Talkin’ Broadway

These Shining Lives

The Adobe Theater

Review By Anna Smith

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

The Adobe Theater is presenting These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich and directed by Daniel Anaya. This is the first of Marnich’s shows I have seen, but she is tackling a topic that personally touches the hearts of many I know.

The play is about four women (and one in particular), the lives they lead, and the stand they take. These Radium Girls illustrate the greediness of big businesses and the loss of lives over time. Director Anaya tackles this brilliantly with appropriate pacing. Some uncomfortable gaps between lines and scenes can be attributed to opening night nerves which I am sure will be ironed out as the cast gets more time on the stage.

These young women, working with radium dust to paint the faces of watches over the course of many years (and millions of watches) contracted radium poisoning. Lauded as a substance of the future and as totally safe by doctors, radium was in everything from cosmetics to watches to medicine. This exposure resulted in ailments such as loss of teeth, consistent and open wounds, jaw deterioration, necrosis of limbs, ulcers, and more. The main theft from these women is time–from their loved ones.

Albuquerque Journal

‘These Shining Lives’ brings radium girls’ story to light

The Adobe Theater

Review By Elizabeth Secor

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

“If one woman were to tell the truth about her life, the world would split open.”

This quote not only starts “These Shining Lives,” but defines the play, show director Daniel Anaya said. Often, women are taught to say nothing and suck it up, he said.

“These Shining Lives,” written by Melanie Marnich, follows four women who worked at the Radium Dial Company and the hazards they were exposed to while working with radium. The main character, Catherine Donohue, fights the corporation and wins her suit.

Albuquerque Journal

 Of Mice and Men

The Adobe Theater

Review By Elizabeth Secor

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” is coming to The Adobe Theater, opening Friday, April 10, and running through Sunday, May 3.

The story takes place during the Great Depression and follows two migrant farm workers, George and Lennie. As they move from farm to farm, they face issues of discrimination, racism and poverty, show director Nancy Sellin, said.

“This play is, in many ways, very typical of the time, and also it speaks to a lot of the issues we still experience here,” Sellin said.

Albuquerque Journal

Love at any age: ‘Social Security’ a comedic take on finding romance when you least expect it

The Adobe Theater

Review By Elizabeth Secor

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

You are never too old to fall in love.

That is the sentiment behind “Social Security,” according to show director Lewis Hauser.

“Social Security” follows two sisters as they navigate their elderly mother falling in love with a 98-year-old artist. The play will run at The Adobe Theater, opening Friday, Feb. 27, and running through March 22.

Hauser has directed the play twice in Los Angeles but says each time is different, and he is never bored with the story.

“I always start over if I’m directing a show that I’ve directed before …,” Hauser said. “Because it’s a different cast, it’s a different atmosphere.”

He was approached by Adobe to direct a comedy, and “Social Security” was the first one he thought of, Hauser said.

Talkin’ Broadway

 ‘anthropology’

The Adobe Theater

Review By Dean Yannias

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

Lauren Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in the United States in recent years, and yet so many people have never heard of her because she doesn’t seem to aim for Broadway or for movie adaptations. She is prolific and remarkably eclectic, and has written plays about an important but forgotten woman astronomer, about the Globe Theatre colleagues who assembled Shakespeare’s plays after his death, about Marie Curie, about four women awaiting execution during the French Revolution, and on and on. Her plays are done a lot in regional theaters, and several of them have already been staged in Albuquerque.

In 2023, Gunderson took on the subject of artificial intelligence in a play called anthropology. (That’s not a typo. She doesn’t capitalize it on purpose, and I’m not sure exactly why.)

Albuquerque Journal

Ghost in the machine: ‘Anthropology’ at Adobe Theater explores grief in the age of AI

The Adobe Theater

By Logan Royce Beitmen Journal staff writer

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

The star of “Anthropology,” by award-winning playwright Lauren Gunderson, is a griefbot — a talking digital avatar of computer programmer Merril’s younger sister, Angie, who is missing and presumed dead. Although Merril initially creates the AI-powered version of her sister as a coping mechanism, things take a turn when the bot reveals clues about the real Angie’s disappearance, previously overlooked by police investigators. 

The play opens Friday, Jan. 16, at The Adobe Theater and runs through Feb. 1.

“I’ve worked on several of (Gunderson’s) plays and really love her writing,” Pete Parkin, director, said…

Albuquerque Journal

A WILDE TIME: Comedy of manners ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ comes to Adobe Theater

The Adobe Theater

By Logan Royce Beitmen Journal staff writer

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is one of the three most perfect plays ever written,” according to Mario Cabrera, who is directing the Victorian classic for Adobe Theater this month. It runs from Friday, Dec. 5, through Sunday, Dec. 21.

Cabrera’s other two “perfect plays” are Noël Coward’s “Private Lives” and William Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.” All three comedies, he said, share a concision and directness that makes them easy to follow.

Regional Reviews: Albuquerque/Santa Fe

Spider Web

The Adobe Theater

Review by Carole C. Sullivan

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

Agatha Christie books, plays, and movies are still extremely popular today, well into the 21st century. Spider’s Web premiered in London in 1954 and is a conscious parody of the detective thriller. Agatha Christie wrote the play at the request of film actress Margaret Lockwood who wanted a comedic thriller to perform in the West End of London. Clarissa Hailsham-Brown is the lead character in a play crowded with all the stock roles and plot devices typical of Miss Christie’s work.

The Adobe Theater does murder mysteries well. Their small space accommodates a drawing-room set in an English country house. Their new lighting system is working well to illuminate all the action. The costumes are all appropriate for the setting and the characters. A well-mounted show is what we have come to expect at The Adobe.

Regional Reviews: Albuquerque/Santa Fe

Bus Stop

The Adobe Theater

Review by Carole C. Sullivan

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

William Inge, the author of Bus Stop, is sometimes referred to as the playwright of the Midwest. A native Kansan, he was born in Independence, Kansas and educated at the University of Kansas and George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. His first successful play was Come Back, Little Sheba in 1950, followed by Picnic in 1953 which won the Pulitzer Prize. Bus Stop premiered in 1955 and was nominated for several awards. These three plays were made into successful movies, launching Inge’s very prosperous and lucrative career as a writer of plays, screenplays, (he won an Academy Award in 1961 for Splendor in the Grass), television scripts, and novels. William Inge took his own life while living in Hollywood in 1973. He was sixty years old.

Like Tennessee Williams, Inge took his inspiration from memories of the people he knew growing up. Inge was inspired by the teachers in a small Kansas town and the working people. Bus Stop is a romantic drama set in a diner outside of Kansas City where travelers and local townfolk are stranded by a snowstorm blocking the road. Bus Stop is generally considered the less original play because of the somewhat “stock” characters, and the time-worn situation throwing them together is also an often-used cliché plot.

Albuquerque Journal

The Adobe Theater brings Tennessee Williams’ ‘Small Craft Warnings’ to stage

The Adobe Theater

Review by Elizabeth Secor

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

“Life.”

The play will be brought to The Adobe Theater stage from Friday, Aug. 1, through Sunday, Aug. 17.

“Small Craft Warnings” is a play about “love, but it is mostly a play about loneliness, fear of abandonment, and despite everything, fear of getting attached,” according to the theater.

“It’s about people trying to get by and trying to survive,” Pete Parkin, show director, said. “And all these people are just really living on the edge.”

“Small Craft Warnings” was written by Tennessee Williams, and according to Philip J. Shortell, who plays Doc, is less popular but still needs to be shown.

“I think this theater has an obligation … to produce lesser-known works and original works from local people,” Shortell said. “And this is one of those things where I think it’s part of our duty to trot this particular piece out.”

The play contains foul language and homophobic scenes.

Prime Time Monthly – July 2025

The Adobe Theater Presents “A Year in Quirky Town” 

The Adobe Theater

Story on Page 11

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

The Adobe Theather invites you to a delightful new comedy A Year in Quirky Town, written by local playwrite, Terri Klein and directed by Cameron Illidge-Welch.

With only 5 performances–July 5, 6, 11,12, and 13–this special fundraiser offers a hilarious, heartfelt tribute to life in Albuquerque, filled with song, story, and a touch of Southwest magic.

Through clever dialogue and original songs, A Year in Quirky Town takes audiences on a whimsical tour of Albuquerque across the seasons. The story follows Willow Shaker-Spears, who’s Hollywood dreams fall flat. On her way home to Kansas her car breaks down in Albuquerque–and that’s where her real adventure begins.

Please turn to page 11 in the flipbook to read the article.

Talkin’ Broadway

 Social Security

The Adobe Theater

Review By Carole C. Sullivan

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

When one thinks of contemporary American playwrights, the name Andrew Bergman does not immediately spring to mind. Yet his body of work includes movies, plays, musicals, books, and some very impressive collaborations. (He co-wrote Blazing Saddles with Mel Brooks.) He seems to have his finger on the social issues and comedic absurdities of contemporary life. Social Security premiered on Broadway in 1986, directed by Mike Nichols, and has had numerous regional productions.

The Adobe Theater seems to find these semi-famous authors whose plays are perfect for their older baby boomer audience, including yours truly. This is a play about learning to keep living as one grows older and embracing love at every age. The message is uplifting and the tight, well-directed and acted production is a delight.

It’s the mid-1980s in New York City where three nice Jewish couples are dealing with family issues…

Albuquerque Journal

Love at any age: ‘Social Security’ a comedic take on finding romance when you least expect it

The Adobe Theater

Review By Elizabeth Secor

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

You are never too old to fall in love.

That is the sentiment behind “Social Security,” according to show director Lewis Hauser.

“Social Security” follows two sisters as they navigate their elderly mother falling in love with a 98-year-old artist. The play will run at The Adobe Theater, opening Friday, Feb. 27, and running through March 22.

Hauser has directed the play twice in Los Angeles but says each time is different, and he is never bored with the story.

“I always start over if I’m directing a show that I’ve directed before …,” Hauser said. “Because it’s a different cast, it’s a different atmosphere.”

He was approached by Adobe to direct a comedy, and “Social Security” was the first one he thought of, Hauser said.

Talkin’ Broadway

 ‘anthropology’

The Adobe Theater

Review By Dean Yannias

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

Lauren Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in the United States in recent years, and yet so many people have never heard of her because she doesn’t seem to aim for Broadway or for movie adaptations. She is prolific and remarkably eclectic, and has written plays about an important but forgotten woman astronomer, about the Globe Theatre colleagues who assembled Shakespeare’s plays after his death, about Marie Curie, about four women awaiting execution during the French Revolution, and on and on. Her plays are done a lot in regional theaters, and several of them have already been staged in Albuquerque.

In 2023, Gunderson took on the subject of artificial intelligence in a play called anthropology. (That’s not a typo. She doesn’t capitalize it on purpose, and I’m not sure exactly why.)

Albuquerque Journal

Ghost in the machine: ‘Anthropology’ at Adobe Theater explores grief in the age of AI

The Adobe Theater

By Logan Royce Beitmen Journal staff writer

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

The star of “Anthropology,” by award-winning playwright Lauren Gunderson, is a griefbot — a talking digital avatar of computer programmer Merril’s younger sister, Angie, who is missing and presumed dead. Although Merril initially creates the AI-powered version of her sister as a coping mechanism, things take a turn when the bot reveals clues about the real Angie’s disappearance, previously overlooked by police investigators. 

The play opens Friday, Jan. 16, at The Adobe Theater and runs through Feb. 1.

“I’ve worked on several of (Gunderson’s) plays and really love her writing,” Pete Parkin, director, said…

Albuquerque Journal

A WILDE TIME: Comedy of manners ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ comes to Adobe Theater

The Adobe Theater

By Logan Royce Beitmen Journal staff writer

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is one of the three most perfect plays ever written,” according to Mario Cabrera, who is directing the Victorian classic for Adobe Theater this month. It runs from Friday, Dec. 5, through Sunday, Dec. 21.

Cabrera’s other two “perfect plays” are Noël Coward’s “Private Lives” and William Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.” All three comedies, he said, share a concision and directness that makes them easy to follow.

Regional Reviews: Albuquerque/Santa Fe

Spider Web

The Adobe Theater

Review by Carole C. Sullivan

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

Agatha Christie books, plays, and movies are still extremely popular today, well into the 21st century. Spider’s Web premiered in London in 1954 and is a conscious parody of the detective thriller. Agatha Christie wrote the play at the request of film actress Margaret Lockwood who wanted a comedic thriller to perform in the West End of London. Clarissa Hailsham-Brown is the lead character in a play crowded with all the stock roles and plot devices typical of Miss Christie’s work.

The Adobe Theater does murder mysteries well. Their small space accommodates a drawing-room set in an English country house. Their new lighting system is working well to illuminate all the action. The costumes are all appropriate for the setting and the characters. A well-mounted show is what we have come to expect at The Adobe.

Regional Reviews: Albuquerque/Santa Fe

Bus Stop

The Adobe Theater

Review by Carole C. Sullivan

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

William Inge, the author of Bus Stop, is sometimes referred to as the playwright of the Midwest. A native Kansan, he was born in Independence, Kansas and educated at the University of Kansas and George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. His first successful play was Come Back, Little Sheba in 1950, followed by Picnic in 1953 which won the Pulitzer Prize. Bus Stop premiered in 1955 and was nominated for several awards. These three plays were made into successful movies, launching Inge’s very prosperous and lucrative career as a writer of plays, screenplays, (he won an Academy Award in 1961 for Splendor in the Grass), television scripts, and novels. William Inge took his own life while living in Hollywood in 1973. He was sixty years old.

Like Tennessee Williams, Inge took his inspiration from memories of the people he knew growing up. Inge was inspired by the teachers in a small Kansas town and the working people. Bus Stop is a romantic drama set in a diner outside of Kansas City where travelers and local townfolk are stranded by a snowstorm blocking the road. Bus Stop is generally considered the less original play because of the somewhat “stock” characters, and the time-worn situation throwing them together is also an often-used cliché plot.

Albuquerque Journal

The Adobe Theater brings Tennessee Williams’ ‘Small Craft Warnings’ to stage

The Adobe Theater

Review by Elizabeth Secor

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

“Life.”

The play will be brought to The Adobe Theater stage from Friday, Aug. 1, through Sunday, Aug. 17.

“Small Craft Warnings” is a play about “love, but it is mostly a play about loneliness, fear of abandonment, and despite everything, fear of getting attached,” according to the theater.

“It’s about people trying to get by and trying to survive,” Pete Parkin, show director, said. “And all these people are just really living on the edge.”

“Small Craft Warnings” was written by Tennessee Williams, and according to Philip J. Shortell, who plays Doc, is less popular but still needs to be shown.

“I think this theater has an obligation … to produce lesser-known works and original works from local people,” Shortell said. “And this is one of those things where I think it’s part of our duty to trot this particular piece out.”

The play contains foul language and homophobic scenes.

Prime Time Monthly – July 2025

The Adobe Theater Presents “A Year in Quirky Town” 

The Adobe Theater

Story on Page 11

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

The Adobe Theather invites you to a delightful new comedy A Year in Quirky Town, written by local playwrite, Terri Klein and directed by Cameron Illidge-Welch.

With only 5 performances–July 5, 6, 11,12, and 13–this special fundraiser offers a hilarious, heartfelt tribute to life in Albuquerque, filled with song, story, and a touch of Southwest magic.

Through clever dialogue and original songs, A Year in Quirky Town takes audiences on a whimsical tour of Albuquerque across the seasons. The story follows Willow Shaker-Spears, who’s Hollywood dreams fall flat. On her way home to Kansas her car breaks down in Albuquerque–and that’s where her real adventure begins.

Please turn to page 11 in the flipbook to read the article.

Albuquerque Journal

“A Year in Quirky Town” Spotlights the Uniqueness of the Duke City

The Adobe Theater

Review by Elizabeth Secor

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

“Are you tired of hearing that Albuquerque is the worst? Then you’re gonna love this show!” At least according to Terri Klein, playwrite behind A Year in Quirky Town, a play based on Albuquerque, coming to The Adobe Theater starting Saturday, July 5 through Sunday, July 13.

“Her car breaks down here in Albuquerque and she gets stuck for an entire year, and she gets to experience life as a Birqueno for a full year, just immersed in it,” Cameron Illidge-Welch, show director said. “And at the end of the play we figure  out if it is for her or if she goes back from whence she came” 

Regional Reviews: Albuquerque/Santa Fe

The Underpants

The Adobe Theater

Review by Carole C. Sullivan

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

The Underpants by Steve Martin, the comedy icon, is an entertaining sex comedy that lampoons middle-class values. Adapted from the 1910 German farce, Die Hose by Carl Sternheim, the play premiered Off-Broadway in 2002 and has had numerous regional, community, and college productions throughout the United States since then. It contains zany physical comedy and clever literary allusions, and has proven to be a real crowd pleaser.

The Adobe Theater does farce well. Their small theater with its box-like setting is perfect for swift entrances and exits. The proximity of the audience makes it possible to read every actor’s facial expressions. This clever play prompts sly, knowing glances, smirks, and broad laughter with its somewhat ribald action.

To say that The Adobe Theater does farce well is no small compliment. Finding actors with the ability to zing a punch line and play over-the-top while maintaining a semblance of human realism is difficult. Near novice director Tanner Sroufe has found five accomplished and experienced actors to bring The Underpants delightfully to life.

At the center of the action is a young couple, Theo and Louise Maske, who live a very predictable life in Dusseldorf. Theo is an exemplary civil servant and Louise a dutiful housewife until an incident at a parade for the King jolts their lives into chaos. Louise’s panties fall down at the parade as the King passes by. This is an embarrassing, prurient action that signals a series of bawdy interactions with several peculiar gentlemen who come to rent a room from the Theo and Louise. Louise’s underpants are the talk of the town and make her a near celebrity. Suddenly, Louise is a sex symbol!

Louise’s upstairs neighbor, Gertrude, fans the flames of sexual desire and suggests that Louise should take a lover, since Theo is not “performing his husbandly duties.” She suggests that jealousy will light a fire in Theo so they can start the family Louise wants. Men always want what other men find titillating, or so the adage goes.

Regional Reviews: Albuquerque/Santa Fe

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

The Adobe Theater

Review by Carla Cafolla

Photo by Rhonda Sigler-Ware

A delightful treat awaits you at The Adobe Theater production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. Written by Richard Alfieri and directed by Terri Klein, the play tells the tale of Lily, an elderly, lonely widow, and Michael, her much younger, gay dance instructor, played by Georgia Athearn and Jason Godin, respectively. The unusual friendship that blossoms is portrayed so well you will find yourself firmly rooting for the unconventional duo. This is a very good script, and both actors in this two-hander do justice to it.

We meet Lily Harrison in her home, nervously awaiting her new dance instructor. Athearn does a splendid job in her role–as Lily grows, so does our affection for her. Opening night’s audience appeared to empathize completely with Lily’s many dilemmas as she navigated her character’s new experiences, undergoing personal growth and a new appreciation for those different from herself and her usual circle.

Jason Godin’s Michael Minetti is immediately appealing and undoubtedly charming. He’s also not above telling a few more than white lies. Godin has fun with his character, his facial expressions giving tell to Michael’s actual feelings in a given situation. Yet we encounter his basic honesty and intrinsically good nature when he comes up against, and is forced to contend with, real life. Both actors seem to have a genuine affection for each other and this shines through on stage. It is a pleasure to watch them interact.

Tapping back into your passion

By Magdalina Krajewski, Sandia LabNews
April 3, 2025

After a 28-year hiatus, Sandian rediscovers his love of acting

Dan Ware doesn’t like to talk about himself. But he doesn’t mind being in the spotlight, although not in the way you might think.

“I’ve never met a microphone I didn’t like,” Dan, a communications specialist at Sandia, said.

This makes sense when you meet him. He speaks loudly and clearly. He’s not yelling, but if you shared a wall with him, you’d know when he was talking. He has this ability to project that seems natural, as if he could give a speech before a crowd — no notes, no projector, no problem.

Dan belongs on stage, which works out because that’s where he feels most at home.

The Stage

He was first introduced to the stage and acting in high school, where he was a theater kid and performed in several musicals, including “Paint Your Wagon,” “West Side Story” and “Oklahoma.” In college, Dan took a handful of acting classes, but nothing serious.

“It wasn’t my career trajectory, just something I did for fun,” he said.

After college, Dan started his career, got married and started a family. As he explains, he got busy with the “real-world stuff.”