(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, we'll meet some of the local stars from Saguaro City Music Theatre's performance of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

(Dena) The program is really about the joy of musical theater and making sure that the kids have a really special experience.

(Tom) Cochise County volunteers step up provide care packages for students who need them.

(Sarah) Poverty is a really complicated issue and you think the why for me is... Making sure kids are fed.

(Tom) And Mzekala's Serenades Tucson with Balkan tunes.

(Deborah) A lot of what we sing is not familiar to most Westerners.

(upbeat music) (Tom) Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

And if you're here with us in late July, you know one thing for sure, it's hot outside.

And that's why we are inside the Oro Valley Public Library this week.

You know, this is my part of town.

My family and I have lived in Oro Valley for many years love this community.

All the locations in the Pima County Library System also double as cooling centers during the summer.

There are over 25 different library locations across Pima County, and they can be great resources for books, obviously, DVDs, computers, seed libraries, community events, and more.

Each branch in the system is a bit different.

Here in Oro Valley, the library houses the Heritage Collection that encourages residents, especially those who move here from out of state, to connect with our region by providing information on history and culture, environment, traditions, and archaeology.

And now back to our July heat.

You know, it's synonymous with summer here in southern Arizona.

And so are summer camps.

And next we're going to take you to one of the most heartwarming ones we've ever come across.

Saguaro City Music Theatre is a community-supported, tuition-free camp for kids of all abilities.

♪ UPLIFITING HUMMING (Drew) We're really doing two things at once.

We're providing a summer camp that is geared around learning what musical theater is and musical theater storytelling with a full production at the end of it.

We also wanted to really instill this inclusive aspect of it so that children of all abilities could aspire to be on stage, had tuition-free access to education, take down every barrier that could possibly exist.

Which is also why we hire eight to ten professional adults to perform in it.

(Professional Preformer) Do it in a row, so like, I do mine, you do yours, right?

(Drew) When we do invite audience members to come, it's entertaining whether or not you have a child at camp or not.

[ PERFORMERS VOCALIZING PRACTICE ] (Dena) Having the adult professional actors in this camp space, you can see that all the campers are like sponges, and they're kind of watching and learning.

So I'm excited for the kids to get to see these marvelous performers and just learn from them.

♪ UPLIFTING HUMMING (Drew) I don't think anyone loves or enjoys auditions They're challenging, and it becomes kind of a personal journey.

(Dena) Nobody gets rejected, nobody's not in the show, everybody gets a part.

but there's only one role of Veruca and there's only one role of Charlie, and every single person on that stage needs to be there to tell the story we're telling.

(applause) That was amazing.

(Drew) I can't wait to hear the song.

Can I hear the song?

(Dena) It's a hard one.

Yeah, I know.

I just can't.

I have no idea where the music is.

Now!

♪ WILLY WONKA SONG ♪ ♪ You've nothing to lose, so why not choose to think positive?

♪ (Sharron) It's been really a challenge to find programs that offer an inclusion-type atmosphere where children with different abilities are accepted and able to work alongside their neurotypical peers.

When we found this program, it just was incredible.

(Drew) Hey!

(unintelligible) (Drew) Sharp-dressed man.

(Armelisa) He had previously participated through Saguaro with Beauty and the Beast.

He fell in love with it, and they invited us for Willy Wonka.

So here we are.

(Eliberto) Happy birthday, song?

(Dena) Great.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to Willy Wonka, the chocolate factory (Armelisa) Eliberto was born with bilateral hearing loss.

He wears hearing aids.

He's completely deaf on the right now that we just realized, so he can only hear us on the left side.

And that impairs his speech.

(Drew) Take a big bow.

(Other judges) Yeah!

♪ WILLY WONKA SONG (Maiyah) I've been with Saguaro City Music Theatre for around three years.

Before I did musical theater, I did cheer, so I always performed.

And I feel like musical theater was just a better fit.

It helps me with my confidence and kind of like stepping out of my comfort zone.

Dena and Drew, they're like probably one of the best choreographers and directors I've ever had.

(Dena) If you could face in this way, that would be better.

The other way.

Yeah, that's it.

(Maiyah) I suck at like dancing and every time Dena like teaches how to dance, it's like it just clicks.

It's like the little things that always helps.

(Dena) Now I want you to lean back.

(Professional Performers) Five, six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

(Dena) We've had two and a half days of camp so far and (Dena) We've had two and a half days of camp so far and the growth that we've seen already in just such a short time is really mind-blowing and like I'm so excited to kind of see you know where we're at a week from today.

(Dena) Five, six, seven, like one, two, three down the line.

(Drew) What's special about this summer program this year is our new relationship with Pima Community College.

where we have added an internship, noviceship program where aspiring high schoolers and young college students at Pima have an opportunity to work with our professional designers that we've hired whether it be lighting design, props design, technical direction that they get to work under someone who's made a career out of it.

(Costume Artist) Here, let me fix yours, love.

(Dena) We've got our set being built in the other room.

Costume team is in the costume room building costumes like all day as we speak.

Kids are going over there for fittings and like coming back jumping up and down because they're so excited about they have a tail, they to get to wear a squirrel costume.

But to have this opportunity that it's all happening here on this campus that we haven't had before.

♪ Who can take a sunrise ♪ ♪ Sprinkle it with dew ♪ Cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two ♪ ♪ The Candyman (Dena) We have to learn the Candyman today.

We didn't learn the whole thing.

It's gonna be okay.

But like having these moments in between where we need to celebrate somebody's success, those things help us.

They remind us of what the whole point is.

Well, that was brilliant.

Nice work.

Any questions?

We've told this to our teaching artists staff that while yes, of course we're concerned with making sure we have a show, that it's really not the first priority.

The program is really about the joy of musical theater and making sure that the kids have a really special experience doing it.

[ VOCALIZING PRACTICE AND LAUGHTER ] (Drew) Theater tends to be a pretty great equalizer where there might be a child that has a very specific challenge.

Maybe it's mobility, maybe it's behavioral, and then there might be a child that has no diagnosis to point to, but is really nervous about taking the stage.

And the person that might have mobility challenges has no fear of going out on stage and has all the confidence in the world, and then becomes the support system for the person that wouldn't suspect needing support.

(Sharron) They offered the opportunity for Madeline to work with a voice coach to be able to learn audition skills, to be able to present herself with confidence.

Music has just really been something that we've been able to use to motivate her to do the challenging things in life for her, which include talking and walking and all of those things that took so much longer for her to be able to do.

(Armelisa) He's a patient of the Children's Clinic.

His journey has been hard.

They told me, "Be ready, because he's not going to make it."

And then you see him where he's at now.

He's not projecting right now who he is.

He's a little shy, just like me.

- Hey, hey, hey, hey.

- But he can be really outgoing and fun.

It's really nice to see everybody, because you know them since they were babies, and people with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy.

And it's just amazing to see them thrive and just come out like a, out of their cocoon, like you know, like a butterfly.

(Maiyah) If it wasn't for my mom, I wouldn't have done any plays.

And I feel like she's always just been my biggest supporter.

(Jennifer) She comes home so excited and like she has grown so much from it.

When we found Dena and Drew, it was just so nice.

Like how supportive and like they brought her more out of her shell than she already is.

I mean I know that she's amazing but having someone else tell me that my kid's amazing is like, yay I did it ♪ HARMONIZING VOCALIZATIONS ♪ UPLIFITING PIANO And now, Saguaro City Music Theater proudly presents our Theater for Young Audiences production of Willy Wonka [ APPLAUSE ] ♪ Once upon a chocolate time ♪ A long, long chocolate time ago ♪ Your role is ensemble.

That means that you're - - Ensemble?

♪ WILLY WONKA SONG I play Phineous Trout.

She's a news reporter.

We're here live at the home of Mike Teavee.

Finder of fourth Golden Ticket.

Here's Miss Teavee Now.

(Madeline) I'm a candy kid.

Oompa Loompa.

♪ WILLY WONKA SONG (Drew) The pride that you can walk away with going like, I did something that was really hard for two and a half weeks.

And there were times that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it.

And then they get in front of an audience and there is that accomplishment That is a reward.

♪ WILLY WONKA SONG (Dena) How we create this environment of inclusion where everybody's included.

You know, because that's one of the most important things that we work on every day throughout this process of putting the show together.

[ LAUGHTER ] (Drew) Really just gives them an opportunity to de-stigmatize anything that they ever thought before they have ever gotten to that environment.

And it just breaks away in moments.

And then, you know, we like to think that like, maybe that's forever broken away.

♪ HARMONIZING CLOSING [ APPLAUSE ] (Tom) Wasn't that a heartwarming story?

A terrific camp, great place, and we're really rooting for all the kids you saw, just to see how far they can go.

And if you'd like to see any of their performances, check out their website, SaguaroCity.org and to find a Spanish language description and captions of this last story and many others from our archives, please visit azpm.org/ arizonaillustrated.espanol Peach's Pantry is a coalition of volunteers in Cochise County who've made it their mission to provide food for students and their families who don't have enough to eat.

This 501(c)(3) nonprofit collaborates with schools in the area to identify these students and then provides them and their families with Peach's food bags.

♪ MELANCHOLY BASS (Rebecca) Students come here every day.

They are tired, they are stressed.

They really have a hard time focusing and putting their best foot forward in school.

So having one little thing taken care of can help them relax and it can help them focus a little bit better.

(Sarah) Poverty's a complicated issue, but feeding children is not.

In 2012, the counselor at the middle school actually reached out to me, told me she had been buying food with her own money and sending it home with kids at the middle school who didn't have enough to eat on the weekends.

And so she knew they were coming to school hungry.

And she asked me, "You're already out in the community.

Think you can ask them to just donate the food and we can still keep feeding these kids?

I wanna make sure that they keep being fed."

And once we started within that one school and I started gathering food from the community and putting it in a closet at the school, and sitting at home with a few kids, then we found that there was a teacher who had been sending food home with a student in this school.

There was a principal who had been buying food for that family.

It was all over happening, but it was out of the school district employees' own pocket.

And it was, you know, just here and there where they saw the need.

And so we consolidated into one program.

We started in one school, we had 11 kids, and now we're in 20 schools, and we serve 450-ish kids every week.

♪ UPLIFTING GUITAR (Laura) Every week we put a can of fruit, a can of vegetables.

We put four packages of ramen, and every other week we'll put a box of cereal.

And then snacks, the kids love snacks.

One bag will average about $13 or $14 a bag.

And so if you look at that for a period of a month, it's saving the parents probably close to $50 a month.

My family wasn't always as fortunate when I just started here.

And so I was offered it kind of like maybe a week or after I started going to the school.

And it's helped quite a lot, me and my family, because it's a family of about five, five to six sometimes.

And so that's a lot of mouths to feed, and we don't always have the budget to feed all those mouths.

(Sarah) We had kids that were, they had been stealing food out of the cafeteria, and they were caught.

And the school said, "This," sorry, "this used to be like a difficult call home that where you're gonna get suspended, you're in trouble, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but, she said, "We have this program."

And so the call home was instead like, "Hey, do you need help?"

There was still a call home.

There was still a conversation with mom and dad.

But instead, they started that week with Peaches Pantry.

We're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity.

We apply for grants, and we have a lot of wonderful donors.

So we are completely self-funded.

(Laura) We have no idea who the students are that gets the bag.

So it's the school personnel that determines who gets the bag.

We're in contact with our families quite a bit.

I have been in the parking lot.

When the parents are out there, I just hand them out flyers or I talk to them.

I organize them and I label them with the students initials because at the end of the day, when people are leaving, it's a little crazy.

So I can just hand them quickly.

Some of our students' parents will pull up early in the parking lot, so I can take the bags out to them.

Or if a student's not here on Thursday, I will deliver the bags to their house on Friday.

As a kid, you can't really do much about it, which is why Peach's Pantry does help because it does make me feel like I'm contributing to my household in some way.

And they're easy meals to whip up.

Like there's boxed macaroni most of the times I get, or like pasta, and those are easy to cook.

You know, poverty is a really complicated issue.

And I think the why for me is making sure kids are fed.

I have four children of my own, and we've gone through lean times in our own family.

And so I get that people struggle, and this is just a little bit to help.

The other part of it is to encourage education, because I'm a true believer that education is how we lift people out of poverty and equal access to education, but also making sure people show up.

And when kids are hungry or when they're struggling at home, this is a little incentive that if they are there on Thursday, they get to take this food home.

(Rebecca) So much of it is being able to breathe and also knowing that you're not alone.

A lot of families and kids feel like it's just them.

So knowing that there is a community backing them, it's made a huge impact.

(Tom) 30 years ago, six fierce women singers and one cool drummer teamed up to form Mzekala.

Inspired by the music of Eastern Europe, they serenade their audiences with Balkan tunes.

Lending traditional rhythms with their contagious passion.

Their music is a love letter to the community.

Spreading joy wherever they go.

[ STREET NOISES ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ HARMONICA NOTE ] ♪ FOLK MUSIC This is all we have, just this moment.

Not tomorrow, not the past.

And that's how I feel when I come to these rehearsals, is I can forget about my troubles and just be in the present moment and sing.

♪ FOLK MUSIC (Barbara) I came to Tucson in 1983.

The first thing that I did when I came here to find a community was to go to the folk dancers, began to gather together the people that would become Mzekala.

That's a Georgian woman's name that translates as sunwoman.

Perfect for Tucson.

♪ FOLK MUSIC ♪ [ APPLAUSE ] (Barbara) Alright, let's go ahead and tune up with Gyo Dai.

[ HARMONICA NOTE ] [ VOCAL WARMUP ] [ PAPER RUSTLING ] (Barbara) When we were in Bulgaria and singing for the people there, this is the song we most often pulled out for them.

Mama Si Yanka.

♪ MAMA SI YANKA Well, it's a wonderful kind of social experience.

We've been together a very long time, and we've seen each other through a lot of things in life, both the highs and the lows.

And about 15 years ago, I joined Mzekala as the drummer.

So that's what I do.

I establish the tempo and I keep the meter.

♪ MAMA SI YANKA I was one of the people who started with the group before it had a name.

Many of us were dancers, and as we danced, we learned to sing the songs.

We decided we loved singing so much that we wanted to get together just to sing, independent of the folk dancing.

♪ FOLK MUSIC (Deborah) The transition was very easy because we were already very familiar with most of the music.

We just settled in, found out where our voices sort of fit.

We've got people who are multi-talented.

Sometimes we have to write our own music.

You know, we'll find something recorded that we love, and thank goodness we've got people who are capable of listening and transcribing.

[ LAUGHING ] You know.

So we may make our own arrangement of the tune depending on whose voice works on which part.

A lot of what we sing is not familiar to most Westerners.

(Lynn) What's really interesting about music in the Balkans is that many of the meters or the rhythms are irregular.

Five eighths.

[ RHYTHMIC CLAPPING ] There's seven, eight.

♪ FOLK SINGING And my favorite, eleven, sixteen.

♪ Rum pum pa, rum pum rum pum pa, rum pum ♪ Quick, quick, slow, quick, quick.

They're a lot of fun to play.

When we perform, I'm a dynamic player, so when they're louder, I'm louder.

When they're quieter, I'm quieter.

I always try to end one beat or one syllable before they do.

So the last thing the audience hears is their beautiful voices.

♪ FOLK SINGING We sang Welsh songs.

We sung Turkish.

You're part of a diverse world.

You really feel a member of this universal sisterhood, we would say.

(Barbara) When we first started singing, we were very naive.

We didn't realize how much the Bulgarians loved jokes with innuendos.

So this is a story about a woman who was washing the sheets that she made for her wedding dowry.

That's not really what she's talking about.

She's talking about what's happening on the sheets.

♪ FOLK MUSIC (Susan) We went to Bulgaria for three weeks and we traveled around and we don't speak Bulgarian.

We can sing Bulgarian.

We know how to say beautiful eyes and nice lips.

People that we met, they wanted to know why we were there.

And the only way we could explain it was to sing for them.

[ SHOUT IN UNISON ] And they almost always cried.

I had this nostalgia for this music, and I've never been to Bulgaria or Eastern Europe, but I just loved it.

I felt at home.

♪ FOLK MUSIC (Diana) The songs have the same wonderful stories that are universal themes for all of us.

They sing about love and loss.

They sing about longing for your homeland, and they sing about lullabies for babies.

And these are things I think that we can all relate to.

(Lynn) For me, since I don't sing, I ju- I'm an accompanist.

Every time we're rehearsing or performing, it's like sitting in front of the world's most expensive stereo.

It's just beautiful, joyful sound.

♪ FOLK MUSIC (All) Yahoo!

(Tom) Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

Gonna go grab a few books.

We'll see you next week.