By Chris Curcio. Originally published on Curtain Up Phoenix. Arizona Theatre Company has found the perfect holiday show with its glistening production of the reworked 1992 Leslie Bricusse musical Scrooge! This Scrooge does not have the evil and malicious Ebenezer seen in many shows based on Charles Dickens’ melancholy A Christmas Carol. Scrooge’s Ebenezer is […]
It’s been 8 months since Matt August took over as the Kasser Family Artistic Director, and yet his passion and drive heading into his inaugural season has anything but slowed. His love for Arizona Theatre Company and its continued legacy of bringing about meaningful work is the perfect home for his ambition to accomplish the […]
Like so many who come into the theatre world, Matt August discovered his love for the arts in his adolescence. Since then, August has gone on to develop an extensive resume that includes working alongside Tony-winning artists and a number of celebrities before they were launched into stardom. Now, as he adds Artistic Director to […]
ATC to present five mainstage shows in first year at TCA starting this October. Arizona Theatre Company will present its Valley market shows at the state-of-the-art Tempe Center for the Arts for at least the next five years thanks to a long-term partnership that will bring high-quality, professional theatre to the East Valley. In its first season at […]
By Kathleen Allen. Originally published by The Arizona Daily Star. This is a simple fact of life: Where there are drag queens there is joy. And there is an abundance of joy on the Arizona Theatre Company stage. The Legend of Georgia McBride, ATC’s current offering, is about Casey, a failed Elvis impersonator who turns […]
By Betsy Labiner. Originally published on Taming of the Review on March 16, 2023. Pru Payne, written by Steven Drukman and directed by Sean Daniels, is a hard show to categorize. It’s timeless, firmly rooted in the 1980s but inarguably current. It’s funny, but bleak. It’s gentle and caustic in turns. It’s resigned, yet hopeful. […]
By Kathleen Allen. Originally published by the Arizona Daily Star. If Elizabeth Hardwick and Dorothy Parker had a baby, it would be Pru Payne. Pru is the acerbic, acid-tongued character in Arizona Theatre Company’s Pru Payne. Like Hardwick and Parker, Pru is a critic, a towering intellectual, and can be seriously scary when she puts pen […]
Steven Drukman’s devastatingly honest play sheds light on mental illness and the invigorating power of love. By Robert Encila-Celdran. Originally published on BroadwayWorld.com. When Arizona Theatre Company redesigned its programming two years ago, a cloud of ambivalence engulfed a complacent viewing public. The company’s commitment to supporting uncharted material by a working crop of playwrights signaled ATC’s pivot […]
With any play, the scenic designer has a responsibility to bring the words in the script to life based off of hints laid throughout it. Some scripts are more literal when it comes to describing the set, while others can be as vague as naming a simple room. Pru Payne is graced with the creative […]