Michael Lente, a student at the University of New Mexico, has been a storyteller since early childhood.
“I started out as a cartoonist when I was 6, but when you see the world through the eyes of a cartoonist, you also see it through the eyes of a storyteller. It’s just a matter of perspective. I went from drawing cartoons to writing stories, then to writing novels, and finally to writing plays, which is what I’m doing now. I’m having a great time.”
Lente recently won this year’s Excellence in Undergraduate Arts Research Award for his two-act play The Fifth World is coming.
The UNM Excellence in Undergraduate Arts Research Award recognizes outstanding artistic research by UNM students. Winners receive a $800 departmental award. Two honorable mention winners each receive a $200 departmental award.
Lente is in her sixth year pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with concentrations in theater studies, including dramatic writing and stage/film courses. Secondary concentrations are Italian language, literature, culture, and history.
Lente, 73, is also a Navy veteran who has already retired from his previous job as a physician’s assistant. Seeking more challenges, he decided to continue his research and studies.
“I was bored with retirement. I always believed that you have to keep learning, and it was time to do something I really wanted to do for myself, not to fulfill some requirement for a future profession. My profession now is being a student, and I hope to continue that in the MFA program. I think the day I stop learning is the day I die. I prefer to keep learning and offer my work to anyone who notices. And besides, hanging out at the university keeps me young, energetic, and in touch with the current generations of students. They are our future, after all. I want to stay long enough to see how others are progressing. They always give me great ideas for screenwriting. I’m probably about a decade or two behind in writing all the screenplays inspired by other students.”
Lente calls his unique writing style “Native American Mystery Science Fiction Theater.” “I feel like there’s a greater need for stage plays that combine science fiction themes with Native American themes. It makes for an interesting mix. I researched all of these themes to tie them together into a cohesive whole and give a sense of how Native American storytelling might evolve,” Lente said.
During the 2023 winter holidays, Lente completed The Fifth World is comingwhich encompasses all components of his Native American Mystery Science Theater style.
Lente’s research was wide-ranging and included Native American subjects and history, personal stories as told by his grandfather, and his own visions. In addition, he explored topics such as ventriloquism, puppetry, magic, anthropological, ethnological, linguistic, extraterrestrial and UFO topics, astronomy, exobiology, and related topics in theoretical physics.
“My research process was less structured and scientific and more right-brained,” Lente said. “I relied mostly on inspiration and gut instinct to explore the mind’s imaginative process. This was not difficult, as I have been in the creative arts all my life and have relied on that ‘aha moment’ of expression that occurs in an instant. That moment has to be captured immediately, otherwise you tend to lose an idea or concept for a creative work.”
Referring to his early comic book creations, Lente added, “Think of Disney, Warner Brothers, and all the older pictures from the pre-computer generation era, when an imaginative brain relied on actual imagination rather than some kind of computer-aided AI to do its work. This is where the research process begins and continues until final completion. The formulas of creativity cannot simply be mapped; they must be experienced.”
Lente was inspired by a need to create and offer more plays and scripts that incorporate often overlooked facets of Native American culture – “using oral and written storytelling that is modified and updated to fit contemporary issues, but that maintains traditional narrative themes with new views introduced. The need to dust off the old customs through iconoclastic changes in modes of presentation and paradigm shifts seems to work for me.”
Winning the Excellence in Undergraduates Arts Research Award gave Lente a sense of validation: “And surprise. And joy that research can be more than formulas and test tubes. The test tubes of the arts exist in the creative mind and therefore I am more convinced than ever that research in the arts can only lead to concrete results that are complementary to the humanities.”
He hopes to eventually enter the Master of Fine Arts program in dramatic writing and make “Fifth World Coming” his master’s thesis or project.
Lente thanked his grandfather, Frank Lente (1898-1993), “the storyteller of our Indian customs.” He also mentioned UNM professors Eric Ehn and Juli Hendren, his theater arts professors, Italian professor Rachele Marongiu Duke, and Margaret Connell-Szasz, who teaches Native American history.
“I also thank all those who have inspired my scripts with a word, an action or an idea they didn’t know about. The creative process always continues.”
For non-traditional students – or even traditional students – who are thinking about going back to school and getting a degree, Lente advises, “Follow your dreams and don’t let obstacles and discouragement stop you from achieving your goals. As Admiral Farragut once said during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, ‘Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.’ I’m an old Navy man, so I can say that. But it applies to anyone who has a dream. Pursue those dreams no matter what.”
Honorable Mention
Lilly Porter
Andrew Roibal
Rising junior Lilly Porter, who double majors in viola performance and English, received an honorable mention for her project Inspiration, transformation and connection: bringing audiences to UNM classical concerts.
Graduate Andrew Roibal, a Fine Arts student, won for his thesis Other Worlds 1.
In addition to her double degree, Porter, a native of Texas, is also studying interdisciplinary humanities. Her project was an analytical report entitled Inspiration, transformation and connection; bringing audiences to UNM classical concertswhich was part of a larger portfolio on various topics related to Western classical music. The report addressed her concerns as an aspiring violinist and violist.
“It was designed to demonstrate the need to increase audience attendance at UNM Music Department concerts and included a survey of groups in Albuquerque that were likely to attend these concerts, as well as interviews with faculty and staff in the Music Department. It reflected a lack of audience engagement for Western classical music, something I continue to fight against as a music student and marketing assistant for the UNM Music Department’s Keller Hall,” Porter said.
“This project taught me that we keep music alive by raising awareness and that something, no matter how small it may seem, can be more important than we think,” she said, adding, “This project was the beginning of things I never imagined because it showed me that my voice as a musician and writer can be used as a unique tool to fight for what I believe in. Moreover, it was crucial for me because it sparked my interest in growing audiences at UNM and engaging in classical music, which led to my current job and also supported my love of socially critical writing.”
Roibal is a Native American artist from the Southwestern United States. After making art as a hobby for many years, he pursued art in college to develop his skills in various media, particularly photography. His favorite subjects include portraits, landscapes, and miniatures, which he depicts in living situations through the lens of Indigeneity. Roibal also recently won a Covington-Rhodes Award for Fine Arts.
