"LIGHT THE LIGHTS!"

Cloggers and sopranos, contortionists, Indian Club Swingers, ticket-of-leave men and ladies of the night, shepherds, saints, and devils—these are a few of the characters portrayed in the early amateur theatrical productions of Las Vegas, New Mexico, and nearby Fort Union. Between 1871 and 1899, this area hosted no fewer than eleven amateur acting troupes, an opera company, and an oratorio society. These home grown thespians performed both secular and non-secular plays in Spanish and English as well as musicals, variety acts, passion plays, and light operas. They played in courthouses, private salas, grand opera houses, and performance halls that were occasionally stocked with hay and grain. The amateur troupers strutted their stuff before farmers, outlaws, hooligans, soldiers, and the local aristocracy.

Between 1883 and 1886, the enlisted men of Fort Union formed several amateur companies and performed at the garrison. One group took its show on the road and played to Las Vegas audiences. During this brief period, fierce loyalties arose and a vicious rivalry played out in the pages of the Las Vegas newspapers. Entertainment of all sorts was an integral part of the booming western frontier. Although professional traveling troupes came by wagon and train, the homegrown companies—made up of butchers, seamstresses, homemakers, business leaders, and politicians—always drew large audiences. Footlights in the Foothills provides an overview of these amateur theatrical companies—the players, the plays, and the venues—in addition to stories of the social ties formed by the people who offered their talents and bared their egos to the audiences of "one of the hottest towns in the country."

Available at www.sunstonepress.com and

Tome on the Range

158 Bridge Street

Las Vegas, NM 87701

(505) 454-9944

www.tomeontherange.com

 

"Git Fer Vegas, Cowboy!"

Albuquerque Herald Full Page Advertisement, February 29, 1916

City of Las Vegas Museum Exhibit, 2009-2011

Photograph by Eric Maldonado

UCLA Extension Writers' Studio Plus

The Studio experience was everything UCLA Extension promised--and more. I enjoyed four intense, full days of total attention to writing, writers, and progress on my novel, Prairie Madness, Conspiracy at Fort Union, New Mexico. The workshop leader, Lisa Cron, really knows her stuff and gets her points across. She provides an excellent and very helpful site: http://www.wiredforstory.com/. And all of us writers were sincerely helpful and interested in each others diverse projects. The UCLA staff was excellent.



After the Studio, I returned with a volume of ideas on structuring the novel's narrative. But, luckily, I received some other writing opportunities. There's always something happening at the City of Las Vegas Museum, and it usually involves writing.



In April, I submitted "Harriet Knickerbocker, The Belle of Las Vegas," a brief (but intensely researched) biographical sketch. Hopefully, it will be published in a new photo-history of Las Vegas, New Mexico.



On May 6th, I presented a talk with slide images--"Cowboy Commerce: The Las Vegas, NM, Cowboys' Reunions"--at the annual conference of the Historical Society of New Mexico. The presentation was based on the Museum exhibit I had curated in October of 2009.



Now, I'm rearranging my files and settin up to get crackin' on Prairie Madness.

Ready for Los Angeles

Still waiting for galleys, but they should arrive soon. Here's the poster from last summer's dinner theatre production based on the forthcoming book. It was a great night!

Thanks to the actors--Deborah Blanche, Tim Crofton (also director), Lisa Cisneros, Joe Cooney, and Mike Trujillo; musicians--Jane Voss and Hoyle Osborne; photographer Birdie Jaworski; graphic design by Melissa Green.

Now, weather permitting, I'm taking off for Los Angeles and "Inside Story: Creating Powerful Narrative" with Lisa Cron.

Life Beyond the Final Draft

Well, Footlights has been at the publisher's since early summer. No galleys yet. Although I've had lots of opportunities for marketing/publicizing, I have no book and little hope of publication this year. So I am starting a new project--well an old one really.

Luiza is a character that has been following me around from Boston to Long Beach (CA) to New Mexico. Her file, working title--Pernicious Academia--grows regularly. Her character ages and develops--as we non-characters do--through pain and joy and all that happens in between. I'm enrolled in an online workshop with the UCLA Extension Writers' Program specifically to tighten up Luiza's stories and fit them into a collection. So far, the critiques have been helpful; the online experience less than dynamic.

I've also revised Prairie Madness and will be submitting it to my publisher soon.

The real world--the one in which friends and family die; a dog disappears; and tough decisions must be made--seeps into my writing world. I continue to read.

It's Here!

On August 11, 2010, in Las Vegas, NM, Edwina Irving masquerades as historical non-fiction author Edwina Portelle Romero.







Be there when melo-drama and mayhem take the stage at the Historic Plaza Hotel's Ilfeld Ballroom--excerpts from The Comedy of Adam and Eve, ca. 1870; The Ticket-of-Leave Man, 1863; and "Who Killed Sean Flannery," from Prairie Madness, forthcoming [I HOPE].

A celebration of history and amateur theatre.

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.