Break a Leg
Deming's new Bel Canto Theatre Cafe sets the stage for live drama, comedy and music, plus coffee and conversation.
Story and photos by Donna Clayton Lawder
It's a sunny Sunday afternoon in Deming, and the Bel Canto Theatre is set for today's double-bill matinee performance. A rooster darts across South Diamond Street, just outside the theater's doors, and a dusty gust of spring wind whips across the parking lot, now quickly filling with cars. Soon-to-be patrons greet each other with smiles and laughs and dash inside.
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Producer and co-owner of the Bel Canto Theatre Cafe, Charles Blanchard
(right) sells tickets to patrons at the door. (Photo by Donna Clayton Lawder) |
Owned by Charles Blanchard and Bridget Kelly, partners in love as well as business, the Bel Canto opened with its current slate of two short plays just after Valentine's Day and (at press time) was gearing up to begin daily full-service coffeehouse operations, with beverages and locally made sweets, by the end of March. The operation will hold its public grand opening on April 6, 5-7 p.m.
Tall, handsome Blanchard is welcoming guests from behind the coffee counter, shuffling through reservations and will-call tickets, making change for those buying at the door and smiling, always smiling. In theater, it's good to know one's audience, and Blanchard knows his, greeting many by name as they come through the door.
People pass through the front coffeehouse section into the semi-darkened theater. Three dozen or so patrons take their seats at a few scattered tables on floor level with the stage, just feet from the assembled props where the actors soon will be. The rest settle into theater-style seating—newly upholstered in authentic dark mohair fabric reminiscent of classy Pullman train cars—in the small mezzanine a few steps up. There's not a bad seat in this house that looks to hold maybe 50 patrons.
Blanchard walks quickly down the aisle to the stage, front and center, welcomes the audience and introduces the first play, The Pot Boiler, an adapted vaudeville classic penned in 1923 by Alice Gerstenberg.
Tim McAndrews, playing the role of the egotistic director, strides onto the set. Anne Reedy, in the role of Miss Wouldby, an aspiring playwright, fawns all over the pompous director, who obviously is used to sweeping wide-eyed ingénues under his wing, and perhaps his sheets, as well.
As is typical of vaudeville productions, action and dialogue are over the top, and the audience responds right away with knowing laughter—it's clear where the real-life playwright is taking them.
A few more lines, a few more laughs, and that magical "theater moment" takes over—that moment when painted scenery seems as real as your own home, when loudly enunciated speech starts to sound like normal, believable conversation. It is that almost imperceptible moment when the audience agrees to suspend disbelief and enter the play—when what has been dreamed up and written becomes reality, the only reality in the room.
While Blanchard and Kelly agree they are trying to bring something new to Deming, Kelly says live theater is also something well established in Deming's past. "At one time, Deming had seven opera houses," she says. "Those were the richer 'railroad days,'" referencing the time when elegant Old West playhouses existed to serve the ranching, railroad and banking patrons who craved arts and entertainment.
The Bel Canto joins with a couple of other local live theater offerings, the Deming Performing Arts Theater (DPAT) and the Tumbleweeds Theater, a small dinner theater in Columbus with which Kelly has also worked. And the Bel Canto's production of The Duck Variations actually opened at the Black Box Theatre in Las Cruces before making its showing here. "It enabled us to try on our tour legs and work things out," Kelly says.
Kelly says the Bel Canto is not competition to the DPAT, which is just up the street in fact. Rather, she says, Bel Canto is complementary and brings something different to the town, and to what she thinks is a growing audience looking for cultural offerings.
"What they (DPAT) do is completely different. We're a completely different animal. They have a lot of success with their Sunday jam sessions at Morgan Hall," she says. "Also, they are a non-profit and we're a private enterprise. And some of the people who are working with us also work with them. It's all very friendly, and I think having more live cultural offerings is good for the town and benefits both theaters, too."
Kelly says it was Blanchard who came up with the "Bel Canto" name. "It's obviously Italian, and brings the arts in general to mind," she explains. "We hope it conveys an atmosphere of something out of the ordinary, and yet is still approachable and inviting to people."
Kelly, whose family ties in the area brought her to New Mexico from Hawaii just over two years ago, has spent much of her working career in the entertainment industry. Originally from Chicago, she appeared in several small films and has done voiceover and narration work for productions at the University of Hawaii. Her attractive, sparkling presence, highlighted by eyes that one finds almost impossible to look away from, makes it easy to believe she's been on a number of network television shows, including "Baywatch Hawaii."
But her main interest, Kelly says, has always been in the world of theater. She taught high school drama for 14 years in Honolulu before landing in New Mexico. And she has participated in a number of local productions, most recently directing four plays at the Tumbleweed Theater in Columbus. Her glamorous appearance and stage presence make her a natural on stage, and she appears in today's performance—an overblown blonde wig covering her own dramatic dark tresses—as Miss Ivory, the heroine.
The first short play over, the lights come up and the audience, light-hearted and still laughing, stands and stretches. Some converse in small clutches while others file out into the lobby to peruse the desserts and beverages.
Blanchard stands ready behind the concession counter, accepting enthusiastic congratulations and selling coffee and cake—decadent, rich cake. There also are some substantial hors d'oeurves—finger foods and little elegant plates of cheeses and crackers.
"We're finding that people want really elegant things when they come to theater," he says. "They want high-end desserts and really good coffee. We brew gourmet coffee and have a good stock of teas, too. It adds to the theater atmosphere. You know, it's something special." He says the cafe part of the enterprise will start out offering similar fare, along with bagels, croissants and breakfast burritos, possibly adding sandwiches as it finds its way and customer base.
While the producer and emcee sells cake and hors d'oeurves, Kelly, the director-cum-glamorous-heroine, has flipped her blonde wig and is brewing up another pot of that gourmet coffee.
"I chose 'The Pot Boiler' because I just love vaudeville," she explains. "I love when we have the chance to laugh at ourselves. It makes people feel good."
She pauses to graciously greet some patrons, and makes introductions of some well-known community members—a museum director, some of her associates and friends from the film society—who offer their congratulations on the theater-cafe venture.
The pleasant hostess on all fronts, Kelly excuses herself to prepare for the next performance, The Duck Variations by David Mamet. The half-hour intermission over, the audience has settled back into their seats and Kelly takes center stage to warm applause.
She gives a brief introduction to the performance, describing Mamet as "a master of the idiom" and the play as "a wonderful example of his acerbic wit."
The lights go down and then up, revealing the simply-set stage.
The action takes place in a city park near a lake, and the only props are a park bench, a wire trashcan to one side, and a small planter of flowers at the rear.
Tim McAndrews and F. Barry Dunleavey, two local actors with New York stage experience, are the sole actors in this one-act production.
The dialogue soon reveals that both characters are retirees, and evidently long-time friends who have spent many days chatting in this park. McAndrews has the presence of a hard-boiled, plainspoken New Yorker, while the taller Dunleavey puts one in mind of actor Jimmy Stewart in his senior years.
The two men share an afternoon in the park, humorously musing on the lives and habits of some ducks they see on the lake. The conversation becomes terse at times as the men express appreciation for the ducks and consider the birds' mortality. The talk becomes a metaphor for life in general and a reflection on the men's own friendship, which seems to have had its rough spots.
At junctures in the conversation, the lights dim and classical piano music plays in the background, signaling to the audience that a shift has occurred and a small amount of time has passed.
While humorous, the play touches tender chords and asks big questions. The lights dim, obviously for the last time, and the audience lets out a soft but audible sigh of knowingness, perhaps also of identification with the characters. The lights come back up, and McAndrews and Dunleavey take their bows to a standing ovation.
In the lobby, exiting patrons stop to chat with the actors, and offer congratulations once more to Kelly and Blanchard. Kelly's eyes dance, and her pretty face nearly splits from her satisfied smile.
"It's been like this, full houses," she says, shaking hands the whole while. "We didn't know for sure what a success it would be, but the audiences have just loved these plays."
In fact, the Bel Canto's initial double-bill was so successful that instead of ending in February, as planned, Kelly and Blanchard continued the production through March. Asked what production may be next at the theater, Kelly says, "We're looking at a couple of plays, one by Tina Howe, Painting Churches. We are going to have free readings of the plays, open to the public, in April. We're looking to gauge audience response, for one thing. And we are trying out potential directors, too. We're also looking for original scripts," she says. "You never know who's out there and what they have to offer."
Free script readings will be offered once a month, she says, adding that Blanchard is in the process of setting up a monthly radio show—with a live band—to be broadcast live from the theater, as well.
As the musical and performance offerings take shape, the two hope the everyday coffeehouse will provide a steady pulse of activity and become a regular gathering place for local residents and visitors alike.
"It's already a warm, inviting space," Blanchard says, gesturing with a sweep of his arm. "It's only going to get better as we flesh it out and it gets into full swing." The musician in him—he's a classical pianist who spent the 10 years prior to his move to Deming touring the East Coast and Germany—envisions a variety of live musical offerings, and he has already been talking with local musicians. The theater has impressively good acoustics, so it's a natural for music.
Kelly adds that the Bel Canto's St. Patrick's Day celebration—Silver City locals Jonni and John McClure performed, along with comedian George McKelvey from Albuquerque—packed the house. "It was fantastic, it was a full house!" she says. "It brought a whole different kind of vibe, a party kind of vibe, even though we don't yet sell liquor. The comedian was hysterical.
"We got a picture of one of our friends, a priest from St. Andrews, posing with the comedian. The event just brought this whole other spirit of the place. We put up an Irish flag and a shamrock, and the whole thing was just great."
All in all, Kelly says, the two think they're getting it right so far. "We've been overwhelmed by the positive response, people have been so very kind and receptive, and we are very excited about where it all might go," she says. Her theatric sights are set high, she admits, thinking of taking their shows on the road, eyeing a performance festival in Scotland.
"But that's in the future," she admits. "Right now we're just figuring out the coffeehouse menu and wondering what to add next."
Donna Clayton Lawder is senior editor of Desert Exposure.
The Bel Canto Theater Cafe, 300 S. Diamond St., Deming, 544-8866. Tickets to live theater performances are $12, and may be purchased at the door or through the Deming-Luna County Chamber of Commerce. A schedule of other performances will be posted at the coffeehouse.