Play by Play: Phoenix and Building the Herberger Theater

"I first arrived in Phoenix in the early 1980s, the period Elizabeth Murfee and Jack August describe in Play by Play. It was clear there was something going on in this new home of mine; that Phoenix was starting to turn from being just a big city into a great city. This was a process that featured---and demanded---the expansion of the arts alongside the growth of other institutions that breathe life and character into communities. The evolution of Phoenix was as much about culture as it was about politics, and mostly it was about how a city came together in a spirit of civic stewardship to reshape their community. I chose Phoenix as my home in part because of this civic-mindedness and the growing excitement and dynamism of that time, which Murfee and August illustrate in this book."---Janet Napolitano

"This sensitive and intelligent portrayal is steeped in political and artistic intrigue surrounding a community's dream for a cultural facility. Though it takes place in a desert city in the 1980s, this story is deftly placed in a national context, showing how policies of the National Endowment for the Arts, for example, played a pivotal role in this model project. What happened in Phoenix and Tucson encouraged other civic leaders across America to respond to their community's arts boom."---Adrienne Hirsch, former deputy director, National Endowment for the Arts

"There are two compelling stories in this book: one is the cultural history of a region illuminated by the effects of national events and policies, and the other is a riveting portrayal of committed and visionary individuals. Thoroughly informed with sharp analysis, the authors take the reader on a remarkable cultural journey."---James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank and chairman emeritus of Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall

In their unrelenting drive to create a thriving desert metropolis, leaders of the most populous and dynamic city in the arid Southwest, Phoenix, Arizona, seemed oblivious to two essential elements that form a vibrant and dynamic urban environment. The arts were noticeably absent, and the city's urban core had dissipated into a vast and empty suburbia: a city lacking an urban heart. In 1980, a visionary---Richard Mallery, partner at the powerhouse law firm Snell & Wilmer-emerged to take the first major step to shape Phoenix into a great city, not just a big one.

A veritable civic drama, Play by Play illustrates the central role the arts hold when a city consciously reaches for distinction and further demonstrates how cultural life can influence politics and business. This lively study traces ten years in the life of a city---1980-1990---a defining decade that saw Phoenix descend from boomtown to bust as the savings and loan crisis fractured its real estate market and the economy collapsed. These devastating events almost derailed the selfless efforts of a new group of urban leaders---led by Mallery, along with Gary Herberger, architect, businessman, and philanthropist---who devoted a significant portion of their lives, often in the face of overwhelming odds, to make a place for the arts in downtown Phoenix. This interpretive history---an inside look at the heart of this dynamic desert metropolis---is placed in regional and national context and in many ways defines the modern urban Southwest.

Elizabeth B. Murfee moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1990 from New York City, where she was a consultant to national foundations on cultural policy. While exploring downtown Phoenix, she came upon the Herberger Theater. Seeking the story behind the building, she unearthed a civic drama, which led to the writing of Play by Play. Murfee began her forty-year arts career with the Houston Opera and was the founding manager of its touring company, Texas Opera Theater. Since 1980, she has consulted with most of the major U.S. foundations, and has authored publications for the President's Committee on The Arts and Humanities. A cum laude graduate of Rider Unversity, she married Dino DeConcini in 1998; they reside in New York City and Tucson, Arizona.
Jack L. August Jr. holds a PhD in history from the University of New Mexico and is executive director of the Barry Goldwater Center for the Southwest and visiting scholar in legal history at Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. He is a former Fulbright scholar, National Endowment for the Humanities research fellow, and Pulitzer Prize nominee. Dr. August has written several books and numerous articles on twentieth-century western political and environmental history, including Vision in the Desert: Carl Hayden and Hydropolitics in the American Southwest, Senator Dennis DeConcini: From the Center of the Aisle, and Dividing Western Waters: Mark Wilmer and Arizona v California. In 2009, August coauthored Adversity Is My Angel: The Life and Career of Raul H. Castro.