New Phoenix play satirizes Arizona political figures
Sep 15, 2014, 6:00 AM | Updated: Sep 16, 2014, 6:20 pm
PHOENIX — Arizona voters have some pretty serious choices to make at the ballot box in November, including deciding who will be the next governor of the Arizona.
But a play that opens in Phoenix this Friday will show that Arizona politics can be pretty funny too.
In “Arizona Pastorela: Everybody Wants to be Governor,” everyone from Doug Ducey and Fred DuVal to Sheriff Joe Arpaio and even Chewbacca the Wookie is running for Arizona governor.
“It’s all about the governor’s race. Everybody wants to be governor,” writer James Garcia said KTAR News 92.3’s Arizona’s Morning News Weekend show. “I named it that way because it occurred to me that after (former Maricopa County Attorney) Andrew Thomas ran for governor even after he was disbarred, pretty much anyone could run for governor. Of course, we also heard earlier that Sarah Palin and Steven Seagal might run for Arizona governor, and so they’re all in the show.”
Actors will also portray other state lawmakers in the play, such current Gov. Jan Brewer and Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal.
Garcia said that characterizations of DuVal and Ducey appear in a debate scene.
“When they introduce Doug Ducey, he runs in and says, ‘It’s a great day for ice cream!’ And that’s pretty much his platform.”
Ducey is the former CEO of Coldstone Creamery.
The New Carpa Theater Company‘s production of “Arizona Pastorela: Everybody Wants to Be Governor” will run for two weekends starting Friday at the Arizona Opera Center Black Box Theater, located at 1626 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix.
