Magdalena's London Frontier Theatre presents Down & Out Diary
Latest drama will be multi-media presentation with video-clips and live musical performances
Magdalena - London Frontier Theatre Co.'s newest play, Down & Out Diary, is a vivid larger-than-life tale of the Pioneer West: gritty and lyrical, romantic and farcical, with equal parts of tragedy and absurdity, hope, fury, and folly. Written and directed by the indefatigable Donna Todd, the play runs through OldTimers' Weekend (Fri., July 6 - Sun., July 8) repeats on Saturday, July 15 and Sunday, July 16.
Interwoven with history are the lives Elsie and Wayne Rector, homesteaders from Missouri; Babybird, the Rector's long-lost daughter; Delilah Smith, schoolmarm and sometimes-friend; Henry, whose glass-plate photos reflect all but his own image; and the mysterious and charismatic Medicine Man, traveling snake-oil salesman and seducer of dreams.
From the banquet honoring "our brave pioneers, the stalwart few who settled...", through the agonies and entanglements of a tempestuous marriage, the struggle for day-to-day survival, and the anti-climatic No-Show Massacre, these heroic misadventures echo down the past to our own lives.
In the words of Down & Out Diary's theme song: "Come all you pioneers, come listen to me, There is land and there's gold, and all of it's free. But remember the sun rises up behind you, And morning's long shadows surely will find you. In the far land of freedom, of love and desire, You'll be tried like ore in a hot-burning fire."
Diary is a new venture for London Frontier, a multi-media presentation combining stage performance, video, & music (both original and old-time tunes) to create a 100-year saga of settlement and survival with immediacy and gusto. It's the underside of history, a wild journey through the Old West as it was really lived.
Performers include Diane Allen, Lilly Jones, Wayne David Ryan, Donna Todd, and Donald Wiltshire. (Musicians to be announced.) Donald Wiltshire is Lighting/Set Designer; Videographer is Michael Mideke; script is by Donna Todd with Holly Modine and Michael Mideke, with Mideke directing video shooting, Todd directing stage production. Holly Krabbe-Modine is co-director in both areas.
London Frontier, now in its twelfth season in New Mexico, has its own home, the WPA Theatre. LFTC purchased this historic building (built by the CCC - Civilian Conservation Corps - in 1936) in 2006, and celebrated with an It's Ours!/Cinco de Mayo gala on May 5th of this year. The gala was such a success , thanks to all who attended, and to those who helped - Bennie Zamora, Margaret & Donald Wiltshire, Hallie Dubrovolny, Richard Torres, Janice Brunacine, Gilbert Torres, Denise & Terry Eilers, the press, and all our "Friends of the Theatre", and musicians Jimmy Latasa, Brian Baca, and Jerry Kirwin - that we hope it will become an annual event.
But for this summer - Old Timers weekend and the weekend after - join us for Down & Out Diary: Fri., July 6/Sat., July 7, at 7:00 pm, Sun., July 8 - 2:00 pm; and again, Sat., July 14 - 7:00 pm; Sun., July 15 - 2:00 pm, in Magdalena's WPA Theatre, Main at 4th. Adults: $3.50, Children: $2.00. Reservations/info: (505) 854-2519; londonfrontier@gilanet.com, or www.londonfrontiertheatre.com
Major funding for this project is by the Kerr Foundation, the McCune Charitable Foundation, Socorro Electric Cooperative, and LFTC's "Friends of the Theatre."
Theatre Co. presents Diary for OldTimers
But for this summer - Old Timers weekend and the weekend after - join us for Down & Out Diary: Fri., July 6/Sat., July 7, at 7:00 pm, Sun., July 8 - 2:00 pm; and again, Sat., July 14 - 7:00 pm; Sun., July 15 - 2:00 pm, in Magdalena's WPA Theatre, Main at 4th. Adults: $3.50, Children: $2.00. Reservations/info: (505) 854-2519; 
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