Welcome to our new web site!

To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.

During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.

FLICKINGER CENTER FOR THE ARTS

NMSU grad ‘feeds soul’ at Flickinger Center in Alamogordo

Posted

Isaac Lucero has moved from Las Cruces to Alamogordo to apply everything he learned in the New Mexico State University Theatre Department as the new program director at the Flickinger Center for the Arts and Patron’s Hall.

Lucero, who graduated from NMSU in 2020, began work at the 620-seat Flickinger in May. After a hiatus of nearly 15 months because of Covid, the first live show at the theatre was June 29. A full schedule of live performances began in July. The Flickinger also has begun a full slate of workshops, dance classes and art classes.

Next door to the Flickinger, Patron’s Hall is an event center and performance space that is home to the Heritage Art Gallery and a coffee shop and ice cream parlor.

Lucero is inviting Las Cruces patrons of the arts to attend live performances at both venues and is also welcoming artists and performers to book their shows at the Flickinger or Patron’s Hall and show their art in the Heritage Gallery.

“I love Las Cruces,” said Lucero, 29. “I know of lot of people there. I’m always open to collaborate on any sort of show.”

Las Cruces also knows Lucero.

He played Riff Raff in the NMSU Theatre Department’s 2013 production of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” (the last production at Hershel Zohn Theatre), starred as Peter Shaw in “Silent Sky” (winning a Theatre Department best-leading performance award), sang, danced and acted in 2019’s “My Fair Lady” and played Feste (the clown) and also composed original music for “Twelfth Night” in 2015 at NMSU. Lucero was the Snow King in Las Cruces School of Dance and Music’s 2019 production of “The Nutcracker,” and starred in “Lend Me a Tenor” and “The Laramie Project” at Las Cruces Community Theatre.

“Starting new somewhere is a really special experience for an artist,” Lucero said. “First and foremost, that’s what I consider myself. I want to be in a spot where I can feed my soul.”

Moving to Alamogordo is a gift, Lucero said, because it allows him to “reach people outside my circle.”

Alamogordo has a population of about 33,000, about one-third the size of Las Cruces, but the Flickinger is larger than both the ASNMSU Center for the Arts and the Rio Grande Theatre, and has a reputation for quality shows that are well attended.

“Art can really happen anywhere,” Lucero said.

At many theaters in the western United States, he said, “young people are taking over the reins. There seems to be a lot of young blood” among artistic directors. They are marketing differently to meet the challenges of coming out of the pandemic and dealing with multiple competing entertainment platforms, Lucero said.

But, “people still want to go see live shows,” he said, and live theater is “a good tool for reminding people of their shared humanity.”

Flickinger Center history

The nonprofit Alamogordo Civic Auditorium, Inc. was created in 1983 to provide a facility for the performing arts in Alamogordo and Otero County. In 1988, Alamogordo resident Margaret Flickinger bought the Sierra Theater, a 1950s-style movie theater, and donated it to the organization. The theater and the organization were renamed Flickinger Center for the Performing Arts. The inaugural performance at the theater was in December 1988 by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. The inaugural season started in October 1992.

The Flickinger Center is located at 1110 New York Ave. in Alamogordo.

Contact Lucero at 575-437-2202 (office), 760-420-7261 (cell) and programdirector@flickingercenter.com. Visit flickingercenter.com.



2021-22 season at the Flickinger Center

Here is what is on the season schedule at the Flickinger Center. Check flickingercenter.com

for updates.

Start time for all shows is 7 p.m. except as noted. Visit www.etix.com/ticket/v/17205/flickinger-center-for-performing-arts for tickets.

Auditions

  • 6 p.m. Aug. 23 and 25; 9-11 a.m. Aug. 28: Alamogordo Musical Theatre (AMT) auditions for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. The Tony-winning musical, which opened on Broadway in 1962, is a comedy based on the ancient Roman comedies of Plautus, as a slave named Pseudolus attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master win the heart of the girl next door.

Live performances

  • Aug. 20-28: CMT presents: “The Orphan Train.” The Flickinger Center's own resident children’s theater company performs “The Orphan Train.” Performances are 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Aug. 20-21and 27-28; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 22.
  • Sept. 16: Michael Martin Murphy returns for a night of Texas country and Americana music.
  • Oct. 2: Petty Profits is the world’s best Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers tribute band.
  • Nov. 5-13: AMT Presents: “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
  • Dec. 14: Mariachi Christmas. Ballet folklorico dancers and mariachis help celebrate the holiday with violins, horns and Mexican traditions.
  • Jan. 21-22, 2022: Bettman and Halpin play original folk/Americana music.
  • Feb. 12: World renowned pianist George Winston.
  • March 19: Six Appeal, winners of the world’s largest a capella competition in Moscow, and the National Harmony Sweepstakes Championship.
  • April 12: State Street Ballet’s original production of “The Jungle Book.”
  • April 28: Jarabe Mexicano takes a joyride through a versatile songbook of Mexican Folk music, rock and roll, Tex-Mex, Latin rock and reggae-cumbia.

Summer Street Concert Series

All performances are 8 to 10 p.m. at the Flickinger Center. Tickets are $7. Visit flickingercenter.com/summer-street-concerts.

Aug. 14: Rosewater Blues. Texas, classic and Latin blues as well as classic rock, country rock and modern alternative.

Sept. 4: Calista Band. Original songs with soulful vocals and telecaster tones.

Sept. 18: Seven Stone. Rock out with a local favorite and classic rock band.

Flickinger Center, Isaac Lucero

X