Westwood High School seniors to tackle diplomacy
By Colleen Sparks
Two accomplished high school seniors in Mesa who have traveled overseas to practice tackling global diplomacy are set to expand their horizons even more.
But before they move on to the next phase of their lives, Angela Foley, 18, and David Jaffe, 18, will graduate from Westwood High School, which will hold its commencement on May 25.
Foley, who lives near Hermosa Vista Elementary School, plans to attend Arizona State University, and Jaffe, who lives in Las Sendas, will go to Stanford University. e two ambitious products of Westwood’s rigorous International Baccalaureate program are proud of their experience serving in
Graduates ...continued on page 6
Mother juggles parenthood, running Mesa dispensary
By Colleen Sparks
Opening and running a medical marijuana dispensary while juggling motherhood is not for the faint of heart.
But Lilach Mazor Power, 38, co-owner, co-founder and managing director of Giving Tree Wellness Center in Mesa, has never shied away from a challenge. The mother of two young boys previously served in the Israeli Air Force after high school in her native Israel and moved to New York City by herself at age 22.
Mazor Power balances the heavy demands of running a business with co-owner and co-founder of the Giving Tree Wellness Center, medical director Dr. Gina Berman. The two also own and operate
Marijuana ...continued on page 7
The news around our neighborhood!
Mailed to homes in Red Mountain Ranch, Mesa Desert Heights, Alta Mesa, Apache Wells and surrounding North Mesa.
(Photo by Tracy Jaffe/Special to Mesa Nearby News)
David Jaffe, 18, a Westwood High senior, will attend Stanford University.
(Photo by Jillian Ryan Photography) Lilach Mazor Power of the Giving Tree Wellness Center bonds with her sons Shai and Ben.
Kaia Knudson, 2, eats noodles at a food truck festival in Mesa.
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community spotlight
Three Mesa natives earn Girl Scout Gold Awards
By Colleen Sparks
Three Mesa young women are celebrating the fruits of their labor giving back to the community with their coveted Girl Scout Gold Awards.
Paige Brown, 19, Lauren Hawks, 18, and Rachel Spielberger, 15, recently were given the distinguished awards, the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn. It’s like becoming an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts.
Girls must complete a project that helps the community. To achieve the honor, girls spend more than 80 hours working on a project that speaks to a community problem and is important to them, according to the Girl Scouts – Arizona Cactus-Pine Council (GSACPC).
The Gold Award honorees were recognized March 25 at the Girl
Scout High Award Ceremony at the Bob & Renee Parsons Leadership Center for Girls and Women at Camp South Mountain. The Girl Scouts Council said 33 girls obtained the Gold Award this year.
“I was really proud to have done my project and made a meaningful impact in my community,” said Brown, who’s now a student at University of Arizona and Girl Scout leader in southern Arizona. “Every Girl Scout should strive to achieve the Gold Award because it’s an empowering statement to make. Making a difference in your community is worth it.”
Brown, who graduated from Skyline High School last year, collected more than 2,000 books, with help from the community, to donate to
a domestic violence shelter’s two homes. She was inspired to drive the book donation when she found out the shelter did not have much reading material for children.
Hawks, a 2016 graduate of Westwood High School, earned the distinction for starting a Model United Nations club at the Mesa Academy for Advanced Studies, a fourththrough eighth-grade school. She is now studying political science and Chinese at Arizona State University and had participated in a Model United Nations club in high school and believed younger students should be exposed to international relations and global politics.
“It was nice to be able to act in my community,” Hawks said. “It was a really amazing experience. It was a
club that really impacted me; I wish I had known about it sooner.”
Spielberger, 15, an East Mesa resident and sophomore at Highland High School in Gilbert, reached her goal of getting the Gold Award by heading efforts to create a trail near Sunshine Acres Children’s Home in Mesa.
The Girl Scout Troop 995 member organized the trail-building and got donations to buy plants to enhance its beauty, along with putting up signs describing the landscape and plants.
“It’s really cool,” Spielberger said of the award. “It just teaches you so much about leadership skills. It’s (the trail) a place for them to learn about the environment.”
Caviar
Tommy
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Dr. Katherine Blaskovich
Dr. Tina Ansari
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Dr. Lindsay Jung
the school’s Model United Nations program. is school year, Jaffe served as co-president and Foley as vice president of the club, in which students research and debate global issues while representing countries around the world.
ey had the chance to test their communication skills while visiting various European countries for international Model UN conferences.
“Last year, I got to go to an international conference in Prague. In 2015, I visited Beijing, China, for a different Model UN conference,” Foley said. “We decided we wanted to plan a conference that was geared toward kids new to Model UN.
e jargon is kind of intimidating. It is an opportunity for kids to improve their public speaking and get feedback on their formal writing.”
After graduation, Foley will attend ASU’s Barrett Honors College to double-major in industrial engineering and public policy. She says she hopes to also “squeeze in a minor in Spanish.”
economies of the Tiger Nations to the need for a new definition of national security in an ever-globalizing society. I hope to attend law school and eventually run for office, possibly in Mesa.”
Both students expressed pride in their Mesa high school. “Westwood is probably one of the most diverse schools in the Valley,” Foley said. “I see a lot of change and innovation at the school. ere’s been a huge push for making the school better as far as academic rigor and the resources offered to students.”
“I really want to work on renewable energy in Arizona. I was accepted into the Leadership Scholarship Program at ASU. e program is focused on developing us as leaders,” Foley said. “I will also be participating in the Next Generation Service Corps, which is a four-year program designed to develop leaders who can work across the private, public, and non-governmental organization sectors.”
At Stanford University, Jaffe is “leaning toward studying public policy and East Asian studies. Because I am interested in international relations and economics, I hope to pursue a degree that allows me to study subjects ranging from the highly industrialized
Jaffe concurred. “In Westwood and Mesa, every race, culture and religion is represented, and I would be honored to serve in a public service capacity to hear the voices and desires of each person,” he said. “ rough Westwood and citywide education and activities, I have been able to form warm relationships with individuals who live throughout the community.”
Foley and Jaffe will celebrate their graduations with friends and family. “I am going to have a graduation party at my house with friends and family and teachers,” Foley said. “My family is going on a three-week Europe trip event, probably (to) some of the Scandinavian countries.”
Jaffe said he’ll take a “much-needed break” after graduation. “I’ll be going on a short trip with my family over the summer,” he said, “and am currently looking for work to save up for college and a used car.”
(Photo by Jacob Fishman/Special to Mesa Nearby News)
Angela Foley climbs at Isolation Canyon.
(Photo by Steve Nissile Photography)
Angela Foley, 18, will graduate from Westwood High School and attend Arizona State University.
a Giving Tree marijuana dispensary and grow center in north Phoenix.
At the dispensary on East Juanita Avenue in Mesa, patients with state medical marijuana cards meet with patient consultants, who help them decide what strain, potency and species of cannabis to buy. The 12 to 15 different strains of medical marijuana offered at the center in Mesa can be used to treat illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), arthritis, nausea, depression and carpal tunnel syndrome.
On a typical day, Mazor Power leaves her house at 6 a.m. to work out, then arrives at work at 7:30. Late in the afternoon, she leaves the dispensary, picks up her sons, Shai, 6, and Ben, 3, from their schools and spends her afternoons riding bicycles, playing games and swimming with the boys until their bedtime at 8 p.m.
Whether she’s at home or at the dispensary, as a small-business owner, Mazor Power is never completely off the clock. She, Berman and their employees help about 180 patients a day.
Mazor Power’s experience training male comrades in the Israeli Air Force on how to launch missiles instilled in her life skills that have helped her as a business owner. She served two years starting at age 18 because military service is mandatory for men and women in Israel.
“It’s one of the best experiences of my life, realizing there is a bigger purpose than your teenage drama,” Mazor Power said. “I think it’s definitely the discipline, and understanding this is not a joke. People can die if you’re not on top of it.”
Mazor Power’s sense of adventure and drive motivated her to move to New York City after completing her military service. She enjoyed working at a bar, where she eventually met her husband, Keith Power, an emergency room doctor.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Mazor Power moved back to Israel, where she earned a bachelor’s degree from New England College, Tel Aviv branch. In 2005, she moved to Arizona to be with her husband, who had gotten a job at St. Joseph Medical Center in Phoenix.
Mazor Power befriended Berman, who worked with Keith Power at the
hospital. She said Berman, who was pregnant with her third child at the time, gave her advice and helped her prepare for her first baby.
“We both had the spirit of entrepreneurs,” Mazor Power said. “We started thinking about alternative healing. We started reading about cannabis and how it helps people.
“People are afraid of pain,” she added. “It’s okay to be in pain. Your body’s just telling you you need to change something, treat it.”
She and Berman worked hard to figure out their budget, city zoning rules and everything else that went into starting the dispensary. Mazor Power said their babies would come to meetings with them and “grew up in this industry” before they opened the businesses in 2013.
Berman said Mazor Power is a great business partner.
“She’s the ideal partner in that she’s extremely bright, very hardworking, very flexible, a great communicator,” Berman said. “She’s very entrepreneurial and just a really interesting person, well-rounded.”
Initially, Mazor Power worked seven days a week getting the busi-
ness going, but now she’s able to take weekends off. “When you’re very passionate about something, it’s not work,” she said. “There’s definitely a need. People are trying to live healthier. You come here for the family feel.”
As for her children, she said they are still young and don’t fully understand her work yet.
“They understand I grow a plant and it’s medicine and we help people,” Mazor Power said. “It’s a parent’s responsibility to talk to their kids about marijuana.”
She naturally tells her sons that no
one should consume medical marijuana until they are adults and their brains are fully developed, with the exception of children whose parents request it to tackle their kids’ major medical problems, and who can be treated with cannabidiol, one of the least psychoactive cannabinoids in cannabis.
As for how she will spend Mother’s Day, Mazor Power said she’s not sure what she and her family will do, but she expects her sons will have made her something in school.
“Last year, I slept in,” she said. “They woke me with coffee.”
(Tamara Suarez/Special to Mesa Nearby News)
Lilach Mazor Power, co-owner and co-founder of the Giving Tree Wellness Center, enjoys time in Pinetop with her sons, Ben and Shai Power.
Teacher blends Japanese, American cultures for her kids
By Yvette Armendariz
Mayumi Gerstberger is a long way from home raising two super-curious children, Hana and Hayden. But she’s always connected to her native Japan.
“I believe embracing your culture, language and customs helps boost your self-esteem,” she said.
As a mom, that’s been important to impart to her children.
Gerstberger, who teaches Japanese and math at Arizona Gakuen School in Mesa, says she values staying involved with the Japanese community here in Arizona.
“I love teaching,” she said. “ ere are Japanese children who are living here due to their parents’ jobs, or relocation. I want to help ease the culture shock for them as much as possible.”
Gerstberger experienced that culture shock about 15 years ago when she first came to Arizona, after marrying her husband. And while she notes there are obvious cultural differences between living in the U.S. and her native country, she says motherhood is universal.
“I grew up in a place called Kobe City, where commuting to school or work ev-
ery day would mean taking a train, subway or bus,” Gerstberger said. “Here in the U.S., transportation and eating habits have been the biggest differences for me.”
“But when it comes to children, they laugh, cry, and become happy and sad about the same general things,” she says. “ at remains the same no matter what part of the world you live (in).”
Both her children have dual citizenship. Gerstberger wants them to stay connected to their Japanese roots, and that means traveling to Japan each summer.
“My children attend a public elementary school in Japan every June and July; we look forward to it every summer,” she says. “I love taking them to the rice fields to find tadpoles and frogs, just like I did when I was a child. My son loves going to Universal Studios in Osaka, and my daughter’s favorite thing to do is going to Rokko Mountain in Kobe City.”
Still, she loves raising her children in Arizona. Motherhood has cemented her love for her new community because of the people and the many kid-friendly things here.
“Pioneer, Riverview and Rancho del Mar parks are my children’s favorites, and they claim Dobson Ranch Library as their own,” she says. “My daughter Hana grew up at the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa. In fact, there were times when we would visit the museum two or three times in one day.”
Hana, 8, and Hayden, 6, were born at Banner Desert Hospital in Mesa. After living in Dobson Ranch in Mesa for the last decade, the Gerstberger family recently relocated to west Gilbert, where both children currently attend Pomeroy Elementary School.
“Although we now live in Gilbert, Mesa is where we spent the last 10 years of our lives together as a family. It’s truly a wonderful community.”
Gerstberger says she enjoys living in
Gilbert; however, she often finds herself being drawn back to Mesa, particularly for family time.
“Superstition and Vetuccio Farms are a must visit in fall, and the Fourth of July festival in downtown Mesa is wonderful,” she said. “Mesa has been good to our family, and I enjoy being a mother in the U.S.” Yvette Armendariz is the marketing and public relations director at the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa.
(Photo by Jae Staats/BallBoy Productions)
Mayumi Gerstberger, who teaches Japanese and math at Arizona Gakuen School in Mesa, plays with her daughter, Hana.
By Angie Sullivan, Mesa Historical Museum
Rabbettes spread Mesa High School spirit with elaborate routines
In 1913, a Mesa High School junior, Bobby Petrie, a cheerleader, founded and organized the Peppettes as a popularity club for boys and girls to sustain and increase school spirit at all athletic events. Over the years, the group was also known as “El Connettes,” and “Marching Squad.” By 1947, the squad was all female and by 1948, the members of the squad chose the name “Rabbettes” by submitting a list of names and voting on them. e name was unanimously chosen in recognition of the Mesa High School mascot, the jackrabbit. Membership in the Rabbettes
totaled nearly 100 and Miss Marjorie Entz led the group. e Rabettes were known for elaborate, specialized routines of marching, baton twirling and rope spinning. Becoming a Rabbette was no easy task, as each member had to learn and perfect six rope tricks. Along with gym-class practice, students were expected to train at 6 a.m. every day before school.
e Rabettes’ routines were so good that the group was invited to the 1949 Rose Bowl. Some of the fondest memories of alumni Rabbettes are of their costumes. When the squad was first formed, the girls
donned reversible purple-and-gold boleros and white socks, shoes, skirts and pep hats. After World War II, the theme turned patriotic, and the Rabbettes wore satin military-style outfits and held American flags.
In later years, the team featured a Western theme with cowboy boots, hats and fringed jackets. Sadly, in 1971, when Marjorie Entz retired, the group disbanded. In one of the Rabbettes’ final tributes, they spelled out “Entz” on the field.
(Photo courtesy of Mesa Historical Museum)
The members of the Peppettes, a club to boost school spirit at Mesa High School, perform in 1939. The group was later renamed the Rabbettes.
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Al the Tortoise makes debut at Usery Mountain Regional Park
By Colleen Sparks
A new addition is entertaining visitors at Usery Mountain Regional Park.
Al, a Sonoran Desert tortoise who is about 17 years old, arrived at his new home at the Mesa park on North Usery Pass Road, east of North Ellsworth Road, on April 20. e reptile previously lived at McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills.
“We’ve never had an outdoor exhibit for an animal like this,” said Ranger Brennan Basler, known as “Ranger B,” an interpretive ranger at Usery Mountain Regional Park. “It’s a huge exhibit. ey’re beautiful animals.”
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Basler said people are already stopping by the outdoor exhibit, which is hundreds of square feet large, to check out Al. e exhibit has cacti, shrubs and other types of native plants. Staff members are also supplementing Al’s diet with kale, zucchini, squash and mustard greens. e exhibit has a water feature, where Al can drink and take a bath, as well as burrows where he can get out of the heat or cold.
“We’re really happy because this tortoise is very active,” Basler said. “ e public are welcome to come see the tortoise.”
He added tortoises can grow to be about 15 inches long and they typically live longer than most people do. e animals are protected in Arizona and the only legal way for people to
get one as a pet is through Arizona Game and Fish. It’s not legal to catch one in the wild.
“It’s kind of like human adoption,” Basler said. “ ey’ll come out and make sure you’re providing a good home for the tortoise.”
e public can get into the park to see Al the tortoise, by paying a $6 vehicle entry fee, which allows them to hike the park, take a picnic, drive around and see the whole park for the day. Al’s exhibit is outside of the Nature Center. To learn more about Usery Mountain Regional Park, visit maricopacountyparks.net/park-locator/usery-mountain-regional-park/
(Photos by Brennan Basler/Usery Mountain Regional Park) Al the tortoise enjoys a snack at his new home at Usery Mountain Regional Park.
Community rallies around Todd Heap after his child’s death
By Jim Walsh
Community members are rallying around Todd Heap, one of Mesa’s most acclaimed athletes and a former Arizona Cardinals tight end, after he accidentally ran over and killed his 3-year-old daughter in his Las Sendas driveway.
Many people have posted their condolences and expressed their love and support for Heap and his family on the website of Bunker Family Funerals & Cremation, the Mesa business that handled arrangements for little Holly Heap. A visitation was held April 21 at the LDS Red Mountain Institute of Religion on East McKellips Road in Mesa, and funeral services were held there April 22.
Heap starred on the Mountain View High School and Arizona State University football teams before becoming a twotime Pro Bowl tight end with the Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals.
But while Heap achieved many accolades on the football field, one terrible moment on the afternoon of April 14, when he accidentally ran over and killed his young daughter, has plunged Heap to depths of heartbreak few can fathom.
One person posted this comment on the Bunker Family website, “I am so very sorry for your huge loss. is is nobody’s fault. She was an angel of God and
he needed her to protect all of u. Todd please know we are all holding you up. She knew you loved her.”
A couple posted this message on the site. “We lost a grandson several years ago under similar circumstances. We have an idea of what you are all going through.”
Detective Steve Berry, a Mesa police spokesman, said the tragic fatality occurred at 3:45 p.m. on April 14 in the 7600 block of East Summit Trail, in a gated community.
He said the accident occurred when Heap drove his pickup truck forward, not noticing that his daughter was standing in the driveway, in the path of the vehicle. e little girl was taken to a hospital, where she died from her injuries.
Berry said that there was nothing suspicious about the circumstances involving the accident and that there were no signs impairment.
Heap and his wife, Ashley, have five children, including the victim, according to published reports.
Although it is of no consolation, Heap is far from the only parent to accidentally run down a child. Little Holly Heap’s death is yet another example of a type of accident that happens too
frequently from visibility issues created by the dangerous combination of small children and tall pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Janette E. Fennell, founder and president of KidsandCars.org, said at least 42 children were killed in a similar manner in 2016, a type of collision known as a “front over.” She said most vehicles have a front “blind zone” of 6 to 8 feet, with the problem most pronounced in tall pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. In many cases a parent is behind the wheel during such accidents.
“I think everybody will agree that the worst thing that can happen to a parent is the loss of a child,” Fennell said. “Not only has the child died, but you are the person who killed the child.”
Most people are more familiar with the blind zone behind vehicles, which can be 15 to 60 feet, she said. Federal regulations require that all vehicles manufactured after May 2018 be equipped with rearview cameras as standard equipment.
Increasingly, technology in some new vehicles combines a forward-collision warning system with automatic braking. e system beeps when a collision with another car or pedestrian is imminent and applies the brakes if necessary.
(Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens)
Todd Heap (back, second from left), a Las Sendas resident, was inducted into the Baltimore Ravens Ring of Honor in September 2014. With him is his family, including his daughter Holly, in the stroller. Holly was killed April 14.
Family time
Arizona Museum of Natural History offers fun trip through state’s past, Southwest cultures
By Crystal Lewis Brown
Raise your hand if you remember everything you learned in your Arizona history classes. If you can’t, don’t worry, that’s what the Arizona Museum of Natural History is for.
With its three levels, approximately 58,000 objects, rotating exhibitions and about a dozen permanent exhibitions, the museum provides a comprehensive look through the history of the state, Southwest cultures and much, much more.
Having two active boys, I was a little concerned about how a museum would hold their interest. (Save for the dinosaurs, of course. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?) But from the moment we stepped into each of the museum’s exhibits, it held their attention. As I read up on the Cretaceous period, the boys experienced it firsthand, going down the Triceratops slide in the Dino Zone, where we started our journey. The next two hours were a trip through Arizona history and culture.
I was born and raised in the South, so nearly everything was new to me. From the plethora of movies shot in Arizona (including “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) to the history of the Hohokam Indians to standing in cells from the actual Mesa Jail (fun fact: Parts of the museum were actually Mesa’s city building at one time) we learned more about Arizona than I thought was possible.
The Dino Zone was a kid-friendly area with a dinosaur tunnel, slide and enough space for the boys to run around with the other children. Then we headed to the other
exhibitions. We got a chance to be in an old Western movie (courtesy of a green screen) and continued to the Fun with Arizona History area, where we traversed a narrow corridor into the Lost Dutchman’s Mine before stepping into the aforementioned territorial jail cell.
We headed into the courtyard, where the boys joined the other children and adults in panning for gold (spoiler alert: they didn’t find any). Also outside is the Paleo Dig Pit, where kids can use brushes to uncover fossils, dinosaur eggs, leaves and tracks.
Back inside, we decided to tackle all things dinosaur. Dinosaur Mountain encompasses three stories where these prehistoric animals come to life, moving and roaring. From there, we went through Dinosaur Hall with examples of various dinosaurs throughout history. If this sounds like a lot so far, it is – and at this point, we’d probably seen only about half of what the museum has to offer.
Here’s where I realized the not-sohidden secret about how each room and exhibit in the AZMNH is arranged. As we were immersed in the history, the walls were dotted with trivia questions, easy enough for my second-grader to read and understand. And each time I thought my preschooler was getting a bit antsy, we’d encounter a hands-on activity: a large dinosaur floor puzzle or the chance to recreate a “broken” replica of ancient pottery or put together a puzzle map of South America. That’s no accident, said Kathy Eastman, the
museum’s curator of education.
“Our exhibitions are designed with intergenerational groups in mind,” Eastman said. “We have lots of parents and grandparents with kids in tow visit the museum, and we want everyone to have a fun experience – while learning. We do see just adults (mostly seniors) and they tend to enjoy the cultural material, but I’ve seen plenty of them having fun gold panning.”
In all, we spent about two hours in the museum, and I was impressed with how much the kids seemed to learn. The touch-screens in the Cultures of the Ancient Americas exhibit gave them the opportunity to read about each of the artifacts and replicas in the room and then walk
through the area, pointing out what they’d learned. In the Native Peoples of the Past area, they “built” their own Hohokam village and saw a replica of a faith-healing ceremony. Eventually, we had to head home. But for those who can’t bear to let their museum experience go, the gift shop has books, toys and educational materials for both kids and adults. For a price, adult history lovers can actually take home a beautiful Brazilian amethyst cathedral or geode. The museum also offers memberships, which include a year of admission and other perks, depending on the package. The museum also hosts groups and birthday parties, as well as educational events throughout the year.
(Photo by Kathy Neenan/Arizona Museum of Natural History) Dinosaurs are prominent at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa.
What’s Missing?
missing from the map? We would like landmarks and businesses serving our email anything you see missing to mapit@nearbynews.com, and we will see that it gets added.
around the neighborhood
Photos by Tim Sealy
Children and adults enjoyed riding bicycles, jumping on trampolines, getting their faces painted and feasting on treats from food trucks at the CycloMesa: Unchained Bicycle Festival in Mesa.
1. Brogan Ray eagerly waits for his balloon creation. 2. Bikers and other participants had plenty of food choices after crossing the finish line. 3. Richard and Elyjah Barraza bond at the festival. 4. Dale and Adages Meek enjoy the fun bicycle ride. 5. Kai Wall rides in style with his mother, Taylor, in a unique seat. 6. Sayde Tracy floats through the air with the greatest of ease via a trampoline at CycloMesa. 7. Ernie Milton joins Mark and Dianne Bouchard as they wind down with cold drinks after finishing their ride. 8. Wednesday Baddams and Laura Terrones of the Arizona Roller Girls team battle for position in a rough match.
1 3 5 2 7 4 6 8
Experience ‘Beauty and the Beast’ live in two local shows
By Becky Bracken
Kids of all ages have fallen in love with the new live-action “Beauty and the Beast” film starring Emma Watson currently in movie theaters. But there’s more than one way to experience the classic Disney princess tale. Two upcoming local, live performances of “Beauty and the Beast” offer another opportunity to enjoy the story and characters while supporting the arts in the Valley.
Ballet Etudes
Ballet Etudes will unveil its brand new full-length production of “Beauty and the Beast” April 29 and 30 at Chandler Center for the Arts, featuring lead roles by two young Mesa dancers.
Mesa resident Zoe Hunter, 14, a soloist company member, will perform as the Chair, a comedic enchanted character. Bridget Morgan of Mesa, 15, a principal company member, will
perform the lead of Beauty – her first title role. Bridget’s previous roles with Ballet Etudes include Clara, Spanish and Snow Queen in “ e Nutcracker” and Spring in “Cinderella.”
Performances are scheduled for 2 and 7 p.m. April 29 and 3 p.m. April 30 at Chandler Center for the Arts.
Tickets are $16 and $22. For more information, visit chandlercenter.org or call 480-782-2680. Groups of 10 or more receive a 20 percent discount.
Arizona Broadway Theater
Arizona Broadway eatre (ABT) and Herberger eater Center (HTC) have announced that they will co-present Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” on the HTC Center Stage in July.
Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” will be on stage July 7-16.
“With ABT’s vast experience bringing quality musicals to life, this full-
scale production of Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is sure to delight theatergoers of all ages,” says Mark Mettes, HTC’s President and CEO.
Tickets are on sale at herbergertheater.org. For more information, visit herbergertheater.org or call 602-252-8497.
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(Photo courtesy of Arizona Broadway Theatre)
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Laughs flow in ‘Urinetown’ musical at Mesa Encore Theatre
By Kenneth LaFave
It’s the future and resources are so scarce that people have to pay to pee. You read that right. Don’t try to make sense of it. It’s “Urinetown.”
“Let’s face it, the title is awful,” says David Chorley, who has directed the 2001 Broadway musical for the Mesa Encore eatre production showing at Mesa Arts Center May 19-28.
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“You can’t tell from the title, but this is actually a very, very funny show,” Chorley added. “It’s very self-aware from start to finish. You may be confused at the beginning, but once you know what’s going on, you’ll get maximum entertainment value.”
e poster for the show conveys that. It shows a romantic couple holding hands atop a gigantic jar of… well, you know.
e original Broadway production won three Tony Awards and set the Great White Way ablaze with talk of how a musical about elimination could be a big hit. But it’s not about that, really.
In the dystopian future of the show, the corporate state has taken over and regulated everything, even private functions. e establishment is represented by a villain named Cladwell (who dresses to the nines and is, uh, clad well), and when his daughter, Hope (of course), takes up with the rebel Bobby Strong (you saw that coming), the show shifts to the time-honored Broadway tradition of young love’s struggle against society’s oppression.
Sort of.
“ e first half is like ‘ reepenny Opera,’” Chorley said, referring to the dark-hued Bertolt-Brecht-Kurt Weill musical of the 1930s that gave us “Mack the Knife.”
“It has political overtones, ecological aspects, things about human greed,” he said. “But when the plot changes to a love story, it turns into full speed musical theater mode. It may start out
Bertolt Brecht, but it goes up Rodgers and Hammerstein.”
Ah, but then it turns Brecht again.
“Early on, one of the key phrases in the show is ‘Expect only the expected,’” Chorley said. “But nothing expected happens. Every rule of a Broadway musical is broken.”
Chorley won’t tell you which rules, because that would give away the plot. But if you expect the rebels to win and truth to triumph, well, you might consider staying home and watching “Annie” on video instead.
But no. You wouldn’t want to miss the most cynical musical Broadway ever produced, now would you?
“ e musical theater crowd is going to get a kick out of this, it’s so full of sly references to other shows,” Chorley said. e references come with the clichéd love story. e challenged romances of “West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof” are made fun of, and Chorley has even added some spoofing of his own to this production. Look for send-ups of “Cats,” “Les Miserables,” and others. e songs in the show are more or less in typical Broadway style, but even they do a few U-turns.
“ e bad guy’s big song is called ‘Don’t Be the Bunny,’” Chorley said. “You don’t expect the bad guy’s song to be about a cute little fuzzy rabbit.”
Tickets to “Urinetown” are $31; $28 for students and seniors. For more information, call 480-44-6500 or go to mesaencoretheatre.com.
(Photo courtesy of Pam Pershing and David Chorley) Taylor Moskowitz (Hope) and Nicholas Gunnell (Bobby) perform in “Urinetown.”
on the town
By Kenneth LaFave
The cuisine of Rome can be enjoyed in East Mesa
In an age of hyper-sophisticated dining, sometimes it helps to go home. Yes, the pomegranate sea salt duck with artichoke salad flambe is a wondrous thing to experience, I’m sure, but it doesn’t replace classic dishes. And classic dishes, it profits to recall, are classic for good reasons.
Gaeta, near Rome, was home to Antonio and Anna Magliozzi, restaurateurs who have brought the classic Roman dishes they were raised on to Café Roma Ristorante in East Mesa. Eating at Café Roma is as close to experiencing Rome herself as you are likely to find anywhere in the Valley.
“This is my story,” says Antonio Magliozzi, waving toward photos, documents and menus behind the register.
e photos show a young Magliozzi training under his chef father to inherit the traditions of Italian cooking. ey trace the history of the couple’s
restaurants after he and Anna moved to the United States in 1988: restaurants in Pasadena, Hermosa Beach, and their first Mesa restaurant on Recker Road. at one started in 2005 but closed in 2010 after the recession. Later that same year, the Magliozzis opened their current location at 7210 E. Main Street.
Antonio Magliozzi’s story includes graduation from Italy’s prestigious La Culinaria Academia in 1972, years of working for his father in Gaeta and a stint as chef for the Hilton hotel chain.
Magliozzi does all the cooking himself, and the couple’s son, Marco, manages the front of the house with help from his fiancée, Sydne Bonner.
“My customers come here for many reasons,” Antonio Magliozzi said.
“Some for price” – dinner at Café Roma is quite affordable – “and some for the cooking, which is 1960s and ‘70s style Italian cooking with nothing fancy.”
Café Roma offers seafood as fresh
and as unique to the Roman style of cooking as cioppino ($21.25), a blend of clams, shrimp, scallops, mussels and salmon in a white wine sauce, with linguini.
One pasta dish that caught my eye on a recent visit was pistachio e asparagi ($15.25), an unexpected combo of pistachios, prosciutto and asparagus in cream sauce over linguine. e varied
crunch of pistachio and lightly cooked asparagus brought out the rich flavors of prosciutto and sauce.
Café Roma is open for dinner Mondays through Saturdays starting at 4 p.m., and Sundays starting at 3 p.m. Lunch during the summer months is only by special arrangement for groups of 10 or more. Call 480-654-0558 or visit romacaferistorante.com.
(Kenneth LaFave/Special to Mesa Nearby News)
From left: Marco Magliozzi, his fiancee Sydne Bonner, along with husband and wife owners Anna Magliozzi and Antonio Magliozzi (Marco’s parents) offer classic Roman dishes at the eatery.
business spotlight
By Colleen Sparks
Pomeroy’s offering sales on dress clothes, luggage
Graduation season is here, and that means teens are preparing for future jobs, LDS missions, commencement and other special events.
Dressing for success can get expensive for young graduates so Pomeroy’s Men’s and Missionary Store at 136 W. Main St. in Mesa is offering lots of sales.
e longtime downtown business specializes in clothes for graduates getting ready to do missionary work. rough August 1, Pomeroy’s will sell men’s suits at 20 percent off the regular price, or customers can buy one suit and get the second suit half-off. Regular prices for suits are $280 to $450 each. Also, men’s dress pants are 40 percent off the regular prices through August 1. e store offers men’s dress slacks in charcoal gray, black and khaki. e
regular prices for men’s dress pants are from $70 to $100 each.
To complete their look, men can also get dress shirts on sale at Pomeroy’s.
e store has many men’s white dress shirts in regular, athletic and trim fits on sale for 45 percent off. Men’s dress shirts ordinarily are from $45 to $59 each.
Customers also can get their hands on discounted luggage at the Mesa store.
“We see a lot of families coming in to get luggage for graduates,” Douglas Wimmer, Pomeroy’s manager said.
A set of luggage, which comprises a large suitcase, mid-size suitcase and carry-on suitcase, is half-off through August 1. A luggage set normally costs from $699 to $799.
To learn more about Pomeroy’s, visit pomeroysonline.com.
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(Photo by Mckenna Woods/Special to Mesa Nearby News)
Pomeroy’s Men’s and Missionary Store manager Douglas Wimmer helps a customer with a suit.
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