2nd Annual Charity Golf Tournament!

Come out for a day of fun in the sun AND support your favorite community theatre, Beowulf Alley!

 

 

2nd Annual Charity Golf Tournament

WHEN:MAY 4, 2012 (Friday)

WHERE: El Conquistador Country Club
10555 North La Canada, Tucson, AZ 85737

(520) 544-1900

REGISTRATION

Check-in begins 10:30 a.m.; Lunch–11 a.m.- 12:15 p.m.; Texas Scramble (Shotgun) Starts 12:30 p.m.; Mulligans Available @ $5.00 each or 3 for $10.00

 

Reserve your spot today at http://beowulfalley.org/html/2012_golf_tournament.html

PLAYERS

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

$95.00 Per Player ($36.00 Tax Deductible) before April 25, 2012.

Green Fees, Golf Cart, Range Balls, Practice Range, Luncheon, and Prizes Galore!!

HOLE SPONSORS

$50.00

MAIN PRIZES

Divisions: (1) All Men / (2) All Women / (3) Men & Women / (4) Total Combined Ages Over 260

SKILL PRIZES

Divisions: Men / Women - Longest Drive - Closest To the Pin

MORE DETAILS:

Call: Roger Rikkola (520-882-0555); roger@beowulfalley.org

 

 

About Us

Beowulf Alley Theatre is a non-profit 501(c)(3) theatre committed to community outreach for all ages. On Friday, May 4th, we will be holding our 2nd annual golf tournament to raise funds in support and would like to invite you to participate by registering as a golfer, an event sponsor, or a gift donor.

Founded in 2001, the intimate, 95-seat theatre provides a facility that meets professional standards where performing artists, educators and technicians can present their skills. Our mission is to create captivating experiences for our patrons, students, and the Tucson Community through the highest artistic, technical and educational productions. Beowulf Alley has received critical acclaim, including five MAC awards and eleven nominations. Our last season brought productions that were thought provoking, hilariously funny, classic and heartwarming.

Our patrons tell us that we have the smartest theatre in Tucson. Tucson needs Beowulf Alley Theatre and Beowulf Alley Theatre needs the community to support its survival to continue. We wouldn't be here without YOU because Beowulf Alley Theatre is YOU.

Please consider participating in our 2nd Annual Golf Tournament by sponsoring a hole, providing a gift for our drawings, or by participating as a player.

Thank you,

Beowulf Alley Theatre

 

 

Tucson: Beowulf Alley Theatre presents Belle Dame Sans Merci

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre
presents

Belle Dame Sans Merci

Beowulf Alley Theatre Company presents Townshend Fisher’s metaphysical noir mystery Belle Dame Sans Merci, Friday nod Saturday at 7:30 PM, April 13th, 14th, 20th and 21st, at Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, 11 S 6th Avenue in downtown Tucson (on 6th Ave, south of Congress). Tickets are $15, $13 for teachers, seniors and military personnel, and $8 for students. Tickets are available at our website: www.beowulfalley.org and at the door. This show is appropriate for ages 17 and up. For more information call 520-882-0555 or email us at theatre@beowulfalley.org.

Belles Dame Sans Merci is a nourish thriller with detectives, dangerous dames, murder, mystery, sex, and mayhem, with perhaps the most problematic of all, Death herself. Hard-boiled Detective Dan Lovelace must solve the murder of a colleague in a corrupt city. His only clues are a beautiful femme fatale and the unusual sighting of a ghostly woman at the scene of the crime. This show contains adult language and situations, as well as poetry by John Keats. Original music composed by Skads Muskie.

The cast features Evan Engle, Ben Hoffman, Tristyn Tucci, Michael "Miko" Gifford, Natasha Klemek, Nick Salyer, Larissa Gosla , Samantha Cormier and David Swisher.

For more information, email us at theatre@beowulfalley.org or call 520-882-0555.

 

 

Tucson Theatre Announcements List

For subscription information go to TucsonStage.com

 

 

 

Tucson: Active Imagination Theatre presents RABBIT HOOD

Active Imagination Theatre

 

presents

 

RABBIT HOOD

Active Imagination Theatre at Beowulf Alley presents Rabbit Hood, at noon (12:00PM) Saturday April 7th, at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S 6th Avenue in downtown Tucson. Tickets prices are $5 for children and adults. For more information call 520-882-0555, email theatre@beowulfalley.org or visit our website www.beowulfalley.org.

In this retelling of Robin Hood for Easter, Rabbit Hood steals eggs from the snooty chickens to decorate them and hide them for kids on Easter. The chickens used to willingly give up their eggs, but this year Farmer John hires Cluck, a mean chicken bounty hunter, to catch Rabbit Hood. We have Friar Duck, Little Juan, and many familiar characters, and our young audience is invited onstage to participate in the play, which ends with an Easter Egg Hunt.

For more information visit www.beowulfalley.org or call us at 520-882-0555.

 

Beowulf Alley Theatre

11 S. 6^th Ave (between Broadway and Congress)

Downtown Tucson

 

Tucson Theatre Announcements List

For subscription information go to TucsonStage.com

 

 

 

 

Beowulf's man for all seasons

Beowulf's man for all seasons:
Michael Fenlason takes helm as theater company's multitasking artistic director
Tayler Wancour For The Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2012

Michael Fenlason is no stranger to theater: He has written, directed and even started his own company.

Clearly, he knows his way around a stage. So he was a logical choice when Beowulf Alley Theatre looked for an artistic director.

Beowulf's board of directors named Fenlason the artistic director in late December, a new position for the company.

The artistic side was handled by committee, and Beth Dell, who stepped down late last year, handled the administrative side.

Fenlason will take on both jobs as artistic director.

He wasn't a newcomer to Beowulf; he's acted there, directed, and had his original scripts staged.

"I've been pretty excited about this place since I got here," said Fenlason, who first stepped into the Beowulf theater as a volunteer in 2009.

 
MAMTA POPAT / ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Michael Fenlason, who has written and directed, is Beowulf Alley Theatre's artistic director, a new position for the company. He leads the administrative side, too

Read more: http://azstarnet.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/beowulf-s-man-for-all-seasons/article_346fd378-1e19-5e0e-bc98-3d2325df8147.html#ixzz1qhnBar2w

Faith in Science | Review | Tucson Weekly

Faith in Science | Review | Tucson Weekly:

Faith in Science 
Beowulf Alley illuminates a historical tragedy in a solid production of 'Radium Girls'
by Laura C.J. Owen @lauracjowen"

The plot of Radium Girls would make anyone nervous. It's a dramatization of the real-life case of workers in a radium factory in New Jersey who fell ill after painting watch dials with a glowing radium solution. The women licked their paintbrushes after each application, blissfully ignorant that the radium would eventually cause necrosis (rotting) of the bone, starting in the jaw.

... the ensemble cast does solid work, with Scott, Cormier and Boyd-Martin as stand-outs.


... Composer Alex Greengaard has provided a creepy, subtle soundtrack that creates just the right atmosphere.


... Radium Girls is a strong production and a smart choice for Beowulf Alley, now headed by recently appointed artistic director Michael Fenlason. The play, which premiered at the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey in 2000, has been produced all over the country—and I'm glad Beowulf has brought it to Tucson. It's a darkly entertaining piece, and it carries an extra punch because it's a true story. 

• Samantha Cormier, Bree Boyd-Martin and Nicole Scott in Radium Girls.
• 
  

Read the entire review here: Faith in Science | Review | Tucson Weekly

'Radium Girls' recounts early battle for worker safety | Beowulf Alley Theatre Company

'Radium Girls' recounts early battle for worker safety | Beowulf Alley Theatre Company:

'Radium Girls' recounts early battle for worker safety

Just because you don’t know if something is harmful doesn’t make it safe

Posted Mar 21, 2012, 2:23 pm

Dave Irwin

TucsonSentinel.com

Beowulf Alley Theatre’s “Radium Girls,” set in the 1920s and based on factual events, is about ignorance and corporate responsibility. It provides a cautionary tale for our own time: Simply because the science doesn’t exist yet to prove that something is harmful, does not necessarily make it is safe. Think lead paint, thalidomide, even cigarette smoke.

The jam-packed drama, with nine actors portraying 30 roles in more than 25 scenes, is a reminder that under the rule of law, authority requires responsibility.

 

Samantha Cormier, Bree Boyd-Martin and Nicole M. Scott in Radium Girls.

Read the entire review here: 'Radium Girls' recounts early battle for worker safety | Beowulf Alley Theatre Company:

"RADIUM GIRLS" review

"RADIUM GIRLS" A DISTURBING LEGACY

By Chuck Graham

TucsonStage.com

 

 

Look at your wristwatch. Does it have any luminous paint on it? Is the watchcase make of lead? Maybe it should be.

 

The fact is, even today, nobody knows what the “safe limit” is for radiation exposure. In truth, there probably is no such thing as a safe limit, since all radium poisoning keeps building up in every body for one’s entire lifetime.

 

But because the fatal effects of radium poisoning can take decades to become known, people generally shrug off the danger. There are, after all, so many more things that can kill you so much quicker.

 

Which brings us to the knuckle-grinding “Radium Girls” political play written by Washington DC playwright D.W. Gregory. 

 

Going where no Tucson stage company has gone before, Beowulf Alley Theatre Company brings out the shameful truth about corporate America’s history for creating a safe place for uranium workers.

 

Sheldon Metz has directed a cast of nine, most playing multiple roles, to recount the history of the Radium Girls, a New Jersey group of young factory workers in the early 1920s whose lives had no value to their employer, the U.S. Radium Corporation. The company’s business was painting watch dials and other instruments with radium paint. It was the Radium Girls who did the painting.

 

Basically, U. S. Radium knew its watch-dial painting operation wasn’t safe, but always downplayed the danger. 

 

The play’s relevance for today is that this business strategy hasn’t changed. A string of documentary films keep telling us how giant corporations continue pumping processed food full of chemicals with complicated names that some scientists have declared to be safe.

 

There were scientists in the 1920s happy to declare radium was safe to work with, too, if certain procedures were applied. Of course that was completely false.

 

The sad saga of these Radium Girls is fully documented. They have their own Wikipedia page, too. Actually, a little online research before seeing “Radium Girls” is highly recommended.

 

Much of the dialogue is based on direct testimony that is a matter of public record.

 

Gregory the playwright has structured her play more like a documentary film, as a string of scenes that generate talking points to move the story along. This makes it difficult to personally identify with any of the innocent victims, but Metz does what he can to dramatize each of the conflicts.

 

Nicole M. Scott plays Grace Fryer, the radium worker who suffered terribly from radium poisoning and led the lawsuit for safer working conditions.

 

Bree Boyd-Martin plays Katherine Wiley, the lawyer whose determination kept the suit from being buried under legal technicalities raised by U.S. Radium.

 

To be reminded of this pivotal piece of workplace history will make us all better citizens. To see how little has changed in the business world’s eagerness to value profits more than the welfare of its workers will make us all better citizens, too.

 

“Radium Girls” continues in performances through April 8 at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave. All tickets are $20, with discounts for online purchases. For details and reservations, 882-0555, or visit www.beowulfalley.org

 

 

Active Imagination Theatre presents Rabbit Hood

Tucson Weekly:

Active Imagination Theatre

When: Starts March 17. Saturdays, Sundays. Continues through April 7

Rabbit Hood, an imaginative reinterpretation of Robin Hood as the Easter Bunny, opens Saturday, March 17, an continues through Saturday, April 7. Shows are at noon; $5 child or adult. Call or email theatre@beowulfalley.org for reservations or more information.

• Best Of

  Beowulf Alley Theatre Company

  • 11 S. Sixth Ave. CENTRAL
  • 882-0555
  • www.beowulfalley.org/

The play's the thing at avant-garde Fringe fest

The play's the thing at avant-garde Fringe fest

The play's the thing at avant-garde Fringe fest

Stories by Kathleen Allen Kallen@azstarnet.com | Posted: Thursday, February 23

A comedy about cancer support groups. A rock opera with instructions on how to stop thinking and become a "good American." A musical rant about Arizona's politics, the treatment of immigrants, and the separation of Southern Arizona from the rest of the state.

These themes and more are in store for the second annual Tucson Fringe Theater Festival, a weekend packed with new plays, most by new playwrights.

Fringe fests happen around the world - there are about 16 in this country - and Tucson's operates the way most do: Playwrights submit new works, and plays are picked at random. That aspect of the festivals is a point of pride for most organizers.

"We wanted to bring the Fringe experience to Tucson, unjuried and uncensored," said Sara Habib, who, along with Yasmine Jahanmir, her lifelong friend and fellow theater lover, launched Tucson's first Fringe last year.

"It's art-centric," the 29-year-old Habib explained. "It's a community event. It provides space for people without the money to rent a theater. It's more avant-garde - it's like fresh theater."

The inaugural festival drew about 400 people. A dozen plays were submitted and six were performed.

Six were submitted this year, and the five selected - all from Tucson - will spread their performances over two venues, Solar Culture and Beowulf Alley Theatre.

Beowulf Alley hosted Fringe plays last year, but the event is new to Solar Culture.

PHOTOS BY RON MEDVESCEK / ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Kevin Henderson, left, and Terry Owen - better known as Fish Karma - are co-playwrights of "Lethal Fairytales," a rock opera that addresses the plight of those unfortunates who are encumbered by unwanted intelligence.

Read more: http://azstarnet.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/the-play-s-the-thing-at-avant-garde-fringe-fest/article_fb6a6cca-a671-51f9-9638-00dee3a4584a.html#ixzz1nPFa1yeY
Read more: http://azstarnet.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/the-play-s-the-thing-at-avant-garde-fringe-fest/article_fb6a6cca-a671-51f9-9638-00dee3a4584a.html#ixzz1nPFPytSh

Re-enacting the Response | Pick of the Week | Tucson Weekly

Re-enacting the Response | Pick of the Week | Tucson Weekly:
by Kellie Mejdrich

Just about everyone who was in Tucson on Jan. 8, 2011, had something to say about the shootings that day that killed six people and wounded 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Michael Fenlason, of Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, decided to write down some of those responses—and the result is the play Word Clouds.

Beowulf Alley will perform its response to the Jan. 8 tragedy again this weekend with its second production of Word Clouds, with music by Tristyn Tucci. Written in the two weeks after the shooting, the play focuses on responses to the shootings in the immediate aftermath.

"We really wanted to time-capsule it," said Fenlason, who also directs the play. "These are really responses right after (it happened). There were a lot of things we didn't know about that came (out later)."

"Ultimately, we're celebrating a fantastic moment where people came together in Tucson in the wake of something awful. People were doing amazing things almost all the time. We don't need a tsunami or shots fired to do amazing things. Maybe we can just do them all the time."

Fenlason also hopes the performance will encourage playgoers to share their own responses with each other.

Ben Hoffman and Nicole Scott in Word Clouds.

Read the entire article here: Re-enacting the Response | Pick of the Week | Tucson Weekly

Local theater to perform play discussing the Tucson shooting

Local theater to perform play discussing the Tucson shooting:

Posted: Jan 05, 2012 1:24 AMUpdated: Jan 05, 2012 1:24 AM

By Sonu Wasu

KOLD TV

TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) -

A group of actors from the Beowulf Alley theater will be performing a play depicting the reactions of everyday community members, after the January 8th shooting at Safeway.

One year ago, Jared Loughner opened fire outside the Safeway Store on Oracle Road. . Six people were killed that day, and several others, including U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords.

"It's one of those things where you remember exactly where you were that day, what you were eating, what you were wearing, when you got the news," said Tristyn Tucci, a performer in the play.

Tucci was playing a singer-song writer in the play, a character similar to herself. The only way she knew to express her emotions about the tragedy was to put it in a song.

The play titled "Word Clouds" was written and directed by Michael Fenlason, the artistic director of Beowulf Alley.

The play featured about 8 actors, all depicting real life characters. A woman who was shopping at Safeway when the shooting took place, a UMC trauma nurse who decided not to have a child after the shooting, a man who believed in gun control, and a man who believed in gun regulation, all had voices in the play.

For Fenlason, the January 8th tragedy was also a day that Tucson stood out in front of the world.

"Admittedly, it began with something horrible, but it ended with a million love stories and fantastic moving stories," said Fenlason.

He was talking about the victims. A husband who shielded his wife from the bullets, an aide who performed CPR on his boss, victims who tried to take down the gunman even after they had been shot. Fenlason said the tragedy brought out stories of heroism, courage, sacrifice, and bravery.

One of the worst days in Tucson history was also one that brought out the best, in a community that showed the world they know how to come together.

A day when lives were torn apart, but Tucson came together.

A big city that was so spread out seemed like a small town.

Fenlason said they planned to donate about 25% of the proceeds raised from the play to the Community Food Bank.

"After the events happened that day, I believe it was Mark Kelly who said we would just like you to donate to the food bank. I'm going to honor that and do what Mr. Kelly says, and donate to the food bank," said Fenlason.

You can catch the "Word Clouds" performance at the Beowulf Alley theater downtown on Friday, January 6th and Saturday, January 7th at 7:30.

Tickets cost $12.

The audience will have a chance to share their emotions, ask questions, and express themselves after the performance.

Play is about reactions to Jan. 8

Play is about reactions to Jan. 8:
Kathleen Allen

Arizona Daily Star

About a year ago, some folks from Beowulf Alley Theatre got together to discuss plays.

But just days before, six people were killed and 13 wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in a shooting outside a northwest-side Safeway.

Discussing plays is not what this group wanted to do.

But writing one in response to the Jan. 8 tragedy - that was a different story.

The result was "Word Clouds," which Beowulf Alley will stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

"The play is about Tucson's reactions: the ordinary and extraordinary people that make up our city and how we came together with dignity and love in the face of terrible violence," wrote the company's artistic director, Michael Fenlason, in an email.

"In some ways, the play turned out to be prescient one year later. As a theatre guy, I can tell you that every tragedy has a love story. This one had about a million."

Tickets are $12. Beowulf is at 11 S. Sixth Ave. Call 882-0555 or go to Beowulf's website, beowulfalley.org for more information.

Read more: http://azstarnet.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/play-is-about-reactions-to-jan/article_4fdc6d08-fc99-5f09-bc2e-71b389b01f4f.html#ixzz1iaMcMFWZ

'A Cactus Christmas' could become local tradition:
THEATER REVIEW
'A Cactus Christmas' could become local tradition
Kathleen Allen Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, December 18, 2011

Beowulf Alley Theatre is on to something.

The company is staging the world premiere of Tucsonan John Vornholt's sweet play, "A Cactus Christmas."

The intention is to bring it back annually, and it's got the potential to become a holiday tradition in the Old Pueblo.

...there's a charm to "A Cactus Christmas."

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEOWULF ALLEY

Jon Benda, left, and Joseph Sanchez in Beowulf Alley Theatre's "A Cactus Christmas."

The play is a gentle, heartfelt story of prospectors Pete and his wife, Alice, who have holed up in an Arizona ghost town in search of a lost treasure.

Vornholt's script speaks of the Southwest cleverly and sometimes eloquently. "The sky," says Mona when she looks up and sees the stars, "looks like sugar sprinkled on black velvet."

Read more: http://azstarnet.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/a-cactus-christmas-could-become-local-tradition/article_362d2c39-0e73-572c-927f-0e86e4c83a73.html#ixzz1h8hR2E6f

A CACTUS CHRISTMAS" STARTS A NEW TRADITION

A Cactus Christmas: "A CACTUS CHRISTMAS" STARTS A NEW TRADITION"
by Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

Beowulf Alley put its Christmas trust in a production that feels honest, heartfelt and homespun.

It would take a real Scrooge to complain about the production values of this "Cactus Christmas."

Versatile theater veteran Jon T. Benda sets the pace with a campy portrayal of Pete the old desert rat who has dreamed for years of discovering the Treasure Trove of the Lost Turk, which he is convinced is hidden somewhere in the forgotten ghost town of Wishbone, Arizona.

Instead of pretending that Tucson is London in the time of Charles Dickens, or imagining you are on a family sleigh ride over the river and through the snowdrifts to Grandmother's house, have a more distinctly Sonoran desert experience in a Christmas play with Tucson's own southwestern lore.

Read the entire review here: A Cactus Christmas

A CACTUS CHRISTMAS" STARTS A NEW TRADITION

A Cactus Christmas: "A CACTUS CHRISTMAS" STARTS A NEW TRADITION"
by Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

Beowulf Alley put its Christmas trust in a production that feels honest, heartfelt and homespun.

It would take a real Scrooge to complain about the production values of this "Cactus Christmas."

Versatile theater veteran Jon T. Benda sets the pace with a campy portrayal of Pete the old desert rat who has dreamed for years of discovering the Treasure Trove of the Lost Turk, which he is convinced is hidden somewhere in the forgotten ghost town of Wishbone, Arizona.

Instead of pretending that Tucson is London in the time of Charles Dickens, or imagining you are on a family sleigh ride over the river and through the snowdrifts to Grandmother's house, have a more distinctly Sonoran desert experience in a Christmas play with Tucson's own southwestern lore.

Read the entire review here: A Cactus Christmas