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Daryl Streeter

Santa Fe playwright infuses love story with dark philosophy

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Photo by Julia Thudium

Mother Road opens doors to the public in advance of its September production

Taps flowed, pizza was passed around and old friends joked together in the basement of JC’s NYPD pizzeria. As the cast and crew of Mother Road Theatre Company’s upcoming production of The Killer Angels gathered for its first rehearsal, the air hummed. I felt that familiar flutter as the first page of the script turned. Here we go! I thought to myself. This is the best part—the part where the magic of making a play all begins.

Cassidy Knight

ALT’s lusty teen musical is uncoordinated yet awesome—kinda like your first time

Photo by Sam Adams

SouthWest Rural Theatre Project ain’t afraid of small-town drama

When Leslie Joy Coleman was an undergrad at New Mexico Highlands University, she had an experience that forever changed her understanding of theatergoing. Her professor arranged for buses to bring students from outlying schools to see You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. “The show was supposed to start in the dark, and the light cue would come on one of the first lines,” Coleman says. “So here we go, we’re going to start the show. Down come the house lights, and as soon as it goes completely dark, all the kids start hootin’ and hollerin’. We tried to start, but you couldn’t hear the first lines over the noise. And standing there in the dark, I thought to myself, They’ve never been exposed to this, so they don’t know.” That's when Coleman, who grew up north of Las Vegas, N.M., realized how little experience rural communities can have with theater.

Photo by Alicia Lueras Maldonado

Río de Lágrimas links imperialism, La Llorona and Juárez slayings

Courtesy of Cissy King

The beat goes on for dancer Cissy King

For Cissy King, remembering lines has always presented a host of challenges. But the veteran dancer-turned-actress has no trouble firing off some of the funnier misspeakings of her former boss, television variety show icon Lawrence Welk. King, who grew up in Albuquerque, danced on the program for more than 11 years.

Elizabeth Dwyer Sandlin

Duke City Rep offers reasons to be pretty

Playwright Neil LaBute is known for his unflinching, cynical plays that feature characters at their worst, often worthy of audience disgust. He is also regarded for his rapid-fire, true-to-life dialogue that has actors talking over one another and cutting off each other’s lines. Duke City Reparatory Theatre’s production of reasons to be pretty has both of these elements. But Amelia Ampuero, the director of the play, says this LaBute script is much more palatable than some of his other material.