Performing Arts

Performing Arts

Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts

Albuquerque Journal Theatre

NATIONAL HISPANIC CULTURAL CENTER PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM

The mission of the Performing Arts program of the National Hispanic Cultural Center is to present and produce traditional and contemporary theatrical, musical, dance, and multidisciplinary performances and events that preserve and promote Hispanic cultures in New Mexico, the nation, and the world. Operational since October 2000, the program presents both indoor and outdoor seasons. Programming has included plays, concerts, dance performances, puppet shows, storytelling, fiestas and festivals, and films.

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For more information please contact:

Performing Arts (PA) Program Manager: Maxwell Maliga (maxwell.maliga@dca.nm.gov)

For film program inquiries please contact Shiloh Burton (shiloh.burton@dca.nm.gov)

Performing Arts Box Office – (505) 724-4771

Support the NHCC Performing Arts program by making a donation HERE

The Center’s central Plaza Mayor, which can accommodate 2,500 people, is an ideal venue for concerts, festivals, and other outdoor events during the warmer months, May through September. Prior to completion of the Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts (REDCPA), which opened in September 2004, the Performing Arts program’s indoor season offered performances and events in a variety of other venues on the Center campus, including the Salón Ortega, a multipurpose performance and reception space; the patio of the History and Literary Arts center; the galleries, sculpture garden, and corridor of the Visual Arts complex; and the Wells Fargo Auditorium, which, while part of the REDCPA, was built before the rest of the complex during an earlier phase of construction.

The program has developed, refined, and utilized the following guidelines to design its programming and curate its seasons:

Provide a mix of programming across the three performing arts disciplines—theatre, music, and dance—which includes interdisciplinary programming.
Provide regularly scheduled film programming consistent with the Center’s mission.
Provide a balance of New Mexican, national, and international programming.
Provide annual programming that is specific to seasons, holidays, and celebrations, as well as culture-specific—e.g., Día de Muertos, Carnaval, Women’s History Month, Cinco de Mayo.
Organize large-scale events—e.g., concerts, festivals—on the Plaza Mayor during warmer weather.
Maintain ongoing partnerships with local, national, and international performing arts festivals—e.g., ¡Globalquerque!, Revolutions International Theatre Festival, Festival Flamenco Internacional.
Maintain ongoing partnerships with various local, national, and international organizations to present other performances and events.
Provide educational and community outreach and programming for children and youth as an integral part of the performing arts season; provide summer institutes in performing arts disciplines.

Construction on the Roy E. Disney Center for Performing Arts (REDCPA) began in November 2001. This massive 81,000 square foot complex is the largest facility at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and is designed specifically to host theatrical, dance, and musical performances. Conceptualized as a stylized Mayan temple, with interior elements modeled on Romanesque architecture, the REDCPA won two architectural awards for interiors and lighting. In addition to the 97-seat Wells Fargo Auditorium, the complex contains the 691-seat Albuquerque Journal Theatre, a state-of-the-art proscenium theatre, and the 291-seat Bank of America Theatre, dedicated primarily to film and video.

With over 1,700 square feet of performance area, the stage of the Albuquerque Journal Theatre is one of the largest indoor stages in New Mexico. This theatre also is equipped with an orchestra pit and an orchestra shell, which, like a band shell or small amphitheatre, provides optimal sound quality for symphonic and acoustic music. The Journal Theatre’s fly loft allows for rapid changes of elaborate scenery, as well as storage of the roof of the orchestra shell. At 85 feet on the exterior, the fly loft also creates the high point of the pyramid shape that is the central element of the building’s architecture.

The Bank of America Film Theatre has a screen 19 feet high by 26 feet wide. The screen can be raised, and a small thrust stage also makes this venue suitable for smaller musical performances and more intimate dramatic presentations, such as chamber music and readings.

With its deep red interior, the Wells Fargo Auditorium provides an intimate environment for films, lectures, poetry, and readings, as well as for full-length dramatic productions that play to a smaller audience.

Behind the stage of the Albuquerque Journal Theatre, eight dressing rooms are designed to accommodate the casts of large productions or the members of big dance companies. In addition, the REDCPA houses two generously sized rehearsal areas, with floor to ceiling mirrors, dance barres, and acoustic baffles. These rooms, along with facilities for set construction and storage both inside and outside the REDCPA, give the National Hispanic Cultural Center the space required for mounting its own original productions.

Spanning three stages, the NHCC’s Performing Arts Program brings international, national and local artists to perform everything from contemporary to traditional music, dance and theatre.

The REDCPA is designed to provide world-class stages for theatre, music, dance, and media arts, as well as venues for educating the public about Hispanic contributions to these disciplines.

The National Hispanic Cultural Center is dedicated to the preservation, promotion and advancement of Hispanic culture, arts and humanities. The Center presents exhibitions, lectures, book readings, performing arts and educational programing that are meaningful to the local community.

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Performing Arts

NATIONAL HISPANIC CULTURAL CENTER PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM

The program has developed, refined, and utilized the following guidelines to design its programming and curate its seasons:

Provide a mix of programming across the three performing arts disciplines—theatre, music, and dance—which includes interdisciplinary programming.

Provide regularly scheduled film programming consistent with the Center’s mission.

Provide a balance of New Mexican, national, and international programming.

Provide annual programming that is specific to seasons, holidays, and celebrations, as well as culture-specific—e.g., Día de Muertos, Carnaval, Women’s History Month, Cinco de Mayo.

Organize large-scale events—e.g., concerts, festivals—on the Plaza Mayor during warmer weather.

Maintain ongoing partnerships with local, national, and international performing arts festivals—e.g., ¡Globalquerque!, Revolutions International Theatre Festival, Festival Flamenco Internacional.

Maintain ongoing partnerships with various local, national, and international organizations to present other performances and events.

Provide educational and community outreach and programming for children and youth as an integral part of the performing arts season; provide summer institutes in performing arts disciplines.