Jennifer Bishop “Desert Dreams” 6/18/24

In 1967, dancer Marta Becket had a flat tire in a tiny dusty town just outside Death Valley. While waiting for the tire to be fixed, she peeked through a hole in the door of an empty building and a dream was born. She converted the building into an opera house where she spent the rest of her life giving one person performances. The audiences were small, sometimes non existent, so she painted murals of people on the inside, nuns seated next to call girls. On my recent road trip through Death Valley Junction, population “less than four,” I came across this scene across the street from her empty opera house. Her spirit lingers here to remind us of her words: “While you have time left, find a place where you can live out your dreams. Even if it is…in the middle of a desert.”