PLAYERS AT WORK

posted by James Reel

    My contribution to the latest Tucson Weekly considers proposed upgrades at a local community theater ensemble:

    This new year marks the 25th anniversary of the Catalina Players, and the theater group's executive director is ready for a change.
    Oh, Priscilla Marquez isn't going anywhere. She believes in change from within--which makes sense, considering that the Catalina Players began as a self-help-through-acting group in 1983. So rather than abandoning the ensemble she has belonged to from the very beginning, and run since 1988, Marquez is helping the Catalina Players grow up.
    That means more finished productions and a more serious, even slightly provocative, choice of scripts.
    "There's so much going on in the world," says Marquez, "it's time for a message."