The 2nd annual Pandora Festival: Secrets Revealed

21 Plays in 5 Days

Presented by the Arizona Women's Theatre Company

Staged Readings of full-length, one-act and ten-minute plays chosen by a juried panel and produced by experienced Valley directors and actors who bring these plays to life.

The Pandora Festival is co-sponsored by the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and is supported, in part, by the Scottsdale Cultural Council and the Arizona Commission on the Arts with funding from the city of Scottsdale, the state of Arizona, and the National Endowment for the Arts.  We are also grateful for the generosity of Janie Ellis and Fred Unger.

General Admission $12 on line, $13 at door
FESTIVAL PASS for all events - $40

SCHEDULE

Friday 5/16/2008

Stage 2 - 7pm - Babe: An Olympic Musical

Carolyn Gage (bookwriter/lyricist) and Andrea Jill Higgins (Composer)
Musical Director, Andrea Jill Higgins
Concert/reading featuring scenes from a high school dance and beauty pageant, a pajama party on the Olympic train, the 1932 track trials, and a tango at a country club.

Sunday 5/18/2008

Stage 2 - 2pm - Circles by Micki Shelton

Directed by Joy Bingham Strimple
When six women gather at a friend’s Northern California beach house to celebrate Emily’s 50th, Emily’s sister Jo becomes the fly in the aromatherapy oil. The play is dedicated to Roberta Wilson.

Stage 2 - 7pm Off the Rails by Patricia Hays

Directed by Diane Senffner
A humorous and somewhat horrific exposé of a 62-year-old woman in search of sanity nagged and prodded by two lifelong friends and her deceased mother.

Friday 5/30/2008

Stage 2 - 7pm Babe: An Olympic Musical by Carolyn Gage (bookwriter/lyricist) and Andrea Jill Higgins (Composer)

Musical Director, Andrea Jill Higgins
Concert/reading featuring scenes from a high school dance and beauty pageant, a pajama party on the Olympic train, the 1932 track trials, and a tango at a country club.

Saturday 5/31/2008

YAAG Gallery - 2pm Short plays

TICKETS TO THIS PERFORMANCE ARE AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE THANKS TO THE SCOTTSDALE CULTURAL COUNCIL.  (PHONE TO RESERVE 480 607 7107)

Hannah’s Journey by Estelle Lazell
Directed by Barbara Acker
A holocaust survivor's search for love and hope when there was none.

Under the Broom Tree by JoAnn Tongret
Directed by Jackie Mahoney
Past and Present meet at a cemetery to talk about crossing borders and mending hearts.

Sisters by Clara Zwick
Directed by Deborah Carrick
Two aging sisters attempt to solve a current problem by exploring the past.

YAAG Gallery - 7pm The Limits and Benefits of Current Detection by Tania Katan

Directed by Neda Tavassoli
Sarah uses algebra to determine the probability of her father calling. Jules is determined to twirl her flag until someone pays attention. Ann pays her bills by singing Happy Trails to elderly folks. Lily sings Burt Bacharach songs in the face of catastrophe. Stewart sees the face of Buddha in buttermilk bars. Tom has a locked trunk. Terry picks locks.

Sunday 6/1/2008

Stage 2 - 2pm Short plays

Fried by Carolyn Allport
Directed by Kandyce Hughes
A meek little wife serves her domineering husband his last meal.
*Parental Guidance category!

Tie the Not by Larissa Brewington
Directed by Kandyce Hughes
A man and a woman discuss the prospects of marriage despite their very dissimilar demeanors in this short comedy.

Dreams of Diana or Los Suenos de Diana by Toby Heathcotte
Directed by Patty Hackmann
In this myth of modern life, a gifted young woman confronts ancient goddesses of need, love, and power, to choose a life path.

Happy Anniversary by Mary Heyborne 
Directed by Catherine Zatarski
A fifteenth anniversary unfolds with humor, tugs at the heart, and a few surprises.

Infinite Numbers by Devorah Medwin
Directed by Jan Sickler
One man's journey from the concentration camps of Nazi Germany to the garment district in New York.  Play opens the day Jackie Robinson was signed as the first black player in major league baseball.

Here Today by Charissa Menefee
Directed by Joy Bingham Strimple
Yesterday's missed opportunity puts a couple's tomorrow on shaky ground.

If We Should Meet Again by Ro Robusto
Directed by Catherine Zatarski
What is the impact of kindness on a troubled soul?  If I were more outgoing, if I were friendlier, if I had tried harder to establish a connection, what might have been different?

YAAG Gallery - 2pm Short plays

Civil Union by Larissa Brewington
Directed by Kandyce Hughes
A widow and her daughter deal with the disastrous results of too much drinking at a wedding rehearsal dinner, in this light and touching comedy.

A Love Song to Beowulf by C.S.E. Cooney
Directed by Zoe Yeoman
The epic adventure of a Scandinavian hero told by a woman who saw it all. And loved every minute! 
*Some adult content, blood and a bit of suggested sex.

A la Carte by Bernadette La Mazza
Directed by Judy Eisenberg
Taken for granted, invisible and tired of office politics, ingenuity sparks confidence for two middle aged women over burritos and salsa:nothing is routine when you go a la carte.

Drifting by Kim Porter
Directed by Zoe Yeoman
You’d think being trapped in a life raft at sea with nothing to eat and drink might finally bring an end to this mother and daughter’s petty power struggles, but you’d be wrong.

Seeking Destiny by Mary Caroline Rogers, director:
Directed by  Patty Hackmann
Explores the chaos of modern single life, where people search for connections enduring beyond the last cocktail, and for meaning more elusive than the hand of a passing stranger. 
*Adult language and content.

YAAG Gallery 7pm Like Heaven by Elaine Romero

Directed by Jan Sickler
Four women find their lives thrown into an upheaval when Sapphire, a free-loving freethinking woman, with 60 days clean and sober, arrives from California in Independence, Kansas and inadvertently sleeps with one of the women’s husbands.