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Night Howl
By Karen Reardanz

Angela Dawn Cluster Muster: The women of 'Mango Fixation: A Tangy Cabaret' aim to entertain audiences and raise funds for the Actors' Theatre this Saturday. Fruitful Thinking: Local women artists, storytellers and musicians bring out their creative juices to help save downtown SC's Actors' Theatre WHAT'S SORTA TANGY, more than a little juicy and really ripe with possibilities? Why, Mango Fixation: A Tangy Cabaret, of course. Hmm? What's that? Oh, I see. Not familiar with the particulars. Well, let's try to bring you up to speed. Alisa Peck, organizer of this fruity little artistic ensemble, is bringing together more than 20 local women to strut their talented stuff for two nights this weekend at Actors' Theatre. In a show aimed at showcasing what women in this town have to offer, there will be acts from every walk of life--from spoken word to music to storytelling to bagpiping. While the lineup--featuring Willow Simmons, Pipa Piñon, Melissa Bañales, Debra Fay Holden and others--promises to be interesting, the motive behind the project is the mother of all necessities. Seems the Actors' Theatre has run into a wee bit of trouble in the financial department as of late. Without this venue, Santa Cruz's theatricaly artsy crowd would be seriously hurting for a space to strut its creative stuff. Actors' Theatre is an independently run theater house that actors, musicians and theater companies rent out. If fewer shows go on, fewer revenues come in for the theater to pay for the little things, like, oh, rent and electricity. So--enter the Mango Fixation. If successful, the show should raise enough funds to keep the little theater house that could chugging up that mountain a while longer. Mango Fixation gets cooking Friday and Saturday night at 8pm at Actors' Theatre, 1001 Center St., SC. Tickets cost $7 and are available at Herland and at the door. For more info, call 427-9037. Acting Silly Ms. Peck isn't the only one with a hankering to help out the Actors' Theatre. The Improvathon '97 kicks off this Saturday morning at 10am. It's a free improvisational series aimed at familiarizing folks with the basics of acting by the seat of one's pants and learning how to get silly in general. The series runs until Sept. 20. Call 425-1003 for the basics. Still Life in the Park Lackadaisy took it to the streets on Friday night, playing two open-air sets in the Cymbaline parking lot. According to the Night Howl grapevine, the Lackadaisys drew a reasonable crowd to the first set at 7:30pm, and the musicmakers cranked out a tight run-through of their whimsical pop music, highlighting tunes off the new album Still Life. The second set was just as rockin', longer and full of good old-fashioned intensity. Spun What Is Art? played host to a dance party named Nugget on Thursday night, packing in way too many people into its tiny little space (while still obeying fire regulations, of course, officer). Local DJs hit the turntables, the raver kids made it into the nighttime air and they all danced their energetic, sweaty little behinds off. FutureThink Craig Fox and Oscar Davila's How to Catch a Virus Without Really Trying starts up on Sept. 5 and runs through the 27th at Actors' Theatre. ... Feast for the Muse visits the SC Dance Gallery on Sept. 6 for a night of food, song and dance. [ Metro Santa Cruz | MetroActive Central | Archives ]