Frontier Theater Brings Back Lost Wife Creek

By John Larson

MAGDALENA - Donna Todd, Director of the London Frontier Theatre Co., has announced that she will be producing another play this summer in the historic WPA Gym, at the corner of Main and Fourth streets in Magdalena.
The play is called “Hard Times and Hope – The Lost Wife Creek Years.”
“It will be the return of the Lost Wife Creek series, but with a difference,” Todd said. “It will be episodic, featuring situations from the earlier plays, but it will not be scenes lifted out of the originals, generally.”
“It will span the years 1933 to 1941 – the depression and Roosevelt years up to the beginning of World War II,” she said. “Those are the years the series has covered.”
The play is set in the fictional community of Lost Wife Creek, New Mexico, located “somewhere south of Magdalena.”
Story lines revolve around two families, the Trotters - Cass and Gardy, older homesteaders, dry farming and constant bickering, and the Aragones - Manny and Ruby, their younger neighbors who have dreams of being rich and/or famous.
“A lot of people have been asking when is the next show,” she said. “A great part of the reason is a general lack of funds. It’s a reflection of the economy.”
She said the theater receives a grant from the McCune Foundation, “but that doesn’t go far enough.
“We’re still trying to secure funding for the building, and are a few thousand dollars short,” Todd said. “We could use some personal donations in any amount.
“This is really ‘hard times and hopes,’ like the next play. This will fit right in. Very similar times,” she said.
Maybe that’s the reason “a lot of people seem to like the idea of Lost Wife Creek coming back.”
Todd said musicians are also needed for the next play.
“Anybody who can do bluegrass type music, and hopefully sing,” she said. “If anyone plays a banjo, guitar, or fiddle, they can call me.”
The new Lost Wife Creek play is scheduled for the last weekend in July, with encore performances the following weekend.
Performance s are also scheduled for the first weekend in August.
“I’m glad to be back in full swing again,” Todd said.
For further information contact Donna Todd at 575-854-2519, or email londonfrontier@gilanet.com.
London Frontier Theatre’s website is www.londonfrontiertheatre.com.

Pictured: The cast of a 2004 Lost Wife Creek play.

Photo by Kelly Gatlin

Frontier Theater Brings Back Lost Wife Creek