NM2007 - Culture - New Mexico Theaters

It's always theater season in New Mexico — whether in landmark, restored Art Deco movie palaces or old-time adobe opera houses. Early settlers communicated through their dramatic enactments, which local stages continue to share with today’s audiences.

The 1918 Santa Fe Playhouse claims its role as the oldest continuously functioning theater in the West, following culture maven Mary Austin’s plan for it to celebrate the rich mix of area cultures. Stroll the narrow streets of ancient Barrio de Analco to the adobe structure, where you can see old and new plays, readings and, in September, the boisterous Fiesta melodrama that spoofs Santa Fe politics.

Just off Santa Fe Plaza at the 1931 Lensic Theater — with its curlicue, Moorish-influenced, Spanish Renaissance-Deco splendor — you can enjoy the multifaceted offerings with state-of-the-art sound and light systems.

In Albuquerque, the KiMo Theater on Central Avenue — old Route 66 — boasts the rare Pueblo-Deco style with a fantasia of Native American motifs. Famous buffalo skulls with glowing eyes look back at you. The theater was an extravaganza of civic pride at its 1927 grand opening, and has since been carefully restored as a performing arts center that also offers free tours.

Also on Albuquerque's Route 66, El Rey Theater, with its restored Deco neon marquee and Mission-Revival architecture, serves up well-known rock bands in a nightclub atmosphere, as does the adjoining Puccini’s Golden West Saloon.

You'll find that local Hispanic folk dramas spread a welcome in plazas, streets, and churches from towns to small mountain villages. The plays draw inspiration from the sheep-herding traditions and deep faith native to the similarly dry rugged hills of New Mexico, the central Spain of early explorers, and the Holy Land.

Among numerous Christmas dramas, Las Posadas "the inns" persists as a favorite. You can walk with the young Mary and Joseph, the padrinos (godparents), and the musicians, all asking for shelter for the holy couple in traditional Spanish song and dialogue. At each "inn" (home or shop), the people roughly send them away, but at the last stop, greetings and refreshments welcome everyone, as in Santa Fe's popular reenactment. Albuquerque's oldest barrio, Barelos, south of downtown, hosts Las Posadas with a large cast, including little angels, perhaps a live donkey, and even a Santa Claus.

In the town of Alcalde you can witness a quite different event, the colorful hubbub of Moros y Cristianos ("Moors and Christians"), which commemorates the re-conquest of Spain from the Moors. The participants play out a battle on spirited horses, with armor and firearms, flying banners, and shouted dialogue.

Taos Center for the Arts, which comprises the renovated Community Auditorium and the adjacent Stables Gallery, serves the town's artistic community and audiences.

Among New Mexico's old mining towns, in the warm months, melodrama reigns. At the Pinos Altos Opera House, north of Silver City, the style is slapstick. Popcorn will be your missile of choice for bombarding the villain as you hiss and boo. Near Santa Fe, Madrid's Engine House Theatre (formerly the mine's engine repair shed) presents melodrama as written, without the slapstick, but with plenty of exaggeration. Here you can throw marshmallows. In Magdalena's WPA-era gymnasium, the London Frontier Theatre Company offers original theater serials, literary classics, and more — all Westernized to incorporate multicultural history.

That rich and diverse history distinguishes New Mexico theater.