February 2 - February 8, 1995

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD. It's been nearly 30 years since Tom Stoppard stopped audiences in their tracks with his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. And just when it looks like Stoppard is thrilling audiences with Hapgood on Broadway, it's exciting that a.k.a. Theatre has decided to bring his first smash play to their stage.

The play follows two minor characters from Hamlet who wander and wind through the Bard's play and dialogue, delving, or falling, into adventures of all sorts. Stoppard, who has been called "one of the most dazzling inventive playwrights working in English," also directed the 1990 film adaptation.

Rosencrantz shows at 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday, through February 26, at a.k.a. Theatre, 125 E. Congress St. Tickets are only $7 with discounts available. For reservations call 623-7852.

TIM AND MOLLIE. Oh boy, it's time for some grass that's bluer than the blue fields of Kentucky, because Tim and Mollie O'Brien and the O'Boys are coming to town. Master bluegrass man Tim O'Brien and sister Mollie grew up with music in Wheeling, West Virginia, and have had some terrific success on their own and as a duo. Tim plays the fiddle, mandolin, guitar and bouzouki, not to mention he's got a singing voice that won him the top vocal prize from the International Bluegrass Music Association. Mollie O'B has been off doing some jazz singing as well as performing with Colorado's Mother Folkers.

Tonight's concert will also have some old-time banjo and clogging by Mark Schatz. The O'Boys will perform at 8 p.m. at the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway. Advance tickets are $11 to $14 with discounts available. Get tickets at Hear's Music, Piney Hollow, Bentley's and Workshop Music and Sound. For more information call 327-4809. Tickets at the door are $1 more.

LIVE GLASS. Drop in to Philabaum Contemporary Art Glass, 711 S. Sixth Ave., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today to see artists at work. The gallery is opening a new exhibition, Paint and Glass: The Expressive Connection, featuring glass artists who paint on their work. On display are both flat and blown glass pieces by 11 artists, including Denita Benyshek, Tom Farbanish and Dick Weiss. Live glass demonstrations will take place today by contributing artists and top paint-on-glass artist Robert Carlson, guest curator for the show.

Carlson will give a 2 p.m. lecture tomorrow at the Tucson Museum of Art, and there will be an opening reception from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday at the gallery. Paint and Glass: The Expressive Connection continues through April 1. Regular gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information call 884-7404.

ANDROCLES AND THE LION. It's golden rule time, so pack up the ones who need to learn about doing good deeds unto others and hope they absorb the moral along with the tail, er, tale.

Childsplay performs this version of Aesop's well-known fable, with a 16th century setting. It's a play within a play--you'll see the performers setting up as a strolling commedia dell' arte company, complete with masks and stock characters like the clown, merchant and usually a comic servant or two. The timeless tale they tell is about a lion who kindly pays back a slave's earlier kindness toward him. There are slaves and masters and emperors and boastful captains to keep the action hot.

Show times are 7:30 tonight and tomorrow and 5 p.m. Sunday. Matinee performances are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $10.50 for adults, $7.50 for students and seniors. For tickets call 622-2823. The play is on stage at the Tucson Center for the Performing Arts, 408 S. Sixth Ave.

BEAD IT. Bead there, done that? Not this you haven't. The Whole Bead Show lets you meet the hands behind the beads--this show is filled with the beadmakers themselves. Ava Motherwell, who learned the art of beadmaking from her mother at age 14, calls this show reminiscent of "an ancient beadmaking marketplace." The show will feature beadmakers Andrea Guarino, Vilma Morgan, Michael Barley and many other artists who will be demonstrating the art of hot glass beadmaking all day long.

Buy from the artists and traders or wander around looking for a bead to match the one that fell from your rawhide necklace at a Who concert in 1972. The show runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Tuesday, February 7, at the Windmill Inn at St. Philip's Plaza, 4250 N. Campbell Ave. Admission is $5.

DANCEAROUND. Let Saturday night dance fever grab you by your muscular legs, because tonight you get to see it all in one place for one price at the Arizona Contemporary Dance Festival.

Tucson's own excellent Orts Theatre of Dance will be on hand performing their acts of magical dance, as will Tenth Street Danceworks. Four other prominent Arizona dance companies will also contribute work to tonight's 8 o'clock show at Pima Community College, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for kids. Call 1-800-638-4253 for tickets, or get them at Dillard's. For more on the festival see Margaret Regan's Review article in this issue.

RASCALS IN LOVE. First Saturday of the month today, in case you forgot, so get downtown, especially with the kids during the day. The Screening Room has Little Rascals films and animated sweeties for your gumdrops today at 2 and 4 p.m., with valentine filmaking workshops before the screenings. You've also got the Tucson Symphony's "Just For Kids Concert" at the Temple of Music and Art. It's string quartet day, and expect a kid or two to show with an instrument--the kids love that. Get there early for the 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. performances--they're popular. Also for kids is The Classical Side of Tenth Street Danceworks, performing at 1:30 p.m. And all day long it's an Indian Arts Fair at Old Town Artisans in the El Presidio Historic District, 186 N. Meyer.

"Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage," said the Bard. This and further talk of love will fill the streets as the Arts District promises bard in the streets and red-hot jazz for lovers at the Ronstadt Transit Center. It's a night for those who love love, so sweet dishes and desserts are special all night long at cafés around town. For more sweetheart talk call 624-9977.

SUPERJAM. Do you want soup or jam with your bread? How about Tucson's best jazz groups playing Dixieland to salsa for only $5 for members, $8 for other types? You're on today at the Southwest Center for Music, 2175 N. Sixth Ave. SuperJam boasts Jazzberry Jam, Cool Breeze, Latin jazz Descarga and some great high school and college jazz ensembles, all to raise funds for the Jazz Society Education Fund.

A record fair that rates up there with the best shopping around will feature new and used albums and CDs with jazz, blues and more. The fair will rage beginning at 11 a.m. and you can get in free until SuperJam bursts at 2:30 p.m. Support this group and help keep kids into music. Tickets are available at the door or in advance at Hear's Music, 2508 N. Campbell Ave. Call 743-3399 for more jazzy information.

TUCSONASSIC PARK. Drag the old fossil out of the house for the Mineral and Fossil Show this year--it's a blast and a half. This ain't just your scorpion-in-a-bolo-tie gift show, although you can sure find one of those here. More than 260 dealers from all over the world file in for this show, displaying everything from trilobites to mastodon tusks. The dealers are fascinating and obsessed people who are as much fun to talk to as their paleo objects are to look at. Curators and collectors alike talk about 10,000 years ago as if it were yesterday, and you can get all kinds of glorious crystals or some petrified sloth doo-doo for your mantle.

We're not just tramping in your resin, this is the biggest show of its kind anywhere, and it's at the Executive Inn on Drachman Street and the Quality Inn just around the corner on Oracle Road. It's open all day everyday through February 11 with free admission.

MIGHTY CLOUDS. Praise the skies! The Mighty Clouds of Joy have blown into town, raining their Grammy-winning gospel songs down on upon us. In case you haven't noticed, gospel music has left the tent and is now flowing into some of the top arenas like Madison Square Garden, where the Mighty Clouds burst for a solid month along with Paul Simon a couple of years back.

This vocal quartet has been called the group that shoved gospel over the line into the pop music realm. Their cross-over audiences have gobbled up their 25 albums and are standing in the aisles for more. There's a darn good chance they'll sing their smash hit "Pray for Me" sometime tonight. Tickets are $10 to $15, and students can rush 45 minutes before show time for $6. The group performs at 8 tonight at the UA's Centennial Hall, Park Avenue and University Boulevard. Call 621-3341 for tickets.

VIRTUAL REALITY. Get into the 3D loop at today's Virtual Reality Fair at Pima Community College's Student Center, 2202 W. Anklam Road. It's fair to say you'll be surrounded by sights and sounds of what's happening in the rapidly moving world of virtual reality, which is created using computer simulation. And it's not just those nifty sunglasses the VR Troopers wear on Saturday morning cartoons--VR is being used in fields as diverse as medicine and theatre. You can get the feeling at today's show and learn where this simulation is moving. Join the revolution from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information call 8880689.

February 2 - February 8, 1995

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