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THE MINUTES
2024-11-20 19:30 - 21:30, 2024-11-21 19:30 - 21:30, 2024-11-22 19:30 - 21:30, 2024-11-23 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Center for the Arts at Kayenta
THEATER
THE MINUTES
by Tracy Letts
November 14-17, 20-23
Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30pm
Sunday at 3:00pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
“Explosive… Deftly captures the tension of patriotic grandiosity and provincial defensiveness found in city halls across the land.” – Chicago Tribune
This scathing new comedy about small-town politics and real-world power, from the author of August: Osage County, exposes the ugliness behind some of our most closely-held American narratives while asking each of us what we would do to keep from becoming history’s losers.
The Minutes premiered on Broadway at Studio 54 on April 17, 2022.
Programming at the Center for the Arts is intended for mature audiences.
Tickets $35

The Magician's Sister
2025-01-16 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-17 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-18 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-19 15:00 - 17:00, 2025-01-22 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-23 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-24 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-01-25 15:00 - 17:00
THEATER
The Magician’s Sister
by Jami Brandli
directed by Reena Dutt
January 16-25, 2025
Evening Performances: January 16, 17, 18 / 22, 23, 24
Matinee Performances: January 19 & 25
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
The Magician’s Sister follows the story of two women: an aspiring Magician driven by being the best, and her sister, who somewhat reluctantly serves as her “Wise Assistant.” When the Magician purposely disappears herself and leaves behind mysterious clues to solve, her sister becomes obsessed with finding her. As the two sisters’ stories dramatically unfold over the span of thirty years—interweaving the present and the past—we witness their struggle to fulfill their collective goals and conflicting individual desires, while they strive to perfectly execute Houdini’s famous “Metamorphosis” illusion.
The Magician’s Sister explores the complexities of sisterhood, the ripple effects of family trauma, and the complicated pursuit and price of “being special,” while also incorporating the stories of real, historical female magicians and plenty of on-stage magic.

TICKETS

Writing Workshop: Aristotle's Six Dramatic Elements
2025-01-19 10:00 - 12:00
Aristotle’s Six Dramatic Elements; a writing workshop with Jami Brandli
In this 2 hour seminar we will cover Aristotle’s Six Elements of drama: Character, Action, Ideas, Language, Music and Spectacle/Theatricality. We will also analyze one ten-minute play and end with a writing exercise, so please bring something to write with/on!

REGISTRATION

Miwa Matreyek: Animation & Performance
2025-02-15 19:30 - 21:00, 2025-02-16 15:00 - 16:30
ANIMATION / THEATER
Miwa Matreyek
Three Works: Animation & Performance
Myth and Infrastructure (2010)
This World Made Itself (2013)
Infinitely Yours
Saturday, February 15 / 7:30pm
Sunday, February 16 / 3:00pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater

“A fantastical interpretation of the Earth’s formation” –TED

Spellbinding and vibrant animations are brought to life through live performance by award-winning artist Miwa Matreyek. Experience three remarkable pieces, created between 2010 and today, that will leave you breathless.
In Myth and Infrastructure, Miwa’s shadow explores fantastical animation worlds, as she traverses oceanscapes, cityscapes, and domestic spaces to conjure dreamlike scenes with light and shadow.
This World Made Itself is a visually and musically rich journey through the history of the earth, from the universe’s epic beginnings to the complex world of humanity. The piece is at once semi-scientific (like flipping through a children’s encyclopedia), and emotional, surreal, and dream-like.
And Infinitely Yours creates an emotional, dream-like meditation on climate catastrophe and the Anthropocene – the proposed current era where human influence has effected almost all realms of earth’s natural systems.

Dan Froot & Company’s Arms Around America
2025-03-21 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-03-22 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-03-22 19:30 - 21:30
THEATER
Dan Froot & Company’s
Arms Around America
Friday, March 21, 7:30pm
Saturday, March 22, 2:00pm & 7:30pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater

“Gut-wrenching performances.” — New York Times

Arms Around America is a community-based theater project investigating how Americans experience fear, power, identity, loss, and love through our relationships with guns. The show is staged as a live radio-theater broadcast. Four actors voice dozens of characters in a constellation of six short plays based on real families whose lives have been shaped by guns. They are accompanied by a sound effects artist (Dan Froot) and Julio Montero’s driving score.
The plays focus not on guns themselves, or even their political dimensions, but on our relationships with guns and with each other. Members of our local community will host the evening from their seats at an on-stage kitchen table. After the performance, the kitchen table participants will discuss the relevance of the plays to themselves and our communities.

This presentation of Arms Around America was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from the Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Foundation.
This programming is supported in part by Creative West and the National Endowment for the Arts.

TICKETS

LIGHTHOUSE: a new musical
2025-06-19 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-06-20 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-06-21 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-06-21 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-06-26 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-06-27 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-06-28 14:00 - 16:00, 2025-06-28 19:30 - 21:30
MUSICAL THEATER
LIGHTHOUSE: a new musical
music & story by Veronica Mansour
book & lyrics & story by abs wilson
workshop directed by Lisa Quoresimo
June 19-28, 2025
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
With graduation in the rearview mirror, Buss is desperate to run away from her Minnesota hometown and everyone in it. The only problem? She can’t outrun herself. LIGHTHOUSE is a sweeping pop-country musical that celebrates the idea that maybe, just maybe every version of yourself is worth being.
The Center for the Arts at Kayenta is proud to be part of the development journey for this new promising musical.
TICKETS

KAYENTA NEW PLAY LAB: Spoiled
2025-08-15 19:30 - 21:30, 2025-08-16 15:00 - 17:00
Spoiled
by Ken Narasaki (Los Angeles, CA)
Friday, August 15, 7:30p
Saturday, August 16, 3:00p
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
An honest family drama about a tense Nisei (second generation Japanese American) mother and the adult children she’s emotionally scarred. As buried trauma, cultural guilt, and generational wounds erupt, the siblings must confront whether survival means staying — or finally walking away.

TICKETS

KAYENTA NEW PLAY LAB
Now in its third year, the Kayenta New Play Lab is where bold new voices in American theater come to life. Over three exhilarating weeks, six visionary playwrights—chosen by a panel of esteemed local and national theatermakers—dive into an intensive creative residency, shaping fresh, original works for the stage.
Audiences are invited to witness the magic unfold through staged readings of these brand-new plays—raw, real, and alive with possibility. Stay after each reading for an engaging dialogue with the artists, where your feedback helps shape the evolution of each piece.
Whether you’re a dedicated theatergoer, a curious creative, or someone who simply loves the thrill of live performance, the New Play Lab is your front-row seat to the next wave of theatrical storytelling. Come be part of the process. Come be inspired.

The 2025 Kayenta New Play Lab is generously sponsored by Douglas Caputo and Desert Dweller Real Estate.

KAYENTA NEW PLAY LAB: Persuasion, a modern romance
2025-08-16 19:30 - 21:30
Persuasion, a modern romance
by Lisa Quoresimo (Cedar City, UT)
Saturday, August 16, 7:30pm
Sunday, August 17, 3:00pm
The Lorraine Boccardo Theater
Los Angeles, 2014. Anne’s father Elliot and sister Elizabeth, former television stars, have spent the last of the family’s fortune on their latest round of cosmetic surgeries. Anne tries to keep the family afloat by renting out their house and working as the in-house chef. One of the houseguests turns out to be the love of Anne’s life: Celia Wentworth. Unfortunately, it appears that Celia has never forgiven Anne for not having the courage to openly pursue their relationship twenty years ago.

TICKETS

KAYENTA NEW PLAY LAB
Now in its third year, the Kayenta New Play Lab is where bold new voices in American theater come to life. Over three exhilarating weeks, six visionary playwrights—chosen by a panel of esteemed local and national theatermakers—dive into an intensive creative residency, shaping fresh, original works for the stage.
Audiences are invited to witness the magic unfold through staged readings of these brand-new plays—raw, real, and alive with possibility. Stay after each reading for an engaging dialogue with the artists, where your feedback helps shape the evolution of each piece.
Whether you’re a dedicated theatergoer, a curious creative, or someone who simply loves the thrill of live performance, the New Play Lab is your front-row seat to the next wave of theatrical storytelling. Come be part of the process. Come be inspired.

The 2025 Kayenta New Play Lab is generously sponsored by Douglas Caputo and Desert Dweller Real Estate.
