Nat Gold Players
Educating, entertaining, and inspiring through performing arts
Who knew that the key to bringing life back to a post-COVID community would involve scaring the living daylights out of its people? Years ago, when Nat Gold Players (NGP) first started its partnership with the local Masonic Lodge to turn their historic building into a premier Halloween Haunted House, it was a fundraiser for both organizations. It would become far more for the community and for the participants.
Once the COVID restrictions were lifted which had forbidden public performances, the annual Haunted House was one of the first public events held in Las Vegas. That event attracted over 1,100 attendees, making it one of the most successful public performances in the community. In an unexpected way, it resuscitated a sense of community and enthusiasm for life after long isolation for its residents, human interaction frequently limited to those within each household or the confines of a computer screen and teleconferencing. Not only was it successful in overall numbers, but it continued and continues to be one of the most successful cross-cultural audience attractions in the minority-majority area.
The Haunted House offers just one example of NGP’s efforts to help its community through difficult times. For several months, during the prolonged evacuations tied to the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire in 2022 NGP, like most everything else in area, shut down for several months. The acting executive director’s house was one of hundreds of homes burned, and for some months she lived the life of a vagabond, including living for a time outside of the state. It was impossible to operate during that time, but as soon as performances became possible again, NGP created original materials, largely through living history events in collaboration with Fort Union National Monument and the Citizens Committee for Historic Preservation (CCHP). Characters created by NGP and brought to life by its actors reminded the community that the people of northern New Mexico have long been resilient and continue to be so during modern challenges.
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The Santa Fe Community Foundation invited local nonprofits to submit stories related to our July topic of Arts & Culture
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