Extraordinary Girl

GREEN DAY’S AMERICAN IDIOT is coming to the ASU Gammage stage April 24-29, 2012, and in honor of the show’s song “Extraordinary Girl” we want to hear about the extraordinary girls in your life whether it is your wife, mother, sister, daughter or friend.

Enter to win by emailing a picture of your extraordinary girl with an explanation on why she is extraordinary. Email your submissions to promotions@asugammage.com. Some of the photos will be highlighted on the Splash Designs Facebook Page, ASU Gammage Facebook Page and Zynergy Salon’s Facebook Page.

All entries must be received by April 16 at 5pm. The winner will be chosen by a select team and announced on April 17. The winner will receive a pair of tickets to the April 24th performance of AMERICAN IDIOT at ASU Gammage and a a top and necklace from Splash Designs and a a conditioning treatment, haircut and style with a blow-dry lesson from Zynergy Salon.

ASU GAMMAGE DIRECTOR RECEIVES GOVENOR’S ARTS AWARD

On Tuesday, March 27 nearly 500 arts supporters, advocates, business leaders and elected officials attended the 31st Annual Governor's Arts Awards at the Herberger Theater Center hosted by the Arizona Citizen's for the Arts, Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Office of the Governor. More than 80 individuals, artists, businesses, arts education programs and community programs from more than 24 Arizona cities were nominated for this year’s awards. Colleen Jennings-Roggensack the executive director of ASU Gammage received the Governor's Arts Award in the Individual category and shared the honor with Museum of Northern Arizona Director Robert Breunig.

The Governor’s Arts Awards is a chance to honor the innumerable benefits the arts offer the residents of Arizona including both cultural and economic impact as well as honors those organizations and individuals that have helped advance the arts in Arizona.

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack will celebrate 20 years as Executive Director for ASU Gammage in July 2012. Jennings-Roggensack has the artistic, fiscal and administrative responsibility for ASU Gammage, ASU Kerr Cultural Center, with additional responsibility for non-athletic activities at Sun Devil Stadium and Wells Fargo Arena. During the past 20 years, Jennings-Roggensack distinguished herself as one of the most influential leaders in the arts locally, nationally and internationally.

Here are some of her major accomplishments:

Jennings-Roggensack has turned ASU Gammage into one of the top touring markets in the United States.The PROGRESSIVE® Broadway Across America – Arizona series is a leading economic engine for the Valley. Even during difficult economic times, the series brought in nearly a billion dollars in economic impact to the Valley in the past 20 years and $43 million in the last year. Jennings-Roggensack established ASU Gammage's organizational mission as "Connecting Communities" which allows Gammage to go beyond its doors to change lives for the better and make a difference in our community through the shared experience of the arts. In the last 20 years, Jennings-Roggensack has commissioned 22 works to premiere at ASU Gammage, which is more than any other presenter in the Southwest. Since 1995, Jennings-Roggensack has been Arizona’s only Tony Awards® voter which is one of the most distinguished achievements in the industry.

Honorees received specially created awards reflecting Arizona’s beauty and diversity — by Arizona artists Joe Ray of Scottsdale, Fausto Fernandez of Phoenix, George Gaines-Averbeck of Flagstaff, Gennaro Garcia of Ahwatukee, Judith Walsh of Oracle, Catherine Nash of Tucson, Emily Costello of Superior and Julius Forzano of Scottsdale. Other awards presented include:

· Artist of the Year : Ed Mell, recently designed the Arizona Centennial Postage Stamp

· Arts in Education-Individual Award: Beth Lessard, Tempe, former chair of the Arizona State University Department of Dance

· Arts in Education-Organization Award: Arizona School for the Arts

· Community Award: Arizona Cowboy Poet Gathering, Prescott

· Business Award: JP Morgan Chase

· 2012 Shelley Award: Arts advocate and leader Darryl Dobras of Tucson

Win Tickets to the ASU Gammage Season Annouce Event!

How would you like to be one of the first to discover the line up for ASU Gammage’s 2012/2013 Progressive Broadway Across America- Arizona Season?

Here’s your chance! We are giving away a few sets of tickets to our Season Announce Event at ASU Gammage on Monday, April 2 at 7:30pm. At this event guests will be treated to a preview of the upcoming season along with special guest appearances that can only be seen at this event!

To enter:Write a quick paragraph about why you love ASU Gammage, and email it to press@asugammage.com by Friday, March 30 at 1pm.

Winners will receive a pair of tickets to event. All winner will be notified by Friday, March 30.

WICKED BRINGS MORE THAN $28 MILLION IN ECONOMIC IMPACT DURING ITS RECORD-BREAKING RUN AT ASU GAMMAGE

The blockbuster hit WICKED just closed its four week run at ASU Gammage in Tempe, from February 15 through March 11 which resulted in more than $28 million in economic impact.

Each week of the four-week run broke Box Office records at ASU Gammage. More than 91,000 patrons came through the theater to see the show. The majority of theater-goers were Valley residents but also included ticket buyers from all over the state including Flagstaff, Tucson and Yuma as well as out-of-state patrons from New Mexico, California, Nevada and even Mexico.

“The success of this third run of WICKED in Tempe was extraordinary. Patrons were once again thrilled with the talent and have raved about the quality of WICKED. I am thrilled that ASU Gammage’s run of WICKED meant big business for our local businesses. In a struggling economy, this amount of economic impact is remarkable,” says Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, executive director of ASU Gammage.

“ASU Gammage has done it again. Exceptional productions, such as WICKED, attract theater lovers from our local area and from out of state. Tempe businesses, especially restaurants and hotels, benefit immensely from such strong arts and cultural events,” says Stephanie Nowack, President/CEO of the Tempe Tourism Office.

ASU Gammage's Journey Home Inspires Women of Estrella Jail with Art

Behind bars wearing black and white stripes is not a situation in which anyone expects to find themselves. Haunted by their past mistakes, many inmates find themself not only trapped in the imprisonment of their cells but also the confinement of their own emotions. Twenty five incarcerated women at Estrella Jail in Phoenix found freedom in the arts as provided by ASU Gammage’s Journey Home program.

March 4 marked the 10^th anniversary performance of the transformative program in which a group of incarcerated women was chosen to participate in a six-week workshop designed to help them express themselves through the arts and build self-esteem and better decision making skills.

The women were introduced to art forms including creative writing, storytelling, movement and visual arts. In the March 4^th performance, the women incorporate what they learned through Journey Home and presented it to an audience.

Program Director Fatimah Halim said, “The women had the opportunity to truly explore those dark and low places that we all go to, but unfortunately in their cases, it got them here. They are here in this program by the grace of God, because any of us at any point in time could have wound up here.”

Halim said that many of the women found a value to all they experienced because it brought them to where they were with Journey Home, which possibly could save their lives.

Director and Expressive Movement Specialist Teniqua Broughton worked with the women on creating movement to express their feelings and emotions. This process was done completely through the movement of the body without sharing any words.

Nubia Owens worked with the women on the visual art. She worked with the women on a project where they created a mask that reflected their inner emotions and true feelings.

Imani Muhammad also assisted with the visual art and served as a mental health specialist. She explained how the process of everything they were experiencing was not only a physical journey, but also one for their emotions. She said that through all the development of exploring their emotions and feeling from the arts, it could help them on the “journey home.”

One inmate who goes by the nickname “Q” has been at Estrella for eight months but chose to remain at the jail after her sentence to attend the Journey Home performance. She explained her inspiration for her poem that she performed was her unhealthy attachment to brand names and materialistic things after a poor upbringing. In her poem, she explained how in jail, her stripes cannot hide her shame.

“Image was a real big part of me,” Q said. “And coming here, I was stripped down to nothing. And so now the only thing that I do have is the moral and emotional support of these other women that are going on the same journey as I am.”

Where before, materialistic things were very important to her, Journey Home helped teach her the importance of relationships. “Now the only thing that I want…I want to hug my kids.”

“Our missions at ASU Gammage is connecting communities,” Executive Director at ASU Gammage Colleen Jennings-Rogensack said. “One of the communities that we think about connecting is the community of self. Particularly for the inmates here and the women here doing this work, the connection to self is equally important.”