Teatro Paraguas to Present LOVE'S LONELY HIGHWAY, Begin. Tonight

Love's Lonely Highway, written by acclaimed Latina Playwright Patricia Crespin and directed by Maggz Gallegos, will play Teatro Paraguas Studio, 3205 Calle Marie, beginning tonight, Friday 7/5 & Saturday 7/6 at 8pm; Sunday 7/7 at 2pm. Tickets are $12 general admission, $10 seniors an students, $8 children under 12. For information and reservations, call 424-1601 or visit www.teatroparaguas.org.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Well, Benito Gutierrez did, ever since he met the alluring but enigmatic Suzie on a lonely New Mexico highway while on his way to basic training. She was everything Benito was looking for in a woman. Polite, yet strong. Respectable, yet passionate. He swears to return and marry her after his training, but when he returns three months later, he finds Suzie's mother and discovers that Suzie died years before he ever saw her. After seven long years in Vietnam, Benito finds himself back at the lonely highway where he meets Malakai, another victim of the Vietnam war, and a raging alcoholic but an intelligent man with a knack for poetry and philosophy. Benito also manages to befriend Suzie's alcoholic mother, Viola, who has never recovered from losing her daughter. The three of them embark on a journey together, each one helping the other heal from their own private wounds and accept the harshness of life's cruel game of poker, while discovering that love, equally agonizing, appears in the most peculiar places.

Cast: Benito: Robert Lee; Suzie: Tabatha Bennett; Viola: Lisa Fenstermacher; Malakai: Don Garcia.

Playwright Patricia Crespín is a writer, actor, director, and producer, and a native of New Mexico. She has a B.A. in Vocal Performance from NMHU and a M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from UNM. She has written several plays, including: We are Hispanic-American Women...Okay?, El Corrido de Jórge (George's Song), Living Purgatory, American Dreams, Confessions of a Hispanic American Woman, The Hero Withinand two award winners, The Medea Complex and The Three Señorita Pigletitas y el Diablo the Wolf.