Amargosa Opera House, California

Located in a remote stretch of desert, near the Nevada/California state line, the Amargosa Opera House, once an abandoned community center, offered weekly performances of classical ballet, theater, and pantomine. All the performances were written and executed by Marta Becket, a classically trained ballerina from New York, who came to this place to have a flat tire repaired in 1968, and essentially never left. Over the years she performed in the space, with or without an audience, and decorated the opera house with painted murals, portraying an audience of 16th century Spanish royalty, clerics, gypsies and revelers. Due to assorted health problems, her final performance was announced in 2012, but in 2013 she made a brief comeback in a program which involved no dancing. In 2014, portions of the Opera House were damaged by flooding, caused by heavy rain.