About Us

In 1989 Catfish Callaway staged the first production of Last Minute Low Budget, "The Ballad of the Last Café,” at the Starlight Theater.  After a twelve-year hiatus, LMLB reappeared in Terlingua and staged two productions in 2001.  We were off and running, with four shows in 2002. 

These early shows took place in either Lajitas or the Starlight.  In 2003, thanks to the generosity of Delia White, LMLB found it’s home for the next ten years at the one-sided performance area at the Original Cook-Off site. The theater was known as "The Theater Behind the Store." True, the site was still used every November for the cook-off, which meant that each October we gutted the place - the walls, the seating, the stage, every piece of wiring - and moved it to storage.  And then put it back again after the cookoff.  We did this for years!  But it was our golden time, with two to three full performances each winter.  For one production, it was estimated that a full 1/3 of the south Brewster County population either acted in the performance, worked as crew or construction, or attended a performance. 

LMLB also staged a series of one-act plays each summer, known as the "Summer Shorts."  We found it incredibly constructive to offer a "short, training opportunity" to folks new to the theater, wanting to try out acting / directing but not ready to commit to a two-hour show.  In ten years LMLB had over 100 locals perform on the stage!  In addition, LMLB also did radio theater on Marfa Public Radio, "traveling" productions to Terlingua Ranch headquarters, Lajitas and Panther Junction in the National Park, and theater reading events at the Starlight theater and La Kiva.  

LMLB was never quite the organization to have the paperwork needed for grant writing.  Instead, our financial support came from the tremendous support of the Terlingua community.  This support came in the way of volunteer labor, building materials, and donations.  We held several highly successful benefits. 

Our most popular fundraiser, by far, was the annual Home Tour.  Held for fourteen years, five local homes were opened for tour to 100 participants each year, two touring events of 50 throughout the day.  Big Bend River Tours, Desert Sports, and Far Flung Outdoor Center donated vans and drivers for the event in order to shuttle the guests to the homes.  La Pasadio hosted the wine and cheese party following each tour.  It was a sell-out crowd with 80% of the guests from out of town.  Many of our guests returned year after year and it became quite popular to show a house under construction and then return to it in two- or three-years' time.  Home Tour ended when both Alpine and Marfa started to offer Home Tours as a fundraiser and our new locals felt reluctant to open their homes.  

LMLB lost its home "Behind The Store" in 2011 as things changed within the White family, the owners of the property.  But luck held us and we were gifted two acres of land from Terlingua Fire and EMS.  Many years back, Terlingua Fire and EMS had been donated these two acres near the present-day Wright Hardware.  They had their original building there.  They subsequentially moved to a different local.  Having been given the two acres, their board did not deem it appropriate to sell the land for profit but, instead, passed it on to a local nonprofit.  They choose LMLB.  We took possession in 2011.  

Over the next two years we demolished the original building, cleared the debris, and built the current theater, all with volunteer labor and donated materials.  The first performance in the new building was 2013 and the last LMLB production was 2017.  The building has also been used for movie nights, lectures, local talent shows, Terlingua’s Burlesque and Word-Off events, and traveling musical productions. 

Written by Elizabeth Thompson