Arts & Culture in Peoria

Arizona Curriculum Theater Inc. is a non-profit troupe of actors, artists, and musicians performing primarily in schools and libraries across Arizona. ACT, Inc. also performs three public productions throughout the year and is a resident company at Soul Invictus, 1022 Grand Ave., Phoenix, AZ.

In the interest of enchanting family audiences, Great Arizona Puppet Theater has not only replaced human actors with marionettes and rod puppets but also replaced the bears in Goldilocks's story with sharks. Goldilocks & the Three Sharks parades vibrant sea creatures across the stage as the heroine, now a mermaid, acts out her legend against luminous black lights. This inventive take on an old myth is par for the course at the theater, whose adaptation of Cinderella won the 2010 UNIMA-USA Citation of Excellence in puppetry. Behind the scenes, professional puppeteers guide the characters through kid-friendly narratives, both ancient and original. Their performances often include a timely moral that parents can discuss with children with the help of accompanying study guides, which encourage guests to analyze themes and ask questions such as "how can puppets talk if they have no brains?"

The puppet masters have more than 50 tales in their collective memory. They perform them in the historical, hand-painted theater space five days a week, as well as at area schools and functions. By crafting scripts that address Arizonian themes, including the conservation of endangered condors and figures in Native American folklore, they hope to educate and engage their young spectators. Guests can interact with the stories even further by adopting puppets from the onsite gift shop or by attending a private party, where they create their own hand puppets out of paper bags. Additionally, seasonal adult shows prove that puppetry can be as edgy as any other art form.

At Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre, three troupes—the Actor’s Cafe, the Children’s Theatre, and Cullity Hall productions—celebrate great storytelling with seasons full of classic plays and child-friendly adaptations. The Actor’s Cafe’s small, adult casts perform in a 60-seat cabaret, and the grownups and growing-ups of the other companies play on the main stage's still-intimate 132-seat theater-in-the-round.

Celebrating its eighth season, Arizona Broadway Theatre curates enrichment with performances combined with fine dining that helped to garner the acclaim of Best Playhouse by PHOENIX magazine in 2010. Curtains open to a cast of talented performers, who were culled from auditions in New York and the Valley of the Sun, have belted out Broadway staples such as Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, and Singin' in the Rain. Servers glide through the tiered theater hall prior to performances, peppering white tablecloths with platefuls of American fare such as steak diane's sliced tenderloin paired with sautéed shallots and lyonnaise potatoes, which entertain patrons' stomachs without forcing them to eat the show's program.

Grand Canyon University’s theater students involve themselves in every aspect of the school’s theatrical productions, from acting, directing, and lighting to set construction. The university hosts an array of productions in its 311-seat Ethington Theatre, whose intimate space brings audiences close enough to hear every dialogue exchange and see the puppet strings attached to each actor’s limbs.