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The Socorro Community Theater is once again lighting up the stage with its annual Summer Youth Program, providing young performers with a chance to shine. This year’s production, Imagine a Dragon, will be performed by a cast of 17 local children on Thursday, July 3, at 6 p.m. at Cottonwood Valley Charter School. Admission is free, and donations are welcome.
The youth program, which is open to children ages 6 to 14, is supported entirely by donations. Parents are invited to contribute either financially or by volunteering with costumes, props, or supervision.
“This is a youth program, but Socorro Community Theater welcomes people of all ages,” said Dr. Eileen Comstock, president of the theater’s board and director of the summer production. “Community theater is a wonderful opportunity for everybody to expand their creative abilities. When you get up on the stage as an actor and pretend that you’re somebody different from yourself, you can set free some imagination that might otherwise be repressed in normal society. Children getting up on stage to sing, dance and act, develop self confidence and self worth.”
The children’s show is just one part of a packed schedule for Socorro Community Theater, which produces an average of two plays a year from all eras and genres.
This fall, they will be collaborating with the New Mexico Tech Drama Club on a production of Clue, to be performed in October at the Tech Student Activities Center (SAC). Open auditions for Clue and another upcoming production, Rhinoceros, will take place in August, and Dr. Comstock said to follow www.facebook.com/socorrocommunitytheater for information on how to audition.
Rhinoceros is scheduled for a November performance at the historic Garcia Opera House, which holds special significance for the theater group as the venue where the Socorro Community Theatre began in 1994 with a production of Macbeth.
Socorro Community Theater, which is volunteer-run, relies on the support of community members to bring productions to life. From lighting and sound to costume sewing and set painting, volunteers make it all happen. Donations can also be made to the group through their website www.socorro.com/sct.
“We’re always looking for people who want to get involved—on stage or behind the scenes,” Dr. Comstock said.
Comstock’s own path to the stage is as unique as the theater she now leads. A physician at Socorro General Hospital, she discovered theater later in life, first as a musician in pit orchestras, then as a set builder, and eventually as a director and actor. “This work is a creative outlet for me,” she said. “It’s something completely different from my medical training, and I’ve learned it all through trial and error.”
The community theater has received strong support from local institutions, including the City of Socorro, which provides storage space, and Cottonwood Valley Charter School, which allows the theater to use its venue for rehearsals and performances free of charge.
