Amargosa Opera House celebrates 42nd season with production

Death Valley Junction lies 92 miles from Las Vegas at the junction of Highway 127, Highway 190 and a county road from Pahrump that accesses Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The old mining town lies about 30 miles from Pahrump, Shoshone, Calif., and Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park.

For the first time since 1967, the creator of the opera house, dancer-painter Marta Becket, will not appear on stage this season. Instead, her artistry inspired a new show called “If These Walls Could Talk,” a collaborative effort by Becket and Sandy Scheller, a professional dancer, mime and teacher with television and stage experience, including major Las Vegas productions. Scheller first met Becket while filming a music video. She later became involved with the opera house productions as unofficial wardrobe mistress.

During the new show, Scheller brings to life some of the colorful characters that people the walls of the theater in fool-the-eye murals painted over several years by Becket. The 45-minute presentation incorporates music and dance from several European countries to interpret the characters without words. Characters from the murals featured include the Madame from Ash Meadows, Pagliacci, Spanish courtiers, the king, a nun, a gypsy, ballet dancers and a cat. Becket appears during video interviews between acts.

Theater-goers need reservations, since the small opera house has limited seating. For reservations, call (760) 852-4441 or go online at www.amargosa-opera-house.com. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for children.

The theater started life as Corkhill Hall, a multi-purpose recreation center that served residents of Death Valley Junction, a small company town built in the 1920s by Pacific Coast Borax Company. It sits at the end of a single-story adobe complex that included company offices, an employee dormitory, a 23-room hotel, a store and a dining room built in the Mexican colonial style.

When Becket first saw it while on a road trip in 1967, the facility was derelict. However, she envisioned it as a place where her artistic fancies could take wing, free from the fetters of the great theaters in the East where she had gained early stage experience. She soon rented it and began its transformation into the Amargosa Opera House.

Becket’s dance and mime performances began early in 1968, running three nights a week, with or without an audience. As word got out about this strange production in its remote theater, audiences began to gather.

During the summers for four years, Becket painted fanciful scenes full of characters upon the bare walls, ensuring that the one-woman show always played to a full house. After they were finished, she started painting the ceiling. When that was completed, she began decorating the walls of the adjacent hotel. Soon, visitors came not only to see the shows but to enjoy the whimsical art work.

Some of the early visitors who came to view the shows and meet Becket developed into a group dedicated to salvaging Death Valley Junction, which was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. At first privately owned, Death Valley Junction is now the property of Becket and a nonprofit preservation trust.

Work began on restoration of the hotel, starting with the lobby and a few rooms.

The hotel now houses guests in 18 of its original rooms furnished in rather Spartan 1820s style. Rooms cost from $67 to $84, including taxes. Other visitors use an adjacent RV park with 60 sites. The Amargosa Cafe serves three meals a day, including pastries and pies baked on premises. Guests may explore the Death Valley region by rental jeeps. For more information on jeep trips, ask when you call for room reservations or investigate online at www. deathvalleyjeeprentals.com.

Margo Bartlett Pesek’s column appears on Sundays.