Ray Schauweker
Super-Duper
"It's more contemporary than we're used to putting on," Santa Fe Performing Arts' Corbin Albaugh says of the theater's youth company's upcoming show, Superheroes, by playwright Ian McWethy. "It's really nice, because now we get the kids working with more contemporary language, with characters who speak the way 21st-century characters speak."
The show plays out in short vignettes that follow the lives of superheroes facing more mundane day-to-day experiences, like Batman arguing with a fast food worker, Robin attending a support group for sidekicks who feel overshadowed by their partners or the Incredible Hulk navigating his taxes. Albaugh, a graduate of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, has worked with SFPA since 2011 and estimates he's directed seven or eight shows with younger students. He says Superheroes was chosen to accommodate a smaller-than-usual cast and to provide the kids with something a bit more challenging. "The scope of children's theater is so narrow," Albaugh says, "that I think it's really cool we can offer the kids different spectrums of the theatrical experience."
Emma Abby, 12, appreciates this. "It is a little bit more challenging," she says, "but I think it's really fun." Abby's no stranger to the stage, having performed with SFPA and with community theater in Eldorado. "My favorite scene is the Spiderman scene," Abby continues, "because everyone is in it."
Camaraderie is, of course, a happy side effect of the theater's youth troupe programming. Plus, according to Albaugh, scholarships and sliding scale pricing are available. "It's more important to get the kids in the building and involved," he says. As for the show itself, Albaugh says it should be more entertaining for audiences than other, perhaps tired kid-focused fare, and further explains that the work has helped the young cast grow as actors. "Seeing younger kids up there doing really funny material—I'd imagine this show is usually done by teens or adults," he tells SFR, "but these kids are doing it well, and it's very funny … like SNL sketches." (Alex De Vore)
7 pm Friday Nov. 10;
2 pm Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 11 and 12.
$8; $5 if you dress as a superhero.
Santa Fe Performing Arts,
1050 Old Pecos Trail,
982-7992
We Kid Because We Love
Alex De Vore
You know that guy Andy Primm? He sings for cover bands Chango and Love Gun and Moby Dick; he's worked on the annual Fiesta Melodrama at the Santa Fe Playhouse for the past several years. Yeah, that guy—well, everybody's gonna stick it to him at this-here roast, a benefit for the Playhouse. Special roasters include former SFR editor Julia Goldberg, current SFR culture editor Alex De Vore, mayoral candidates Alan Webber and Kate Noble and more. Pianist David Geist provides the soundtrack to the onslaught of burns, and everyone else basks in the warm glow of their ferocious awesomeness while helping out an iconic local theater—don't forget, it's all about helping. (ADV)
The Man of the Hour: A Celebrity Roast of Andy Primm:
5-7 pm Wednesday Nov. 8. $50-$250.
El Mesón,
213 Washington Ave.,
983-6756.
Cons and Cons
Courtesy IAIA
With the second annual Indigenous Comic Con hitting Albuquerque this weekend (that's Nov. 10-12), there's no time like the present to brush up your comics skills under the watchful eye of successful Indigenous comic artists. The Museum of Contemporary Native Arts knows this and has thus curated a full day of workshops with Hero Twins illustrator Dale Deforest and Eisner Award nominee Richard Van Camp. Both artists provide tips on how to write and draw, and the ticket price also comes with a pass to the following day's convention. (ADV)
Listen, Play, Learn! Indigenous Comic Con Master Workshops:
9:30 am-3 pm Thursday Nov. 9. $100.
Museum of Contemporary Native Arts,
108 Cathedral Place, 983-8900;
Love Your Truth
Civilized humans know that heterosexuality is not the only way to love. Despite wider acceptance, however, some gay folks whose sexuality evolves or is fluid face the ire of purists who think gay people should be nothing but gay at all times. Enter local writer and editor Candace Walsh, whose 2010 anthology of essays, Dear John, I Love Jane, featured stories from women who left men for love of other women. Now, Janeland (co-edited with Barbara Straus Lodge) has even more LGBTQIF+ women baring their souls, and Walsh, along with contributing writers Pat Crow and Emily Withnall, read from their stories—then open up the floor for discussion. (Charlotte Jusinski)
Greetings from Janeland: Women Write More About Leaving Men for Women:
6:30 pm Tuesday Nov. 14. Free.
Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse,
202 Galisteo St.,
988-4226
