Tucson Weekly: City Week (September 4

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Thursday 4

TWISTED. That cute little duffer boasting a big heart and loose fingers is back, with the Theatre League's production of Oliver! Andrea McArdle of Broadway's Annie, and Richard Kline of television's Three's Company, star in Charles Dickens' Victorian tale of an orphan who ventures from a sinister London workhouse to the hoary city streets. Clearly a youth at risk, young Ollie falls in with a gang of street urchins picking pockets under the guidance of sleazy old Fagin. But Oliver's clouded future clears when he finally discovers the security of a real home and true family values.
City Week Show times are 8 p.m. today and tomorrow, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday in the TCC Music Hall. Tickets range from $26.50 to $35.50, with children's discounts for some performances, available at the TCC Box office and Dillard's. Call 791-4266 for information.

Friday 5

MISSION POSSIBLE. The Pathfinder Mars Mission has dished up some fascinating footage of the Red Planet. On July 4, the tiny craft landed on Mars toting a payload of instruments, including a stereoscope camera built at the UA, and a mobile rover named Sojourner.
Two-months later, Pathfinder is still at work, and to date has been a stunning success, gathering three times the data originally hoped for. Images beamed back to Earth include geologic leftovers from ancient Martian floods, eerie cloud formations and a range of peaks and crater rims.
Today, the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association hosts a lecture on the mission by Dr. Dan Britt, project coordinator for the Mars Pathfinder imager at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Lab. Free lecture is 7:30 p.m. in the Steward Observatory Lecture Hall, located on campus at Cherry Avenue north of University Boulevard. For details, call 579-0185.
COAST COST. To us inlanders, it may seem worlds away. But the Gulf of California is closer than you think, and currently under assault by everything from pollution to poaching. Fortunately, land-locked souls like the Coastal Conservation Foundation work hard to preserve the gulf and its amphibious inhabitants. To help fund that battle, tonight the non-profit group holds its third-annual Planet Water Art Auction and Fundraiser. You're invited out for a night of nature art, good food, and a tidal wave of information on the beautiful, beleaguered Gulf of California.
Free event is 7 p.m. in the Central Arts Collective, 188 E. Broadway. For information, call 798-1844.

Saturday 6

BAND STAND. The upscale merchants of Plaza Palomino host the fourth-annual Stand by Your Band fundraiser, benefiting the UA Band program and Arizona Band Boosters Endowment.
The evening begins with a parade up Swan Road. Band members will be accompanied by Wilbur and Wilma Wildcat, the pom/dance line, and the baton team. Eventually, the whole contingent will reach the plaza, where they'll perform a free concert, accompanied by a silent auction of UA season basketball tickets, among other items.
Parade begins at 6 p.m. on the corner of Grant and Swan roads. Raffle items will be on display beginning at 6 p.m. in Plaza Palomino, 2970 N. Swan Road. For details, call 795-1177.
LIPLOCK. From political correctness to the flagging tenure system, the right
of unadulterated academic lip flapping seems increasingly embattled. How far will it go, and who will stand up for the right to spout your piece unassailed by a confederacy of fascist dunces?
UA professor Miklos Szilagyi tackles that question in a lecture titled Is Freedom of Speech Being Squelched in Academic Institutions? Hosted by the Common Sense Forum, the free lecture runs from 1:30 to 4 p.m. in the Tucson-Pima Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave. Call 742-7361 for information.

FRINGE ART. Texas artist and gallery owner Eric C. Peterson is legally blind and can't detect colors. What he can do, however, is render remarkable mixed-media abstract works that revel in the auras of his subjects.
Peterson calls his signature pieces "energy portraits," in which he captures a person's "essence" through color and texture on canvas. And abstraction remains his creative source, what he calls the most personal approach to art. "The viewer studies the painting and whatever speaks to the viewer's soul is what the painting becomes," he says.
Exhibit runs through September, with an opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight, in the Wingspan Gallery, 300 E. Sixth St. Regular gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For information, call 624-1779.

Sunday 7

HIGH ART. Like the rest of us, you're probably accustomed to slugging down a few cups of rot-gut java and calling it breakfast. But there's another way, one overflowing with delicate little rituals. Today, Lhasha Tizer brews up a batch of enlightenment with The Way of Tea. Enjoy the afternoon in serenity, learn about tea's healing properties, and how to steam up a great pot of your own.
Event runs from 2 to 4 p.m. Cost is $15. For location and reservations, call 321-3670.
HOME ON THE DRIVIN' RANGE. Rex Allen, former cowboy star and enduring Willcox resident, hosts the Rex Allen Sabbar Shrine Golf Tournament--a weekend of activities from a Saturday evening steak dinner to plenty of hot putts. The format is two-man best ball, ladies' and mixed flights. The tourney will also feature three "Hole-in-One" par three holes, offering players the chance to win a 1998 Buick Regal Sport Coupe, among other prizes.
Tournament begins at 6:30 a.m. with breakfast, followed at 7:30 a.m. by golf at the Sheraton El Conquistador Country Club, 10555 N. La Cañada Drive. Cost for the entire package is $85 per person. For information, call 624-2509.
THE GREAT BAYAN. In case you didn't know, the bayan is a chromatic button accordion that's very big in Russia, and Vyatcheslav Semyonov is ranked among its masters. The Moscovite's awesome technical virtuosity has won him countless awards, including "Honored Artist of Russia," and the highly coveted "People's Artist of Russia."
Today, he'll perform with his wife, Natalya Semyonova--a versatile and acclaimed musician in her own right--and his American protégé, Robert Sattler.
Performance begins at 2:30 p.m. in the UA Holsclaw Recital Hall, located on the southeast corner of Speedway and Park Avenue. Tickets are $6 at the door. For details, call 327-4418.

Monday 8

GOON WITH A VIEW. The Upstairs Theatre Company continues its Monday night play reading series with Richard Strand's The Second Story Man.
Developed at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights conference, this drama follows the travails of a small-time crook with a grand plan to snag his boss' bankroll. Only said boss is the Real McCoy--in other words, he doesn't take kindly to getting jacked around.
As the would-be thief and his bimbo girlfriend fend off countless complications standing between them, the cash and a Florida retirement, The Second Story Man builds to a comedic--and reportedly touching--crescendo.
Reading is 7 p.m. in the Theatre Congress, 125 E. Congress St., followed by a lobby reception. Admission is $1. Call 791-2263 for information.

Tuesday 9

COMPOSTING A VISION. Through figurative abstracted works on paper, Tempe artist Ron Bimrose taps into light themes like transition, fate and personal choice. The results are images of flowers, airplanes, chairs cars, maps and birds that accentuate dreamlike impressions of time and space.
Bimrose continues this approach with Talk in the Garden, new works now on display in the UA Rotunda Gallery. For example, "House and Garden" features a man's head constructed of collaged photographs. With haunted, vacant eyes, he gazes at the viewer, the top half of his cranium a surreal depiction of swimming fish and linear drawings of a bird, a house and a plant. Meanwhile, a silhouetted figure floats in the distance, arms akimbo.
Talk in the Garden runs through October 2 in the Rotunda Gallery, located in the Memorial Student Union on the north side of the UA mall. Hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. For information, call 621-6142.

Wednesday 10

GROUPIE NIRVANA. The Invisible Theatre kicks off its 27th season with the New York hit, Always...Patsy Cline.
Written by Ted Swindley, Always tells the story of Cline's odd friendship with Houston housewife Louise Seger. The work focuses on the night in a Houston bar when Louise finally spots her idol up-close-and-personal.
Swindley stages this production, which stars Joy Hawkins as Louise, and Tucson's own Liz McMahon as Patsy.
Show time is 7:30 p.m. in The Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave. Production continues at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday, through September 28. Tickets are $16 and $18, available by calling 882-9721
EARTH AND SKY. The PCC West Campus Art Gallery opens its 1997-'98 season with a tandem exhibition by Tucsonans Fred Borcherdt and Harold Jones.
Borcherdt's large steel, stone and wood sculptures comprise Markers, selected from several years' worth of indoor and outdoor pieces. His focus is exploring the relationships between humans and the environment, particularly Homo sapiens' tendency to mark their turf, be it property lines, grave stones or trail markers.
By contrast, Jones aims his vision upward, investigating the ever-changing sky through collages, photography and large, ink-jet prints on canvas. The works range from the sublime, with textured prints in iridescent gold, to humorously eccentric meat and sky collages.
Exhibit runs through September 29 in the PCC West Campus Art Gallery, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Call 206-6942 for details.

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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