Footlights in the Foothills

The footlights dim, the stage goes dark, but only for a few months. Revisions and additions to the book are coming to an end, but hopefully, Sunstone Press will be able to publish it in 2010, the year of Las Vegas, New Mexico's 175th anniversary. Although Footlights in the Foothills, my story of the amateur performers, their plays and venues does not begin in 1835, it does recall amateur troupes in Las Vegas as early as 1871. I complete these revisions with mixed feelings. . . anxious to see the book in print, but sad to leave the 19th century and the grand people I met there like Mariano Monclova, Hattie Knickerbocker, the Baca Family, Alexander Randolph, Miguel Otero, Jr., and the Rothgeb girls, to mention a few.

But an exciting adventure awaits, and by August 11, the footlights will glow again when we--Deborah Blanche, Tim Crofton, a cast of talented young people, and I--take the story to the stage at the Plaza Hotel's Ilfeld Ballroom. With dramatic, and comic, readings from period plays as well as variety acts, we will recreate a typical early 19th century amateur production.

Hope to see you there.