TEATRO PARAGUAS News:
Alix Hudson has been a dynamic force in the Santa Fe theatre scene for the last eight years as a playwright, director, actor and technician.
Although most of her work has benefitted Teatro Paraguas where she is a Board member, Hudson has worked with many Santa Fe companies, including NM Actors Lab and Ironweed Productions.
Hudson will soon be moving to Grand Rapids, Mich., with her partner Sharla Stearn. To honor her huge contribution to Teatro Paraguas and Santa Fe theatre, videos of her critically-acclaimed plays produced at Teatro Paraguas – Our Lady of Mariposas, Revolution, Atravesada and Hummingbird, will be screened in a mini-festival July 23-25.
Video screenings of plays produced by Hudson at Teatro Paraguas include:
- Our Lady Of Mariposas — 7 p.m., Friday, July 23;
- Revolution — 4 p.m., Saturday, July 24;
- Atravesada — 4 p.m. Sunday, July 25; and
- Hummingbird — 7 p.m. Sunday, July 25.
Tickets are free, and donations are gratefully accepted. Reservations for the four screenings may be made by calling 505.424.1601. Seating is limited. More information is available at teatroparaguasnm.org
Our Lady of Mariposas (2015): This takes place in Southeastern New Mexico between February and May of 2002. Manuel is a working dad, single after his wife, Estrella, left him four months before the action begins. At the opening of the play, we learn of the massive die-off of monarch butterflies that took place in February 2002.
Anza, Manuel’s daughter, loves the monarchs and so Manuel must explain why they may not migrate through again – a conversation further complicated by Estrella’s absence. Kate, their next-door neighbor and close friend, helps immeasurably. She uses her own family’s experience of uranium mining in Grants to try to describe the difference between active hope and fruitless waiting. Esperanza – the character of Anza grown up and surveying the scene as a memory play – comments on her feelings and her perspective at the time.
Meanwhile, Kate and Manuel grow closer through comfort and turmoil. The themes of family, home, and self become inextricably bound with Anza’s experience of the earth as she waits / hopes for the monarchs to return. Directed by Argos MacCallum.
Revolution (2016): In his golden years, transman Fernando Reyes reflects back on his own life in Revolution; the play takes place between the years of 1910 and 1962 and moves through many locations throughout Central and Southern Mexico. When he was a young girl, he meets wealthy and unapologetic transwoman Alejandra – whose strength and insight change his life. As a Zapatista revolutionary, he literally and figuratively battles the homogenization of the hacienda structure. The sameness of the hacienda is juxtaposed with the verdant polyculture of the forest and his beloved, Ana Maria. The Revolution becomes the freeing space for Reyes to realize his transition. Directed by Malcolm Morgan.
Atravesada: Poetry of the Border (2018) explores the physical and political U.S.-Mexico border as well as the Borderlands of the Self. Woven with corridos and other music of the frontera Atravesada has plenty of humor – but also offers an unflinching portrait of the border as “una herida abierta” (an open wound). In addition to music, Atravesada weaves together the poetry and prose of more than a dozen poets, including the most famous of the genre: Gloria Anzaldúa, Cordelia Candelaria, Lorna Dee Cervantes, and Demetria Martinez. Directed by Alix Hudson.
Hummingbird (2020): This takes place in an unspecified developed country. Nadia and Miriam are best friends and seniors in high school; Sam is Nadia’s big brother and works at a local factory. After Nadia and Sam’s parents are deported for being undocumented immigrants, however, Nadia falls into a coma-like state – the so-called “Apathy Syndrome” that’s plaguing the children of refugees. Trying to simultaneously use Nadia’s sickness as grounds for their parents’ reentry while debating her motives, Sam and Miriam navigate their changed lives and relationships with Nadia. Memories, as well as Nadia’s dream-like monologues about hummingbirds, are woven throughout. Directed by Malcom Morgan.
