Event

Lola's Last Dance and Astonishing Light

Teatro Paraguas will present the one-act play Lolas Last Dance, by the late Ernesto Antonio Tony Mares of Albuquerque, along with a staged reading of his long epic poem Astonishing Light Conversations I Never Had with Patrociño Barela.

Inspired by several retired prostitutes whom Mares knew who lived in Old Town during his youth in the 1940s, Lolas Last Dance was commissioned by La Companía de Teatro de Albuquerque and premiered in 1979. Lola, a retired prostitute in Albuquerques Old Town, has always lived life to the fullest. "I always needed to be free," she says, "free to walk out into the sun. Free to dance whenever I wanted and with whomever I wanted." Her dreams are now filled with many lively ghosts whom she recognizes from her glorious past, such as the Banker, the Senator, and the Rag-and-Bone Man. But there is one veiled figure whom she does not recognize

Astonishing Light is a series of imaginary conversations between Tony Mares and
Patrociño Barela, New Mexicos famous self-taught woodcarver whose masterpieces attracted national attention in the 1940s and 50s. Tony and Pat discuss life, love, artistic creation, and Pablo Nerudas pink pigs of dawn in this lyrical and epic tribute.