ALBUQUERQUE – The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC), in partnership with Camino Real Productions, is proud to present the play Miss Margarida’s Way July 15-18 and July 22-25 in the Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are $12 general admission and $10 for seniors, students, and NHCC and Albuquerque Theatre Guild members. They can be purchased at the NHCC box office, as well as Ticketmaster outlets and Ticketmaster.com. The NHCC is located at 1701 4th Street SW on the corner of Avenida César Chavez and 4th Street.
Miss Margarida’s Way: A Tragicomic Monologue for an Impetuous Woman, by Roberto Athayde, is an international classic that has been produced in over 30 countries since its 1973 debut in the playwright’s native Brazil. It was quickly closed there by the military dictatorship in power at the time, which was not happy with the play’s depiction of a dictatorial school teacher and her methods of instruction. The work was first produced in the United States at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco in 1977. That same year, it opened at New York’s Public Theatre with Estelle Parsons in the role of Miss Margarida. It soon moved to Broadway and won the NY Drama Desk Award for “Unique Theatrical Experience.” Parsons then toured the play to all 50 states and several foreign countries, and it continues to be produced around the world. This is its first production in Albuquerque.
Director Linda López McAlister says, “What’s most fun and most challenging about this absurdist political allegory is that it is interactive theatre in which the audience plays the role of The Class. Some may sit passively in their seats in the face of Miss Margarida’s questionable teaching ‘methods,’ but others react—sometimes in unpredictable and outrageous ways—so the show is different every night.”
Miss Margarida’s Way stars Debi Kierst, Head of the Drama Department at Sandia Prep, as Miss Margarida. She has wanted to play this incredibly challenging role ever since she first read the play thirty years ago. Tim Harland plays the student. The show opens Thursday, July 15 at 7 pm and continues through the weekend with performances July 16 & 17 at 8 pm and July 18 at 2 pm. The second week’s performances are Thursday, July 22 at 7 pm, July 23 & 24 at 8 pm, and a final Sunday matinee at 2 pm on July 25. The NHCC, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Hispanic art and culture at the local, state, national, and international level.