Presidents Day has passed, and Lent has begun –– now let’s hope that doesn’t mean you’ve given up on exploration! This week, the DevilPass brings you another wide array of activities in the downtown area, including a community revitalization project, a benefit show, three new unique plays and the return of a ‘90s indie-rock godfather. Each of these events is close to home, so there’s no excuse not to get out and do something!
The Ro2 Lot: Neighborhood Mural Project
- Saturday & Sunday, Feb. 25 & 26
- 10 a.m.-4 p.m. both days
- The Ro2 Lot: 1005 N. Second St.
- Getting there: Walk—Second and Roosevelt streets
- Price: FREE
Recommended if you like: community arts projects, unbridled creativity, revitalization
Phoenix seems to have an affinity for vacant lots. They dot the Valley’s entire footprint, even littering such seeming hotbeds of development as downtowns Phoenix and Tempe. But along Roosevelt Row, there seems to be a twin trend to activate these dormant spaces. First came the A.R.T.S. Market during First and Third Fridays, followed by Valley of the Sunflowers and the Garfield Garden Park on Tenth Street and Pierce. Now, the “Ro2 Lot” has emerged. Next door to monOrchid on Second and Roosevelt Streets, this vacant lot is turning into a “pocket park” filled with temporary programming. This past week, ASU’s School of Sustainability hosted Mayor Greg Stanton and architect Bill McDonough as they talked about urban sustainability in the downtown area. For its latest project, the park will feature a large-scale mural across its northernmost wall, curated by local artist and activist Hugo Medina. This Saturday and Sunday, Colton Brock, Lalo Cota, Gennaro Garcia, Thomas “Breeze” Marcus and others will paint alongside YOU in this open mural project, aimed at beautifying vacant space temporarily for the benefit of the community.
- Saturday, Feb. 25
- 7 p.m. Doors
- Rusty Spoke Bicycle Collective: 1023 NW Grand Ave.
- Getting there: Bike—Grand Ave. and Fillmore St. (enter through the alley)
- Price: $5 at the door
Recommended if you like: local parties, bikes, baked goods
Since 2009, the Rusty Spoke Community Bicycle Collective has opened its doors on Grand Avenue to meet the needs of downtown’s cycling community. The volunteer-run organization repairs, rents and recycles bikes while teaching important lessons on bike care, safety and construction in its classes. It aims to promote inclusiveness through sustainable transportation and do-it-yourself ethics. To support the Collective’s mission, several local bands are hosting a benefit show this Saturday with 100 percent of the proceeds going directly to Rusty Spoke. For just $5, attendees will be treated to the gypsy sounds of Dry River Yacht Club, the garage-punk of Dogbreth and the offbeat indie of Stephen Steinbrink of French Quarter. In addition to live entertainment, the space will offer baked goods, bike tutorials and games, all to raise awareness and money to support Rusty Spoke’s mission in downtown.
- Tuesday & Wednesday, Feb. 28 & 29
- 11 a.m. Tuesday; 1 p.m. both days
- Herberger Theater Center: 222 E. Monroe St.
- Getting there: Walk—Second and Monroe streets
- Price: $6 in advance at herbergertheater.org
Recommended if you like: historical fiction, a day in the life, civil-rights icons
Herberger Theater Center will make sure you attend a theater performance if it’s the last thing it does. For the past few years, the Center has been curating its Lunch Time Theater series, offering short one-act plays during the work day complete with a meal to meet the needs of time-constrained businesspeople and students. Tickets run just $6 for these brief shows and are just less than an hour to give people both time to arrive and depart from work, all within their lunch hour. Presented by Grey Matters Productions, the series’ spring show offers a bit of historical fiction –— a thinking man’s lunch, if you will. The play follows former slave and famed orator and author Frederick Douglass and journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, who formed a strong friendship in the last years of Douglass’ life. The plot itself though is even simpler: a snapshot of a day in the life of the two confidantes, during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
- Friday-Sunday Feb. 24-26
- 8 p.m. Friday & Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday
- Herberger Theater Center: 222 E. Monroe St.
- Getting there: Walk—Second and Monroe streets
- Price: $20.50-$39.50
Recommended if you like: suspense, dark comedy, unexpected encounters
Intrigue, comedy and isolation all weigh into the play by Sarah Ruhl, depicting exactly what happens when a woman in a café comes across what is described in the play’s title: a dead man’s ringing cell phone. By answering the phone, the unsuspecting Jean is forced into the complicated life of the newly-dead man at the table next to her. Initially solving the mystery of his death and wrapping up some unfinished business in the man’s life, Jean’s life becomes intertwined with the lives of the dead man’s family, friends and even his state in the afterlife. The quiet Jean turns out to be eager to find connections with the world around her, and through the dead man’s cell phone, she finds them. The presence of the cell phone turns into a metaphor on barriers, and how easy it could be to cross them and embrace something completely unexpected.
- Friday & Saturday Feb. 24 & 25
- 7 p.m. both days; 2 p.m. Saturday
- Space 55: 636 E. Pierce St.
- Getting there: Walk—Seventh and Roosevelt streets
- Price: $15 in advance at space55.org
Recommended if you like: radio plays, original works, supernatural teens
To many, a radio play may seem an antiquated form, evoking twin images of a family gathered around a massive transistor radio, and the terror which accompanied the radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.” Beyond This American Life, the idea of sitting around and simply listening to someone tell a story without any visual accompaniment is something reserved for some sort of apocalypse or a day of absolute boredom. Ever the innovators, the actors and playwrights at Space 55 are returning with a second installment of a “radio play” they debuted last year: “Night of the Chicken.” Complete with live sound effects and a true performance aspect, the play aims to accomplish something entirely new. The live show banks on the teen-supernatural trend of the past few years and turns it on its head, portraying a teenage girl who changes into a were-chicken when she least expects it. While dealing with the normal pressures of high school, the young Andi Hafferton is forced to team up with a former nemesis to stop a destructive rumor from spreading and protect her secret identity from her peers. Blending B-movie laughs and an experimental aesthetic, this adventure-comedy deliberately draws the viewer (or in this case, listener) in to an ever-evolving storyline.
- Friday, Feb. 24
- 7:30 p.m. Doors, 8:30 p.m. Show
- Crescent Ballroom: 308 N. Second Ave.
- Getting there: Walk—Second Avenue and Van Buren Street
- Price: $18 in advance at crescentphx.com, $20 at the door
Recommended if you like: Pavement, quirky rock, The Magnetic Fields
Immediately after the break up of his seminal band, Pavement, Stephen Malkmus got to work. The project that resulted was his long-running Jicks, peddling a less-shoegazy version of the quirky indie rock perfected by Malkmus and Pavement over their decade-long career. Then featuring former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss, the group experienced its commercial and critical breakthrough with 2005’s Face the Truth, with many claiming that Malkmus had regained the writing prowess of his previous band’s prime. Most recently, the Jicks in 2011 released Mirror Traffic, a longer, looser and more complete work than the group’s previous albums, to widespread critical acclaim. Fresh off the end of Pavement’s brief reunion tour, the Jicks are back as a touring force, with Malkmus ever moving forward, refusing to dwell in his celebrated past.
Events compiled by Connor Descheemaker.
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