Release from Cibola by Andres C. Salazar

Author:Andres C. Salazar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: New Mexico, History, Fiction
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Published: 2014-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

Dear Chris,

We have completed all the performances for Los Pastores that had been scheduled but Mr. Levine told us tonight that we have been invited for a command performance in Santa Fe. This is by invitation from the Drama Department at St. Michael’s College. They have invited us to perform on their main stage on Tuesday, December 18. They will invite the college students that live in town because the out-of-town students will have left by then. Christmas recess starts tomorrow. They will publish an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper about the history of the play and the famous author, Antonio Machado, will do a Christmas themed reading of his works before our performance. Mr. Levine told us that their theater sits 500 people and that they expect about 200 or more attendees. No admission will be charged but they expect about $200 in donations and the college will turn over the amount to Mr. Levine to offset travel and other expenses. Mr. Levine said that he would treat us to a dinner at the La Fonda Hotel before the performance which is scheduled for seven o’clock in the evening. Most of us were excited to hear the news and we sang most of the way home. What was strange was that Cindy’s parents showed up in Abiquiu and took her home after the performance.

The Abiquiu show was nothing short of sensational. The priest at the church, Padre José Sandoval, had a beautiful nativity scene that was life size with realistic renderings of donkeys and sheep and goats. They were made out of papier mâché and had been donated to the church by artists that live in town. He had a wooden manger as well, filled with straw and a life sized baby Jesus. So we used his nativity scene figures instead of our cardboard ones. He also had St. Joseph and Mary and wise men figures as well but they were made out of wooden planks that had been painted by artists in town. We performed inside the church which was a lot bigger than the ones in Chimayó and Las Trampas. There was plenty of stage area in the transept. The church is old and made out of adobe but it is has a wooden floor that had nice woven rugs near the altar.

Padre Sandoval is an expert in New Mexican history and he persuaded Mr. Levine to start the play outside the church and have us precede members of the congregation. That kind of start to the play has historical significance. Well, it was cold out there while we were waiting to go in. We only had our costumes on with no jackets. I guess it never got cold in Bethlehem because herding sheep in those outfits in the winter would have been tough. St. Joseph’s cold got worse so Bert had to drop out and Mr. Levine got Angus O’Hara to step in. He did well and the show went on. We don’t have understudies, you know, so we have to grab whoever is available.

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