Weidner Center for the Performing Arts

Sensuous and sophisticated, the tango inhabits a world where everything can be said with the flick of a leg, the tug of a hand, the tap of a foot and the arch of an eyebrow. Created and directed by Luis Bravo, FOREVER TANGO was voted Best Touring Musical by Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle in San Francisco where it pla...yed an unprecedented 92 weeks at the Theatre on the Square and has returned season after season. Truly an international event, FOREVER TANGO was also awarded the coveted Simpatia Prize at the 1996 Spoleto Festival in Italy.

FOREVER TANGO features fourteen world-class tango dancers, one vocalist and an on-stage eleven piece orchestra, including the instrument of the tango, the bandoneon, in an evening that celebrates the passionate music and dance of Argentina. The dances, performed to original and traditional music, are the result of collaboration between each couple and director/creator Bravo. "The tango is a feeling that you dance," says Bravo, "a story you tell in three minutes. It's passionate, it's melancholic. It's tender, violent. You dance it with somebody - but it is so internal, you dance it by yourself. More than just a dance, the tango is music, a drama, a culture, a way of life."

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Mature Audience - Lisa Lampanelli is comedy’s loveable queen of mean! Best known for her show-stopping performances on the Comedy Central “Roasts” of Flavor Flav, Pamela Anderson, William Shatner and Jeff Foxworthy, Lisa Lampanelli - Comedy’s “Lovable Queen of Mean” - is a no-holds-barred insult comic who masterfully w...orks her audience while maintaining an inherent likeability that steals the hearts of her fans. Hailed as a cross between Don Rickles, Archie Bunker, and a vial of estrogen, Lampanelli has perfected the ability to make people laugh at their own stereotypes and differences, which has won her accolades from coast-to-coast.

She recently joined the ranks of comic greats and added her first ever one-hour HBO comedy special, "Long Live the Queen," to her resume, with a CD and DVD of the special to follow. In addition, her first book, "Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat and Freaks," will hit bookstore shelves on September 15, 2009.

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Grades 3 - 6

A quest for adventure turns into a journey of self-discovery when Claudia Kincaid and her brother Jamie decide to run away from home. Their final destination—the Metropolitan Museum of Art—will introduce them to an intriguing mystery and to the most unusual friend either of them has ever made. To celebrate ...the 40th anniversary of E.L. Konigsburg’s Newbery Medal-winning classic, ArtsPower has created an enchanting new drama sure to captivate audiences of all ages!

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Grades 6 - 12

Doktor Kaboom! is an interactive one-man science variety show suitable for all audiences. Creatively blending theatre arts with the wonders of scientific exploration, Doktor Kaboom keeps his crowds riveted with interest and rolling with laughter. Join him for a sidesplitting journey of increasingly spectac...ular, and often successful, experiments and demonstrations. Using masterful improvisational skills, Doktor Kaboom takes his audience on an entertaining tour of the modern scientific method while demonstrating spectacular applications of the physical sciences.

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Grades K - 4

Jim West Productions blend puppetry, classical music, creative thinking, story telling and geography into a visual and entertaining presentation. With the help of Aesop himself (and his faithful dog, Moral), Jim and his partners share the famous fables, including The Lion and the Mouse, The Tortoise and the... Hare, and The Fox and the Grapes. This large-scale puppet production also features the music of Scarlatti, Beethoven, and Chopin.

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Grades 3 - 8

To young Lemuel, who has escaped slavery in Georgia, life in Gettysburg is everything he had dreamed it would be. His ideas about the North and the South, as well as what it means to be a free man, are challenged, however, when he unexpectedly befriends Jacob, a young Confederate soldier. The two men may be... of different races and on different sides of the Civil War, but they have much to teach each other about bravery and loyalty in ArtsPower’s exciting and suspenseful musical.

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Grades K - 3

Big sisters have big responsibilities, especially when the
little brother is a big trouble-maker! Join in the fun as Theatreworks USA presents a lovable new musical full of fun and sibling rivalry: Max and Ruby! Ruby, a seven-year-old rabbit, loves her Grandma very much and wants to do something special for... her. She gets the brilliant idea to put on a show, with music and costumes and a castle and everything! She’ll need some help, though, so she tries to enlist her little brother Max. Ruby wants to put on a play about a princess, but Max is already playing a cowboy. Ruby wants to work quietly, but Max is enjoying his noisy toys. Ruby wants to look for costumes, but Max is too busy looking for frogs! Max is no help at all, so Ruby recruits her Bunny Scout friends for assistance. But can they help her finish Grandma’s play in time? Find out in this delightful musical based on the top-rated Nickelodeon television show inspired by Rosemary Wells’ bunny siblings, Max and Ruby!

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