Central Arizona

Vicariously experience the environment and atmosphere of a 1960s-era Civil Rights Movement camp.  Through theatrical performance, music, poetry, and participatory activities, audience members will examine the culture of discrimination, racial prejudice, and social injustice in the United States as it was during the 1960s.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategy of passive resistance will be […]

Discovered in 1863 by Henry Wickenburg, the Vulture Gold Mine was the first big gold mine in Arizona. The mine and its colorful cast of characters, along with the town of Wickenburg, were instrumental in stimulating considerable growth and development in Central Arizona. This presentation will share the multi-layered story of the gold mine, thus […]

In 1921 the Hopi were told that “church people” petitioned Congress to stop their “pagan” dancing.  A platform was erected on the U.S.Capitol steps where both Houses of Congress assembled with their families to see the Hopi dancers.  Following the performance, Congress passed a Resolution giving the Hopi permission to carry on their dancing “for […]

Vicariously experience the environment and atmosphere of a 1960s-era Civil Rights Movement camp.  Through theatrical performance, music, poetry, and participatory activities, audience members will examine the culture of discrimination, racial prejudice, and social injustice in the United States as it was during the 1960s.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategy of passive resistance will be […]

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and early 1930s and it was an unprecedented period of expression by African Americans in music, literature, art, dance, poetry, politics, and economics.  Never before had America seen such a rich explosion of black culture.  This interactive presentation, which includes storytelling, poetry, theatre, art, […]

Florence began as a small rural desert town. In 1875 a major silver strike and designation as Pinal County seat changed the character of the town.   Despite the past tales of shootouts and stage robberies that echo off the historic adobe walls, many people still find Florence the essence of a “small town” that […]

The great West that George Bird Grinnell first encountered in 1870 as a 21-year-old man was shortly to disappear before his eyes.  Nobody was quicker to sense the desecration or was more eloquent in crusading against the poachers, the hide-hunters, and the disengaged U.S. Congress than George Bird Grinnell, the “Father of American Conservation.”  Grinnell […]

This engaging program, similar to a “Prairie Home Companion” but with an Arizona twist, uses live music, storytelling, video, and other visual aides to highlight stories of Arizona’s first century. Jay Craváth and Dan Shilling form the nucleus of the program, relating vignettes through song and story, such as the murder of reporter Don Bolles, […]