'A Year in Quirky Town' spotlights the uniqueness of the Duke City

“Are you tired of hearing that Albuquerque is the worst? Then you’re gonna love this show!”

At least according to Terri Klein, playwright behind “A Year in Quirky Town,” a play based on Albuquerque, coming to The Adobe Theater starting Saturday, July 5, through Sunday, July 13.

“Her car breaks down here in Albuquerque, and she gets stuck here for a full calendar year, and she gets to experience life as a Burqueño for a full year, just fully immersed in it,” Cameron Illidge-Welch, show director, said. “And at the end of the play, we figure out if it is for her, or if she goes back to from whence she came.”

The play is inspired by the people in Klein’s life, including her son, who not only inspired her to write the play but also helped come up with its name.

“He said, ‘You know, there’s some people who call this AlbuQUIRKY, or quirky town, because there’s a lot of very different kinds of people here.’ I love that about Albuquerque …” Klein said. “The whole of Albuquerque is very accepting of lots of different kinds of people, and that’s not true of a lot of places.”

Klein and Illidge-Welch are not native to Albuquerque, but they have both lived here for the last decade and have found the surrounding community welcoming from the start.

“It’s so funny, because I have felt like such a local ever since the day that I got here,” Illidge-Welch said. “Everybody has made me feel like I’m part of this big, wacky family that resides here in Albuquerque.”

Illidge-Welch and Klein have found that the show has been a amalgamation of thoughts and creative changes by the cast and crew.

“Not every line in the show is authored by me, OK, but I like that. I like theater. It’s very collaborative,” Klein said. “I always learn stuff, and stuff goes into the shows that I don’t have the background for (or) I didn’t have the idea for, but it works.”

This is Illidge-Welch’s second time directing a show at The Adobe Theater and he has found a connection to the show through group collaboration and creation.

“As with every project, I have cried, I have laughed, I have felt incredible highs, and I have felt those horrible, horrible lows, but in the end, it all comes back to the fact that I am able to create with these people,” Illidge-Welch said.