Mora is a small farming town north of Las Vegas, N.M., full of people who don't want their youngsters leaving the valley without taking their stories of place and people with them.

David Olson, the artistic director of Theaterwork in Santa Fe, is a man who prefers to call himself a storyteller rather than a theater artist.

Mora's high school students have teamed up with Olson to create the original storytelling theater piece, Roots & Wings: A Call for Stories. This roughly one-hour show plays at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, in the gym in the Mora High School. Admission is free.

"What have people's lives in this valley been about?" Olson said during a recent interview. "This project is about the young people of Mora turning to older family members to discover stories of living in this place. They asked their elders, 'What do you want the young people to take with them when they leave this valley?', which, sadly, is what happens. This is a source of great sadness for the people of the valley, but this project gives them the chance to say out loud what they want their youth to take with them."

Olson started the project in September, but it was initiated after some Mora High School students came to Santa Fe to see Theaterwork's spring production of Jean Anouilh's version of Antigone — which Olson staged in the Tino Griego swimming pool (sans water).

Olson then traveled to Mora to talk with these students about the production, and one of Mora's teen girls asked him, "Why don't you come up here and do something with us?"

The result is a collection of oral histories transformed into stage monologues by a cast of
18 Mora high schoolers. Close to 160 of the village's older students sought out stories for the piece. The play opens with the ensemble, portraying storytellers, singing an original tune before their characters began seeking — and then reciting — stories of the valley.

What ensues is the telling of tales about land, love, animals, loss, loneliness, yearning, snowstorms, weddings and Christmas memories.

"There's so many things I didn't know about Mora that are interesting to learn," said 16-year-old Alex Martinez, who is composing an original score for the piece. "I probably felt like the rest of the students felt — we never heard these stories before." He said every rural village like Mora must have its own stories to tell, but "The problem is, not many people tell stories anymore."

The title, Roots & Wings, came after considerable discussion with the students involved, Olson said. "We came up with the term 'roots' easily," he said. "But we also discussed where we are going, not just what's behind us — the 'wings.' "

The piece climaxes with the cast calling for more stories to keep the tradition and history of the valley alive. Olson said he hopes to mount a more expanded version of this production called Memorias de Mora — at the James A. Little Theater in Santa Fe sometime next June.

Olson said Roots & Wings — one of the company's Life Story Projects — is driven by volunteers and is not funded by the school district or any other funding source. This is Theaterwork's 16th season in Santa Fe; Olson said the company has produced just over 100 plays in Santa Fe so far.

Visit www.theaterwork.org for more information on the project. To get to Mora, take I-25 north to Las Vegas and then
N.M. 518 north to Mora.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.