River City Stories

The Almost Completely True Memoir of a San Antonio Girl. All names changed to protect scandalous identities.

Casbeer’s, Los Padrinos. The ol’ Mirador, Tacoland and Earl Abel’s. You ‘member! Late nights, San Anto blues, greasy-cheesy enchiladas. Loud and proud drag queens mixing with Keep San Anto Metal. 80s. Good-times relived in an original and almost-true play: River City Stories written, designed and directed by Mellissa Marlowe. The cast includes Eraina Porras, Keli Rosa Cabunoc, Nathan Thurman, Adrian Uresti, and Julio Sepulveda.

“River City Stories is a collection of stories focusing on places in San Antonio that helped to shape my life,” Marlowe says. “Los Padrinos was a short-lived, but important live music bar that helped to coalesce the arts scene in SA in the 1980s. Tacoland was the unlikeliest seminal punk club in the Southwestern US – perched on the edge of the San Antonio River. The original Earl Abel’s Restaurant was a classic American diner, open 24-hours, and patronized by all sorts of people. El Mirador was once a well-kept secret (except from San Antonians in the know) Mexican restaurant specializing in rich, homemade soups every Saturday. Casbeer’s was the classic dive bar/diner on Blanco Rd. that in later days became known as the live-music capital of San Antonio.”