04/17/2026
Opening this Saturday!
In today's Pasatiempo:
PERFORMANCE
Seas on Stage
While some theater troupes wrestle with the question of how to attract younger audience members, Umbrella Children’s Theatre endures no such challenges.
Actors ages 5 to 17 dominate the stage, which they share with one or two adult actors at a time. But the most palpable excitement emanates not from the stage itself, but from its rim, where children are invited to sit and get a better view of the show than any adult even in the first row.
Umbrella stages two shows a year at the affiliated Teatro Paraguas, which is both a theater company and a theater space available to rent. Its most recent show was Fancy Clew & The Boarding House Mystery, staged in November and written by the late Rebecca Morgan, who co-founded what then was called Children’s Theatre Productions in 1988.
The tongue-twister-titled The Pirates of Nochanze Pollute the Perfect Paradise or Tree Lovers Attempt to Topple the Terrible Cannon was written by participating children themselves. It focuses on the inhabitants of Enchanted Island defending their territory against attacks by Priscilla the Evil and her affiliated pirates.
JoJo Sena-Tarnoff runs the theater company and fills several other roles at Teatro Paraguas, playing in the house band Melange, writing material, and acting. Some Paraguas actors appear in Umbrella productions and vice versa; Miranda Sinkovitz Arteaga, who plays Princess Enchantment in The Pirates of Nochanze Pollute, portrayed the title character’s daughter in Paraguas’ staging of Esparanza this year. — B.S.
details
The Pirates of Nochanze Pollute the Perfect Paradise or Tree Lovers Attempt to Topple the Terrible Cannon; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday April 18-19 and 25-26; Teatro Paraguas, 3205 Calle Marie, Suite B; $5-$15; 505-424-1601; teatroparaguasnm.org
