At Marroney Theatre next week, every seat will hold a slip of paper. Scottish illusionist Scott Silven asks each guest to write down something they have lost, collects the slips and builds 75 minutes of mind-reading and storytelling out of what is written on them, all inside a forest recreated on the stage, according to Arizona Arts Live's announcement.
That show is one of several opening in the same few days. From tonight, Thursday, Nov. 12, through Sunday, Nov. 22, the University of Arizona's dance, opera, theater, film and touring programs all run at once in the Fine Arts venues on the west side of Campbell Avenue. After that, Arizona Arts Live's events page skips straight to February. For Sam Hughes, these ten days are the fall's best concentration of live performance close to home, and nearly all of it falls in the week before Thanksgiving.
Ten days, then a gap until February
Arizona Arts and its units produce more than 700 events a year, most of them free, according to the division's 2026 fall season announcement. Over most of the fall those events spread out. Rocky Horror ran at Marroney in October, and the Symphonic Choir sang at Crowder Hall on Nov. 1. In mid-November the schedules converge. Fall for Dance runs Nov. 12–22, Stop Kiss opens Nov. 15, Silven's The Lost Things plays Nov. 17–21, and the opera program's Orfeo ed Euridice runs Nov. 18–21.
Arizona Arts Live, the university's presenting arm, has a lineup that makes the drop-off plain. Its upcoming events page lists Ed Burns's film on Nov. 15, Silven Nov. 17–21 and Houses of Zodiac on Nov. 22. The next date after that is Feb. 11, 2027, when Marvel Studios' Black Panther in Concert comes to Centennial Hall.
The calendar, night by night
| Date | What's on | Where | Start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu., Nov. 12 | Fall for Dance opens | Stevie Eller Dance Theatre | 7 p.m. |
| Fri., Nov. 13 | Fall for Dance | Stevie Eller Dance Theatre | 7 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Family Activity Day | Arizona State Museum | 10 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 15 | Fall for Dance matinee | Stevie Eller Dance Theatre | 1 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 15 | Stop Kiss preview | Tornabene Theatre | 1:30 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 15 | Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies, with Ed Burns | Marroney Theatre | 6 p.m. |
| Tue.–Sat., Nov. 17–21 | Scott Silven, The Lost Things, five performances in all | Marroney Theatre | Evening shows at 7:30 p.m.; Sat. matinee at 2 p.m. |
| Wed.–Sat., Nov. 18–21 | Orfeo ed Euridice | In and around Crowder Hall | 7 p.m. |
| Thu., Nov. 19 | Fall for Dance; Stop Kiss preview | Stevie Eller; Tornabene | 7 p.m.; 7:30 p.m. |
| Fri., Nov. 20 | Fall for Dance; Stop Kiss | Stevie Eller; Tornabene | 7 p.m.; 7:30 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Fall for Dance; Stop Kiss | Stevie Eller; Tornabene | 1 and 7 p.m.; 7:30 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 22 | Stop Kiss; Fall for Dance closes; Houses of Zodiac | Tornabene; Stevie Eller; La Rosa | 1:30 p.m.; 7 p.m.; 7 p.m. |
The two Sundays are the easiest days to combine shows. On Nov. 15, a Fall for Dance matinee and the first Stop Kiss preview start half an hour apart in the afternoon, and Ed Burns's screening follows at 6. On Nov. 22, three venues have shows in the same day.
Thursday, Nov. 19, the fullest evening
The 19th falls right in the middle of the overlap, and it starts before dark. From 4 to 6:30 p.m., the University of Arizona Museum of Art holds a reception and Trans Day of Remembrance Gathering for its exhibition "Look at me and see what?" A discussion runs from 4 to 5 in the School of Art lobby atrium, followed by gallery viewing and refreshments.
At 7 p.m., Fall for Dance and Orfeo ed Euridice both begin. Stop Kiss holds its second preview at 7:30 p.m. at Tornabene Theatre. Silven's run at Marroney is also in its middle stretch that week. For Fall for Dance, the School of Dance lists choreography by Tamara Dyke-Compton, Monique Dorame, Juel D. Lane, Trent D. Williams Jr. and Christopher Compton, with Lane billed as a guest choreographer. The program consists of four premieres and one returning work.
Two shows about what gets lost
The two biggest productions of the week share a subject. Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice is the myth of a musician who goes into the underworld to bring back the woman he lost. The University of Arizona Opera Theater production deals with grief, trust and hope. It also moves its audience. According to the School of Music's event page, the performance "begins outdoors, moves with the audience into Crowder Hall, and reimagines the space by flipping the usual relationship between stage and seating." Tickets are $22 general admission, $16.50 for military and seniors, and $11 for students.
Silven's show comes at loss from the other direction. He builds it around a day when he was 12 and got lost in a forest. Some guests join him on stage, and the slips of paper on the seats supply the rest of the evening. Arizona Arts Live co-commissioned the production. It is now touring the country, with stops at the Charleston Gaillard Center, the Virginia Arts Festival and Texas Performing Arts in Austin. Silven last played Tucson in 2024 with Wonders at Tornabene Theatre. Chad Herzog, Arizona Arts Live's executive and artistic director, explained the decision in the same announcement: "We helped commission this show because we had never seen magic do that." General admission starts at $40, student tickets are $10, and Marroney Theatre is at 1025 Olive Road.
The two shows run on the same four nights, Nov. 18 through 21, a few buildings apart. That makes it possible to see both in one week.
The screen and the cello on the bookend Sundays
The two Sundays that open and close the stretch each have something you can catch only once. On Nov. 15 at 6 p.m., Film Fest Tucson screens Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies at Marroney Theatre. Ed Burns wrote and directed it, shot it in black and white, and cast Jennifer Ehle. Burns and producer Aaron Lubin will take part in a discussion after the screening. Film Fest Tucson has been running single screenings with filmmaker Q&As this fall. Earlier titles were Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff in October and Route 66: The Main Street of America on Nov. 5.
On Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. at La Rosa, Houses of Zodiac: Poems for Cello closes out Arizona Arts Live's calendar for the year. Former Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Zeigler plays Paola Prestini's score, set to poems by Pablo Neruda, Brenda Shaughnessy, Natasha Trethewey and Anaïs Nin. New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin and Sankai Juku's Dai Matsuoka dance, and four short films by Murat Eyuboglu are woven through the performance.
Daylight hours, before the curtains
The galleries run on a different schedule from the stages, and three exhibitions overlap with the performance week:
- Staged: The Art of Performance opened Oct. 10 at UAMA and pairs naturally with this week's shows. It is about stagecraft and draws on the museum's collection and loans from local private collections, including Andy Warhol's "Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn)" and Warrington W. Colescott's "Avalon Ballroom."
- Look at me and see what? runs at UAMA through Dec. 5.
- Animality: 100 Years of Photographs at the Center for Creative Photography gathers more than 100 photographs and archival objects showing nearly 300 animals from 30 species. It runs through Dec. 12, and the CCP calendar lists hours of 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
On Saturday, Nov. 14, the Arizona State Museum holds a Family Activity Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
What carries into December
Not every show ends on Nov. 22. Stop Kiss, the School of Theatre, Film & Television's play about two women whose new relationship is changed by one moment of violence in New York City, comes back after the holiday. It plays Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. with a post-show discussion, Dec. 5 at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. with ASL interpreters at the evening show, and Dec. 6 at 1:30 p.m. Student tickets are $5, subject to availability. On those same dates, Dec. 4–6, the School of Dance presents Student Spotlight: Innovate at Stevie Eller, with new work by BFA and MFA choreographers. On Dec. 2, photographer Cara Romero gives a VASE Lecture at the CCP Auditorium.
These December dates are school programs. Arizona Arts Live's touring lineup stops on Nov. 22.
Getting there after 5 p.m.
If you are driving instead of walking or biking from Sam Hughes, the Park Avenue and Tyndall Avenue garages are among the hourly-pay garages run by UA Parking & Transportation. Evening parking is $1.50 an hour from 5 p.m. to 4:59 a.m. Garages can be designated for special events, which can bring event-specific fees or access limits, so check the signs when you arrive.
The Fine Arts stages are part of what sits a few blocks from a Sam Hughes front door. If you are considering a sale or a move nearby, Thalia Kyriakis can tell your home's story with that context in mind. Request a confidential consultation or home valuation whenever the timing suits you.
