9/11 meets Arizona arts and culture

This work by Sam Irving is one of several you can enjoy at exhibits at two Gilbert libraries this week (Photo courtesy of Gilbert Fire Department)

The town of Gilbert is preparing for Sunday’s dedication of a 9/11 memorial to feature an 8-foot long beam from the World Trade Center.

Recently they invited folks to submit photographs, paintings and drawings with a “Memory of Hope” theme. Selected works are on exhibit through 9/11 at the Southeast Regional and Perry High libraries. www.gilbertaz.gov/911memorial.

One of several works currently on exhibit at the Tucson Jewish Community Center

Contemporary Artists of Southern Arizona has created a mixed media 9/11 memorial called “3,000 Souls” that’s being exhibited at the Tucson Jewish Community Center through Sept 26. ww.tucsonjcc.org/arts.

The ceramics program and fine arts department at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix (part of the Tempe Unified High School District) presents a 9/11 memorial Thurs, Sept 9 from 6-9pm (room 149).

The event features “students from dance and theatre,
choir, speech and band, a special slide and musical tribute, the
signing of victims’ names into a tribute vessel to be delivered to New
York in December, and fundraising for the WTC Health Hospital.” The event is free and open to the public. www.desertvista.schoolfusion.us.

Several 9/11-related items, including a huge “National Unity Flag” designed and created in Arizona, will be exhibited Sept 9-16 in the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts atrium.

A “9/11 Memorial Wall” with 2,996 full-color memorial cards featuring biographical information and photographs of 9/11 victims will be exhibited as well.

Scottsdale begins a “9/11 Day of Remembrance” program in the atrium at 1pm on Sun, Sept 11 with a reading of victims’ names.

Keynote speaker Ray Malone, a former New York police office and firefighter, follows in the Virginia G. Piper Theater at 6pm. The evening also includes performances of patriotic music by school bands and choral groups, as well as a candlelight vigil. www.scottsdaleaz.gov.

ProMusica performs with other Valley groups this weekend

ProMusica Arizona Chorale and Orchestra of Anthem will perform Mozart’s “Requiem” (a work being performed by groups throughout the country on 9/11) at two Valley churches on Sun, Sept 11. www.promusicaaz.org.

Mozart’s “Requiem” is also being performed at a “Remembrance and Renewal” concert at UA’s Centennial Hall in Tucson on Sun, Sept 11 at 3pm. It features the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Tucson Chamber Artists’ professional choir. www.uapresents.org.

The Damocles Trio, who met as doctoral students at The Juilliard School in NYC, will perform the “Requiem Trio” by Spanish composer Salvador Brotons (b.1959) at Tempe Center for the Arts at 2:30pm on Sun, Sept 11.

The work was “written especially for the group to commemorate the tragic terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001.” The piece was first performed in Sept 11, 2004 in NYC.

Tempe officials note that “this concert will be linked to the Tempe Beach Park 9/11 Healing Field and other city commemoration events.” The concert also features the music of Dvorak and Villa Lobos. www.damoclestrio.com and www.friendsofTCA.org.

The Tucson Pops Orchestra, with guest conductor George Hanson, performs “Americana: Remember 9/11” Sun, Sept 11 at Reid Park in Tucson at 6:30pm. www.sept11tucson.org.

The National Unity Flag will hang in Scottsdale this weekend

Folks looking for additional 9/11 memorials and related events can check with local interfaith or religious groups, performing arts venues, universities or colleges, museums, local governments and community centers for local offerings.

If your Arizona organization is presenting a music, dance, theater or visual arts event in remembrance of 9/11, please comment below to let our readers know.

— Lynn

Note: Several 9/11 remembrance events will be televised, including a New York Philharmonic concert with Alan Gilbert conducting Mahler’s “Resurrection” (Sept 11 on PBS). Listen to KJZZ 91.5 all week for 9/11 memorial coverage (including 9 hours of live coverage on 9/11). www.kjzz.org. Watch the “9/11: 10 Years Later” concert live Thurs, Sept 8 and share your reflections with others at facebook.com/KennedyCenter by clicking on the 9/11 Livestream tab.

Coming up: Remembering 9/11 with literature and love

In good company

The musical Company comes to six Arizona movie theaters this month

I wasn’t in New York City during April of this year. But neither, I suspect, were most of you — so I’m in good company. Turns out we all missed an April 7-9 run of the concert version of the musical “Company,” performed with the New York Philharmonic in the Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.

But a special performance of the concert was recorded live, and it’s headed to select movie theaters starting June 15 thanks to a Screenvision, New York Philharmonic, Ellen M. Krass Productions partnership. Six Arizona theaters will be showing the concert at 7:30pm on Wed, June 15.

Screenvision lists them as Gateway 12 Imax in Mesa, Chandler Fashion 20, Arrowhead Fountains 18 in Peoria, Scottsdale 14 in Phoenix, Tucson Spectrum 18 and Surprise Pointe 14. Tickets are available online at www.screenvision.com.

Fond as I am of experiencing musical theater on stage, I’ve found that seeing it on the big screen makes for a mighty fine alternative. We’ve seen “Rent” and “Memphis” this way, and the 25th anniversary “Les Miserables” concert too.

I remember marveling at the mom and daughter who shared a blanket while watching the “Les Miserables” concert together at a Mesa movie theater. Something tells me fuzzy blankets and popcorn aren’t embraced quite that readily on the “Great White Way.”

Though “Company” isn’t anywhere near the top of Lizabeth’s “all time favorite musicals” list, I hope she’ll tag along to see it with me. “Company” opened on Broadway in 1970, and was nominated in 1971 for 14 musicals (a record at the time). It won six — including best musical.

It’s one of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s earliest full-scale musicals. There are 15 of them (so far) — including “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Into the Woods.” Sondheim wrote lyrics for “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.”

Major songs in “Company” include “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “Another Hundred People” and “Being Alive.” The 2006 Broadway revival of “Company” won the 2007 Tony Award® for “Best Revival of a Musical.” It was taped for the PBS “Great Performances” series, a little gem you can now enjoy on DVD.

The staged concert production of “Company” that’s headed to movie theaters features all sorts of “television and stage heavyweights.” Think Stephen Colbert and Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone and Katie Finneran — and plenty more. Click here to enjoy rehearsal photos and here to read a related article from The New York Times.

Those of you who’ve yet to experience the joys of eating, drinking and breathing musical theater might feel ill equipped to recount the premise of “Company.” But it’s easy to follow. Think five couples and a bachelor friend living in NYC. And read Stephen Sondheim’s “Finishing the Hat” if you want to delve deeper.

You can click here for a bit of background from PBS, and here for a delightfully brief but comprehensive look at “Company” (and Sondheim) from New York Philharmonic program notes.

The April 2011 “Company” concert played to a full house that’s much larger than your average movie theater. So don’t delay in getting tickets to enjoy this classic work of musical theater. Feel free to bring your blanket along. Something tells me you’ll be in good company.

— Lynn

Note: This post is part of a “Countdown to the Tony Awards®” series that will run through Sun, June 12, when the 2011 Tony Awards® will be broadcast on CBS.

Coming up: Touring productions of Tony Award® winning shows coming to Arizona during the 2011/12 season