The High Desert Follies is a Taos, New Mexico–based live comedy and variety company bringing original, offbeat, and distinctly Southwestern entertainment to the stage.

Blending sketch comedy, storytelling, monologues, music, satire, and theatrical absurdity, The High Desert Follies celebrates the strange, wonderful, and wonderfully strange people and experiences that make life in the high desert unique.

Our shows feature original material performed by local actors, writers, musicians, and artists, with comedy that ranges from clever and heartfelt to irreverent and delightfully ridiculous. No two performances are quite the same, but audiences can always expect an evening filled with laughter, surprises, and a healthy dose of Taos weirdness.

At its heart, The High Desert Follies is about community—creating a place where local performers can take chances, new work can find an audience, and people can come together and laugh.

Original comedy. Local talent. High-desert weirdness.

Welcome to The High Desert Follies.

SHOWTIMES
Fri, Sept 11, 7pm - 9pm
Sat, Sept 12, 7pm - 9pm

PRESENTED BY
The High Desert Follies

An evening-length performance integrating live motion tracking and augmented reality, allowing the performer to dance across a virtual vinyl record stage.

SHOWTIME
Fri, Sept 18, 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Free

PRESENTED BY
Paseo Project

Join us for an evening of beautiful music and dance presented by resident company ReVoZo.

SHOWTIME
Sat, Sept 19, 7pm

PRESENTED BY
WildFlower Playhouse

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Sept 24
Fri, Sept 25
Sat, Sept 26
Sun, Sept 27

PRESENTED BY
Metta Theatre

A well-known member of many Taos ensembles takes his turn in the light, offering for the first time a selection of original jazz compositions.

These tunes embody the continual searching of a lost songster for some homeland, some homecoming, some tradition upon which to lay his head.

Finding Jazz to be such a home for all wanderers in this liminal age, Robert Quijano explores its eras through the lens of each tune.

Joining him & his guitar is a debut ensemble of young jazz fellow-travelers: Sarah Farris (Saxophone & Flute), CJ Burnett (Piano), Jed Margolis (Vibraphone), Shaw Hayakawa (Bass), & Miles Anderson (Drums).

Megan Wood opens the evening with a solo set of her rich song tapestries.

SHOWTIME
Sun, Oct 4, 4pm - 6:30pm

PRESENTED BY
Robert Quijano

What the Constitution Means to Me is a witty, heartfelt, and deeply personal play in which playwright, Heidi Schreck, revisits the teenage speeches she once gave about the U.S. Constitution to earn college tuition. Blending memoir, history, humor, and audience engagement, the play explores how the Constitution has shaped the lives of generations of women while asking whether this foundational document continues to serve all Americans equally.

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Oct 22, 7:30pm
Fri, Oct 23, 7:30pm
Sat, Oct 24, 7:30pm
Sun, Oct 25, 2pm
Thu, Oct 29, 7:30pm
Fri, Oct 30, 7:30pm
Sat, Oct 31, 7:30pm
Sun, Nov 1, 2pm

PRESENTED BY
Taos Onstage

What the Constitution Means to Me is a witty, heartfelt, and deeply personal play in which playwright, Heidi Schreck, revisits the teenage speeches she once gave about the U.S. Constitution to earn college tuition. Blending memoir, history, humor, and audience engagement, the play explores how the Constitution has shaped the lives of generations of women while asking whether this foundational document continues to serve all Americans equally.

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Oct 22, 7:30pm
Fri, Oct 23, 7:30pm
Sat, Oct 24, 7:30pm
Sun, Oct 25, 2pm
Thu, Oct 29, 7:30pm
Fri, Oct 30, 7:30pm
Sat, Oct 31, 7:30pm
Sun, Nov 1, 2pm

PRESENTED BY
Taos Onstage

A record release to celebrate Morphic Trespass, a creative fusion between John Biscello (spoken word) and Ben Wright (bass). Biscello and Wright will perform tracks from the record, and vinyl albums will be for sale.

SHOWTIME
Sun, Nov 8, 5pm - 6:30pm
Free

PRESENTED BY
John Biscello

The Story of Me began as a six-week autobiographical theater workshop led by Director Karen Paull. Each performer was invited to explore three significant moments that shaped their life and, through writing, improvisation, acting, movement, voice, and clowning, transform those experiences into an original theatrical performance.

What emerged is an evening of courageous, surprising, and deeply human theater.

Expect laughter, heartbreak, absurdity, tenderness, and moments of unexpected revelation as these performers step onto the stage with something more powerful than fiction—their own lived experience.

They lived it. They wrote it. Now they're daring to perform it.

Come for their stories. You may leave thinking about your own.

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Nov 12, 7pm - 9pm
Fri, Nov 13, 7pm - 9pm
Sat, Nov 14, 7pm - 9pm
Sun, Nov 15, 2pm - 4pm

Tickets $20

PRESENTED BY
Electra Theater Company

A Taos Comedy Special - Cultures clash and generational ideologies are brought into question when the daughter of a liberal hippie couple brings home her new girlfriend for Thanksgiving!

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Nov 19, 7pm - 8:30pm
Fri, Nov 20, 7pm - 8:30pm
Sat, Nov 21, 2pm - 3:30pm
Sat, Nov 21, 7pm - 8:30pm
Sun, Nov 22, 2pm - 3:30pm

$25 Suggested Donation

PRESENTED BY
Artistic Giving Council

Featuring Rumi, Hafiz, St. Francis, St. Teresa & Others

The International best-selling poetry of Daniel Ladinsky

by Daniel with Melissa LaScaleia

This poetry benefit will feature the works of some of the greatest poets & saints in history, who have spoken very directly at times about the wonders and our need of animals. And too, we will present poems that might help all of our "Stray Hearts!"

What is a stray heart? It is someone who has not laughed that day, danced a bit— if only in their eyes; or given to someone or something, via a soft sound, a kind movement! A sweet look!

In some ways, we are all such new golden birds in this world, our wings have yet unfurled enough to caress the cheek of the Sun. We need each other for that! And the great gift— and great value & utility in art.

Hope to see ya for the Event. And help us bark & howl & Rock! And raise money for a great cause! The furred angels!

SHOWTIME
Sun, Dec 6, 4pm - 5:30pm
All proceeds to benefit Stray Hearts.

PRESENTED BY
Daniel Ladinsky

Song-carrier and multi-instrumentalist Leonardo Armijo (Wild Faith) brings 2 evenings of heart-opening, earth-rooted live music to WildFlower Playhouse Blending world folk, blues, and rich acoustic soundscapes, "Rewoven" is an intentional musical gathering centered on connection, celebration, presence, and community.

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Jan 21, 6:30pm - 8pm
Fri, Jan 22, 6:30pm - 8pm

SLIDING SCALE
$15–$20 Single Night
$25–$35 Both Nights
NOTAFLOF (No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds)

PRESENTED BY
Leonardo Armijo