Thursday 6
BARD BASH. The venerable Old Pueblo Playwrights celebrates 10 years on the local boards with its annual New Play Festival.
This season's theatrical romp will feature staged readings of short and full-length works, both comedies and dramas, all conceived by hometown talents. The series opens at 7:30 tonight with More Reason for Color, Mark Hope's full-length play about relationships and the power of prayer. It focuses upon one man's return to Tucson the day after his stepfather's funeral, where he confronts the dredging up of his family's past under the guise of love.
The series continues with The Dark and the Damned by Rich Amada at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow and 1:30 p.m. Saturday; Scarborough Fair by Joan Van Dyke at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday; The Stone at the Heart by A. David Redish, and Random Ax by Jesse Greenberg, starting at 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
The New Play Festival will be held at the Tucson Center for the Performing Arts, 408 S. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $5 for each performance, with package discounts available. For information, call 887-6741.
CHEKOV CHEER. Live Theatre Workshop taps the Russian funny bone with The Lighter Side of Chekov.
The four one-act comedies include On the Harmfulness of Tobacco; The Anniversary; The Bear and The Marriage Proposal. Directed by Bruce Bieszski, the fine cast includes Heidi Brozak, Michael Kirwin and Mitch Etter.
Show time is 7:30 tonight in the Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd. Performances continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday, through February 6. Tickets are $11, $10 for seniors and students, and available by calling 327-4242.
Friday 7
FROZEN FELINES. Catch life on the rocks when the Arizona Icecats battle the University of Buffalo.
This top-notch UA team rips up the frozen tundra, and keeps drawing ever bigger crowds. Current hotshots include Marc Harris, Paul Dorn and Tyler Bush, coached by longtime Catmaster Leo Golembiewski.
Game times are 7:30 tonight and tomorrow at the TCC, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets range from $6 to $9, with a $2 discount for seniors, students, military and children. For details, call 749-2590.
Saturday 8
EVER GREEN. Join a well-rooted tradition with the city's TreeCycle Program. Tucson sanitation folks will haul your Christmas tree to the Los Reales Landfill, where it will be chipped and used for soil erosion and dust control.
The goal is to collect the more than 90,000 trees tossed out annually. Of course, this whole wasteful practice can be eliminated by using living trees, and transplanting them to yards. But short of that, you can drop off your shrubbery from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. today and next Saturday, January 15, at 34 sites around town. For drop-off locations and other information, call 791-3109.
MASTER BLABBERS. The time-honored art of fine storytelling gets a thorough dusting off at the monthly gathering of Tellers of Tales. Today's featured yarn spinner is Sharon Creedon, who will present Good Resolutions: 12 Steps to Storytelling.
The free gathering begins at 9 a.m. in the Himmel Park Library meeting room, 1035 N. Treat Ave. Call 326-8966 for details.
Sunday 9
WALLS OF HISTORY. The Old Fort Lowell Neighborhood keeps the past alive with a series of history lectures. Tonight, Fort Lowell Museum curator Dave Faust discusses the bloody frontier clash with Fort Lowell and the Apache Wars.
Overall, the series aims to give folks a "deep understanding of the cultures which have shaped and enriched the Fort Lowell area." Each lecture stresses the history, anthropology and architecture of the area, from prehistoric days to the present.
The free lecture begins at 3 p.m. in the San Pedro Chapel Community Center, 5230 E. Fort Lowell Road. Call 318-0219 for information.
COLLECTIVE CORNUCOPIA. The acclaimed UA Center for Creative Photography celebrates its heavyweight collection with Images For An Age.
The exhibit includes 36 highly prized prints by photographers who have defined the art, from Ansel Adams and Richard Avedon to Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Helen Levitt and Edward Weston.
Landmark treasures on display include Weston's Pepper #30, complemented by original pages from his infamous journal; Daybooks; a rare vintage Ansel Adams interpretation of Yosemite Valley from Tunnel Esplanade, accompanied by his Yosemite scrapbook that includes shots of the vast wild land dating from 1916; and W. Eugene Smith's copy negatives of Walk to Paradise Garden.
According to Center curator Trudy Wilner Stack, each piece augments the CCP's philosophy of forming an "extensive historical and material context for the individual vision of an archived artist, supporting the centerpiece of the finished art with correspondence, manuscripts, negatives, contact sheets, study and proof prints, equipment, artifacts and ephemera."
The show is accented by lectures on January 19, and February 1 and 3.
Images For An Age continues through February 13 at the UA Center for Creative Photography, on the southeast corner of the pedestrian underpass at Speedway Boulevard and Park Avenue. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Call 621-7968 for details.
Monday 10
MOLLY FOR THE MILLENNIUM. Ireland's greatest living playwright is noted with the Invisible Theatre's production of Molly Sweeney.
The author of Faith Healer, Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel brings his fine art to this poignant drama about a blind girl whose sight is restored. Simultaneously simple and deeply layered, the suspenseful play creates an unforgettable glimpse into a world we often take for granted.
"What an extraordinary dramatist Brian Friel is," says The London Times. "The lure of illusion, the pull of fantasy...Molly's odyssey is at once personal, distinctively Irish, and international."
Directed by Deborah Dickey, Molly Sweeney stars Milton Papageorge and Katherine Hallowell.
Preview performances are 7:30 tonight and tomorrow in the Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave. Preview tickets are $12. Regular performances continue Tuesday through Sunday, through January 30, with tickets ranging from $16 to $18. For reservations and information, call 882-9721.
Tuesday 11
GALACTIC EXPANSION. You can visit strange new worlds -- and dally among a few very old ones -- at the UA Flandrau Science Center. And now you'll be able to broaden your perspective thanks to the center's newly expanded hours.
Currently showing in the planetarium is the kid-oriented Planet Patrol, along with Under Seasonal Skies and Our Place in Space for the whole family. Flandrau also boasts the state's largest mineral museum and tons of great hands-on science exhibits.
Tickets for planetarium shows are $5; $4.50 for seniors, students and military; and $4 for children ages 3 to 12. Museum visits are included with show admission. Science Center hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with telescope viewing from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Admission is $3, and $2 for children ages 13 and under. For show times and other information, call 621-7827.
AGELESS WRITER. Your inner child is probably still ticked if it endured a youth sans the bittersweet tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Now the master purveyor of charming-yet-dark morality-tinged children's stories is celebrated with Hans Christian Andersen: Life and Art, 1805-1875, a traveling exhibit now at Pima Community College.
Author of masterpieces like The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes, Andersen remains among the world's best known and most translated writers. Starting out as a poor cobbler's son, he became internationally respected for his 175 tales and fairy tales, 800 poems, six novels, various travelogues and theatrical works.
This traveling exhibit arrives in Tucson via Denmark's Odense City Museum. It consists of 20 printed panels that illustrate the life and career of the writer-artist through texts and images, including letters by Andersen himself. The exhibit follows Andersen from his 1805 birth in Odense, through his life in Denmark and Europe, and up to his death in 1875.
The exhibit runs through January 28 in the PCC East Campus Student Union lobby, 8181 E. Irvington Road. Viewing hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, through January 17; and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, from January 18 to January 28. For information, call 206-7616.
Wednesday 12
POWER PARLEY. Former Tucson mayor and congressional candidate Tom Volgy dissects the big picture with The Rise and Fall of Super Powers and the U.S. Role.
Sponsored by the U.N. Association of Southern Arizona's Great Decisions program, Volgy's tackles the global scene from a well-earned perspective. He brings experience ranging from the halls of academia to European assignments, where he helped build democratic institutions in countries formerly stifled behind the Iron Curtain.
He also boasts an intimate appreciation of this nation's democratic process, including his own candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives and his mayoral stint.
The luncheon lecture begins at noon in the Ramada Inn University, 1601 N. Oracle Road. Cost is $15, and reservations are required. For reservations and other information, call 881-7060.
