Calling all teachers…

The Mesa Arts Center has plenty of options for school and family outings

I love getting lost in the arts oasis most folks know as the Mesa Arts Center. It’s got spaces for visual and performing arts and a diverse calendar featuring all sorts of music, dance, theater, exhibitions and more.

So I was delighted to learn that MAC is inviting teachers to attend a free “Educator Preview Night” on Thurs., Aug. 23 from 4:30-6:30pm — which will give teachers a chance to explore the center and learn about its many programs. I’ve enjoyed chaperoning many a school field trip through the years, so I decided to take my own peek at what MAC has in store for students this year.

While exploring their “Performing Live for Students” season I discovered music from three world cultures, dancers from Mexico, local and national storytellers, a work by Dallas Children’s Theater, a dinosaur petting experience and a one-woman play about school desegregation. I’d have loved seeing any or all of these in chaperone mode when my kids were younger.

Mesa Arts Center also presents four “National Geographic Live!” shows this season, which you can enjoy in school or family mode. One explores African ceremonies, and another the wonders of extreme cave diving. One examines birds of paradise, and another adventures in polar exploration.

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If you’re eager to see more arts and culture in Arizona classrooms, be sure to alert your children’s teachers to MAC’s Educator Preview Night, which can make planning field trips more fun and less time consuming.

Teachers who attend will enjoy drinks and treats, a tour of the MAC campus, goodie bags, door prizes and such from 4:30-5pm. From 5-6pm they’ll get a special preview of MAC’s “Performing Live for Students” season. They’ll see a “surprise performance,” meet the MAC team and get a “sneak peek” at fall shows for the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum.

Dessert and entertainment round out the evening from 6-6:30pm, as teachers have the opportunity to pre-register before members of the general public for “National Geographic Live!” and “Performing Live for Students” shows.

The artist co-op at MAC will be open throughout for teachers who want to watch artist demonstrations and enjoy unique works by local artists. I rarely visit MAC without taking time to browse the co-op’s space because I always meet such lovely people there.

Mesa Arts Center notes that space for their Educator Preview Night is limited so interested teachers should RSVP promptly to 480-644-6540.

— Lynn

Note: Click here to learn more about MAC outreach programs

Coming up: The New American Playwrights Project, Field trip follies

What the Dickens!

Happy Birthday Mr. Dickens!

I started celebrating Dickens’ 200th birthday early, after my hubby James suggested last year that I hit the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City — which is hosting an exhibit titled “Charles Dickens at 200” through Feb.  12. Those of you who can’t race right off to NYC can still enjoy it thanks to an online exhibition.

Remind your children, if they’ve ever read the tale of “Oliver Twist” or seen a staged adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” that today is the birthday of the man who brought Oliver and Ebenezer to life. No need for 200 birthday candles, but it’s nice to help kids remember the artists behind the arts we enjoy every day.

Several children’s books about Charles Dickens have been released in recent months — including “A Boy Called Dickens” by Deborah Hopkinson and John Hendrix, “Charles Dickens: England’s Most Captivating Storyteller” by Catherine Wells-Cole, “Charles Dickens: Scenes From an Extraordinary Life” by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom, and “Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London” by Andrea Warren.

Adults eager to learn more about Dickens can visit the Charles Dickens Museum in London — in person or online. Folks visiting London can also see Dickens’ grave, located inside Westminster Abbey — where England held a ceremony today in the writer’s honor. Participants included actor Ralph Fiennes, who plays Magwitch in a BBC film adaptation of “Great Expectations” being released later this year.

I suppose the best way to honor Dickens is to revisit his work, but if your bookshelves (or e-readers) are short on Dickens titles, you can still explore his work — and life story — by visiting PBS online. They’ve got a lovely list, with links, to ten good sources of Dickens lore. Also succinct summaries of his writings and serial publications — plus his thoughts on both America and the social injustices of his day.

While Dickens lived through changes wrought by the industrial revolution, we’re living through changes born of the technological revolution. And social injustice still exists. Perhaps revisiting Dickens’ works — whether by tablet or traditional book — will leave us all inspired to do something about it.

— Lynn

Coming up: I’m just a bill…

Roses are blue…

The Blue Rose Theater in Prescott has been in bloom for two decades

I’m told that blue roses will soon be available thanks to the marriage of genetic engineering and horticultural handywork. But you won’t find any among the roses honoring 400 frontier women at the “Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden” located at Prescott’s Sharlot Hall Museum.

The museum was a must see each time I took my daughter Jennifer to summer camp with fellow members of the Phoenix Girls Chorus. She loved roaming through the frontier buildings, including an old schoolhouse, and trying on gift shop garb like cotton bonnets featuring dainty floral patterns. Once we even stumbled on a marvelous mix of women who were quilting for a cause.

We didn’t realize at the time that the Sharlot Hall Museum, named for the pioneering Arizona woman who founded it in 1928, was home to the Blue Rose Theater — which specializes in presenting historical plays. Their 2012 season includes five works, including one that “tells the compelling stories of women honored in the museum’s territorial rose garden.”

The long-awaited blue rose still rocks the lavendar vibe

Another 2012 offering, featuring members of the museum’s student conservatory, deals with children living on the American frontier.

But I’m most intrigued by “Arizona Orphan Train,” a work that “tells of the conflict that flared in 1904 when New York nuns brought 40 Irish orphans to a remote Arizona mining camp to be placed with Catholic families.”

Blue Rose Theater is also presenting a “Byway of Arizona” music series next year — which includes ten concerts with Arizona musicians and storytellers. Think Peter McLaughlin of Tucson, Tony Norris of Flagstaff, Hans Olson of Phoenix and more. Also state historian Marshall Trimble and baladeer Dolan Elias. The series opens with the “Arizona Music History Show” from The OK Chorale, and closes with the music of Mexico performed by Tony Cocilivo.

Once a month during 2012 you can enjoy the theater’s “Centennial Chautauqua Series.” The fine folks of Merriam-Webster note that chautauquas are traveling shows and local assemblies combining education and entertainment. Seems they were especially popular during late 19th and early 20th century America.

The series kicks off in January with Jody Drake performing as “historian, poet, free thinker and museum founder Sharlot M. Hall.” Arizona first lady Jessie Benton Fremont will be performed by Pattie Conrad in February. Arizona environmentalist Aldo Leopold will be performed by T.J. McMichael in June. And Arizona artist Kate Cory will be performed by Sandy Moss in August. Other chautauquas will channel a judge, a governor, a miner, an author, a mountain man and an outlaw.

I’m especially keen on “Living History Workshops” planned for next year. Sounds like the Sharlot Hall Museum does a lovely job of helping folks understand what life must have been like for frontier women, which has me wishing we could all send our texting teens for a lesson or two.

Workshop topics range from the glamorous (parlor arts, gardening and cooking) to the sublime (spring cleaning, laundry and mending). Let’s hope those who attend can substitute Birkenstocks for bonnets, and walking shorts for long skirts layered with aprons.

The Sharlot Hall Museum hosts all sorts of fun events each year — and their 2012 calendar is posted online so you can find your favorites and save the dates. There’s a women’s history symposium, a series of “history adventures,” and an Indian art market. My personal favorites are the folk arts fair in June and the folk music festival in October.

Blue roses, by the way, are a mythological symbol for the unattainable.

— Lynn

Note: While you’re visiting Prescott, stop by other area museums too — including the Phippen Museum, featuring “Art of the Great American West,” and the Smoki Museum, featuring “American Indian Art and Culture.” Click here to visit the Prescott Area Arts & Humanities Council.

Coming up: Make mine a “Bloody Mary”

A first for folk music

The first annual Gilbert Folk Festival takes place Nov. 18 and 19 as part of Gilbert Days in Historic Downtown Gilbert. More than 30 musical acts are scheduled to perform on three stages. I’m sure they’re all marvelous, but it’s the Artichoke Sisters that really caught my eye. That and the fact that you can enjoy them all for free.

You’ll need to buy tickets for Saturday night’s shindig at Higley Center for the Performing Arts — which features Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s official balladeer and Marshall Trimble, our state historian. I’ll bet he tires of people asking whether we’re related when he hits the local supermarket. If the answer is yes, it’s only by marriage.

Still, it’s comforting to know that Arizona has something official other than the Colt Single Action Army Revolver. Trimble, by they way, is known to some as the “Will Rogers of Arizona.” I’m told the Trimble and Dolan gig includes folk music, storytelling and humor. I’ve got relatives in town this weekend so I’ll get to enjoy at least the latter two for free.

Folks who want to up their “F.Q” before all this folk fanfare gets underway on Friday will find plenty of information on the PBS website. There’s a nifty teacher guide on the history of “roots music” and companion materials for a documentary about the “National Barn Dance” aired on American radio from 1924 to 1960.

I’ve been to a couple of barn dances, complete with hayrides, near the tiny South Dakota town where my dad grew up — and did my fair share of square dancing in P.E. classes. I’m not too proud to admit that I can polka with the best of ’em, or strum a few folk tunes on my guitar.

These days, the closest I get to enjoying fabulous folk music is a random rendezvous every now and then with something like “Pay Me My Money Down” while listening to Sirius XM’s “East Street Radio” in my car. Maybe I should just crank that puppy up and head on out to Gilbert this weekend.

— Lynn

Note: Lest you feel a post-folk funk on Sunday, consider heading to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix to check out their collection of folks instruments (and enjoy a free banjo workshop with Richard Chapman if you’re a beginning or intermediate player who can BYOB).

Coming up: Children’s books tackle powerful women in history, Tribble time!

In & Out of Oz

Detail of a mural at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City

I felt I’d walked right into Oz last month when I entered the Gershwin Theatre to enjoy the Broadway musical “Wicked” with my 18-year-old daughter Lizabeth. Giant murals of scenes from “Munchkinland” and the “Emerald City” line an expansive theater wall. Props from the original film are exhibited inside the theater. Families gather at a special photo booth for pictures set in the land of Oz. And there’s no shortage of green — or sparkle.

We’ve seen the musical “Wicked” several times now, and will happily see it again at every opportunity. The touring production returns to ASU Gammage next year for a Feb. 15-March 11 run. Tickets go on sale Nov. 28. So while others are distracted by “Black Friday” sales, Broadway lovers will be waiting for “Green Monday.”

Folks familiar with books by Gregory Maguire are eagerly awaiting his Nov. 14 appearance at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe — where his new book titled “Out of Oz” will be featured during a discussion, Q & A and booksigning. It’s the final installment of his four-part “Wicked Years” series.

Other books in the series include “Wicked,” “Son of a Witch” and “A Lion Among Men.” It’s his first book that inspired the Tony Award winning musical “Wicked.” In “Out of Oz,” a once peaceful and prosperous Oz is “knotted with social unrest” and “wracked by war.”

I’ve always found the social justice piece of “Wicked” its most fascinating strain, so I’m eager to read Maguire’s tale of “the Emerald City mounting an invasion of Munchkinland.”

Still, “Wicked” is for most the tale of two witches — one who sparkles and shines while enjoying glowing popularity, and other scorned for her green skin and less-winning ways. It’s a morality tale with important lessons about friendship and the perils of judging those around us. But first and foremost, it’s a magical spectacle of stagecraft and storytelling.

— Lynn

Note: “Wicked” is one of many shows participating in the 2012 “Kids Night on Broadway” program in NYC. Click here for details. Click here to learn about the wicked women of Goosebottom Books (and watch for a future review of two new titles). And click here for a sneak peek at the “Storytellers 2012” calendar featuring Gregory Maguire.

Coming up: Broadway’s “Theater Hall of Fame,” If you give a mouse a musical…

J is for Jersey — and Juneau

“Alaskan Fiddling Poet” Ken Waldman, who’ll be performing at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix next weekend, does plenty of traveling as a sort of modern day troubador.

I’ll bet Waldman didn’t expect to be in New Jersey late last week – but he was a stowaway of sorts as I traveled to the East Coast with one of my daughters.

When I went to rev up my laptop, I discovered Waldman’s bright green “D is for Dog Team” CD inside.

I’d listened to several of his CDs, and read two of his books, just a few weeks before. He was kind enough to send them my way so I could get a feel for his work before he hits the Valley with his family-friendly blend of music, poetry and storytelling.

One book, a memoir titled “Are You Famous?,” is a detailed read standing in sharp contrast to the mini-memoirs I write in many of my posts. Perhaps he’s not ready to accept rumors of readers’ shortening attention spans. Or maybe he just gives people more credit than most.

Waldman’s “D is for Denali” — featuring Alaskan acrostics from A to Z — is more my style. There’s “A is for Avalanche,” “I is for Iditarod,” “R is for Reindeer” and more.

It reminds me of the years I spent living in Anchorage — and my mom’s brother Bob, who lived with his family in Juneau.

Its development was “made possible in part through a grant from the New Jersey-based Puffin Foundation” — an organization dedicated to “continuing the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people.”

The name of the non-profit caught my eye because my daughter Jennifer, who’ll turn 20 this week, was quite the puffin fan during childhood.

Animals are a common subject in Waldman’s works. The “D is for Dog Team” CD includes “Stubborn Old Mule,” “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground,” “Duck River” and several other selections.

Another offering — a pair of CDs titled “All Originals, All Traditionals” — features one CD with 28 instrumentals and another with fiddle tunes and poems.

When you open the packaging, you see a poem titled “Suffering Democracy” — one of my favorite little gems from Waldman’s world.

Head to the Musical Instrument Museum this Friday (April 29) at 4pm for “Experience the Music: Ken Waldman and Poetry and Storytelling for Kids.” The event, designed for kids ages 4-8 (with a parent), is just $15/child.

Waldman also performs a series of three free events at the MIM on Saturday, April 30. Other MIM activities that weekend include “Listen to the World” — a celebration of the museums’s first anniversary, complete with music, dance and workshops.

If “M is for Moose Pass” — then “MIM” is for music, imagination and memories. It’s unlikely you’ll see a moose around these parts. But thanks to the MIM — music exhibits, performance and education are always available right here in Arizona.

Now if only I could get New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen to pay a visit to the MIM…

— Lynn

Note: Waldman is currently a featured poet on the website for “49 Writers,” an Alaskan non-profit supporting writers and their work. Click here to learn more.

Coming up: Costume shop treasures

Theater meets history

I’m surrounded by history buffs. My husband James and 19-year-old daughter Jennifer seem to always have their nose in a good history or philosophy book, while both our daughters are loving the historical fiction books they got as holiday gifts.

This show will delight history, music and theater buffs

I thought I might be able to escape for a few hours to enjoy opening night of the Phoenix production of “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” presented by Arizona Theatre Company. But that’s like trying to avoid trees by strolling through a forest.

Turns out I sat next to a very gracious history professor and his wife, and met a 5th grade history phenom in the Herberger Theater Center lobby after the show.

I sort of knew what I was getting into, I suppose — since “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” covers the life and times of wordsmith and folk musician Woody Guthrie, who traveled from Oklahoma to California, New York and plenty of other parts.

I was surprised that I didn’t see more young people at the show. Other than a pair of teen boys seated a few rows behind me and a boy who looked to be about five years old seated just ahead of me, the crowd was mostly folks around my age (give or take a good decade).

Having once homeschooled my children, and having volunteered more than 1,000 hours in their traditional classrooms, I always have an eye out for those “teachable moments” in which experiences create rich learning opportunities.

I’d have had a ball taking my kids to see “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” when they were younger (my husband will probably take one or more of them before the show ends its run on his birthday, Jan 16).

The show features a cast of five and a three-piece band set against a backdrop that mirrors life in the Dust Bowl or along the railroad tracks, complete with a giant projection screen on each side showing black and white photos of the times.

Woody Guthrie's American Song, an ATC production at the Herberger Theater, features strong storytelling and moving music amidst a beautiful set with lovely lighting

Immigrant laborers and their children living in squalor. Job seekers moving from town to town in search of honest pay. The sticker on Guthrie’s guitar that denounces fascism. The sign offering tent space for 15 cents a week.

In an age when issues of immigrant rights and unemployment are so prominent on the political landscape, shows like “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” offer insights into ways these issues have played out in earlier times.

It’s easy to imagine coupling this show with a trip to explore one of Arizona’s history museums or a visit to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix — where kids can learn more about the guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, piano, harmonica and other instruments played during the show.

There’s a magnificent study guide for “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” on the Arizona Theatre Company website so parents and teachers can learn more about related topics before attending. I bought a loosely bound copy at the show for just $5, and I’m still having fun combing through it.

I ended up giving my program to a lovely woman who was singing on a corner near the theater with her service dog named “Charlie.” Like Guthrie, she’d placed a hat on the ground for tips — though Charlie seemed to be eyeing it in search of something more rewarding, like food.

Turns out she’s one of the “sopranos” referred to in a recent New York Times review of Ib Andersen’s “The Nutcracker” — though Alastair Macaulay’s dismissive comments have not, to her credit, disuaded her from her craft.

But back to all things history and theater. History, like theater, is a living experience. It never stands still and none of us escapes being part of it, though some folks choose to take a more active — even activist — role than others.

I’m hoping that Jacob, the 5th grade history buff I met after the show, will get in touch with me. I’m certain you’d enjoy his thoughts on the show more than anything I have to offer.

The mom in me was particularly struck by his observation that American youth take a great deal for granted. So many hoard high-tech gadgets unaware that others are hunting for a way to put low-tech food on the table.

Jacob is a young man we can all be proud to create history, and theater, alongside of. I imagine he’d have a mighty fine time riding the rails with Guthrie.

Kids like Jacob give me hope that future generations might do a better job of separating want from need.

— Lynn

Note: I often invite young people to contact me with their thoughts about shows they’ve seen — and am also hoping to hear from a young girl I met at the Herberger while she was there to see “Respect: A Musical Journey of Women” with her father and sister.

Coming up: New year, new exhibits