Maria Rita Meli is an Arizona native who grew up between the hot, arid desert and the Mediterranean coastal life in Sicily, Italy. In 2012, she earned her MA in Italian Studies from the University of Toronto, where she completed course work in Renaissance theatre and post-Tridentine drama. The year prior, Maria Rita completed her BA in linguistics and Italian language & literature at the University of Arizona, where she took part in a reading of Machiavelli's "La Mandragola." Currently, she lectures to students while frantically waving her arms and hands, like most Italians do.
Most importantly, she is an avid theatre fan and a lover of the arts who cannot think of a better way to spend an evening, or afternoon, than in the theatre.
A thrilling new mystery from the playwright of Arizona Theatre Company's smash hit Sherlock Holmes and the Adventures of the Suicide Club and the film Mr. Holmes makes its world premiere at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, Arizona; Jeffrey Hatcher's Holmes and Watson will leave you on the edge of your seat with such suspense.
The story of Johnny Cash, one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century, comes vibrantly to life on stage in Arizona Theatre Company's crowd pleasing Ring of Fire: the Music of Johnny Cash.
It's a small town, La Esquinita, USA. One, perhaps some of us are familiar with, while others not so much, but the story of such a place is not entirely uncommon.
Regarded as one of the greatest musicals of all time, the Fiddler on the Roof comes to Tucson for the first time, making it the largest production the Arizona Theatre Company has produced in over thirty years, and it does not disappoint.
In a long overdue attempt to set the record straight, God (for the first time a woman) and her devoted angels answer a few of the deepest questions to haunt mankind since the beginning of time itself.
Is England prepared for Prince Charles' ascension to the throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth II? King Charles III, making its regional premiere in the Arizona Theatre Company's 50th anniversary season, explores his possible future reign.
A new form of theatre has come to the Old Pueblo: the Red Theater Tucson - the fifth branch of the larger Red Theater Collective, which began in 2008 after the banishment from the University of Nebraska for performing controversial works.
If you were ever curious as to what would occur if you locked our third president of the United States, the author of A Christmas Carol, and the author of War and Peace in an exitless room, you'll need to make it down to the Temple of Music and Art before April 30th.
John Steinbeck's classic Of Mice and Men, a co-production with Milwaukee Repertory Theater and winner of the NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, continues the Arizona Theatre Company 2015-2016 season. It tells the emotional story of two migrant ranch workers, George (Jonathan Wainwright) and Lennie (Scott Greer), both of whom are trying to achieve their dream of settling down on their own farm, living off the fat of the land, and tending to the softest of rabbits.
When discussing August Wilson's Pulitzer-Prize and Tony Award winning play, Fences, it is most applicable to say that the Arizona Theatre Company's cast hits this poignant performance out of the park.
Opening in an adorable comedic glory at the Arizona Theatre Company is Snapshots, a romantic comedy that reimagines the songs of Stephen Schwartz. Fans old and new of Schwartz's previous works will enjoy hearing their favorite, familiar melodies from Godspell, Pippin, the Baker's Wife, and Wicked, to name a few, as we watch the story of a tired, married couple unfold in their upstairs attic.
It clearly is more than evident at this dinner: politics and religion are two topics one would consider to be off topic at any social gathering. What playwright Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced shows is that both topics, central and crucial in one play, makes for an evening of theatre spent on the edge of your seat.
You are never truly alone, not when you are in the company of a song, the great American songbook composer and lyricist reminds the opening night's audience of Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin at the Temple of Music and Art in downtown Tucson. It is a statement that rings true throughout the evening as patrons find themselves coming together to hum and sing along to Berlin's classics, when invited -- and spontaneously, as well.
The Temple of Music and Art transports its audience this time to circa 1957. We are somewhere on the southern coast of France, in a private studio known as "Le California," where we spend A Weekend with Pablo Picasso.
A boy meets a girl, they fall in love, and perhaps they would have lived happily ever after had it not been for the terrible feud between their families. After 48 seasons, the Arizona Theatre Company brings William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet to the stage of the Temple of Music and Art with award-winning director Kirsten Brandt at the helm.
A cop who plays by the rules, dreaming of making detective, and his suspects deliver a full 90 minutes of a madcap fun evening of theatre -- and this is all pulled off by two actors.
The national tour of Off-Broadway's zany comedy whodunit two-man musical, Murder For Two, launches this month at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., from Nov. 29th to Dec. 20th.
Continuing Arizona Theatre Company's 2014/2015 season is a 1966 Broadway hit thriller and a 1967 Oscar-nominated movie classic starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin: Wait Until Dark, by playwright Frederick Knott and adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher in 2013.
The Arizona Theatre Company's 2014-2015 season continues with Broadway's 1966 gripping thriller and 1967 Oscar-nominated classic film starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin.
Mixed in are the confused chuckles of the younger audience, but they soon, as well, become loud bellows as everyone watches Janasz stand at the edge of the stage, nearly on the edge, shouting at the top of his lungs, 'WE LICKED POSTAGE STAMPS.'
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