And she created her art on her own terms. She claimed the emptiness of the valley, and the opera house, as her blank canvas. She didn’t let geographic status erode her passion or dilute her vision. It didn’t grow big, but it grew strong and held on, like desert sage brush. Becket brought art to the desert, to people who had never seen it before, who never thought they desired to. She proved that it doesn’t matter where you do it it matters that you are doing it. She created her art in the vast openness of Death Valley. She had none of the support upon which most artists thrive or depend – neither from wealthy patrons, nor celebrated dance companies, nor an artistic community. Far from a metropolis, cultural mecca, famous theaters, devoted art lovers, and other artists. Becket labored at her art – including dance, piano, singing, composing, writing, painting – in a place most performers would not feel comfortable. Amargosa Opera House, view of the house from the stage. She refurbished the hall over time, painting every inch of the inside with richly-detailed murals of a royal medieval audience. In 1968 she inadvertently discovered the abandoned hall at Death Valley Junction when her car got a flat tire nearby. She created solo shows that toured around the country. Becket was a performer in well-known Broadway productions in the 1940s, yet by the late 1950s she felt her artistic options drying up in New York. She was luminous, entrancing, and consummately entertaining. She demonstrated that her passion for art, music and dance is matched only by her keen observation of people around her and her comedic storytelling. Her memory was relentless, and her wit fully intact. She acted out real-life characters that populated her adopted town, as well as fictional characters from musicals she had conceived, composed and danced. Though she no longer can dance, she sat regally on a throne-like chair with costume pieces and props in easy reach, and shared her memories of her life in Death Valley Junction. Marta Becket, the dedicated performer who brought the Amargosa Opera House back to life with her one-woman dance-mime shows, gave her final public performance on Sunday February 12. “The Sitting Down Show” (closing night), Amargosa Opera House, February 12, 2012
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