‘A playground of theater’
Theatre Walk gives taste of local troupes’, small-community playhouses’ upcoming offerings
Santa Fe’s third annual Theatre Walk offered high drama Saturday as local troupes and small-community playhouses in the emerging midtown theater district off Rufina Street and elsewhere in the city put on an array of short afternoon teaser performances.
“It’s like a playground of theater,” Valli Rivera, a director for Water by the Spoonful, said outside Teatro Paraguas, one of the event’s venues. Hers is one of three upcoming plays performed by different troupes telling parts of a story called the Elliot Trilogy.
The walk was organized by Theatre Santa Fe, which Jim Patterson, 75, started four years ago after working in theater in Chicago and London. He felt there was a lot to do in Santa Fe.
“It was the weak sister of the performing arts,” he said. “But what’s important is, we have 22 theaters collaborating now.”
Patterson said this year’s attendance was two-thirds of what it had been in previous years. He said it was a busy weekend for theater folk, with the Santa Fe Renaissance Faire at El Rancho de las Golondrinas and the Santa Fe Opera’s prop and costume sale happening at the same time.
“Maybe everyone was overbooked this weekend, but we’re going to figure it out for next year,” he said.
Talia Pura, president of Theatre Santa Fe, said 24 companies participated in the event at 12 venues. Each company flip-flops performances, one show on the hour, the other on the half-hour.
The Young Shakespeare Company held a sword fight in a parking lot where men on stilts walked among people enjoying pupusas from a food truck. Just up the street, chocolate delica
cies and prickly pear were served at Cacao, and chairs were set up for an intimate showing of False Witness: The Trial of Humanity’s Conscience.
There was also Brussel Sprout, a character whose defining features were a “butt rash,” a love for the color green and work in stand-up comedy. The character was played by 8-year-old Lola Wetzel.
Another original character was developed by Ariana Roybal, 14, who offered one of the many performances Saturday by youth in the Young Playwrights Project.
The project, hosted by the Santa Fe Public Library’s La Farge Branch and Southside Branch and organized by local theater professionals with Santa Fe Playhouse, is a free educational program that offers an opportunity for kids to write and perform in their own plays.
Marguerite Louise Scott and Quinn Fontaine coach the kids in improvisation, writing and acting.
“It’s a place where they can come together and support each other,” Scott said while handing out cookies and lemonade to performers between sets.
Ariana was most proud of her play, Seth, Beth and Death, which features her brother, Jonathan. She said she hadn’t been introduced to theater before she attended the library-based workshops, but now she’s hooked.
“Right now, I have a little taste of theater, but I want more of it,” Ariana said.
Jonathan, 8, said he used to be shy, but being in theater allows him “to bring my silliness out, to act in big emotions.”
Their mother, Yvonne, who home schools all four of her children, said the program has been a blessing.
“This is a place that encourages my kids to be themselves, that supports them for who they are,” she said.
Lola, another Young Playwright, performed as Brussel Sprout, said she feels like the character is “argue-ish but in a funny way.” She’s had to work hard to get over stage fright, Lola added.
“My stomach feels like there are butterflies flying in it, but what helps is my brother sitting right in front,” she said.
Her brother, Teagan, jumped feet-first into theater.
This year, the 12-year-old had roles playing Odysseus in his school’s production of the Odyssey and got a part in the musical Fun Home. His grandmother was an actress in Michigan, and he said he didn’t have much of an interest in theater until after she died this year.
He recommends theater to kids his age as a way to make friends and push past comfort zones.
“Just try it out,” he said. “There’s a lot you can find out about yourself if you try stuff.”