www.startrekmovie.com/

Nerd alert. J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness opens today, and, at risk of revealing just how deep our love of the Enterprise and its crew goes, suffice it to say we've been re-watching Star Trek: The Animated Series (which, by the way, is great and on Netflix Instant Watch) in anticipation.

But we're not the only ones excited to see Abrams' second Trek installment. That's because the new flick resurrects one of the franchise's most memorable villains and pits his calculated coldness against Chris Pine's emotional, reactive James T. Kirk.

See also:
10 Must-See Events at Phoenix Comicon 2013
Five Must-See Movies in Metro Phoenix This May

More »

courtesy of Space 55

From left, Patti Hannon and Brinley Nasisse play the title roles in Woman and Girl.

The setup: Local writer Charlie Steak's short play Woman and Girl follows its two characters through a stressful period of accepting change and learning to live together. (It's quite different from Steak's popular short, I'm Voting Republican.) The première production is at Phoenix's Space 55.

See also:
- "Where's the play about Arizona that everyone has been waiting for?" Not at ASU Tempe (Not This Month, Anyway)
- Late Night Catechism's Patti Hannon Stars in Space 55's The Bakers of Lakewood
- Best Reason to Relive the Pain of Catechism

More »

Rosalie O'Connor Photography

Ballet Arizona's Topia is the most sensory ballet experience we've ever had.

After its successful debut last year, the show, created by Ballet Arizona artistic director Ib Andersen, is back at the Desert Botanical Garden for a second season. The 80-foot-long stage where the dancing takes place is aligned with the nearby Papago Buttes, giving viewers a sense of awe before the ballet itself even starts.

But the desert setting doesn't detract from the movement; instead, it adds a layer of meaning to the piece that arguably couldn't be achieved in an indoor venue.

See Also:
- Ballet Arizona's Topia at Desert Botanical Garden Back for a Second Season
- Dulce Dance Company Explores Space in Para Tus Ojos at Icehouse

More »

Heather Butcher

Epiphany de l'escalier: From left, Taylor DiTola as Serena, Chelsea Soto as Margot, Brittany Howk as Elle Woods, and Brittanee Perkins as Pilar in Legally Blonde

The setup: If it isn't enough for you to know that the roman à clef that inspired the film Legally Blonde was written by ASU grad Amanda Brown (based on her Stanford experiences) or that the film, in case you're unfamiliar with it, is an oddly fluffy odyssey of female empowerment, you should know that it was turned into an unusually functional musical -- as in the songs fall in places that make dramatic sense, it's organically dance-y, and the suspenseful if preposterous plot unfolds rather nicely.

I saw Valley Youth Theatre's production last summer and realized what a tight show it is, and now that I've enjoyed the current mounting by Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre, I will probably turn into one of those people who travels all over seeing Legally Blonde dozens of times whenever I have an opportunity.

See also:
- La Cage aux Folles from Phoenix Theatre Tastes as Good as It Looks
- Three and a Half Kick-Ass Christmas Plays in the Valley
- Curtains: Desert Stages' Zanna, Don't! Is a Dream Date

More »

Joya Scott

From left, William Crook, Tucker Bingham (backstage in blue shirt), Sarah Harvey, Chelsea Pace, and Katrina Donaldson in You You Shouldn't Come Back

The setup: Orange Theatre Group, not unlike the ASU Herberger College grad cohort that more or less begat it, Interrobang, and its other offshoot, festina lente, is committed to pushing the envelope of new drama, developing performance that connects with varying degrees of tenacity to the existing texts it's often inspired by or based on. Besides healthy doses of pop culture, humor, shock, and nihilism, Orange adds a strong and purposeful multimedia component to the deconstruction/reconstruction.

OTG's current production, You You Shouldn't Come Back, is really quite a bit like the beginning and middle of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. It doesn't ask nearly the appreciation or even tolerance for totally fucked-up weirdness that a typical evening with Orange might require of its audience members.

See also:
- Best A/V Club - 2012: Orange Theatre Group
- Chris Danowski's Desiring Flight from Orange Theatre Group -- Two More Performances!
- The Revenger's Tragedy's a Compelling Work in Progress from festina lente

More »

Native Arizonan Tom Leveen, who lives and works in Phoenix, is a YA fiction machine and the author of "Party" and "Zero." His third novel, "manicpixiedreamgirl," came out earlier this month, and he's already working on numbers four and five (and maybe even beyond) right this minute. Look out this October for "Sick," Leveen's first foray into the world of horror.

Tyler Darcy finds himself on the horns of a dilemma, high-school style. He's been crushing hard on mystery girl Rebecca Webb since freshman year, but he's also been going out with the eminently likable Sydney Barret (yes, that's Syd Barrett) for about the same amount of time -- someone who supports him and likes his writing and fools around with him.

See also:
- Phoenix Author Tom Leveen Returns with Young Adult Novel Zero
- Author Adam Johnson on Phoenix, North Korea, and His Latest Novel, The Orphan Master's Son

More »

Stacey Walston

Jesse James Kamps and Janae Thomas in She Stoops to Conquer

The setup: Like pretty much every other theater with "Shakespeare" in its name, Mesa's Southwest Shakespeare Company peppers each season with plays written by other people. They're usually referred to as "classical." Some companies also present newer shows that are Shakespeare-related or -inspired, and SSC has been doing quite a bit of Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde lately, as well, with mixed results.

One of the criteria that appear to mean "classical" is "centuries old, with an English script available." Many of us were required to read plays of this nature in college.

Some old classics are much better live, off the page, even today. Others, despite their historical and literary importance, can be quite a slog. Oliver Goldsmith's 1773 hit She Stoops to Conquer, Southwest Shakespeare's current production, is a huge milestone in the development of English comedy that now teeters on the brink of irredeemable fustiness.

See also:
- A Christmas Carol from Southwest Shakespeare Is Virtually Sold Out in Mesa and Worth the Trouble
- Shakespeare at the Biltmore: The Importance of Being Earnest and A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Curtains: Southwest Shakespeare's Blithe Spirit Is Blithe and Spirited, Thank God

More »

"Sign Painters" -- Original artwork hand-painted by Ira Coyne

Faythe Levine and Sam Macon's "Sign Painters" is the kind of book you buy as a present for someone else because it looks cool and then can't part with yourself.

The photographs are what draw you in first, of old school sign painters and their work.

There's Ernie Gosnell's cartoonish devil head with a blue pompadour, floating over the words "No Drunks, No Assholes." (Gosnell himself is a spectacle -- he wears a plaid pork pie hat atop his long gray hair and his ringed hands are both illustrated with intricate tattoos.) And Roderick Laine Treece's luxurious gold-gilded glass signs, announcing "United Cigar Stores" and "Colt Firearms Company."

See also:
- Robin Sloan Stirs New and Old Literary Tech in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
- Should Artists Paint Murals for Free?
- Documentary Filmmaker Jill Morley Talks About Her New Film Fight Like a Girl Screening at Phoenix Film Festival

More »

Tim Fuller

Peter Van Norden assesses Caitlin Stegmoller in The Sunshine Boys.

The setup: Neil Simon is still a massively popular American playwright -- able to sell tickets on name alone when some shows can scarcely sell tickets at all -- and his success gets in his way, critically speaking. You have to look at a theater company's choice to do one of Simon's plays the way I look at chicken fingers: They're the only thing a little kid will order in a restaurant, and most of them are dried-out travesties, but the basic idea is a good one and if you go to someplace good like The Machine Shed, your faith will be restored. (Same for the cottage cheese, which is really more in sync with Simon's audience demographics.)

See also:
- We Have a Few Reservations with The Dinner Party
- Curtains: Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs at Starlight Community Theater in Anthem
- Simon Says "Stay Home"

More »

courtesy of Space 55

From left, Robert Altizer, Leslie Barton, Shawna Franks, Amy Ouzoonian, Richard Briggs, Hal Bliss, and Benjamin Garrett are some of the most miserable and annoying people in the whole wide world, just like the rest of us, in Uncle Vanya.

The setup: Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya takes guts to produce and mad brains and talent to produce tolerably. Don't go to that link and read it; besides its morose nature, it's full of those Russians with multiple nicknames and pretty hard to follow on the page (frustration bonus!).

It's two hours of bitching and moaning from people who are so non-self-actualizing, you just want to slap them. I can't think of a local company any better equipped to meet the challenge than Space 55, so we've gotten lucky, but for only two more nights.

See also:
- Australia at Space 55: Finally, Someone's Thinking of the Children
- Ten Chimneys' Tale of Broadway Royalty Charms and Challenges
- Curtains: Last Chance Tonight to See And What She Found There from ASU Tempe Grad Cohort Interrobang

More »