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Desert Foothills Theater 2008/2009 Season
Click here to also learn
about our Special Events and Theatricales!
Click here
for DFT Season preview story and more information on our directors
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1991 Drama
Desk Award Winner
Outstanding
Musical Revue
1991 Outer Critics Circle Award winner
Best Off -Broadway Musical Revue -- The World Goes 'Round
THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND
is presented through
special arrangement with Music Theater International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
421 West 54th Street,
New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-541-4684 Fax: 212-397-4684
www.MTIShows.com |
The World Goes ‘Round
Music by
Lyrics by
JOHN KANDER
FRED EBB
Conceived by
SCOTT ELLIS, SUSAN STROMAN, DAVID THOMPSON
Directed by
Emmy Award Winner Dee Dee Wood
Music
direction by 5-time AriZoni Award Winner, Flora Mogerman
Cast includes: Kathryn Bailes, Mary Frances Coleman, Eddie
Maldonado,
Michael Stewart and Shannon Wallace
March 26—April 5
A Musical Extravaganza...
A
glittering revue featuring unforgettable gems from Broadway,
films and television with a multi-talented cast and a sizzling
orchestra. Composers Kander and Ebb are best known for great
shows such as
Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Cabaret
and
many more. This is a must-see dynamic event.
The vast
range of human experience is explored in song after impeccable
song by one of Broadway’s most daring and successful teams and
masters of the heart-grabbing Broadway showstopper. This
glittering revue features unforgettable gems from throughout
their incredible career in theatre, film and television,
spotlighting songs from “Cabaret;” “Chicago;” “New York, New
York;” “Funny Lady;” “Kiss Of The Spiderwoman” and more.
Cactus
Shadows Fine Arts Center Main Theater
Th., Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.
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Great shows and great directors
highlight 2008/2009 season!
Our
audience members spoke and we listened. They said they like to see local
talent in our productions, but they are uncompromising in the quality they
expect to see on our stage. They are open to plays, but want them to
be well done. Well so do we!
That's why we
continued our efforts to bring to DFT some of the best directors in the
valley and this year we are thrilled to have three uncompromising and
extremely talented directors excited to bring top quality productions to our
stage.
 We
begin the season November 6-23 with Romantic Comedy directed
by E.E. Moe
"We are so excited that Ms. Moe has
agreed to join us this year. She is known for her creativity and for the
uncompromising quality of the productions she directs,” said Reeves.
Romantic Comedy
by Bernard Slade is a story of success and failure, romance and friendship;
Romantic Comedy spans the years and explores the relationship between
playwright Jason Carmichael and his new writing partner Phoebe Craddock.
The New York Post calls the play "A darling of a play... zesty entertainment
of cool wit and warm sentiment."
The spring of 2009 will see a second wonderful comedy presented in the
intimate Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center Black Box Theater and a Mainstage
musical revue sure to knock your socks off.
 Spring
productions will include Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers,
February 5-21, 2009, directed by
Petey Swartz. Last of the Red Hot Lovers finds Barney Cashman,
age 47, wanting to join the sexual revolution before it's too lat. But he’s
a gentle sober soul with a true blue wife of 23 years and absolutely no
experience in adultery, so let’s just say his efforts don’t quite produce
the results he intended. The New York Post calls the play "Delightfully
hilarious and witty, as well as filled with wisdom about human nature . . .
. A genuinely brilliant play."
 The
season comes to a close with the return of the incomparable
Dee Dee Wood as she directs The World
Goes ‘Round, March 26 - April 5 a musical revue of the music of
Kander and Ebb. Not familiar with those names? Well, you will be familiar
with their music. They wrote many great musicals including: Chicago,
Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Woman, New York, New York and many others.
Their work is known for its striking theatricality, its sharp wit and its
heart-felt sentiment.
“Our selection process this year began with inviting area directors we
admired to submit to us some plays they would like to direct,” said Meribeth
Reeves, managing director of Desert Foothills Theater. “This process brought
some wonderful directors to our table and a great selection of plays. I am
very pleased with the outcome.
“I am also pleased that it brought us some directors and work that we are
already considering for 2009/2010. We will be planning our seasons two years
out from now on to ensure good continuity between productions and artists.”
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Presented through special
arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. |
Romantic Comedy,
November 6-23
By Bernard Slade
Directed by E.E. Moe
Click here for
cast/crew bios
 “Achingly
funny, touchingly tender...”
Romantic Comedy
by Bernard Slade, directed by Elaine “E.E.” Moe, is an
American classic armed with bright sophistication that is
“achingly funny, touchingly tender, with a biting wit”
(Windsor Eton Post 2007).
Enter an arrogant handsome playwright and the four women who
consume his life: an awkward eccentric assistant, a snappy NY
Agent, a rising political giant and a fling on the side who all
set the scene for “zesty entertainment of cool wit and
warm sentiment" ( N.Y. Post. 1979) that is “an utterly
disarming, lighthearted confection about love, friendship and
theatrical trauma.” (WWD . 1979 )
 Cactus
Shadows Fine Arts Center Black Box Theater
Th., Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.
Click on photos to enlarge
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Absolutely dazzling
acting. Libby Skala’s ability
to transform herself from her 90-year old grand-mother into
herself as a young child, moving right through being a mature
woman, is absolutely
magical and al-chemical. A riveting performance.
Go and see this...”
– Robert Enright,
CBC RADIO, Canada
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 Lilia!,
January 10, 2009, 7:30
p.m.
Written and performed
by Libby Skala
A remarkable story…a remarkable woman.
Written and performed by Libby Skala, the granddaughter
of
Oscar nominee Lilia Skala.
Click here to read even
more great reviews
The indominable Lilia Skala comes to life in her granddaughter's
deeply personal celebration of a life in the theatre.
Buoyed by a resolute faith, the Austrian stage actress flees the
Third Reich and finds herself labouring in a New York zipper
factory before working her way back to Broadway and the silver
screen - eventually to star in the acclaimed Lilies of the
Field
opposite Sidney Poitier.
Libby Skala ingeniously plays both her grandmother, Lilia, and
herself, as she presents to theaudience a tale of two spirits so
alike they often suffer the ironic antagonism that comes with
deep love. In this creative way, Libby relates the true story
of her Austrian grandmother's escape from war-torn Europe,
and the shame she suffers in this "demotion" to refugee and
zipper-factory worker, to the final, victorious stardom on the
American silver screen.
She also tells of a proud woman reaching into her own experience
to aid her granddaughter in the trials of seeking notoriety both
in film and live theatre in America.
Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center Black Box Theater
7:30 p.m. |
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WINNER
BEST SOLO PERFORMER AWARD
London, Ontario Fringe Festival 2007
“Enter
One Actor Cloaked in Magic…
Libby
Skala is Magnetic!”
–THE
NEW YORK TIMES
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A Time to Dance,
January 17, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
Written and performed
by Libby Skala
Click here to read
even more great reviews
A fun musical/drama with a twist of storytelling and dance.
Explore the extraordinary 100 years of Austrian dancer and
American dance therapy pioneer Elizabeth (Lisl) Polk, expressed
through creative movement and
spoken word by her grand-niece.
Libby uses improvised
movement, creative dance and spoken word to express her great
aunt Lisl, who dances to her own dazzling stories of a turbulent
life spanning the 20th Century. Lisl arrives in 1902 Vienna
under Hapsburg rule, survives two world wars, immigrates to New
York, survives 9/11, and dances the Macarena on her hundredth
birthday.
The daughter of a Catholic mother and Jewish father, Lisl deals
with the conflicting forces of anti-Semitism in her own home as
she dreams of becoming a famous dancer. Met with opposition from
an autocratic father, she finds unexpected ways to negotiate and
fulfill her dream, while struggling to emerge from the shadow of
her famous older sister. Although Lisl's cherished hope to be
carried into the sunset by a prince on horseback never
materializes, she discovers a love she's always had and never
realized.
Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center Black Box Theater
7:30 p.m.
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Presented through special
arrangement with Samuel French, Inc |
Last of the Red
Hot Lovers,
February
5-21
By Neil
Simon
Directed by Petey Swartz
A Neil Simon classic...
Barney Cashman has been a faithful husband to his high school
sweetheart for 23 years. But it is 1970, and awkward,
mild-mannered Barney yearns to have one glorious extra-marital
fling before life and the sexual revolution pass him by.
On
three different afternoons, Barney tries desperately to seduce
three singularly odd women. The first is a chain-smoking,
hard-drinking sexpot who likes husbands other than her own. The
second is a wacky nightclub singer, and the third is his wife’s
best friend; a stern moralist who happens to be a
manic-depressive. Barney is determined to triumph, but will he
ever succeed at sinning?
Cactus
Shadows Fine Arts Center Black Box Theater
Th., Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; additional matinee,
Sat., Feb. 14, 2 p.m.
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