Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • 52

ARTS Albuquerque, April 17, 2005 rr a ttt "I di a 11 1 uiNivi student wins lienneay center reuowsnip F2 The Sunday Journal By Dan Mayfield Joumal Staff Writer Leonard Madrid once won a dollar in the New Mexico Lottery "But that's about it," he design. He earned a degree in playwriting from Eastern New Mexico University several years ago. 1 Madrid's company in winning a Kennedy Center award include Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel and award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. However, in Madrid's case, winning the LatinoLatina award means more to him. "It means there's recognition of Hispanic theater out there," he said.

"It's faded in recent years, but the fact that the Kennedy Center is recognizing Hispanic artists, that means we're still out there working." Many of the theater festival award-winners fall into television and film writing, though Henry said, "I think playwriting is the hope of i the future. To watch people, live, it's a different experience than on a flat screen. "It may sound artsy fartsy, but it has a different feeling." However, for Madrid, the award helped him in ways beyond the cash and free trip. It helped him get into graduate school next fall at UNM. "I'm not good at talking about myself, so being able to put that in the letter looked good," he said.

Center for master classes, for which he leaves Tuesday, as well as an invitation to attend a summer program, said Greg Henry, artistic director of the Kennedy Center. American College Theater Festival During the upcoming week, Madrid will attend master classes with other award-winners taught by career playwrights. 1 Henry said the theater festival staff spend a great deal of time reading the more than 130 submitted plays this year. "We had a lot more (entrants) this year than ever before," Henry said. 1 "Tecolotito" is the story of a woman going back to a small village in northern New Mexico to be healed by a curandera.

As she's headed to the village, she tells her family's overblown story to her children. In storyteller fashion, the main character tells of how family stories are overblown myths, Madrid said. Ironically, "Tecolotito" has never been fully staged. Actors did a reading of the play at last year's UNM Words Afire Theater Festival. Now, Madrid said, he's talking with a director for a full production.

But first, he has to finish his second bachelor's degree at UNM in theater Now, some would say his luck has changed Madrid, a University of New Mexico theater -design student, recently won the coveted Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival National LatinoLatina Play writing Award. It's a long name for the award given annually to Hispanic writers, and one of several given annually by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to promising college playwrights. Madrid, a full-time student and baker at Great Harvest Bread said UNM professor Jim Linnell submitted the play, "Tecolotito," to the center, "but I didn't know what he was submitting it for." ATOLPHE PIERRE-LOUIS JOURNAL Leonard Madrid, a baker at Great Harvest, has been accepted to graduate school after winning an award from the Kennedy Center. But, he said, the enormity of the award didn't hit him until he called Linnell.

"When he told me," Madrid said, "I realized it's a very big deal." The award is not just a $2,500 prize, it includes a fellowship to come to the Kennedy Then he got the call, at the bakery, that he'd won. "When I won, everybody at the bakery jumped around for two hours," he said! "I was shocked and flattered." Just in time for city's tricentennial, Albuquerque Museum exhibit showcases artists of a golden era ulopeslor from PAGE F1 V' 4, 9 Among the most famous works in the show are "Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist" by Luisa Ignacia Roldan, "Immaculate Conception" by Murillo and "Bust of Christ" by El Greco. "We had to go to Spain and ask the ministers of culture to let us borrow the art," she said. "The Prado (Museo del Prado, Spain's most esteemed art museum) took pieces off their walls to lend to us." 1 V. A Grand entrance, cafe greet visitors A new cafe, a spectacular grand entrance and 40,000 additional square feet of space will greet visitors at "El Alma de Espafia" exhibit at The Albuquerque Museum.

The $8.3 million expansion of the 24-year-old museum was officially unveiled a few weeks ago, but most who come for "Alma" will be seeing it for the first time. As you enter, the museum's spectacular, high-ceilinged entrance gives an open feel to the space. An added special events hall can seat an audience of 200. Previously the largest gathering space inside the museum was the auditorium with room for only 88 people. The expansion also allows the museum to present more of its permanent collection.

Before the expansion, less than 10 percent of the museum's collection was on display at any given time. Now the "Common Ground in New Mexico" exhibit is much larger and housed in the museum's East Gallery. Outside, a new amphitheater can seat up to 500 people with built-in tiered seating. It will be used for the first time this summer as part of the New Mexico Jazz Workshop's popular Jazz and Salsa Under the Stars concert series. The' amphitheater also will host a series of blues concerts on Sunday afternoons.

Previous concerts and events were held in the museum's old sculpture garden, which was flat and seated about 300 people on the ground. The expanded sculpture garden fills the grounds surrounding the museum, reintroducing several pieces that were in storage because of a lack of space. Also, the massive granite and stainless steel "Floating Mesa" fountain by Jesus Bautista Morales has been reassembled and will now feed into a pool The City Treats Gallery Cafe is a new addition to the museum. It is run by owner Stefani Mangrum, who comes with 26 years' experience as a cook, chef and caterer. The caf of ers daily sandwich, salad and pasta selections, and soon, a selection of wines and domestic and imported beers.

The cafe is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and can be reached by calling 242-5316. The expansion was funded through general obligation bond money, grants from the state of New Mexico and private funding by the Albuquerque Museum Foundation. Rohde, May, Keller, McNamara Architecture designed the new museum and BradburyStamm was awarded the construction contract. Tracy Dingmann, Journal Staff Writer 4J (0 No other American city has ever planned such a tribute show with works from Spain, much less three, said Landis.

"I don't think I've heard of anyone doing it before, but it's a damn good reason for doing it," said Selma Holo, director of the prestigious Fisher Gallery at the University of Southern California and co- writer of the "El Alma" catalog. A portrait of the Marques deMonte-hermoso is on oil on canvas by Antonio Gonzalez Ruiz from about 1756. "Alegoria de las Artes Uberales" was painted by Spanish artist Miguel March. "It's exciting for Albuquerque to be able to examine its roots in this way." Religious art dominates "El Alma," which makes sense given the nature of the times, said Landis. Many of the beautifully executed paintings are of saintly virgins, bloody martrys, mournful crucifixions and beatific madonnas with child.

"A lot of these paintings were done during the Spanish Inquisition, and the painters were working for the court," said Landis. Besides being internally dramatic, all of the works were done on a grand scale, since culture. Spain was like a magnet, but at the same time a fountain of inspiration. But the intellectual and artistic movement was hot a closed one, said Holo. The quality of "Spanishness" in art from that time didn't just come from living in Spain or having Spanish blood; Spain's influence across Europe was more influential than that, she said.

"It was about being in contact with Spain and bringing new ideas about Spain around the world. El Greco was a Greek painter who came to Spain, and Ribera studied in Italy and then came back to Spain," she said. most were commissioned for palaces and public spaces. The few works that are not religious in nature are portraits, allegories and still lifes, she said. The Golden Age of Spain was marked by severe religious oppression in conjunction with a great encouragment of artistic expression.

During that time, which was also marked by great military might and intellectual superiority, painters and other artists flocked to Spain to express themselves, said Holo. Spain was really the center of a whirling force of attraction and a kind of fountain of Dancer goes from chorus rounds to company of 'contact' from PAGE F1 -Center Theater, Time WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 19 WHERE: Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts, Alto, N.M., near Ruidoso HOW MUCH: Tickets are $42 and $46. For phone reservations call (505) 336-4800 or toll-free (888) 818-7872 If you go WHAT: The musical "corv tact" WHEN: 8 p.m'. Friday, April 22, 2 p.m.

and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 23, and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. April 24 WHERE: Popejoy Hall, Center for the Arts, UNM campus HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $30 to $50 at the UNM Bookstore, the Pit, online at www.unmtickets.com, at outlets or by calling 851-5050 or toll-free (800) 905-3315 magazine praisea ror "kicking the dust off a tired old Broadway." The musical went on to win four Tony Awards, including for Best Musical and Best Choreography. Here's Meixner's backstory in a nutshell.

Grandma sees little Allie walking on her tiptoes, suggests that she take ballet lessons. it in 3-inch heels," Meixner said. She wasn't asked to do any acrobatics for the "contact" auditions. But by the time she had returned to her apartment after being notified about getting the part, she probably wanted to do cartwheels. Meixner remembered this happening: "I screamed to my roommate that I got this part.

It meant the world to me at the time and it still does." She sees the opportunity as the start of a major career for herself. "As a dancer your body only lasts for so long. And these opportunity come and go," Meixner said. "I can always go to school because it's never going away." So at age 3 Meixner begins taking ballet at a dance studio in the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills. Over the next 15 years she studies ballet, jazz, tap, modern, hip-hop, gymnastics and acrobatics at the studio.

"Gymnastics and acrobatics Ariel Shepley portrays The Girl on the Swing and Matthew Stevens is the Servant In "contact," playing at Popejoy Hall and the Spencer Theater. helped me as a dancer. trick. I can do a side aerial, Absolutely. Sometimes when which is a cartwheel without you audition they ask for a using your hands.

And I can do VrWlv "Two Bie Thumbs Uo." 1 tnii -EBERT 4 R0EPER A Journey Of ft TketuaU Mite fiegm Wltk One DOMESTIC AND CHINA ADOPTION Children from infant to 6 years or older WHEN: Saturday, April 23rd WHERE: St. Luke's Lutheran Church 9100 Menaul NE, Albuquerque, NM TIME: 10:00 am am Please RSVP Adoptions Plus and A.A.C Adoption Family Network, Inc. 505-323-6002 or 303-444-5001 This a no cort informational meeting. Visit our website Email www.adoptionsplus.org infoOadoptionsplus.org www.aacadoption.com aacadoptOfrii.com Licensed non-prof it professional adoption agencies. Joan Allen Kevin Costner nipside anger 'fh "ENCHANTINGr millions llflyLS www.foxsearchlight.coni NOW SHOWING 5 NEW LINE CIN1IM1 MmiJ CtNTUHY THEATRES CENTUflV THEATRES UNTTED ARTISTS UNTTED ARTISTS INUW camTiv wmm ammtamn mmi TIT AVTXTV1 HCBfTMliEIISTSr EXIT I JEFFERSON CKiffllCa)flSBWSS TMMMMWISCHOa rLAlllNU wm S2'242 1-eOWANMNGO(R)7 140MWOANG0H0S BMPIItglWttlW tBiail FWttWMWMUIW.