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This is Why

 A letter from Maureen Mckenna

Over the last two months, as I hauled lumber and unpacked literally tons of steel and lighting equipment, and became more than familiar with the joys of power tools… as I begged friends, family, and unsuspecting strangers for help… I thought to myself…why? Why this strange compulsion to create a blue box theatre here in Santa Fe? Oh, yeah…because… theatre matters – a thought in a flash of brilliance – or insanity – that I trademarked several weeks ago.

But the power of live theatre doesn’t come from wood, steel or lights. It’s born from the soul of a playwright such as Tennessee Williams who says, “I want to go on talking to you as freely and intimately about what we live and die for as if I knew you better than anyone else whom you know.” It emerges from the glorious collaboration of the actors and directors who bring their life’s experience, dedication and training to a story which may be brand, spanking new… or four hundred years old. And the wonder of this story, on this night, transcending time, cultures, the space between us, as it becomes part of each of our collective story.

Oh, yeah. I love theatre. It is the antidote to the modern age – those little electronic devices that keep us hyperconnected, and yet strangely isolated. Live theatre is an intimate, communal experience. It constantly challenges us to grow, to understand the narrative of others, their stories, their dreams, and through them, our own.

At the first reading of our premiere production, Luna Gale, I addressed the actors to mark the occasion. There are two clocks ticking, I told them. “One says Seating, Sheetrock, Plumbing, Cafe Tables, and the Light Grid. The other is the beating of my heart. Thump, thump, thump. What you are sitting in, this soon-to-be-theatre, may look like bricks and mortar and lights and paint, but what you are really sitting in is the beating of my heart.