Teatro Paraguas Presents COYOTE ACID, A Play By John Macker

Teatro Paraguas will present Coyote Acid, a one-act play by Santa Fe-based poet John Macker. Rounding out the evening is a reading by actors of Out of The Light: Poems from Prison, a collection of poems chosen by John Macker by renowned poets from around the world written from or about prison.

Coyote Acid, directed by Argos MacCallum, takes place on a bleak homestead somewhere in southeastern New Mexico. Luke (Peter Chapman) is fresh out of jail, and has come home to ask his mother Esther (Jennifer Graves) where the bank robbery money is buried. She is the only one who might know, since younger brother Timmy and Pa both died in prison. But Ma is a little vague on the issue, and might even be suffering from dementia. What begins as a contest of wills transforms into an acceptance and reconciliation rooted in the deep wells of familial love.

Out of The Light: Poems from Prison is a collection of poems written about or from prison by 10 poets from different countries and centuries, ranging from Francois Villon (15th cent. France) to lhan Sami Çomak, a Kurdish poet arrested in Turkey in 1994 while studying geography and jailed since then on charges of separatism. The anthology includes poems by Charlotte Smith (England), Miguel Hernandez (Spain), Cesar Vallejo (Chile), Bobby Sands (Ireland), as well as Americans Bob Kaufman, Gregory Corso, and Stuart K Perkoff. The anthology will be read by a number of actors and poets, including Mairi Chanel, John Macker, Dan Bohnhorst, and Jonathan Harrell.

Performances are January 21-23, 2022, beginning on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission, and $10 for students and limited income. Advance tickets are available at teatroparaguasnm.org, or reservations may be made by calling 505-424-1601.

This project is partially funded by NM Arts/NM Dept. of Culture, and the Santa Fe Community Foundation.