Teatro Paraguas Presents 6th Annual Day Of The Dead Community Celebration

Teatro Paraguas presents the 6th Annual El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) community celebration with an exciting line-up of live music, staged cuentos (folk-tales), a medley of songs, local dancers, poetry, and a short original comedy.

The Aztec Dancers will open the ceremony; Two cuentos will be performed, the first directed by JoJo Sena de Tarnoff, entitled "Wait a Minute" (bilingual) by Yuyi Morales, adapted by Paola Martini, featuring the kids of TP's children's program; and the second, "Dona Sebastiana," featuring all ages, and directed by Argos MacCallum. Armando Hernandez has written a short skit to be performed by TP's Young Adult Ensemble.

Israel Haros Lopez's poetry & paintings will be featured at the celebration, and Carla Trinidad will offer calavera face painting to all ages. The Teatro Paraguas Orchestra will perform a medley of songs, accompanied by young dancers choreographed by Xochitl Ehrl.

An altar to honor los antepasados, those who came before, will be set up in TP's Second Space, and the public is invited to add mementos and photographs to honor their own relatives.

At 5:00 pm, after the "kid friendly" celebration, Teatro Paraguas will present a staged reading of Volver Volver Volver, a play by New Mexico playwright Leonard Madrid. A young man who led a fast and reckless life is called back from the dead by an unknown bruja in Portales, and finds the inner peace which eluded him in life.

Originally from Portales, Leonard Madrid is a playwright, director and actor who has studied theatre at Eastern new Mexico University and dramatic writing at UNM. He taught theatre at Central New Mexico Community College and in the Albuquerque Public Schools. He is a member of Blackout Theatre in Albuquerque.

The reading is part of Teatro Paraguas' 6th annual El Día de los Muertos community celebration, and admission is by free will donation at the door; your donation goes to keep the theatre doors open, and all donations are gratefully accepted!