Mia Berkson shines

Mia Berkson is well on her way to living her dream of performing professionally in live theatre.

Earlier this year, Mia, 15, played the lead in the musical “Matilda,” singing, dancing and acting to rave reviews at Las Cruces Community Theatre. She also performed in “The Crucible,” “Mary Poppins” and “Annie” at LCCT and was in the cast of 15 shows for A Children’s Theatre of the Mesilla Valley. (Her first stage roles, as a 3- and 4-year-old in pre-school, were as a frog and a leprechaun.)

Mia is studying ballet, tap and jazz at the Las Cruces School of Dance and Music, and has performed in “The Nutcracker Suite,” “Cinderella” and “The Grinch” for the school and Borderlands Ballet. Mia is also taking voice lessons from Las Cruces singer/actor Della Bustamante.

At Organ Mountain High School, where she will be a sophomore this year, Mia is in the theatre program and sings soprano in the OMHS choir – she missed two rehearsals of “Matilda” in January to participate in the New Mexico Activities Association All-State Choir.

During the 2022-23 school year, Mia was also a member of the Organ Mountain High track team and part of the four-girl team that broke the school record in the 4 x 800-meter relay.

As this story runs, Mia is at Stagedoor Manor summer camp in the Catskill Mountains of New York, a three-week program in which she will study musical theatre, dance and acting for film and perform in four shows. It is the third summer in a row she has enrolled in the program.

“Musical theatre is what I’m passionate about,” Mia said. “I love it.”

Her favorite stage musicals are “Hamilton” and “The Drowsy Chaperone,” but Mia does not have a favorite song.

“I’m constantly singing a million songs,” Mia said.

She also is “super interested in film,” Mia said, both acting in the medium and learning the business side.

"People tell me how talented Mia is and I say, 'Yes, but she also works really, really hard,’" said her mother, Rebecca Berkson.

Mia can trace her theatrical roots back to her great grandmother, Maria Lopez, who performed in vaudeville.

“If Mia makes this passion into a career, it's not merely because of her talent,” Rebecca said. “Lots of people have talent and don't make it. When I see how she pushes herself so hard in a track race that she nearly blacks out, or she has swollen feet after two shows on pointe shoes, or how she overcame her nerves as a 10-year-old to sing the National Anthem in front of a full Pan Am Center basketball audience, I think, ‘She certainly has grit.’"

"Mia Berkson is one of the most talented young actors in Las Cruces,” said actor/director and former theatre owner Norman Duttweiler. “Every time she steps on stage, she brings a level of commitment and honesty to her work that one rarely sees in community theatre. I look forward to working with her again, and to following her progress as she continues to grow as an artist."

SIDEBAR

Sister act: Lilah Berkson’s exhibit featured at Smithsonian National Museum

While her sister, Mia, was studying theatre, dancing and film in New York, Lilah Berkson, 13, was at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and presented an exhibit at the museum’s National History Day (NHD) Showcase exhibition June 14 in College Park, Maryland.

Lilah’s exhibit, “Adolf Hitler: A Pioneer Of Propaganda In The Media,” was featured in the museum’s June 14 National History Day (NHD) Showcase exhibition.

“Lilah chose this topic because unfortunately she has been running across antisemitism locally (a swastika graffitied on the exterior of the temple the Berkson family attends in Las Cruces, and anti-Semitic comments Lilah heard from other kids) over the last couple of years,” said Lilah and Mia’s mother, Rebecca Berkson.

"Lilah's exhibit is an example of the passion and incredible research students put into their NHD projects. For Lilah's work to be featured at the Smithsonian is an honor, and we at New Mexico History Day are so proud of her and the other 61 students we took to the national competition," said Heather McLenahan of the New Mexico Humanities Council (NMHC).

Lilah is a seventh grader at Mesilla Valley Leadership Academy (MVLA).

Also representing Las Cruces Public Schools at the exhibition were MVLA students Maddie Sandell and Lily Louick, both 12, and Alivia Villanueva, 14, along with their teacher, Morgan Harding.

For the competition, Alivia created a documentary about her grandfather, Danny Villanueva, who played in the NFL in the 1960s for the Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys and was co-founder of the Spanish-language television network Univision.

Nearly 2,700 students were in College Park to compete, NMHC said in a news release.

“NHD is a year-long academic program focused on historical research, interpretation and creative expression for sixth to twelfth-grade students,” the news release said.

“Both of these girls are smart and talented, but it's their commitment and work ethic that makes them succeed. I admire them both for that,” Rebecca Berkson said.