SFUAD Performing Arts Department BFA tech senior Rochelle Esquerra talks about her time at SFUAD, and what comes next.

“Join us for a weekend of fun in Santa Fe,” the email read, but it wasn’t as corny as it sounds. If anything, Family Weekend at SFUAD—student showcases, awesome food, and a trip to Albuquerque—was just a front. The truth? Parents wanted to see their kids and the kids (admit it!) wanted to see their parents. I was still reluctant when my mom asked if we could do Family Weekend. I’m a senior, I thought, it’ll just be freshman families. Or I’m from Santa Fe, I’m not far enough to miss them. But it wasn’t just parents of freshmen who attended this weekend and as soon as I saw my mom, dad and brother Friday night, I couldn’t wait for the events to start. My mother, Jeanette, had attended the College of Santa Fe for a year while pursuing a degree in landscape design. When she read the email about Family Weekend, she turned to my dad, Edward, and said, “would you like to see your daughter?” He was in. My brother, Jesse, graduated last year from New Mexico Tech and is now a full time employee of the Los Alamos labs. He wanted to see his sister. He didn’t care what we did. Art, in general, is not discussed much in my family, but after checking in on Friday and drinking some wine (or sparkling water in my mom’s case) and eating some cheese in the library, I sent them into the Garson Theater to watch Middletown. Afterwards, they had the following to say: Mom: “You’re born, you die, it’s about everything in between.” Jesse: “It’s the little things in life.” Dad: “It was different.” Saturday began with a good lunch and it ran into some student showcases, including a visit to the...

Middletown, the latest SFUAD Performing Arts Department production, opens with Curtis Williams’ Public Speaker waxing philosophic about the nature of small towns. It’s a fun digression that captures the high energy and inherent sadness of the mostly plot-less but emotionally poignant show that follows. The play has an ensemble cast, but there are a few characters given the most time to shine, including: Mathew Eldridge’s John Dodge; Porscha Shaw’s Mary Swanson; Michael Phillip Thomas’s Cop; and Jade Lewis’s Mechanic. Eldridge and Shaw did a phenomenal job carrying the emotional weight for much of the play. Due to the structure of the play, many of the actors had the difficult job of taking what could easily be one-note characters and adding pathos. It seems lazy to make such a blanket statement, but the whole cast was really up to the challenge. Not every joke landed, and not every character left the same impression, but the batting average is so high, it is easy to brush off the shortcomings. Maia Rychlik’s Librarian and Yusef Seevers’s Doctor, in particular, breathed such life into simple characters that leave one combing through all of their dialogue for hidden meaning long after you leave Greer Garson Theatre. The two scenes that stood out most were the scene in space and Lewis’s scene with Tallis Geohegan-Freifeld’s Doctor. The scene in space, featuring Matt McMillan and Robert Henkel Jr. is nestled towards the end of Act One. The scene is by far the most removed from the plot, but is the first point where the themes are front and center. McMillan and Henkel Jr.’s subtle performance prevents the message from being overbearing. Chelsea Kuehnel’s sets are also a delight in their simplicity, giving the space scene a magical feel and the dusty...