Lowrider exhibit drives ‘12 Switches’
Northern New Mexico College students plan two shows honoring Española’s car culture
At rehearsal, with less than three weeks until curtain, a dozen students sat in an oval on a hardwood studio floor, eyes closed, each meditating on an emotional event from the past.
Then, standing as a group, eyes still closed, memories still front of mind, they recited a line of their dialogue, first at conversational volume, then as a shout.
But none could do the same while making eye contact with a partner. The focus of the exercise on a recent day broke up, and the students smiled, or had to look away, struck with giggles.
Co-director Megan Burns quietly told them to lean into this discomfort, to try to express themselves without shying away.
The Northern New Mexico College student actors will need that discipline on stage. The debut of 12 Switches is fast approaching, with shows set for Española and Santa Fe.
Given the subject material and location, authenticity is the name of the game, Burns and her codirector, Jonah Winn-Lenetsky, said. The themes are deeply embedded in Española, called the lowrider capital of the world.
“Anyone who is into lowriders, who has lived in lowrider culture, they’re going to connect to these stories you’re telling,” WinnLenetsky, a college instructor, told the students.
Drawing on real-life source material, 12 Switches is a vehicle for advancing the conversation about the area’s rich low-and-slow culture, organizers say.
The stage performance has roots in last year’s New Mexico History Museum exhibition Lowriders, Hoppers and Hot Rods: Car Culture of Northern New Mexico, an extensive collection of photographs and personal histories focused on the social history of lowriders.
Meredith Davidson and Daniel Kosharek, the exhibit curators, wanted to bring the project back home. They enlisted Burns, executive director of Santa Fe Performing Arts, and Winn-Lenetsky to move the story forward with students in Española.
“As a museum, this is one of the most joyous things you can have, that material you put out to the public actually influences the community,” Davidson said.
Last fall, the students visited the lowrider exhibit and were assigned to interview locals who worked on lowriders, some of whom came to share their stories with the class. The students then wrote a script comprising 12 vignettes.
In one, characters reminisce about their family lowrider tradition, the inspirations and memories of their rides, digressing into a tale of how they used to cruise through old Santa Fe, back and forth across town, taking an hour each way.
The spring semester students are set to perform the scenes March 11 and 12 in Española and Santa Fe. The students themselves are not all lowriders, and most are not performing arts students, either. But they’ve taken to the
material nonetheless.
Skylor Garcia, 18, of Española was never part of the lowrider community — he simply didn’t grow up around it, he said. And, as a software engineering student, he didn’t expect to be memorizing lines at school; he needed to take this class to meet a curriculum requirement. All the same, he has come to appreciate the discipline.
“You see the hours that go into it, the effort they put into it, it’s very cool,” Garcia said.
Elaina Anderson, 17, moved here from Los Angeles in the fall to pursue acting opportunities. She plays three parts across the 12 vignettes. Hearing members of the community tell their stories, trying to get into their skin, has been a welcome exercise in learning a bit about her new home, Anderson said.
“I had seen lowriders in California, but I didn’t know they were lowriders,” she said. “They’re just like, ‘Oh, pretty cars, OK!’ But I’ve learned a lot about the people — I mean, lowriders aren’t just cars, they’re also people.”
Francine Rendon, meanwhile, knows the material better than most, spending her entire life in and around lowriders. That wasn’t easy: It used to be a boys club, she said. Getting her hands on her first ride — a rundown 1975 Chevy Monte Carlo — required intense persistence.
“I bugged my mother for as long as I can remember: ‘C’mon, give it to me, give it to me, I’ll fix it up,’ ” Rendon said.
An older student from nearby Velarde, Rendon, 42, said she’s able to bring her life experiences to the performance, imparting an understanding of Northern New Mexico, its slang, its personality. She recently traded the Monte Carlo for an ’85 Oldsmobile Cutlass. The exterior paint was first, she said, and now she’s working on the Cutlass’ interior. Next come the hydraulics. “Can’t forget the hydraulics, you know,” Rendon said.
At rehearsal, there was a symmetry on display in the students working to express themselves in roles and scenes based in a specifically Northern New Mexico medium of self-expression. Almost two weeks out, Burns and Winn-Lenetsky, sensing some apprehension, sought to ease the students’ minds about the performance. “It’s the first play about lowriders,” Winn-Lenetsky said, “but it’s not the first play.” That drew a round of nervous laughter.
“The job is bigger than saying lines,” Burns told the students. “You create a special thing that happens between human beings — empathy. No matter the script you’re reading, no matter the role you’re playing, you have that power.”
Although, of course, there are still the lines. As students collected their bags and headed for the door, Winn-Lenetsky reminded them they would be off-book next week. “Lines, lines, lines!” he said.