It’s time for Santa Fe to take the stage.
Organizers of the newly formed nonprofit Stage Santa Fe say they are ready to turn New Mexico’s visual arts capital into a performance arts destination. And with plans to acquire a multipurpose venue for local and traveling entertainment, plus quality improv and theater classes, they’re excited about their chances.
“There’s a lot of talent in this town,” said one of the organization’s three co-founders, Peter Sills.
“But one of the issues is that there isn’t a lot of opportunity for that talent to be showcased.”
“My goal is twofold,” added Sills, who is primarily responsible for funding the venture. “One is to attract the talent, and one is to attract audiences. … What would make me very happy is to hear people are coming to Santa Fe someday just to see a show.”
Sills, a semiretired video game technology entrepreneur and former board member of Santa Fe Playhouse and Warehouse 21, said he first started brainstorming Stage Santa Fe — an umbrella organization that encompasses Stage Theater and Stage Improv — at the start of last year with his wife and local actress, Danette Sills, and College of Santa Fe graduate and actor-director Jeff Nell.
While reviewing the state of performance arts in Santa Fe, he said, the trio agreed the venture was worth trying.
Although there are several improv and theater groups in Santa Fe, the area lacks a centralized hub, Sills said. The idea is not to compete with similar entities but to support and be supported, he said.
“Competition in the arts is a fool’s errand. … If we’re all fractured, we can’t build a cohesive whole,” Sills said. “Like with all good things, [the performance arts community] will either thrive, stagnate or die. We want it to thrive and grow.”
While creating a theatrical company and improv troupe are among Stage’s priorities, Sills said the root of the nonprofit is to provide a “true curriculum” of drop-in and weekly classes meant to help people improve, whatever their experience level or interests. Classes will be broken into two subgroups under improv and theater, catering to both “those who just want to have fun,” and those who want to perform.
Sills said he is especially excited to see how beginners respond, because many people can be intimidated by improvisation.
“People think, ‘Oh, I’m not funny enough,’ or ‘Oh, I can’t think that fast,’ ” Sills said. “Our philosophy is: We’re improvising every day. … There’s no script for your life. You’re making it up as you go. Improv is the same.”
For experienced performers who want more rigorous training in either improv or theater, he said, Stage will hire professionals from New York and Los Angeles to lead regular, extensive workshops.
These will range from teaching long-form improvisational storytelling to theater lighting and costume design, to general performance tips, such as
voice projection and stage presence.
All proceeds from the classes, Sills said, will help fund Stage’s larger productions — the first of which is loosely scheduled to take place in the first half of the year.
Nell said he is working with an “invited cast” of six local actors for the debut show. Though he refrained from providing the play’s title or details, a key focus of every Stage Theater production will be to “do more than entertain,” and stir thought-provoking questions, he said.
Each performance will be the culmination of a collaborative process, in which all actors help select scripts and share ideas on how to best execute the production.
Sills said Stage will be the only group in town that he knows of to have ownership and control of its own rehearsal space, on Mercantile Court, as well as 10 years of funding.
When asked how much the venture will cost him, Sills declined to provide a figure. His wife, however, called the venture a “significant investment.”
Currently, he is in the process of planning a multipurpose performance venue that will play host to a variety of improv, magic, stand-up comedy and theater acts.
Though Sills would not name a north-side location, he said he is working with architects and contractors to finalize a layout that will accommodate from 100 to 200 audience members.
The venue, he said, will hopefully be completed sometime this year — ideally in time for Stage Theater’s second production, tentatively scheduled for September.
Having something like Stage in Santa Fe, Sills said, seems like a no-brainer.
“We’re a town of 70,000 people that can easily grow to a town of 140,000 on any given day,” he said. “That’s a huge opportunity. The audience changes every week.”
Plus, for locals and tourists alike, “there’s very little to do after 7 o’clock [here]. What do you do after dinner? Well, we want to be one of those options,” Sills said.
All it takes is a stage.
