Why should the Super Bowl get all the TV audience? Especially now that Super Bowl commercials are at least as popular as the game itself.

When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie lead the list of contenders, you can be sure there will be a bigger audience. Add the classic comeback performance by Mickey Rourke, as well as the sentiment behind the posthumous nomination of Heath Ledger, and audience potential begins rising faster than “Mall Cop” Paul Blart’s market value.

Best Picture

So will this be the last year for nominations of such quality films as “The Reader,” “Frozen River,” “Doubt” “and “Revolutionary Road?” Hopefully not. Will there ever be another chance for a heart-warming epic such as “Slumdog Millionaire” to be nominated for Best Picture without a single movie star in the cast? Wash your mouth out with soap!

The absolute best film released in 2008 is “Slumdog Millionaire.” Nobody else is even close. Not “Milk.” Not that mashed-potato mess “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

So what if “Milk” does star tight-jawed Sean Penn as San Francisco gay rights activist Harvey Milk. So what if “B. Button” touts bright-eyed B. Pitt. Geez . . .

Not only that, but the Best Director award this year should be re-named the Best Miracle-Working Director, and represented by a statuette twice as big as the other Oscars. Then it should be given to Danny Boyle. He pulled off the most amazing cinema trifecta directing “Slumdog Millionaire,” which nearly went straight to DVD. Boyle rivals Rourke in having the greatest Cinderella story of the year.

Best Actor

As for the Best Actor award: A few weeks back, I wrote if there is any justice in Hollywood, Frank Langella would win the Oscar for his performance as Richard Nixon in ‘”Frost/Nixon.” The I saw Rourke’s intensely relentless performance in “The Wrestler.”

Langella did have the most difficult assignment, though, playing a world-famous politician. It’s a lot easier to feel sorry for Rourke’s beat-up pug whose only skill is to absorb more punishment than anybody else in the wrestling ring.

Best Supporting Actor

The Best Supporting Actor award goes to Heath Ledger. End of story.

Best Actress

The female side of the acting awards are more complicated. There isn’t a clearly deserving nominee for Best Actress. Leading in that undesirably arty category of obscure performance is Melissa Leo for her quality work in “Frozen River.” Most famous is Angelina Jolie with a forgettable role as a distressed mom in “Changeling.” Meryl Streep in “Doubt” and Kate Winslet in “The Reader” make exceptional impressions. But of the lot, Anne Hathaway breaks her goody-girl mold wearing coon-eye makeup and playing the severely distressed sister Kym in “Rachel Getting Married.”

Best Supporting Actress

Leading in the category of most deserving actress is Viola Davis who played the conflicted mother of an altar boy in “Doubt.” Her big scene electrified the whole film, giving it purpose. For that, she deserves the Oscar. But Marisa Tomei, who played the exotic dancer in “The Wrestler,” and Penélope Cruz as the estranged Spanish wife in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” have got those precious celebrity profiles.

In this year, more than others, fame means TV audience. Not that anything is fixed, but if more famous actors win most of the awards, that would surely help the television ratings.

Reviewer spotlights why we’re less wild about Oscar

CHUCK’S PICKS

Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”

Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, “Doubt”

IF YOU WATCH

What: The 81st annual Academy Awards

When: 6 p.m. Sunday

Where: ABC, Channel 9

OSCAR NIGHT AMERICA AT THE FOX THEATRE

Watch the show in style and on the big screen at this simulcast presentation of the 81st annual Academy Awards presentation. The fundraising, black-tie event for the Fox usually includes a red carpet entrance, a photo opportunity with an actual Oscar, an official Oscar ballot to predict the results, cocktails, a silent auction, and the simulcast presentation of the Oscars on the theatre’s 40-foot, high-definition screen. When: 5 p.m. Sunday Where: The Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St. Price: $25-$160 Info: 547-3040, foxtucsontheatre.org

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

CHUCK GRAHAM

cgraham@tucsoncitizen.com

Celebrating Valentine’s Day by going with your sweetie to the theater sounds lovely, civilized. Except this Valentine’s Day you can do it with an edge and a fresh sense of how many ways there could be to properly observe this holiday dedicated to romance.

And you can still be deep in your seat in front of the stage as the clock ticks toward midnight. The Etcetera gang of late-night thespians at Live Theatre Workshop has flipped “The Vagina Monologues” on its ear with a rowdy and sometimes ribald production of its own, “The Penis Monologues.” That 90-minute show starts at 10:30 p.m. Along with the monologues are two comedy interludes and a pair of big musical numbers.

But if that confrontational title seems a little too graphic, consider the other play opening this weekend, Edward Crosby Wells’ “3 Guys in Drag Selling Their Stuff” playing downtown at Beowulf Alley Theatre. It’s a comedy with adult content, says director Cynthia Jeffery.

As the title implies, a trio of older drag queens needs to raise some money. The “husband” of one has died. They want to store his ashes in a Faberge egg. So gathering up some of their most sentimental memorabilia, they put on a big yard sale – wigs, handcuffs, whips, that sort of thing. Oh yes, and there is a heavily spiked punch bowl involved to help stimulate buyer response.

According to one online reviewer describing the stage setting, “There was no shortage of sequins, feathers and sexual toys.”

Says Jeffery, “It’s definitely a comedy, but it also has some nice tender moments The men are in drag, but they are also real human beings with real feelings and real courage.

“And they are very sweet guys,” she adds. “I would expect the audience to be emotionally moved, with big laughs.”

The three characters are played by Mike Sultzbach, Kenton Jones and Richard Chaney (who also wrote one of those monologues being performed at Live Theatre Workshop). After some serious discussions at rehearsal about the difference between drag queens and transvestites, the cast turned to matters of learning to apply makeup like a female.

“We discussed how drag queens are men who dress like women to entertain audiences,” Jeffery says. “Milton Berle did it. Flip Wilson did it. Divine brought it full force in John Waters’ movies.”

Even before that – in 1959 – Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon did it on the big screen in “Some Like It Hot,” playing musicians hiding out in an all-girl band to escape some gangsters.

“And since this play takes place in the daytime, our three drag queens aren’t wearing as much glitz as if they were going out at night,” Jeffery adds.

Applying makeup turned out to be a real eye-opener for the director.

“What surprised me is how elaborate the process is. I didn’t realize before how much I’ve been naturally trained to do it.”

Jeffery does say the language can get a little racy. These three queens are past middle age and filled with all the rue you would expect.

“There are a few blushing moments,” the director chuckles, but compares the play to those Carol Burnett skits on TV that featured the character of Eunice. “Those skits were funny, but they always had a point.”

Meanwhile, across town at “The Penis Monologues,” Christopher Johnson as director is pulling together what he calls “a total community effort” in writing, performing and presenting this celebration of the male genitalia.

“I’d give all the credit to Eve Ensler, who wrote ‘The Vagina Monologues,’ ” Johnson says.

While those seven monologues are combined with comedy interludes and musical numbers, Johnson keeps insisting his production is not about gender politics. He’s going for an evening that is both thoughtful and fun.

“I started talking about the idea two years ago as a joke, really, but it was like, there was so much enthusiasm. They all said ‘Of course.’ It seemed like such a natural response to everyone.”

That’s when people all over town started writing and mailing Johnson their monologues for consideration. He estimates receiving 30 to 40 entries, a number of them written by women. That whole batch was winnowed down to the final seven, which LTW director of music Michael Martinez augmented with the musical numbers “Penis Gonna Shine” (with dreams of standing out as a porn star) and “Penis Is OK” (which Johnson describes as being about “equal rights”).

On the list are monologues covering al the different roles the penis plays in society. One woman who was comfortable with her own body also admitted she enjoyed the idea of using a strap-on. But only one monologue is about penis envy.

Johnson says the subject didn’t come up very often. A greater concern was the protest against circumcision. Their battle cry was “Save the Foreskin!”

“We simply want to express the idea that, regardless of how you choose to use your body, it will be beautiful,” Johnson says.

The comedy interludes are provided by the improv company Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed, using their improvisatory skills to play Penis Games with the audience. A few equally spontaneous bits are also being worked out as surprises for opening night.

“Yes,” Johnson affirms with enthusiasm, “there will be a giant inflatable penis.”

It’s a guy thing

IF YOU GO

What: Beowulf Alley Theatre Company presents “3 Guys in Drag Selling Their Stuff”

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 1:30 p.m. Sundays through March 1

Where: 11 S. Sixth Ave.

Price: $10 preview Friday, $20 Saturday’s opening night and thereafter (discounts for online purchase)

Info: 622-4460, beowulfalley.org

What: Etcetera at Live Theatre Workshop presents an original production, “The Penis Monologues”

When: 10:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays through Feb. 28

Where: 5317 E. Speedway Blvd.

Price: $10

Info: 481-1449, livetheatreworkshop.org

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

CHUCK GRAHAM

cgraham@tucsoncitizen.com

I remember Blue Note Records from my teen years. Blue Note was the RCA Records of the jazz world. RCA had Elvis Presley. Blue Note had Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Clifford Brown and a bunch of other guys who would determine the East Coast version of modern jazz.

That was a long time ago.

It must be, because Blue Note is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a grand national tour that stops in Tucson on Friday for a concert by Blue Note’s all-star band of hot young players. Never a company to look back over its shoulder, Blue Note designed this band’s tour to celebrate the past by saluting the future.

Known as the Blue Note 7, the hard-driving septet consists of Ravi Coltrane, tenor sax; Nicholas Payton, trumpet; Bill Charlap, piano and the group’s director; Steve Wilson, alto sax and flute; Peter Bernstein, guitar; Peter Washington, bass; and Lewis Nash, drums.

Charlap says the playlist was put together by all the band members, going over those 70 years of artists and recordings to pick their favorite tunes. Most of the pieces are more complex than simple pop tunes. Blue Note became famous for its hard-bop sound, encouraging musicians who combined bebop with such elements as blues, soul and gospel.

Other artists of note mining this musical vein in the recording studio’s welcoming surroundings were Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey and Donald Byrd.

A taste of this concert precedes the band in an eight-track CD, “Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records,” presenting material that will be in the show.

Sure enough, the tribute songs are there (such as Herbie Hancock’s “Dolphin Dance”) and respect to the original recording artist is paid. But on each track there is also an edge and an energy as these seven players keep finding new ways to open up the chords and express the changes.

Instead of erratic rhythms and dissonant notes, the band is flat-out blowing and the rhythm swings. Unlike those noisy experiments in free jazz, these guys see a jazz future that is lyrical as well as muscular.

“The Blue Note 7 is a true collaboration, an all-star band comprised of the next generation of major players, all leaders in their own right,” explains Bruce Lundvall, the record label’s president.

“The music that Blue Note recorded is so vast there was no way we could be comprehensive in covering all the contributions,” Charlap adds, speaking of the band’s CD. Although the album and the concert are created to showcase a diversity of moods, the musicians culled that list of tracks from a larger list of their personal Blue Note favorites.

Or as Charlap phrases it, “pieces that spoke to them musically.” With this band, there is sure to be a whole lot of conversation going on.

Speaking from the heart has been a tradition at Blue Note right from the beginning. During the mid-1920s in Berlin, a teenager named Alfred Lion went to a jazz concert by expatriate Sam Wooding’s orchestra. Wooding was from Philadelphia but chose to live and work in Europe, hiring many American musicians in the 1920s.

The young Lion’s mom had a collection of jazz recordings, the story goes, but it was the power of that live performance that hooked Lion for a lifetime. He moved to New York in 1937, and in 1939 recorded boogie-woogie pianists Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis in a studio rented for a one-day session.

With financial backing from Max Margulis, a communist writer and jazz lover in New York, Blue Note was born. That same year Lion’s childhood friend in Berlin, Francis Wolff, reached New York and joined the label. He was the photographer whose pictures made Blue Note’s album covers so distinctive.

After the Second World War, jazz came home with the face of bebop and Blue Note pricked up its ears. Along with Gillespie were some of the first recordings by pianists Bud Powell and Monk.

In typical jazz fashion, Monk’s angular style of playing and eccentric onstage personality didn’t catch on with the general pubic. But once the audience caught up with the artist, those same recordings became some of the most important to that era.

A much happier story belongs to Norah Jones. In 2002 the singer recorded her debut album on Blue Note, “Come Away With Me.” She followed that with the country-flavored “Feels Like Home” in 2004 and then her album of originals, “Not Too Late,” in 2007. All were well-received. Worldwide, Jones has sold a reported 36 million albums for Blue Note.

In the half-century of space between Monk and Jones, the label’s cutting edge kept slicing its way through jazz history – always moving forward, never backing up. Judging by the inventiveness and intensity of that CD from the Blue Note 7, Blue Note and the future of jazz should be good for a few more years.

IF YOU GO

What: Blue Note Records 70th Anniversary Tour

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd.

Price: $18-$42

Info: 621-3341, uapresents.org

No generation loves a Second Chance story better than the boomer generation. The kids that came of age doing drugs in the psychedelic Sixties, rioting in the streets, having a rap sheet and being investigated by the FBI needed a second chance just to get a regular job so they could have a first chance.

That makes Mickey Rourke’s trumpeted comeback role in “The Wrestler” a story to cherish. So far the film has won seven cinema awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

Born on Sept. 16, 1956, in Schenectady, N.Y, Rourke was in the second wave of baby boomers who became movie stars. His breakout performance came in 1981 with a supporting part as the arsonist in “Body Heat.” He followed up the next year with a larger, equally charismatic performance in “Diner” as the world-weary hairdresser and sex stud Boogie.

That’s when the demons grabbed him. Blessed with a fat bank account and burdened with roiling anger he blamed on the difficulties of a complicated childhood, Rourke went spinning out of control. The worse his films turned out, the angrier he became.

By the late 1980s Rourke gave up on his movie career and started training to be a professional boxer. Some biographers say he had been an excellent boxer in high school. Nobody noted if he had a role in the junior class play.

Winning his first professional match in 1991 under the name Marielito, he kept entering the ring until 1995, though he was never competitive against top-level fighters. Mostly his face was turned into a pulverized piece of meat. By 1994 his world view was equally distorted.

They say Rourke turned down the part of Butch Coolidge (that was played by Bruce Willis) in “Pulp Fiction.” Wikipedia lists an unbelievable string of significant roles Rourke was offered and refused: “The Untouchables” (playing Eliot Ness), “Beverly Hills Cop” (the Eddie Murphy role), “Rain Man” (the Tom Cruise role), “48 Hrs.” (the Nick Nolte part), “The Silence of the Lambs,” “The “Highlander” and “Platoon.”

What we know for sure is that Rourke’s poor judgment picking movie projects kept his career on a long downward slide through an amazing string of forgettable parts in unwatchable pictures.

In 1994 there was also his Los Angeles arrest for allegedly beating his wife, Carré Otis, a confirmed heroin user. Though the charges were dropped later, his Hollywood reputation for being difficult amped even higher.

It wasn’t until 2005 that Rourke received a touch of redemption with his appearance in “Sin City.” He was practically typecast in that one as Marv, a muscle-ripped pug whose overheated pressure-cooker rage kept him on the edge of spontaneous combustion.

Now Rourke is looking like the king of the world again, leaning out across the bow of celebrity and into the wind of fame. But is he feeling triumphant?

Naaaa. He’s stirring up blog fever about some alleged e-mail insulting Sean Penn, whose performance as Harvey Milk in the dramatized biopic “Milk” is also getting lots of Oscar buzz. Coincidence? Maybe intimidating the competition is just more of life imitating art.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Citizen Staff Writer
Entertainment

Entertainment news about personalities and events with an Old Pueblo connection.

Former UA tennis player

tries his hand at acting

Christopher Gessner, a former member of the University of Arizona tennis team, has a starring role in an indie movie.

The Canyon del Oro High School grad plays Mason in “Say Goodnight,” a romantic comedy that Internet Movie Database describes as “the story of four friends chasing tale.”

The plot, according to IMDb, is “three guys tell a friend the stories of how they met the loves of their lives, and how they managed to completely screw up the relationships.”

The film was shown at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase in July. It was filmed in that city.

New Nashville CD features ex-Tucsonan

Former Tucsonan Mason Douglas is among a group of singer-songwriters included in a CD released by a new record company in Nashville.

His song “Home Free” is one of the 10 tracks on Adroit Records’ compilation, “Words & Music Nashville.”

The emotional and touching song describes what a soldier will do for his country, according to the company’s Web site. Sample lyrics: “I will fight for what is right . . . I’ll stand tall till the day I die . . . I may come back home to a big parade or to my name carved in stone . . . but either way . . . I’m coming home free.”

The song gained national media attention and airplay in 2007 throughout the United States on a syndicated radio show “Big D & Bubba.”

“The first time I heard Mason sing this song, it gave me chills,” company founder Jim Tract says on the Web site. “I was fascinated to watch the veterans in the audience line up to shake his hand after the show and share their appreciation with him. That spoke volumes to me.

“Because this song does not choose sides, I thought it would be perfect for our first release and I’m thrilled that Mason has chosen to share it with us.”

Arizona native Douglas cites his influences as Counting Crows, Angie Aparo, Patty Griffin, Radney Foster, and The Veltz Family. For more details, check out myspace.com/masondouglasmusic, facebook.com/pages/Mason-Douglas/ 6668572411 and www.adroitrecords.com

Send submissions to calendar@tucsoncitizen.com.

Citizen Staff Writer
Movies

CHUCK GRAHAM

cgraham@tucsoncitizen.com

If this is January, it must be time for the 18th annual Tucson Jewish Film Festival.

Dedicated to discovering unusual documentaries and narrative features that open unexpected doors to the Jewish culture, this year’s lineup ranges from the mysticism of circumcision to daily life in a 350-year-old Sephardic Jewish community in Jamaica. Along the way are such movie stops as “The Greatest Jewish Basketball Documentary Film in the World!” evaluating the impact of Jewish basketball players in the National Basketball Association (it started with the New York Knickerbockers) and “Refusenik,” chronicling the 30-year international movement to free Jews held in the Soviet Union.

As always this magic carpet of cinema adventures at the local Jewish Community Center is accompanied by free popcorn.

“It’s our trademark,” says Susan Silverman with a laugh. This is her sixth year as director of the Tucson Jewish Film Festival.

“The festival’s been growing exponentially,” she says, meaning both the size of the audience and the quality of the film program. “I already have a stack of films ready to preview for next year’s festival. But that will wait until we finish this one.”

At the heart of each year’s program is the TJFF Volunteer Steering Committee. This standing group with 20 active members picks all the pictures every year.

“We’re pushing this year, our 18th year, as our coming of age year,” Silverman explains. “There is the bar mitzvah film, ‘Sixty Six,’ and also “Eyewitness, 60 Years” commemorating Israel being 60 years old.

“But more than having a theme, what drives our film selection choice every year is excellence.”

A lot of the clues for finding the good stuff come from watching what is successful at other Jewish film festivals around the world. Thanks to the Internet, this isn’t as difficult as it used to be.

“There are over 250 Jewish film festivals around the world now,” Silverman says. “If you are a Jewish filmmaker, it is niche.”

This weekend and next weekend are the scheduling high points, with comedians and musicians, film directors and guest speakers filling the bill.

Opening night on Saturday should be a real laugher with an international flavor. They are calling the event Tucson’s version of Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, with the kosher part handled by San Francisco comic Lisa Geduldig. For several years she has pondered in public the 2,000-year-old question “What’s a Jew supposed to do on Christmas?” Her answer? Do a comedy show in a Chinese restaurant.

After the comedy comes the Israeli comedy-drama “Noodle,” about a twice-widowed El Al flight attendant who helps a confused Chinese boy whose migrant-worker mother has been summarily deported from Israel. Both the flight attendant and the boy have their lives changed forever.

But that’s not all. After the movie comes the capper some are calling the Kung Pao Kosher Ori-yenta Dessert Reception.

Sunday is a bit more serious, given over to the program “Embracing Special Needs Through the Arts.” The film centerpiece is “Praying With Lior,” a documentary about a boy with Down syndrome who is considered a “spiritual genius” by some. But the comments of others are not so respectful. Also attending is the film’s director Ilana Trachtman. An afternoon workshop on sensitivity awareness for special needs children is also planned. The Arts for All Adult Dance Ensemble will perform at 6 p.m.

The short film “Leaving Paradise: The Jews of Jamaica” will be presented along with the evening screening of “Praying With Lion.”

Next weekend warms up on Thursday, Jan. 15, with a pair of quite personal documentaries relating to the religious tradition of circumcision. After the nice Catholic boy Chris Campbell converts to Judaism he becomes a stand-up comic obsessed with all things Orthodox. Then he stars in this movie, “Circumcise Me.”

Meanwhile “Quest for the Missing Piece” records the funny yet disconcerting ruminations of filmmaker Oded Lotan, who ponders, if many biblical commandments are routinely ignored, why is circumcision so vigorously observed? Could some timeless tribal bonding be at the heart of this tradition?

The Tucson Jewish Film Festival continues through Jan. 22 at the Jewish Community Center, with some supporting events at the Loft Cinema and in the Gallagher Theater at the University of Arizona. Additional screenings are scheduled for February and March.

IF YOU GO

What: 18th annual Tucson Jewish Film Festival

When: Various times Friday through Jan. 22, plus Feb. 15 and 22, March 1

Where: most events at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road

Price: $9 adults, $7 students and senior citizens, most screenings: Opening Night and TJFF’s Chai Celebration with Bar Mitzvah Party, $18 adults, $15 students, senior citizens and JCC members

Info: 299-3000, www.tucsonjewishfilmfestival.org

2009 JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

SATURDAY

7 p.m. – Kung Pao Kosher Comedy: Opening Night Celebration, Lisa Geduldig, comedy performance

7:30 – “Noodle” – At 37, Miri is a twice-widowed, El Al flight attendant. Her well-regulated existence is suddenly turned upside down by an abandoned Chinese boy whose migrant-worker mother has been summarily deported from Israel; directed by Ayelet Menahemi, (Israel, 2007); Hebrew with English subtitles; 100 mins.

9 – Chinese-themed reception/party

SUNDAY

Embracing Special Needs Through the Arts Program

2 p.m. – special guest speakers: Dr. Lynn Nadel and Dr. Jamie Edgin, Down Syndrome Research Group, University of Arizona Psychology Deptartment.

2:15 – “Praying with Lior,” with director, Ilana Trachtman; documentary introduces Lior Liebling, also called “the little rebbe.” Lior has Down syndrome, and has spent his entire life praying with utter abandon. Is he a “spiritual genius” as many around him say? Or simply the vessel that contains everyone’s unfulfilled wishes and expectations? (US, 2007) English; 87 mins.

4-5:30 – The Council of Jewish Educational Directors (CEDs) presents a Special Needs Sensitivity Awareness Workshop, in the JCC Fine Art Gallery.

6 – Arts for All Adult Dance Ensemble performance

6:30 – Introductory remarks by director Ilana Trachtman

7 – double feature – “Leaving Paradise: The Jews of Jamaica” and “Praying with Lior.” “Leaving Paradise” explores a little known community that has existed in Kingston, Jamaica for over 350 years. Jewish traditions are interpreted through a diverse array of racial and ethnic backgrounds as this film offers a unique lens into issues of race, religion and cultural identity; directed by Melanie Levy; (US, 2007) English; 13 mins.

MONDAY

7 p.m. – “My Father, My Lord (Hofshat Kayitz)” – An intimate and deeply disturbing story of the conflict between a father’s love and his deep devotion to religion. A respected Orthodox rabbi dotes on his only son but his religious strictures leave an emotional gap between the impish child and the stern father. A dramatic retelling of the story of Abraham & Isaac with a devastating “twist”; directed by David Volach; (Israel, 2007) Hebrew with English subtitles; 72 mins.

TUESDAY

6 p.m. – “Eyewitness, 60 Years” – Israel, as envisioned through the lens of the internationally acclaimed photographer David Rubinger, the laureate of the Israeli Award for Photography; written and Directed by Micha Shagrir; (Israel, 2008); Hebrew with English subtitles; 50 mins.

7:30 – “Love and Dance” – Chen is caught in the middle of the cultural conflict raging between his Russian-born mother and his Israeli father. One day he stumbles upon a ballroom dance class for young people and sees Natalie, a stunning young Russian girl with whom he immediately falls in love; a film by Eitan Anner; (Israel, 2006) Hebrew with English subtitles; 90 mins.

WEDNESDAY

1 p.m. – Yiddish Film Matinee, “His Wife’s Lover (Zayn Vaybs Lubovnik)” – Stars the popular comedian of the Yiddish theatre Ludwig Satz in his only film performance. Billed as the “first Jewish musical comedy talking picture,” the film revels in its role reversals and love triangles; directed by Sidney M. Goldin; (USA, 1931); B&W, Yiddish with new English subtitles; 80 mins.

7 – double feature: “Torte Bluma” – Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942-43, enjoyed a most unusual relationship with the Jewish slave who cooked his meals. Teetering on the brink of insanity, their daily rituals were held together by a tenuous thread – until the cargo train brought a surprising arrival; directed by Benjamin Ross; (UK, 2005); English; 18 mins.

“Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh,” with director Roberta Grossman – Narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, this is the first documentary about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Senesh joined a mission to rescue Hungary’s Jews. Senesh parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed by the Nazis; (USA, 2008); 85 mins.

JAN. 15

7 p.m. – double feature: “Circumcise Me” – Yisrael Campbell looks more like a rabbi than a comedian, but don’t be fooled by the big black hat, frock coat and Hasidic side curls. Born Chris Campbell, the son of an ex-nun and a Catholic schoolteacher, he converted to Judaism not once, but three times: Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. The film is a hilarious and moving story of one man’s quest for spiritual enlightenment against the bewildering backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; directed by David Blumenfeld and Matthew Kalman; (US, 2007); English; 48 mins.

“Quest for the Missing Piece” – A funny, disconcerting romp through the debate over circumcision, “the unkindest cut of all.” Using a gentle touch in a sensitive area, filmmaker Oded Lotan takes us on a bris tour: a Jewish baby, a Muslim 7-year-old, and an adult Russian-Israeli soldier. Lotan introduces us to his gay, goy lover (oy); to his mother, who endorses circumcision, but not gay love (oy yoy); and to a Tel Aviv anti-circumcision group dedicated to having “intact” Jewish children (oy yoy yoy!); directed by Lotan; (Israel, 2007) Hebrew, Russian, German with English subtitles; 52 mins.

JAN. 16

1 p.m. – “At Home in Utopia,” with filmmaker Michal Goldman – In the 1920s, thousands of immigrant Jewish garment workers put a new spin on the American dream by building four big, beautiful, cooperatively owned apartment complexes in the Bronx. “At Home in Utopia” is the story of the struggle for equity and racial justice in the most radical of the houses – the United Workers Cooperative Colony, aka the Coops; (US, 2008) English and Yiddish with English subtitles; 57 mins.

JAN. 17

Chai Celebration and Bar Mitzvah Party, featuring the Saul Kaye Band and Jewish Blues

7:30 p.m. – “Sixty Six” – Bernie Rubens can’t wait for his bar mitzvah day to arrive: For once he will be the center of attention. Who knew that on Bernie’s big day, in the summer of 1966, all of England would be consumed by soccer’s World Cup Final fever? directed by Paul Weiland; (UK, 2007); English; 95 mins.

Film followed by Special Dessert Reception and Dance Party with Saul Kaye Band

JAN. 18

Holocaust Education Film Series

1 p.m. – double feature: “Paying for Justice” – A documentary dealing with the situation of the Holocaust survivors in Israel and around the world. The filmmakers follow the billions of dollars transferred from the German governments and other European governments as compensation for those who managed to live through the Nazi terror; directed by Guy Meroz and Orli Vilnai-Federbush; (Israel, 2007) Hebrew with English subtitles; 58 mins.

“The House on August Street” – Tells the unknown story of Beate Berger, a German Jew who single-handedly and with great resolve and vision rescued more than 100 children during the Holocaust, smuggling them from Berlin to Palestine in the 1930s; directed by Ayelet Bargur; (Israel, 2007); Hebrew and German with English subtitles; 63 mins.

4 – double feature: “Spielzeugland (Toyland)” – 1942: what happens when a German kid believes that his Jewish neighbors are going to Toyland? A beautiful and moving story about lies and guilt; directed by Jochen Alexander Freydank; (Germany, 2007) German with English subtitles; 13 mins.

“Swimming in Auschwitz,” with director Jon Kean – The interwoven stories of six women provide a glimpse into life, spirit and survival at the notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz; (US, 2007); English; 63 mins.

7 p.m. – Double Feature: “Jewish Women in American Sport: Settlement Houses to the Olympics” – Historian Linda Borish brings together three separate specializations: gender history, sports history and the history of ethnic groups – in an expertly conceived project; (US, 2007); English; 27 mins.

“The First Basket” – On Nov. 1, 1946, in the opening game of the fledgling Basketball Association of America, Ossie Schectman scored the opening basket for the New York Knickerbockers against the Toronto Huskies. Schectman’s shot is considered the first basket in the NBA. The film follows these Jewish basketball experiences, from ash cans placed on the stoops of brownstones, to the bright lights of Madison Square Garden; directed by David Vyorst; (US, 2008) English; 86 mins.

JAN. 19

7 p.m. – “Refusenik” – The first retrospective film to chronicle the 30-year international movement to free Soviet Jews. Told through the eyes of activists on both sides of the Iron Curtain – many of whom survived punishment in Soviet Gulag labor camps – the film is a tapestry of first-person accounts of heroism, sacrifice, and ultimately, liberation; directed by Laura Bialis; (US, 2007); English, Russian and Hebrew with subtitles; 117 mins.

JAN. 20

7 p.m. – “My Mexican Shivah” – Set in Polanco, a Jewish quarter of Mexico City, the film is a dramatic comedy about how the death of a man results in the celebration of his life. Which angel will win the battle for Moishe’s soul? If the shivah reveals anything, it’s that Moishe’s family and friends loved him with all his flaws and mystery – and most of all his spirit; directed by Alejandro Springall (based on a story by Ilán Stavans); (Mexico, 2007); Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew with English subtitles; 98 mins.

JAN. 21

1 p.m. – Sephardic matinee, double feature with speakers David Graizbord, professor at the UA Center for Judaic Studies and Irving Senor, Holocaust survivor: “Leaving Paradise: The Jews of Jamaica”

“Salonica: Thessalonoki Stories” – What makes this northern Greek city historically unique is the fact that for 450 years it was mainly Jewish and the predominant language was Spanish. This is because Thessaloniki was populated by the Jews who were expelled from Catholic Spain in 1492 and who subsequently found refuge in the Ottoman Empire – up until their almost total annihilation by the Germans during the Shoah in 1943; Paolo Paolini; (Switzerland, 2008) Ladino with English subtitles; 87 mins.

7 – “Constantine’s Sword” – An astonishing exploration of the dark side of Christianity, following acclaimed author and former priest James Carroll on a journey of remembrance and reckoning. Carroll focuses on Christian anti-Semitism as the model for all religious hatred, exposing the cross as a symbol of a long history of violence against Jews (and, most recently, Muslims); directed by Oren Jacoby; (U.S., 2007); English; 95 min.

JAN. 22

7 p.m. – double feature at The Loft Cinema: “Spielzeugland (Toyland)” and “A Secret (Un Secret)” – Adapted from Philippe Grimbert’s bestselling novel, “Un Secret” is a story of passion and guilt in troubled times, which unfolds as a young teenager uncovers the truth about his parents’ past; directed by Claude Miller; (France, 2007); French, Yiddish, German with English subtitles; 107 mins.

FEB. 15

7 p.m. – “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias, O)” – A 12-year-old Brazilian boy who longs to see his team win out over Italy in the 1970 World Cup match finds his entire world turned upside down as his left-wing parents are forced into hiding and he is sent to live with his grandfather in São Paulo’s Bom Retiro district; a film by Cao Hamburger; (Brazil, 2008); Portugese with English subtitles; 110 mins.

FEB. 22

Israeli Film Series at UA Gallagher Theater

Noon – “Someone to Run With” – Assaf, a shy, awkward 17-year-old, is yanked from his mundane summer job and given an impossible task: to track down the owner of a lost Labrador found wandering the streets of Jerusalem. The owner, Tamar, a gifted musician on a desperate quest, is ensnared in a seamy underworld that captivates Assaf; directed by Oded Davidoff; (Israel, 2006); Hebrew with English subtitles; 118 mins.

2:30 – “Noodle”

4:30 – “Between Two Notes” – Featuring oud master Yair Dalal, this film visits some of the centres of Arab music, including Egypt, Iraq and the Baka’a Valley in Lebanon and shows how Jewish influences have affected Arab music and how Arab influences have affected Jewish music; directed by Florence Strauss; (Canada/Israel/Syria, 2006); 52 mins.

MAY 14-17

Fabulous Faygeleh Film Festival (GLBT Film Series)

“Antarctica” – Like last year’s “The Bubble,” “Antarctica” follows the lives of a group of young people living in Tel Aviv but takes a very different and more upbeat approach. Instead of a politically astute tragedy, director Yair Hochner gives us a wacky comedy that ignores politics altogether while focusing on its characters’ domestic and romantic problems; Directed by Yair Hochner; (Israel, 2007); Hebrew with English subtitles

“Darling: The Story of Pieter Dirk Uys” – An inspiring portrait of South Africa’s outrageous, controversial and brilliant political satirist (and occasional drag entertainer) Pieter-Dirk Uys, who now uses humor and rage to combat HIV/AIDS; directed by Julian Shaw; New Zealand/South Africa/Australia, 2006; English; 54 mins.

“Jerusalem is Proud to Present” – In 2006, Jerusalem hosted the World Pride events, which were planned to culminate in a gay pride parade. Nitzan Gilady’s award-winning documentary weaves together the passions of gay rights activists and religious Jews, Muslims and Christians who oppose them; directed by Nitzan Gilady; (Israel, 2007; Hebrew with English subtitles; 82 mins.

“Mother, I Didn’t Kill Your Daughter” – Lior and Yuval are a couple; Lior is opinionated and Yuval is introverted. Both were born as women, but throughout their lives they identified as male. Yuval underwent gender transition years ago; Lior is just starting out on this journey. Lior turns a camera on himself, and his video diaries – raw and brave – capture the fear, doubts, hope and excitement that come with change. directed by Orna ben Dor; (Israel, 2007) Hebrew with English subtitles; 50 mins.

“The Secrets (Ha’Sodot)” – Naomi, the brilliant and pious daughter of an ultra-orthodox rabbi finds herself at a crossroads of life choices when her mother dies and she is expected to immediately marry her father’s prodigy. Distressed yet determined, she begs that her father allow her one year to study at a women’s religious seminary in Safed, the birthplace of the Kabalah. Her father relents and Naomi’s life begins to take an unexpected turn; directed by Avi Nesher; (France/Israel, 2007); English/French/Hebrew with English subtitles; 120 mins.

Freelance
Shelf Life

‘Faberge’s Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived the Empire’

By Toby Faber (Random House, $30)

The last two czars of Russia gave their czarinas elaborate handcrafted Easter eggs that have become synonymous with privilege, beauty and, as the author points out, an almost provocative uselessness. In this highly readable book, Faber, a London-based author and former publisher, traces the history of the Faberge imperial eggs, objects that reflected the pinnacle of the jeweler’s art. Meticulously researched and brilliantly crafted, this is perfect reading for the holiday season.

‘The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren’

By Jonathan Lopez (Harcourt, $26)

Han van Meegeren was an ingenious, talented faker who crafted paintings that were so astonishingly good, many were passed off as authentic Vermeers and purchased by museums and collectors throughout the world. For example, two “Vermeers” donated by Andrew Mellon to the National Gallery in Washington and exhibited for years were eventually determined to be the work of van Meegeren, not the great Dutch painter. Lopez, a Manhattan-based writer and art critic, tracked down primary sources in four countries and five languages to uncover the real story of this dodgy, incredible forger.

‘A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books’

By Alex Beam (PublicAffairs, $24.95)

In 1952, the University of Chicago and the Encyclopedia Britannica launched the Great Books series, a set of 54 volumes that represented 443 works by 74 authors. The editors – including motor-mouthed Mortimer Adler – announced with great fanfare that the Great Books encompassed all of Western knowledge, from Homer to Freud. More than a million American households purchased the sets at a cost of several hundred dollars each, mainly from traveling door-to-door salesmen. The double-column, eye-straining type and the dry, dull, almost unreadable text were no match for the flickering screen popping up in living rooms throughout the country. How and why the Great Books failed so miserably is documented by Beam, a columnist for the Boston Globe.

‘Peaches & Daddy: A Story of the Roaring 20s, the Birth of Tabloid Media, & the Courtship that Captured the Heart and Imagination of the American Public’

By Michael M. Greenburg (Overlook, $25.95)

Edward “Daddy” Browning was an aging millionaire who loved to pick up sweet young things at tea dances in New York. In 1926, he waltzed through the doors of the Hotel McAlpin and into the life of a 15-year-old high school dropout named Frances “Peaches” Heenan. Thirty-seven days later, when the couple married, the event created a tabloid feeding frenzy. The bizarre courtship, the brief marriage and the bitter divorce are the trappings of a cautionary tale of love, greed and nonsense. Greenburg’s account, set against the backdrop of Prohibition, jazz and impending economic meltdown, is a witty, insightful and entertaining look at the sometimes destructive consequences of fame and publicity.

‘Gila Libre! New Mexico’s Last Wild River’

By M.H. Salmon (University of New Mexico Press, $19.95)

Located near where the Rocky Mountains meet the Sierra Madre, the Gila River is the last major undeveloped river in New Mexico. M.H. Salmon, a Silver City-based writer who has written extensively about the American Southwest, reveals the river’s story to date and speculates on its future. His highly readable book extols the recreational joys of the waterway, including fishing, bird-watching and canoeing. This is a fitting homage to one of the last truly rare, wild places in our region.

‘I Am Innocent! A Comprehensive Encyclopedic History of the World’s Wrongly Convicted Persons’

By Jay Robert Nash (Da Capo, $24.95)

This epic 808-page work documents in chilling detail the cases of nearly 1,200 people who have been wrongly convicted by our legal system – from Leo Frank to the Scottsboro Boys, from Dr. Sam Sheppard to Anthony Porter. Nash, a leading expert on the history of crime, has compiled an annotated encyclopedic work, accompanied by hundreds of illustrations, a comprehensive glossary of legal and law enforcement terms, a list of movies based on famous cases, an extensive chronology and bibliography, and even a cross-referenced index. Arizona is represented by seven cases: Robert Charles Cruz, John Henry Knapp, Ray Krone and Jonathan Treadway of Phoenix; Larry Youngblood, Pima County; Raymond Girdler, Yavapai County; and Jimmy Lee Mathers of Yuma.

‘The Mural at the Waverly Inn: A Portrait of Greenwich Village Bohemians’

With a text by Dorothy Gallagher (Pantheon, $15.95)

The Waverly Inn opened in New York City’s Greenwich Village during the 1920s. Two years ago, Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair’s editor-in-chief, purchased and refurbished the historic landmark. As part of the new décor, Carter commissioned Edward Sorel, the New Yorker artist, to paint a mural featuring 43 celebrities representing the past 150 years. Dorothy Parker shares wall space with such fellow luminaries as Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Joan Baez and Fran Lebowitz.

‘Colonias in Arizona and New Mexico: Border Poverty and Community Development Solutions’

By Adrian X. Esparza & Angela J. Donelson (University of Arizona Press, $19.95)

Half a million people live in 227 officially designated colonias in southern Arizona and New Mexico. These communities are characterized by poor-quality housing and a lack of infrastructure, adequate water, sewer systems and electricity. Adrian X. Esparza, an associate professor in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Arizona, and Angela Joy Donelson, president of Donelson Consulting, a firm that assists nonprofit organizations and local governments with housing and community development capacity building, provide the first comprehensive overview of regional colonias, with the aim of increasing their visibility and promoting community development. This is a seminal work that merits our attention.

‘Wings in the Desert: A Folk Ornithology of the Northern Pimans’

By Amadeo M. Rea (University of Arizona Press, $70)

In this focused account of the Tohono O’odham tribes of Arizona and northwest Mexico, Amadeo Rea, an adjunct professor in the department of anthropology at the University of San Diego, explores the rich ornithology that has been generated by tribal members about the birds native to their region. Through highly detailed descriptions and accounts that reflect Native American voices, this is the definitive study of folk ornithology and a valuable asset for scholars of both linguistics and North American Native studies.

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

CLAIRE ENGELKEN

calendar@tucsoncitizen.com

“Mamma Mia here I go again, my my, how can I resist you?”

If you’re singing along, you’re a part of the ABBA faithful (whether you want to admit it or not).

And don’t worry, you’re not alone. The evidence is overwhelming.

First “Mamma Mia!” the musical came to Tucson, then the hit movie. And now “Björn Again: The ABBA Experience,” an all-ABBA production, has made its way to the big stage.

“Björn Again”‘s Thursday show at Centennial Hall consists of six musicians with faux-Swedish accents, ample enthusiasm and a lot of sequins. UApresents says the production, which includes about 20 songs by the Swedish supergroup, is “remarkably accurate.”

“Björn Again” promises the actors “look like ABBA, dress like ABBA and sing like ABBA.”

And just like an ABBA concert, audience members are encouraged to (and often do) dress like ABBA, sing and dance throughout the entire show.

“We are for people who want to relive the ABBA experience and just dance,” says Chad Holtzman, a tenured member of “Björn Again,” who’s on the North American tour. We caught up with Holtzman on his cell phone hours after he landed in Minnesota.

“Gimme gimme gimme …”

ABBA – Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog – became a pop sensation in the ’70s, but their music has stayed popular in part thanks to the Broadway show, film and songs in dozens of movie soundtracks.

“We have a very wide variety of fans,” Holtzman says. “Anybody from 10 to 80.”

Holtzman attributes the varied and immense crowds to the music.

” ‘Dancing Queen’ is always huge. We play a good set of tunes, there’s a lot of familiarity,” he says.

And the costumes don’t hurt, either. Holtzman, a tall, long-haired man with a perpetual surfer dude attitude, laughs when talking about the silver one-piece jumpsuit he dons for the show. The jumpsuit also includes a deep V-neck and large purple stars.

“The costumes are pretty funky,” he says. “They are definitely eye-catching.”

“You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life…”

While ABBA fans span nearly the entire globe, Holtzman said he wasn’t a follower of the band’s music until he joined the touring group.

“It really grew on me,” Holtzman said. “But now I have a deep appreciation for the songwriting. It has incredible longevity.”

Holtzman, a lifelong musician, heard about the auditions through word of mouth and joined “Björn Again” seven years ago.

Tours often last only a few weeks, allowing Holtzman to continue playing with other bands in his native Calgary, Alberta.

“Björn Again” currently has five troupes around the world. The touring groups have performed more than 5,000 shows in more than 50 countries since the stage show began in 1988 in Melbourne, Australia.

IF YOU GO

What: “Björn Again: The ABBA Experience”

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd.

Cost: Tickets are available at $20, $32 and $44

Info: 621-3341, uapresents.org

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

OTTO ROSS

ottoross@tucsoncitizen.com

Thousands gather each year as the massive, teeming All Souls Procession deluges Fourth Avenue and winds its way downtown. Giant skeleton puppets and grotesque stilt walkers march alongside solemn, darkly clothed mourners. Some walk in contemplative silence while others whoop and yell.

For roommates Vanessa Allen, 22, and Drew Abromowitz, 23, the All Souls Procession is a party they wait for all year long. For Belinda Araneta, 45, the procession will be a time to reflect on her mother, who died in December.

“It’s just a big blend where creative expression for living meets remembrance,” Abromowitz says.

The procession is an annual event that coincides with the Mexican holiday, Día de los Muertos, a celebration of life and a tribute to the dead.

“It’s a wonderful day,” Araneta says. “We are all so busy in our lives that it makes you stop and really think about the person you’re missing and some of the memories. That means the food they liked and the music they liked, as if they were part of your life still.”

Following her mother Aurelia’s death at the age of 83, Araneta has gone through a period of grieving and is beginning to cope with the loss. Preparing for the procession has helped her in that process, she says.

“It’s really healing to be able to do this and it’s a feel-good kind of thing, not like I feel depressed,” she says sitting in the kitchen of her mother’s home. “I think she would love the artsy excitement and music. She would love to be part of that, so why not take her?”

In the procession Araneta will carry a portrait of her mother, whom she describes as a charitable, eclectic, family-oriented woman who enjoyed spending time in the kitchen cooking meals for her family.

“She could make anything,” Araneta says. “The woman could take leftovers and make anything, with no recipe, and she was fast!”

When Aurelia wasn’t cooking she was either tending to her elaborate garden or painting. Nearly everything in the Araneta home is highlighted by Aurelia’s bright and colorful touches. Door frames, windows, desks, beds, even shoes are all adorned with colorful flowers and small designs delicately brushed on their surfaces.

“She would paint phones, she would paint anything. At one point she was painting clothes,” Araneta says. “We used to have a joke that if we stood still she would paint us.”

While Araneta sees the event as a time for reflection and contemplation, she has no problem with those who take a more light-hearted approach to the procession.

“Everyone goes for their own reasons,” she says. “At different times of your life that tradition holds a different meaning for you. So if you’ve never had a loved one pass away it might not mean as much to you; it’s more like, ‘Well let me dress up in my mask and have fun and walk around with people.’ ”

For Allen and Abromowitz the procession is more of a grand party than a time for mourning.

“I don’t think remembrance is the pure essence of the parade when you look at the giant puppets and people walking on sticks and stuff like that,” Abromowitz says. “If it was just a parade of people solemnly marching in remembrance I think it would be an entirely different thing, but it’s meant to be a celebration of life and really festive.”

Last year, the two roomies started a tradition of inviting people over to their Fourth Avenue home to drink, party and prepare for the parade.

“People brought fake flowers and their own makeup and extra costume pieces and people traded off,” Allen explains.

“Totally, so if someone wants to stick a last-minute accessory in their hair or if someone shows up and they don’t have face paint, at the very least everyone has makeup,” Abromowitz adds.

To Allen and Abromowitz, lavish and unique costumes are a crucial part of the event. When asked what their ideas were for this year’s costumes, Allen began to answer as Abromowitz ran off to another room to fetch his costume.

“I think the spirit of it is to kind of just put together whatever you can. What most women strive for is a white dress so they look like brides, but it’s mostly skeleton face paint or girls have a lot of flowers in their hair,” Allen answers as Abromowitz suddenly appears back in the room holding a homemade shell of an elaborate hoop dress.

“Best dead person ever, Marie Antoinette,” Abromowitz explains giddily. “So this year there is going to be a big dress stitched on top of everything and I’m making a corset that shrinks me down to, (gestures a tiny oval with his hands,) and I’m just going to paint those shoes golden.”

Like Abromowitz and Allen, many people put a lot of care into their costumes and see the procession as a great way to connect and socialize with other locals around Tucson.

“You meet a lot of people and the thing is, whether it’s a Halloween run-off costume or a new costume for the occasion, this gives you the chance to really go the extra mile to do something awesome, and you’re really recognized and in turn you recognize other people’s amazing effort,” Abromowitz explains.

For their get-together this year Abromowitz and Allen are expecting more than the 20 people who showed up last time. This year the party will be open to all, Abromowitz says.

“If people want to bring booze and not trash the house then we’re good to go.”

The spectacle of the procession intertwined with the rich cultural holiday has made the All Souls Procession a local staple and important event in the community.

“Every year the procession gets bigger and bigger and bigger and every year more and more people find a need for it, there’s a need for this,” Araneta says.

Allen and Abromowitz agree with Araneta’s opinion that the procession is a key Tucson tradition.

“We’re like totally into this thing,” Allen says.

Adds Abromowitz, “Yeah, Día de los Muertos is amazing.”

IF YOU GO

What: 19th annual Tucson All Souls Procession

When: 5 p.m. Sunday

Where: The procession begins at University Boulevard and Fourth Avenue and continues through downtown, ending at the old railroad docks near Sixth Street and Stone Avenue.

Price: Free

Info: www.allsoulsprocession.org

DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS EVENTS

PROCESSION OF LITTLE ANGELS: The Procession of Little Angels is a parade designed entirely for kids, held the day before the All Souls Procession. Children participate in art activities such as wing making, face painting, sugar skulls decorating, story telling and theater. Angels on stilts will lead the children on a procession around a downtown public square to the finale stage area, where artists present a live performance-spectacle. Have your children bring pictures, photos or drawings of their loved ones who have died. This may include pets, family members or friends. These items will be scanned and projected on the side of the library building. Children’s Altar Project: Bring pictures, mementos, toys and other items to contribute to this evolving children’s community altar. This is meant as both an altar for children to add items to, as well as families to honor children who have passed. When: 3-7 p.m. Saturday Where: Jacome Plaza, Joel D. Valdez Main Library 101 N. Stone Ave. Price: free Info: www.allsoulsprocession.org

DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS ALTAR PRESENTATION: Take part in a traditional Día de los Muertos altar presentation. This ceremony honors those who have passed away and welcomes their souls back for the celebration. When: 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 15 Where: The altar is in Tolteca Tlacuilo in the Old Town Artisans Complex, 186 N. Meyer Ave. Price: Free Info: 623-5787

‘DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS’ AT CONTRERAS: Remember departed relatives and friends through photography, paintings, shrines and assemblages by Cathy Murphy, David Tineo, Carolyn King, Martin Quintanilla, Neda Contreras and E. Michael Contreras. The show runs through Nov. 29. When: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Where: Contreras Gallery, 110 E. Sixth. St. Price: free Info: 398-6557

‘DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS’ EXHIBIT AT OBSIDIAN: The Mexican holiday honoring the dead is celebrated with an exhibit of ceramics, drawings, paintings, photographs and jewelry. With 14 participating artists, the show runs through Nov. 15. When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Where: Obsidian Gallery, 4320 N. Campbell Ave. Price: free Info: 577-3598, www.obsidian-gallery.com

RAICES TALLER EXHIBIT: Community groups, guest artists and gallery members pay personal tribute to the “Day of the Dead” with altars, ofrendas (offerings), paintings and sculpture. The exhibit runs through Nov. 22, with a closing celebration set for 6-9 p.m. When: 1-5 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays or by appointment Where: Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery and Workshop, 218 E. Sixth St. Info: 881-5335, www.RaicesTaller222.org

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

CHUCK GRAHAM

cgraham@tucsoncitizen.com

Can lightning strike twice in the same place? Tucson playwright Gavin Kayner hopes it can.

He returns to Beowulf Alley Theatre with a new play, “Noche de los Muertos,” set in Magdalena, Mexico, in 1927.

The backdrop of the story is based on historical fact during a controversial time when the Mexican government wanted to undermine the influence of the church over the people. It is performed in English.

Just last year, the industrious Kayner pulled off one of the most rare feats in show business. He rented the Beowulf Alley Theatre and paid the production costs to present another of his plays, the philosophical “Thumbs.” Even though the subject matter was complex and the dialogue somewhat elevated, audiences lined up at the box office.

The unknown playwright with his unknown play had become a local hit.

“Surprisingly enough, we made money,” Kayner says modestly with a chuckle.

So when Beowulf Alley put out the call for new plays earlier this year, the enterprising artist stepped up with “Noche de los Muertos.”

“It had won some earlier awards for writing, but this will be the first full production,” Kayner says.

In August, Kayner says, several workshop performances of “Noche” helped in fine-tuning some of the nuances.

“And there was affirmation from the audience, as well,” he adds with a smile.

Now the world premiere of “Noche de los Muertos” opens Saturday, the day before Día de los Muertos.

“They gave me the play to read and I loved it,” says Sheldon Metz, a new face in town. “It’s timely and important. This is a play that needs to be seen.

“It’s about the conflict between church and state, an issue that has been very important in the last two elections for president in our country. But the play doesn’t try to point fingers at anyone. There are antagonists and protagonists on both sides.”

Metz, with a résumé that includes many years of quality theater experience in southern California, moved to Tucson in June. Then he was drawn to Beowulf Alley’s open format for actors, directors and playwrights. After signing up to direct “Proof” at the downtown theater in the spring of 2009, Metz couldn’t resist directing “Noche” as well.

“The characters are so real,” Metz continues. “And this is definitely a director’s play. Gavin gives you everything. All the lines are on the page. The emotions as well as the words. Everything is there.

“So it is up to me, the director, to get the actors to provide the best phrasing, the right shading.”

This being a world premiere, both the director and the cast have an opportunity to create completely new characters out of their imaginations. There is no earlier production precedent for Metz to either follow or reject. His empty stage becomes a plain sheet of paper to fill with his own designs.

“My part is over,” Kayner says. “I don’t think I want to attend any rehearsals. I do have my own vision of the play, my own image of what it should look like.

“But theater is so invigorating because it is such a group effort, with input from so many people.”

Metz plans to share that invigoration, as well. He talks about the process he likes to use in developing each actor’s performance.

“I work on individual roles with each of them, sharing ideas, collaborating, helping find specific moments in the play that open up the emotions of their characters,” he explains.

“Although there is a lot of Mexican culture in the play, most of it is inferred,” the director explains. “All these characters are very accessible. The audience will identify with each of them.”

Kayner remembers “Noche de los Muertos” was originally one of his short stories. It was inspired by the frequent trips he and his wife make to Mexico. In the town of Magdalena there is an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Francis Xavier. The saint’s statue rests in a reclining position. At the shrine, the pilgrims believe they must try to lift the head of the statue of St. Francis.

Those who aren’t deemed worthy of God won’t be able to lift the saint’s head.

“That had powerful psychological implications to me personally,” says Kayner. “I wouldn’t want to try it. What if it turned out I couldn’t lift it?”

But the play is not about the ritual. The play is about what happened in Magdalena in 1927 when Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles tried to make all the Catholic schools secular ones. Government officials were killed. Priests were killed. Violence erupted between the people and the army. Revolution was in the air.

“In the play, it says over 2 million people died in these waves of revolution,” Kayner says.

The play is set in motion when a government-appointed schoolteacher, Catalina, arrives in Magdalena to replace the local priest in educating the village children.

Catalina is accompanied by Renaldo, a government official, Tomas, a veteran member of the revolutionary forces, and Irma, a jaded soldier who would rather be living in the United States. When the priest refuses to co-operate with Renaldo, there is a murder before intermission.

“But the play isn’t a whodunit,” cautions Kayner. “It is more of a who’s-gonna-pay-for-it.”

IF YOU GO

What: Beowulf Alley Theatre presents “Noche de los Muertos” by Gavin Kayner

When: 7:30 p.m. preview Friday, opening at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, continuing at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 1:30 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 16

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

Price: $20 general admission, discount prices online only

Info: 882-0555, www.beowulfalley.org

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

OTTO ROSS

ottoross@tucson citizen.com

Halloween is coming up and there is no lack of terror in the air, but how do you decide which scare is right for you? Three different haunted events reviewed here show you can choose the degree of dread you want to keep you entertained and terrified this Halloween season.

The Nightmare at Breakers Water Park

This one takes the cake in the fright department. I nearly peed myself. The Nightmare creatively and brilliantly combines every horror imaginable into a cohesive and terrifying experience.

The attraction is broken down into three distinct events. The most terrifying of the trio is “Dr. Darke’s Darke Asylum.” The only part of the asylum that isn’t horrifying is the ironic, attractive girl at the entrance dressed in a kinky nurse outfit. Once she lets you in, the whole ordeal goes to hell.

To be honest, it’s difficult for me to give an entirely detailed account of this catastrophe, being that a decent amount of my time in the Asylum was spent with my eyes shut trying to power through the whole thing.

I am not ashamed.

From the moment you walk in, this haunted house is unrelenting. Each room epitomizes a vastly different but equally terrifying illustration of horror. Whatever your fear of choice is, Dr. Darke will come through for you. From an entire room dedicated to cracked-grin clowns to bloody body parts strewn about, the Asylum is a terrifying sensory overload that doesn’t let up until you sprint out in the end.

I won’t give away the last doozie that sends you screaming into the night.

The longer but slightly less scary “Black Voodoo” takes you through graveyards, broken-down rooms and forces you to walk far too close to a very convincing man butchering a body with a meat clever.

These are no-holds-barred haunted houses. You will be chased, yelled at and herded like cattle straight into things you would rather not encounter. They are certainly not for the faint of heart.

The “Eleventh Hour Maze” is a far more pleasant, psychedelic experience. With a pair of 3-D glasses you are let loose into a maze of bright designs and polka dots against dark walls. All of these colors appear to jump off the surfaces, and it’s impossible to resist trying to reach out and grab a handful of the colorful dots that appear to be floating in space.

The Eleventh Hour is a groovy experience, but The Nightmare is not worth attending unless you’re looking to be scared.

Buckelew Farm’s Haunted Cornfield

Wandering through a cornfield out in the boonies at night is an inherently unique and enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, Buckelew’s “Haunted” Cornfield was unable to offer much more than a leisurely stroll with the occasional cheaply masked figure popping out from time to time.

Each year, Buckelew Farm splits its cornfield into two sections, an elaborate corn maze and a haunted section dedicated to perpetuating people’s fear of farmland. This year’s haunted section was much longer than in previous years but seemed to have an overall lack of inspiration.

Instead of filling the added distance with ghosts and goblins, the longer walk proved to be just that – a long walk. The dead time in the tour seemed to be the result of a lack of hellish hires. Pig-head man becomes increasingly less scary after the third time you run into him. My group became so acquainted with one monster in particular that he took a moment from his malicious maiming to ask us the time. The random maintenance man strolling through the maze also kind of killed the mood.

This isn’t to say there weren’t times I found myself recoiling in terror. When creatures can jump out from anywhere, a few of them are bound to scare the hell out of you. These scares, however, tended to be a bit disorganized.

Back again this year is the terrifically terrifying pitch-black house of halls as well as the classic leather-face chain saw crazed beasts. Buckelew’s haunted cornfield is naturally a very different experience from the other haunted houses around town. Let’s face it, even without monsters, cornfields are a little creepy.

One disappointing difference this year is the lack of a theme. Throughout the journey you walk through a hall of bouncing clowns, dark alien figures and in the end bizarrely wind up in some kind of war trench. While this doesn’t detract from the random freakouts, you do lose something on the psychological end of the experience.

But it is nice to be out in the fresh air under the stars.

If you don’t mind the long drive and a bit of a wait in line once you get out there, Buckelew Farm’s Haunted Cornfield is worth checking out at least once.

Nightfall: Release the Beast

This year’s Nightfall at Old Tucson Studios is a great time for the family but will leave horror freaks wanting a bit more.

As usual, Old Tucson has transformed its western-themed town into a fun Halloween hangout. Fog fills some streets and various ghouls freely wander the village. Many buildings in town have been converted to haunted houses or performance areas for various shows. Food establishments and stores have been altered to fit the theme. Don’t be fooled; “Freaky Fries” taste exactly the same as french fries.

Most of the events this year relate to Dr. Jebediah Hyde, the evil and maniacal ruler and tormentor of Nightfall. The Halloween-inspired performances and collection of haunted houses, both of which are hit or miss.

The performance of “Hyde School Musical” is a fun spoof involving Dr. Hyde’s interactions with teens who sporadically break into song and dance. The cast of this show is surprisingly talented and the script is witty and entertaining.

In the ways that “Hyde School Musical” succeeds, the show “Symposium of Atrocities” falls flat on its face. Symposium is poorly written and doesn’t seem to follow any intelligible plot line. While everything else at Nightfall seems to be relatively family-oriented, Symposium is full of somewhat shocking and pointlessly crude dialogue involving everything from bestiality to date rape. Granted, there is a disclaimer alluding to the adult content, but it still comes off as tasteless and out of place.

As far as the haunted houses go, they are all good for a little thrill but nothing that will freak you out too much. Doctor Hyde’s Subterranean Laboratory has some neat automated “experiments,” and the Spider’s Lair is a fun, quick jaunt through, well, a spider lair. “Iron Door Mine” is a little more frightening than the others but nothing to lose your head over and “Fear Train” is more of a relaxing train ride through the surrounding desert than anything too terrifying.

The final show of the night, “Release the Beast,” is a Twilight Zone-esque journey to the town of Nightfall where Dr. Hyde is transforming humans into beasts and must be stopped. This show has a lot of entertaining high-flying stunts as well as nicely choreographed fight scenes.

Overall, if you’re not looking for anything too intense and just want to enjoy the Halloween spirit, Nightfall is the place to be.

IF YOU GO

What: Buckelew Farms Haunted Cornfield

Where: 17000 W. Ajo Way

When: Friday and Saturday from around 6:30 to midnight.

Price: $18

Info: 822-2277, buckelewfarm.com

What: “Nightfall: Release the Beasts”

Where: Old Tucson Studios, 201 S. Kinney Road

When: Friday and Saturday, 6 p.m.-12 a.m.; Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday 6-10 p.m. through October.

Price: $24 for adults, $20 for children (4-11)

Info: 883-0100, nightfallaz.com

What: “The Nightmare” at Breakers Water Park

Where: 8555 W. Tangerine Road

When: Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.- midnight; Sunday and Thursday, 7-10 p.m.

Price: $12 for one event, $21 for two, $24 for all three.

Info: tucsonscreamers.com

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

CHUCK GRAHAM

cgraham@tucsoncitizen.com

By July 1, 1975, the moral and cultural tide in America had turned and society was churning in its wake. Yesterday’s values were worthless. Christians and conservatives were desperate for a lifeline to save their sinking Ship of State. Even the venerable advice columnist Ann Landers was getting a divorce.

That’s the controversial time period for “The Lady With All the Answers,” Arizona Theatre Company’s new production opening in previews Saturday. As written by David Rambo, the lady is Landers herself, portrayed in a one-woman show performed by Broadway veteran and Tony- nominee Nancy Dussault.

Ann Landers’ daily columns of advice to the lovelorn ran in newspapers (including the Tucson Citizen) from 1955 until she died in 2002. During that time, society’s accepted sexual practices were changing faster than Landers could write about them. But those shifting perceptions were only a part of the vast cultural fabric she covered, answering questions daily from her millions of readers. No topic was considered off-limits as the barriers of propriety kept crumbling.

Still on the way were personal crises over illicit drug use, AIDS, open marriages, mixed racial marriages, gay marriages and gun control.

“What I respond to is, she is funny, perceptive and smart,” Dussault says of her solo role as Ann Landers. “She is so gutsy and so out there. People responded to her because she was fun, and because she was tough.

“One of her secret: She was good at keeping in touch with high-ranking politicians and experts,” Dussault adds. “She always stayed so connected, and nothing scared her.”

Back before the Internet (it wasn’t that long ago) people gathered around the Ann Landers campfire, seeking the warmth of her fair-minded wisdom. She valued the sacrament of marriage above all else, but she also supported the pro-choice movement for abortion rights. She came to see that homosexuality was not a choice, but a characteristic established at birth.

“She was one of the first to recommend readers to Alcoholics Anonymous,” says Samantha K. Wyer, the play’s director. “And she believed in birth control.”

Wyer began making her own artistic choices by doing online research about Ann Landers, the pen name for Esther Pauline “Eppie” Friedman Lederer. Yes, her twin sister was Pauline Esther “Popo” Friedman Phillips who wrote the Dear Abby newspaper advice column 1955-95. Popo got her start by helping sister Eppie. But within six months, sibling rivalry led Popo to break away and start her own advice column.

“The first Ann Landers was a nurse named Ruth Crowley,” Wyer says. “Then Eppie Lederer took over the column. From the beginning, she was always straightforward and direct.”

Before her career as an advice columnist, Lederer was a political activist working to get Joe McCarthy pushed out of office.

“The connections she made in that campaign gave her the edge to get the job writing the Ann Landers column,” Wyer says. “And she had a very strong Midwestern work ethic.”

Wyer learned Lederer was committed to answering every letter she received that wasn’t anonymous, which would have been approximately 500 letters every day. Men accounted for nearly half of that mail, Wyer says. At the peak of Ann Landers’ popularity, Lederer had a staff of 11 secretaries to help out with all that typing.

“The Lady With All the Answers” is set in Lederer’s lovely Lake Shore Drive apartment in Chicago, where she sits with stacks of mail and an electric typewriter. She is writing her next column, about divorce – her own. As she delays actually writing anything, reminiscing about her 36 happy years of marriage (at least to her), she also talks to the audience about the many subjects and letters she has received over 20 years.

While she helped save many marriages, she could not save her own.

Instead of a surprise ending, the play, taken from Landers’ published columns and written with the permission of her estate, is filled with the lady’s famous insight, wit and responsibility. Even when the nation’s streets were filled with counterculture hippies, anti-war demonstrators and police squads in riot gear, Landers kept a cool head with common sense answers and an unwavering respect for the opinions of experts.

In Landers’ view, a person with the best knowledge on a particular subject was not an elitist. It was a person worth quoting in her column.

“In the play, she actually asks the audience questions, and expects answers,” Wyer says, “either by raising hands or giving one-word answers.

“Because of that, the play never feels like a monologue. It is a dialogue with the audience.”

Dussault doesn’t think she’s doing a monologue, either. As Wyer leads Dussault along the pathway from one plot point to the next, the actor as Landers is pondering tender moments from past letters, commenting on her heartbreaking trips to Vietnam, making asides to the audience, remembering visits with President Nixon and others, in between taking phone calls from her daughter, Margo.

“The first thing I always do with a new play is learn all the words,” says Dussault. “That’s partly because I’m also a singer, and I always learn all the words to a song before I try to sing it.

“So I learn the play’s lines completely apart from the play. It helps keep my mind from feeling cluttered in rehearsals.

“Another trick is to learn the ending first. That way, the piece doesn’t seem so endless. After that, I start working on the accent, then thinking about the time period. I kind of do it in layers.”

As the character written on the page begins to take over the actor talking on stage, Dussault starts to wonder how Lederer used her hands when she talked. And whether she was a fast walker.

“I think she must have been a fast walker,” Dussault says. “She always had so much energy. She always had to be doing something.

“I’m sure the audience will like her as a person. She is lively and interesting and has a way with words.

“Actually,” says Dussault, pausing thoughtfully, “I hope I become more like her, too.”

IF YOU GO

What: Arizona Theatre Company presents “The Lady With All the Answers” by David Rambo

When: Various times Oct. 18-Nov. 8, officially opening Oct. 24

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

Price: $26-$50, half-price student rush tickets and other discounts are offered

Info: 622-2823, www.aztheatreco.org