The Thrill of a Stage Play

Last year I wrote the play performed in the 2019 Pat Garrett Western Heritage Festival. The play was based on research I did for my “Killing Pat Garrett” book. It was satisfying seeing the words I wrote spoken on stage. But the real thrill was communal. A play is a group effort. Everyone on the team, from stagehand to actor, are critical to the success of the performance. You could feel the communal sense growing in the rehearsals, and during and following the performance, an engulfing feeling of we, we did this. We presented this to the audience. Actors in the photo, left to right: John Wood, Teddy Aspen-Sanchez, Scott Galbreath, Bob Gamboa, Rick Eldridge, Jason Wyatt, and Mozart Pierson.