CW 15th Annual Holiday Players

This will be an in-store event and will be live streamed to Zoom, register for Zoom here.

It's that special time of the holiday season at Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse. We love bringing joy to our customers with our annual Holiday Players event. Come and enjoy the spirit of the season with a fantastic cast -  Ali MacGraw, Carol McGiffin, Jim McGiffin, Arthur Sze, Natachee Momaday Gray, Felix Cordova, Adela Gallegos, Alfredo Celedón Luján, and Andre Bruce reading heartwarming stories, filled with holiday excitement and cheer. Join us for a unique and memorable holiday experience that will lift your spirits and warm your heart.

Featured pieces and authors will include: 

A Visit From St. Nicholas, Clement Clark Moore

Mis Crismes, Alfredo Celedón Luján

Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

A Circle of Wonder, N. Scott Momaday 

The Recumbant Posture, Marriott Edgar  

Three Wise Guys, Sandra Cisneros

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss 

A New Mexico Christmas, Felix Cordova

Farolitos, Arthur Sze 

About the Readers

Ali MacGraw  is an Academy Award nominated actress, author of the New York Times bestselling autobiography, Moving Pictures. Ali travels extensively, appearing in documentaries and working on behalf of numerous social, animal, and environmental causes.

Carol McGiffin was born and raised in Santa Fe. She met Jim McGiffin in 1979 at The Community Theater. She has been part of the Collected Works Holiday Players since its inception. Carol is happy to be reading again this year.

Jim McGiffin grew up in Buffalo New York and moved to Santa Fe in 1976. He has been active in local theater since his arrival in Santa Fe. Jim worked for the state of New Mexico for over 20 years and is a very happy retiree.

Alfredo Celedón Luján is from Nambé, New Mexico.  He has been a writer-in-residence at the Noepe Center at Martha’s Vineyard and with the muti-cultural artists in the schools in Alaska.  His writing has appeared in What is College Level Writing?; Deep Reading; Engaging American Novels; Making Sense: A Real-World Rhetorical Reader; Trickster, English Journal; California English, La Herencia del Norte; Bread Loaf News, the New Mexico Humanities Review, and Writers Without Borders, among other periodicals. His story, “Mis Crismes,” won The Santa Fe New Mexican’s 2006 holiday writing contest.

Arthur Sze has published eleven books of poetry, including Sight Lines, which won the National Book Award, Compass Rose, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and, most recently, The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems. A Chancellor Emeritus at the Academy of American Poets and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts and was the first Poet Laureate of Santa Fe.

Felix Cordova is a Renaissance man of entertainment, you name it, he's dabbled in it. Recently he served as actor and director of the 101st Fiesta Melodrama at The Santa Fe Playhouse. A lifelong Santa Fean, he takes pride in entertaining his beloved town.

Natachee Momaday Gray is a Santa Fe Indigenous poet whose work accentuates the anima of the collective spirit. She is the author of Silver Box, a collection of poems gathered from her heart.

Adela Gallegos is a high-school student at the New Mexico School for the Arts. She has experience in theater, film and dance. We are happy to have her join the Collected Works Holiday Players this year.

Andre Bruce is an enthusiastic ten year old, born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He attends fourth grade at Carlos Gilbert Elementary. In his free time, Andre loves to swim for Beast Aquatics, and sing in the Carlos Gilbert Choir, and spend time with his dog Sasha and his cat Cholla.