Teatro Paraguas' SWRTP Launches 2013 Tour with DEADWOOD DUET and LOVE'S LONELY HIGHWAY, June-July 2013

Teatro Paraguas' Southwest Rural Theatre Project launches its 2013 tour with two world premieres at Santa Fe's Teatro Paraguas: Deadwood Duet and Love's Lonely Highway.

Deadwood Duet, two one-act plays by Brad Gromelski, will run today, 6/28 & Saturday 6/29 at 8pm; Sunday 6/30 at 2pm at the Teatro Paraguas Studio, 3205 Calle Marie. Tickets: $12 general admission, $10 seniors an students, $8 children under 12. For information and reservations, call 424-1601 or visit www.teatroparaguas.org.

Deadwood Duet is a set of historical (and sometimes hysterical) one-acts spotlighting the infamous Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane at different times in their lives:

Wild Bill Meets the Writers: Novelists, magazine writers and journalists converge on Deadwood upon hearing that Wild Bill Hickok is in town, hoping to prod him with questions and perpetuate his legend. Wild Bill consents to an interview with them collectively, and announces that he has retired from being a peace officer. He plans to win a fortune at the poker tables so that he can soon return to his new wife and begin a new life. He is unaware that he will be assassinated later in the afternoon. Performed by James Martel; Directed by Leslie Joy Coleman.

Calamity Jane Talks to Tourists: Calamity Jane visits the grave of Wild Bill Hickok on the 25th Anniversary of his death. The cemetery is crowded with tourists. She tells them stories of his life and spins her own fiction, as well. It is a story of love, of Jane for Wild Bill and of Jane for herself. Performed by Leslie Joy Coleman; Directed by James Martel.

Playwright Brad Gromelski has won several awards as a director for stage and video. His publishers include Samuel French, Inc, and Brooklyn Publishers. He has worked as a set and lighting designer, off-Broadway producer, theatre reviewer for print and radio, and actor/singer. He received his B.A. from Clark University, his M.A. in Directing from the professional School of Drama at the University of Washington, and did doctoral studies in the Ph.D. Program in Theatre at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, Manhattan. An Associate Professor Emeritus, he is a faculty member at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, in Theatre Arts. He has finished two novels and is working on a third, for a series of three mixed genre mysteries.

Love's Lonely Highway, by New Mexico playwright Patricia Crespin, will play Friday 7/5 & Saturday 7/6 at 8pm; Sunday 7/7 at 2pm at Teatro Paraguas Studio, 3205 Calle Marie. Tickets: $12 general admission, $10 seniors an students, $8 children under 12. For information and reservations, call 424-1601 or go to: www.teatroparaguas.org.

Love's Lonely Highway, written by acclaimed Latina Playwright Patricia Crespin and directed by Maggz Gallegos

Do you believe in love at first sight? Well, Benito Gutierrez did, ever since he met the alluring but enigmatic Suzie on a lonely New Mexico highway while on his way to basic training. She was everything Benito was looking for in a woman. Polite, yet strong. Respectable, yet passionate. He swears to return and marry her after his training, but when he returns three months later, he finds Suzie's mother and discovers that Suzie died years before he ever saw her. After seven long years in Vietnam, Benito finds himself back at the lonely highway where he meets Malakai, another victim of the Vietnam war, and a raging alcoholic but an intelligent man with a knack for poetry and philosophy. Benito also manages to befriend Suzie's alcoholic mother, Viola, who has never recovered from losing her daughter. The three of them embark on a journey together, each one helping the other heal from their own private wounds and accept the harshness of life's cruel game of poker, while discovering that love, equally agonizing, appears in the most peculiar places.

Cast: Benito: Robert Lee; Suzie: Tabatha Bennett; Viola: Lisa Fenstermacher; Malakai: Don Garcia.

Playwright Patricia Crespín is a writer, actor, director, and producer, and a native of New Mexico. She has a B.A. in Vocal Performance from NMHU and a M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from UNM. She has written several plays, including: We are Hispanic-American Women...Okay?, El Corrido de Jórge (George's Song), Living Purgatory, American Dreams, Confessions of a Hispanic American Woman, The Hero Withinand two award winners, The Medea Complex and The Three Señorita Pigletitas y el Diablo the Wolf.