Missing in Action

Former theater kids across Santa Fe will recognize director Chris Leslie from his time heading children’s programs at both the Armory for the Arts and Pandemonium Productions (a company which Leslie himself founded). But much of the latter troupe’s decades-deep stock of props, costumes and hand-painted set pieces—many of them built by Leslie—vanished from his home near the Santa Fe Country Club on the morning of July 10 along with the Ford F150 he was using to transport those supplies to El Museo Cultural for Pandemonium’s current production of The Little Mermaid.

“We loaded [the truck] over the weekend, walked out Monday morning to finish and poof! It was gone,” recalls Leslie.

The theft occurred just days before Mermaid’s opening night on Friday the 14th—but in spite of that blow, the show managed to open on schedule.

“Luckily, most of the set and props were there [at the theater],” he explains. “It was mostly other things to make it more spectacular. We pride ourselves on high production value, so we struggled to go buy more fabric and things like that. A lot of our shoes were stolen. And we had some really cool treasure chests full of jewels, silver candlesticks…But I’ve been building up so long I had backups.”

Leslie accumulated the majority of the missing items after the formation of Pandemonium Productions in 2001—23 seasons and 68 shows ago, to the best of his extensive recollection. But his prominence in the local theater community stretches back farther, to his time as first an acting student at the former College of Santa Fe and then a collaborator with the likes of Fred Johnson of Fred’s Drive-In, Rebecca Morgan of Southwest Children’s Theatre and Ana Gallegos y Reinhardt of Warehouse 21.

“There were a lot of us doing this back in that time,” he remarks. “Now there aren’t so many.”

But although several of Pandemonium’s peer organizations are no longer with us (or have transformed significantly in recent years), Leslie’s connection to the city’s wider youth performance sphere means that the loss of these supplies will have a wider ripple effect beyond Mermaid’s pared-down appearance.

“One of the things that I do is loan or let local schools borrow props, costumes and scenery,” he notes. “And I sometimes deliver items in the now-stolen truck.”

If the missing materials aren’t recovered, those other theater programs will likely be left in a similar scramble when the school year starts. But while he urges those interested in showing support to donate via the organization’s website (pandemoniumprod.org), Leslie’s passion for local children’s theater remains unshaken by the loss.

“It’s just addictive,” he asserts. “It’s still a fantastical and magical and inspirational energy that nothing else has.”

The Little Mermaid: 7 pm Friday, July 21 and Saturday, July 22; 2 pm Sunday, July 23. $12 for adults; $10 for seniors, students and military; $8 for kids under 12. None turned away for financial hardship. El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, 555 Camino de la Familia, (505) 920-0704