Tucson Weekly: City Week (March 26

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Thursday 26

ONE GIRL'S TALE. She lived and died in one of the most horrifying times the world has ever seen. Fortunately for the rest of us, Anne Frank recorded her life in hiding in World War II Amsterdam as the Nazis drew ever closer. Those gripping diaries eventually won a Pulitzer Prize when they were published by her father after her death.
City Week Now the powerful, intimate human drama they contain comes to Tucson with The Catalina Players production of The Diary of Anne Frank.
Tonight's opening performance is at 7:30 p.m. in the Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway, and proceeds will benefit the UA Center for Disability-Related Resources. An optional dinner is offered at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 for performance only, $20 including dinner.
Performances continue at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, through April 4. Regular tickets are $10 for performance only, $17 including dinner, available by calling 721-9640.
CUD CAUCUS. Tonight the Sierra Club hosts an appearance by Steve Johnson, Native Ecosystems founder and public land consultant to the U.S. Humane Society. A long-time environmental activist, Johnson will discuss ranching's downside in a lecture entitled Cattle Grazing and Endangered Species: The Connection.
His free lecture is at 7:45 p.m. in the UA Physics and Atmospheric Sciences Building, UA campus on Fourth Street east of Park Avenue. For information, call 790-5588.

Friday 27

EARTHSONG. Earth-minded tunesmith Casey Neill joins country blues scrufflers of the Nervous Duane Orkestra in a concert benefiting the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity.
Neill's songs range from melodic ballads to "rambunctious celebrations of wildness," and his years as a traveling environmental troubadour have earned him international acclaim. "Make no mistake," says the Eureka Times Standard, "Neill's music isn't for foot tapping. The frenzied beats often inspire intense moshing, despite the fact that he plays totally acoustic."
Performance is at 8 p.m. in the Mat Bevel Institute, 530 N. Stone Ave. A $5 donation is suggested. For details, call 623-5252.
SETTING THE STANDARD. Living Blues magazine writes that "E.C. Scott must be ranked among the best of the promising young blues-based female singers of recent years." Blues Revue says "Scott has one of the sexiest, smoothest, and most understated deliveries in the genre, and is a powerhouse entertainer to boot."
Tonight E.C. will shake up the Old Pueblo and push her new album, Hard Act to Follow, at 9 p.m. in the Boondocks Lounge, 3306 N. First Ave. Advance tickets are $8, available at the Boondocks. Tickets at the door are $10, $8 for TBS and Primavera members. For details, call 690-0991.
TERRA FIRMA. Ballet Arizona performs to Latin American and Celtic folk music in the whimsical Earth Dances, featuring three powerful contemporary works.
Daniel Ezralow's "Lady Lost Found" is described as "fast-paced and impish," with highly original choreography displaying dramatic acrobatics for a trio of drunken sailors, and a moving quartet to "Danny Boy." An unconscious woman washes ashore in Pilobolus' "Land Edge," provoking the strange behavior of the villagers and creating a web of suspense. In Michael Uthoff's "Murmurs of the Stream," 11 stories portray the struggles and hopes of the Chilean people. See the preview in this week's Arts section for details.
Ballet Arizona performs at 8 tonight and 4 and 8 p.m. tomorrow in the PCC Proscenium Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Tickets range from $7.50 to $33, with student rush tickets available one hour before curtain, at the PCC Fine Arts box office. Cal 1-888-322-5538 for reservations and information.

Saturday 28

PRIME MOVERS. Afro-Cuban jazz is spotlighted when the Tucson Jazz Society hosts Jane Burnett and the Spirits of Havana at the 18th-annual Primavera Festival. Also sharing this year's top-notch roster are pianist Lisa Lemay, and an all-girl band from local middle schools.
Hailing from Canada, Bunnett switched from classical piano to contemporary jazz, where she garnered critical acclaim as a soprano saxophonist and flute player. She's spent the subsequent 10 years visiting Cuba, and bringing that island's rich rhythmic sound to the rest of the world.
Tucson's Lisa Lemay will be joined by Ed Ulman on trombone, Jim Head on bass and Pete Swan on drums for a tribute to jazz legend Marian McPartland.
Finally, Ulman will lead the middle-school band featuring Carolyn Sayre, Allison Baron, Emma Jefferies, Dari Duval, Elise Ackerman, Aisha Ahmad-Post and Becky Simon.
Event is 8 p.m. in the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway. Tickets are $20, $15 for TJS members, and are available at Hear's Music and Last Wax Records. Call 743-3399 for information.
CRUISING FOR A CAUSE. More than 1,200 ramblers are expected to hit the pavement for WalkAmerica 1998, a March of Dimes benefit.
The March of Dimes is a noble bunch working to prevent birth defects. And nowhere are their efforts more crucial than in Arizona, which ranks 47th among the 50 states when it comes to adequate prenatal care, while our teen pregnancy rate soars.
WalkAmerica will feature a 1.5-km or 5-km route in Rillito Park, 4502 N. First Ave. Other activities include lots of chow, aerobic warm-ups, a BBQ lunch, massage therapists, live music and a "March of Dimes Midway" for kids.
Registration begins at 7:30 a.m., and the walk begins at 8:30 a.m. For details, call 298-5490.
HOG HEAVEN. The Tucson Symphony Orchestra presents a free performance featuring everyone's favorite porkers, Susan Lowell's three little javelinas (from her book of the same name). The TSO brings this popular children's story to life with melodies from Jarabe Tapatio.
Today's concert includes performances by piano prodigy Elizabeth Weyer, a junior at Salpointe Catholic High School, and Maggie Polk, a TSO Young Composers Project participant who will perform her own work, "Monsoon."
Concert is 11 a.m. in the Pueblo High School Auditorium, 3500 S. 12th Ave. Call 882-8585 for information.

Sunday 29

CULTURAL AFFAIR. Fresh faces hit the stage today when the Hispanic Cultural Showcase introduces an afternoon of new musical talent, along with a few more familiar names. Included are Iranias' Polynesian Review, Latin jazz with Cool Breeze, traditional and mariachi music by Diana Trujillo, bilingual contemporary tunes by Cachi, and El Paso vocalist Norma Ontiveros.
Show runs from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Flamingo Travelodge, 1300 N. Stone Ave. Admission ranges from $5 to $15, with a $1 discount for TFTM members. For reservations and other information, call 888-8816.
FURTIVE FELINES. Can cats be taught to flush the toilet, take out their litter, and quilt a hairball afghan? If such vexing questions have kept you tossing and turning night after feline-laced night, consider heading up to Barnes & Noble today when Tucson illustrator Jack Flemming signs copies of his bellwether book, 277 Secrets Your Cat Wants You to Know, written by Paulette Cooper and Paul Noble.
Signing runs from 2 to 4 p.m. in Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 7325 N. La Cholla Blvd., in Foothills Mall. For details, call 742-6402.

Monday 30

STORMY SEAS. A one-time school teacher sent to prison on child molestation charges, Tyler is now a free man, and he makes a tenuous return to his home in Murrell's Inlet, a small South Carolina coastal town.
His goal: to reclaim his piece of mind and his piece of land, on a homestead run by his bitter, widowed step-mother, Hattie. But he unwittingly steps into a viper's nest: Hattie's lackey, Lem, has joined her in a shady business deal, and married her niece and Tyler's childhood friend, Lexi.
All these forces drive towards a powerful, haunting climax in Mary Caroline Rogers' The Sound of the Sea, presented as part of Damesrocket Theatre's new Monday night play-reading series. Actors include Jonathan Ingbretson, Suzan Newman, Katherine Kellner and Dean Hepker.
Reading is 7:30 p.m. in Damesrocket Theater, 125 E. Congress St. Tickets are $2, available at the door. Call 623-7852 for details.
TRACKS OF TIME. The year is 1938, and 9-year-old Eva Schlesinger is on a train filled with other Jewish children headed for sanctuary in Diane Samuel's Kindertransport, presented by The Invisible Theatre.
Between 1938 and 1939, nearly 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children rode trains out of Germany to freedom in Britain. At one point, 700 of them arrived in England each week, their passports altered so that all the boys were Jacob, and all the girls Sarah. Their ages ranged from 4 to 16. Once the war with Britain began, the trains stopped, and most of the children never saw their parents again.
Among them was Eva. Now, more than four decades later, she has become the quintessential Englishwoman, hiding her origins from everyone. Though she has lost everything, she's simply happy to go on living in this gripping drama.
Tonight's preview is at 7:30 p.m. at the Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave. Previews continue at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, with evening and matinee performances running through April 19. Preview tickets are $10, available at the IT box office, or by calling 882-9721.

Tuesday 31

FEMALE FINANCE. Planting your money in the right garden takes a special kind of green thumb, and can get very gender specific. So say Taunya Villicana and Angela Baurley, account executives with Dean Witter. To explain their point, today they'll host a free seminar entitled Women and Investing. The discussion includes how to get started, personal investment selection, tax advantage investments and funding individual retirement accounts.
Seminar begins at 7 p.m. at Borders Books & Music, 4235 N. Oracle Road. Call 292-1331 for information.
RANGE RELICS. Paul VerBurg's distinct portraits of rodeo riders share space with top-notch western paraphernalia in Trappings of the Cowboy: Boots, Saddles, Hats and More by Arizona Craftsmen, now on display in the Tohono Chul Park Exhibit Hall.
These goods vary from fancy to down-home, with stitched and inlaid boots by Paul Bond, saddles with exquisitely carved leatherwork by R. Lloyd Davis and sons, western hats by Tom Hirt, elaborately patterned spurs by Bill Heisman, and stunning ranger belt buckles and tips by Tom Paul Schneider.
Also on display in the park gallery is You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover: Handmade Books. One-of-a-kind, limited edition and even teeny-tiny, these tomes are exquisitely bound.
Trappings of the Cowboy runs through April 12. You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover runs through April 27. Tohono Chul Park is at 7366 N. Paseo del Norte. Exhibit hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. A $2 donation is suggested. For details, call 742-6455.

Wednesday 1

ISLAND SOUND. Their music hails from Donegal, Ireland's northernmost county. But their appeal is global: Altan ranks as one of the top Irish bands in the world, and tonight they bring their universal sound to Tucson for one show only.
Altan's music is primarily traditional, with tunes played on twin fiddles, accordion, citern, guitar and percussion. They sing in both Gaelic and English, and that beautiful, magical sound can also be found on their latest album, Runaway Sunday.
Performance is 8 p.m. in the Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway. Tickets are $18, $17 for TFTM members, available at Hear's Music, Piney Hollow, and the Harp & Shamrock. Call 327-4809 for information.
FOUR VISIONS. The Marathon-Milagro Art Gallery hosts a visionary tour-de-force featuring Barbara Gurwitz, Dwight Haigh, Diana Madaras and Diane Redhair.
Gurwitz is gaining a reputation for her bold oil landscapes, while Haigh portrays fantastic desert creatures and landscapes in gouache. Diana Madaras is a watercolorist known for her lovely images of Tucson, and Diane Redhair works in oils to reveal extraordinary cactus florals.
Exhibit runs through March 31 in the Marathon-Milago Art Gallery, 2920 N. Swan Road, in Plaza Palomino. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For details, call 323-1138.

City Week includes events selected by Calendar Editor Tim Vanderpool. Event information is accurate as of press time. The Weekly recommends calling event organizers to check for last-minute changes in location, time, price, etc. To have material considered, please send complete information at least 11 days prior to the Thursday issue date to: Tucson Weekly, P.O. Box 2429, Tucson, Arizona 85702, or fax information to 792-2096, or email us at listings@tucsonweekly.com.

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