Thingamajig Theatre Company will opens its 2025-2026 fall and winter season at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts this weekend with Terrence McNally’s “Master Class,” a play as fierce, funny and unflinching as the woman at its center: Maria Callas.
Performances are Friday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m.
More than a play about opera, “Master Class” is an encounter with art itself — its cruelty, its transcendence, its impossible demands.
McNally imagines Callas in her later years, conducting a seminar at Juilliard. What begins as a lesson for her young singers becomes a searing examination of genius and the toll it exacts.
Laura Moore stars as Callas, with Dale Scrivener as her accompanist. Ellie O’Hara, Samantha Luck and Trevor Brown portray the aspiring students, and Scott Morehead rounds out the cast as the stagehand. Tim Moore directs.
“‘Master Class’ isn’t a museum piece. It’s alive with wit and heartbreak. Callas goads her students, but in doing so she reveals the frailty beneath her brilliance. Audiences will see not just a great artist, but a woman fighting to define her legacy,” said Tim Moore.
The production runs only two nights in September before returning for a few performances each month through November. Tickets are available at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts, pagosacenter.org or by calling (970) 731-SHOW (7469).
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