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In the Spring of 2021, three actors and two theater professionals put their heads together and formed a theater company, with the desire to present cutting edge theater with a mix of lesser-known and newer plays. Their shared passion was presenting stories that felt socially relevant to the headlines, past and present. The result was Albuquerque’s newest professional theater, Actors Studio 66 (AS66).
Recent shows at AS66 include Keely & Du (which opened on June 24, the same day Roe vs. Wade was overturned); Life Sucks., a true testimony to living through the traumas of daily life; and a staged reading of Fulfillment Center, where warehouse workers look for “fulfillment” while simultaneously struggling to keep their jobs. Additionally, the company put up SHOUT!, a compilation of true stories from the LGBTQ+ Military veteran’s community.
AS66 will open its ’22/’23 season on October 7 with Bill Rogers’s dark comedy, Caldwell’s Bomb. Rogers and the play’s director, Herman Johansen, first worked together in Kansas City, MO and have a long history of collaboration.
In the playwright’s original notes: “History teaches us that times of economic hardship and rapid social change often breed violence…and society ignores or minimizes the threat posed by such groups at its peril.” The Southern Poverty Law Center is one organization that tracks “anti-government organizations” and as of 2021 there were 488 such groups in the USA: currently, Missouri (where the play is set), is home to 13 active groups. The good news is that the raw number of groups has decreased over the last several years; the bad news is that many have grown bolder and no longer operate in the shadows.
According to Johansen, “Rogers didn’t choose the easy route when writing Caldwell’s Bomb, boldly opting for a dark comedy that illuminates the human side of ‘hate.’ When people feel everything has been taken from them and there’s no hope left to go around, they might become pawns for those who use hate as a weapon for their own purposes.”
Caldwell’s Bomb opens on Friday Oct. 7 (after a preview performance on Oct. 6) and runs through Oct. 23. Shows run Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm with Sunday matinees at 2pm. Making the play accessible to all in the community, there will be a ‘Pay What you Will’ performance on Thursday Oct. 13. All shows are presented in the Black Cat Theatre space at 3011-13 Monte Vista Blvd. NE, Albuquerque. Seating is general admission and tickets are $20. If available, tickets may be purchased at the door, but patrons are encouraged to reserve them in advance at: www.actorsstudio66.org/ticketing
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