The cast of “Love, Loss and What I Wore” post-show at Magdalena Stage, summer 2022. From left are Susan Slagter, Cara Snyder, Marta McKelvy, Harvana Conrad and Sally Romano.
Courtesy photo

Long recognized as an art community boasting fine art galleries, artisans and musicians, Magdalena is also home to live theater once again. Magdalena Stage is the brainchild of Hop Canyon resident Caralyn Snyder, who started putting on live performances in a makeshift theater in 2018 in the former elementary school gym on Spruce Street.

Currently, she is working to produce The Diary of Anne Frank, a dramatization of Anne Frank’s diary written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. The performance is planned for early December, and Snyder said she is looking for the perfect cast.

Characters in The Diary of Anne Frank are Otto Frank, Anne Frank, Peter van Daan, Edith Frank, Mr. Dussel, Mrs. van Daan, and Mr. van Daan.

“I need a Mr. Frank and a Mr. van Daan,” she said.

Snyder said she actually got her start with The Diary of Anne Frank.

Caralyn Snyder

“This has been cooking in my brain for about four or five years,” she said. “I’ve got to do it. It’s one of those things that you have to do. It started really getting to me last year when we did Love Lost and What I Wore by Nora and Delia Ephron, and it was a big hit.”

Until her move to Magdalena, Snyder spent 25 years in Aspen, performing with Aspen Stage, and considered it her home.

“I was born in Texas and knew I wanted to leave when I was four,” she said. “I went to Colorado as soon as I graduated–Gunnison, Colorado Springs, Denver, Aspen. I’ve been acting since college in the 1970s. I’ve played Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman, I’ve done Patsy Cline twice in a show I put together at Thunder River Theater in Carbondale.”

The stage director and actor debuted Magdalena Stage five years ago when she moved from Aspen, Colorado, through the prompting of her husband, Hills Snyder, who runs the gallery and artspace, ‘kind of a small array’ on North Main Street.

Those who are interested in joining the cast of The Diary of Anne Frank may call Snyder at 505-452-6803

 

John Larson, El Defensor Chieftain