Night Over Taos Selected as a NM Centennial Project

A unique collaborative project, "Night Over Taos: A Theatrical and Historical Journey from the Taos Revolt to Statehood" has just been selected by the NM Centennial Steering Committee as an Official Centennial Project. It has been designed collaboratively by four of New Mexico's most respected cultural organizations -- Teatro Nuevo México, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Camino Real Productions, LLC, and KUNM, the public radio station in Central and Northern New Mexico.

It includes a performance/reading of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Maxwell Anderson's 1932 play Night Over Taos, directed by Shepard Sobel. The play is set in Taos in 1847 and deals with a key event in New Mexico history. After the performance, a panel of distinguished New Mexico historians -- Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez, formerly the NM State Historian; Dr. Laura Gómez, author of Manifest Destinies, that deals with the Territorial Period; and Dr. Brian Herrera, UNM theatre historian -- will address questions raised by the play, its historical implications, and New Mexico's journey from defeat in the Battle for Taos in 1847 to statehood fifty-five years later.

Linda López McAlister, the project director, says that "the aim of the project is to educate New Mexicans about a pivotal moment in New Mexico history that put us on the path to Statehood. And we thought that using a beautiful and compelling dramatic work by a distinguished playwright as the vehicle is an excellent way to impart that history in a meaningful and memorable way."

The play and panel will be presented and recorded before a live audience at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. KUNM the community/public radio station for Central and Northern New Mexico has scheduled a special Centennial Broadcast of play and panel during Centennial Week on Sunday, January 8, 2012.

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