Tucson Weekly: Silly Summer (May 21

Comes The Heat, And Actors' Fancy Turns To Humid Humor.
By Margaret Regan
ALONG COMES summer and Serious Theatre turns silly.
Take, for example, Invisible Theatre. Fresh from a searing Holocaust play, Kindertransport, IT switches to titillating transvestitism in Pageant, a musical burlesque skewering that most low-rent of American institutions, the beauty pageant. The gag here is that the contestants are what hopeful stage moms might call "big-boned." All six, with names like Miss Bible Belt and Miss Industrial Northeast, have a heck of a lot more testosterone than estrogen. Previews May 25 and 26, opens Wednesday, May 27, and continues through June 14 at 1400 N. First Ave. (882-9721)
Review Nothing new about Gaslight going goofy, and this summer's show, Beach Blanket Bee Bop! sashays into the turf of surf's up, doing a raucous sendup of '50s teen beach flicks. Previews June 4, opens June 5 and runs through August 15 at 7010 E. Broadway (886-9428).
A brand-new company, Lost River stageworks (a new incarnation of Redhouse Theatre Project), premieres with The Wimpley School for Wayward Girls, by Tucson's own Rich Amada. A "dark, dizzy comedy" about a troubled boarding school, it opens May 29 at the Tucson Center for the Performing Arts and runs through June 14 (721-9640). Live Theatre Workshop takes on Luann Hampton Laverty Oberlander, a "comedy as big as all Texas," running May 29 through June 21 at 5317 E. Speedway (327-4242).
Even the earnest theatre students in the UA Repertory Theatre turn their noses up at the classics in I Hate Hamlet. Written by Paul Rudnick, I Hate's about a TV actor who lands the coveted part of Hamlet in New York's summer Shakespeare in the Park. Trouble is, the fellow hates Hamlet. The ghost of Hamlet, in the person of the late-great-Hamlet-player John Barrymore, is not amused. Previews June 18, opens June 19 and runs through June 28 in the UA Lab Theatre. The show will repeat in September (621-1162).
Not to be outdone by New York, the Old Pueblo has its very own Shakespeare in the Park, staged each year at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center at Reid Park. Shying away from the prevailing summer-lite winds, the Tucson Parks and Rec company of community actors will present Henry IV, Part I, one of the Bard's history plays. It's the story of young Prince Hal, destined to become king in the more-often-produced Henry V. It's a serious story, leavened by the antics of Hal's sidekick Falstaff. The free show runs in the open air July 8 through 12. Bring a blanket and dinner, and enjoy the dark coolness of a Tucson summer night. The Q Players, the junior company of Quicksilver, try a classic too, in the form of a Greek tragedy. Aeschylus's Oresteia, following last summer's comedy, the Lysistrata of Aristophanes, opens July 30 and runs two weeks at the Tucson Center for the Performing Arts (529-2687).
Borderlands also walks on the dark side with Beast on the Moon, an unusual love story about an Armenian immigrant and his mail-order bride. Set in 1921 America, the story unfolds in the shadow of the Armenian Holocaust. Runs July 8 through 26 at the PCC Center for the Arts Black Box Theatre (882-8607).
But there's no need to wait to see some drama. Tucson Art Theatre, a well respected, seldom seen local troupe, emerges from a several-year hiatus this week with Cerceau. A play about six friends spending a surprising weekend together, it features such familiar company faces as AnnaMarie Greenwood and Patrick Baliani. It opened Wednesday at the Cabaret Theatre and runs through Saturday, May 30 (327-7950).
There's still time this weekend to catch the latest Bloodhut, Only Skin Deep, a seriocomic evocation of ideas about race and beauty. The Bloodhut women tell their own stories in candid monologues and silly playlets. Closes with a Sunday matinee at the PCC Center for the Arts Black Box Theatre (795-0100). Arizona Rose Theatre Company finishes up its Robin Hood this weekend too. The new musical plays through Sunday at the Berger Performing Arts Center (321-1000). Actors' Theatre continues its Night of January 16th through the end of the month at its eastside digs, 7000 E. Tanque Verde Road (751-6419).
And Damesrocket continues its monthly series of staged readings through the hot summer months at its renovated theatre at 125 E. Congress St. The company will tackle Barrio Hollywood, by Tucson playwright Elaine Romero, on June 29; Carolyn Alport's Strangers in Egypt on July 27; and an as-yet unnamed new play by Jeff Schwamberger on August 31.
Stay on the alert for new theatre companies, which tend to appear spontaneously on the Tucson scene like frogs after a monsoon rain. Rumor has it that the defunct Millennium, which shut down its theatre at the Historic Y, will metamorphose into City Players, based in a renovated warehouse at sixth Street and sixth Avenue. Hopes are that the first production, Innocence, will make it to the boards in August.

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