City Week: Weekly Picks

“The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart”

We know only to expect a theatrical experience unlike any other. We’ll start at the bar on the site of a Tucson legend: The Grill. Then we’ll find a table and await further impulses. The performance is said to be inspired by Scottish Borderland Ballads. It features a starchy academic, Prudencia Hart, who judges her companions to be “too post-poststructuralist.” Alas, she’s stuck with them. They’re trapped in the snow on a winter night. What luck they’re stuck in a pub! With karaoke! Prudencia naturally regards it as hell. We observe her undoing in a site-specific, immersive experiment in musical theater, drenched in witty wordplay.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, to Saturday, Feb. 18, The Shirt Shop Mercantile (formerly The Grill), 100 E. Congress Street, Tucson, ticketmaster.com, tickets start at $35.

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo: Spokes Edition

This one-of-a-kind, international event began 25 years ago in the same location, miles north of the town of Oracle. It covers a brutally uncivilized path over hills, through valleys, across sandy washes, nonstop from hour one through hour 24, camping out in the desert with their team, within a community of more than 5,000 other contestants mad for biking. And they laugh a lot. The event is now celebrating 23 years of riding single track through desert treachery. Presented by Tucson Medical Center, it’s one of the largest 24-hour cycling events in the mountain biking world. A total of 35,000 attendees are expected.
Various times Friday, Feb. 1 , to Sunday, Feb. 19, epicrides.com, reservations start at $300 but are waitlisted, free to hang out (and a lovely drive) but stay out of the way.

Family night at Donna Liggins Center

Play games for free with friends and family. Food, drinks and a prize raffle are included. Choose from popular board games, card games and video games for all ages. While you’re there, check out all the center’s facilities for future reference. You’ll find public Wi-Fi, a weight room, a teen room, a covered basketball court, sand volleyball and ball fields, among other amenities.
6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, Tucson Parks and Recreation’s Donna Liggens Center, 2160 N. Sixth Avenue, Tucson, tucsonaz.gov, free, call 520-791-3247 for reservations.

Citrus Celebration/Traditional O’odham Agriculture

Mission Garden is spectacular with traditional local citrus right now—Valencia oranges, Seville oranges, Mexican sweet limes, pomelos, grapefruit, Meyer lemon, tangerine, kumquat and a few more. They’re all varieties that originated in Asia, Melanesia and Australia centuries ago, traveled the world adapting and mutating into the citrus that now grows even in our back yards. Did you know that Seville oranges are the sours of all the world’s orange marmalade? Sample the lot and learn how to grow and prepare your favorites. As luck would have it, the Citrus Celebration coincides with Maegan Lopez’s and Sterling Johnson’s hands-on, monthly, third-Saturday class in traditional O’odham agriculture. The class is a collaboration between Mission Garden and the Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, Mission Garden, 946 W. Mission Lane, Tucson, missiongarden.org, $5 suggested donation

Tucson Children’s Museum: Family Sci Fest

Fizzy popping science experiments and everyday wonders have helped make Family Sci Fest one of the Children’s Museum’s longest running and most popular events. This year’s fest features demonstrations and hands-on activities in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities. The fun part: watch kids discover how much science they already know. It’s all around them in everyday life. They may learn a whole new way to think about even bouncing a ball.
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, Children’s Museum Tucson, 200 S. Sixth Avenue, Tucson, childrensmuseumtucson.org, free museum admission all day.

Alive Productions Presents “A Saxy Night”

A graduate of Boston’s storied Berklee College of Music, Jeanette Harris was a standout already in her Fresno, California, high school’s Latin jazz band. She returned to Fresno after college and started a smooth-jazz band with her brother Michael Harris. They played festivals all over California. Now she tours the United States and is looking forward to going international. She records on the Sweet Music label. Rounding out “Saxy Night” is special guest saxophonist Dee Lucas.
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, The Dunbar Pavilion, 325 W. Second Street, Tucson, eventbrite.com, tickets start at $35

Fat Tuesday Cooking Class: Gumbo!

“Laissez les bons temps rouler” in your own kitchen! Tucson top chef Jim Murphy is holding forth on Fat Tuesday with a class to teach us how to make celebratory NOLA classics—turkey and andouille gumbo and praline bread pudding. According to the Flying Aprons cooking class folks, the event’s organizers, gumbo is considered the official state cuisine of Louisiana because it features the Creole “holy trinity” of celery, bell peppers and onions. The event provides students with everything they need for class.
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, Catalina United Methodist Church kitchen, 2700 E. Speedway Boulevard, Tucson, flying-aprons-tucson.myshopify.com, $77

This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2023.