Fall/winter arts season preview: Theater
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Sep. 16—Pandemic intermission appears to be over, and Santa Fe theaters are banking they didn't lose any audience members during the break.
The fall edition of Theatre Walk Santa Fe returns from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 24 — the latest evidence of the theater community returning to life after more than two years of idled actors and directors, budget fears, and uncertainty about the future. It features 15 local theater performances in five indoor venues and follows a spring version held in May; both had been on hiatus since 2019.
The walk is sponsored by Theatre Santa Fe, an event-listing source supported by the city's collaborative arts marketing pilot program. It features excerpts from The Value of Empty Boxes by Almost Adult Productions; Blue Raven Theatre's Metamorphosis; Theater Grottesco's The Border; the Julesworks Follies Variety Show Microcosm's Grandma Smokes Pot; Labinger Productions' Wrong Turn; several short plays by New Mexico School for the Arts students; New Mexico Actors Lab's The Children; Teatro Paraguas' Astonishing Light: Conversations I Never Had With Patrociño Barela; Tri-M's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; Upstart Crows of Santa Fe presents scenes from Shakespeare plays; and VickiWorldArt's Shine Happy Shine! one-woman show. The walk is at Fashion Outlets Santa Fe, 8380 Cerrillos Road. Free, info@theatresantafe.org,
The stacked lineup bodes well for the 2023 theater season — although COVID-19 remains a threat, as evidenced by multiple productions being delayed in the fall amid actor illnesses. Still, theaters head into the winter and new year hopeful that plans won't again be scuttled by crowd-size limits or forced closures.
0 IRONWEED PRODUCTIONS
P.O. Box 6851, 505-927-5406, ironweedsantafe.com
Founded by Scott Harrison, Ironweed is in its 17th year in Santa Fe. The company describes its mission as producing plays rooted in the American experience, which have included major works by the powerhouse plays and playwrights of the 20th century, including Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, David Mamet's American Buffalo, Shepard's Buried Child, and Arthur Miller's Crucible. The most recent performance was a staged reading of scenes from the Greek play The Bacchae on Aug. 26 and 27 as part of the Santa Fe Summer Shakespeare festival. Free short films showcasing the company's work are featured on its website. Currently featured is the short film I Am, a series of first-person monologues, and The Confessions of Clayton Younger, a series of episodes focused on a weathered Western traveler played by Harrison. The latter was presented in collaboration with Santa Fe Playhouse.
0 NEW MEXICO ACTORS LAB
1213 Parkway Drive, 505-395-6576, nmactorslab.com
This year also marks an anniversary for the Actors Lab, which was founded in 2012 by Robert Benedetti and other actors who "shared a passion for theater that addressed issues of social justice and celebrated the human spirit," according to the lab's website. Benedetti has more than 30 television and film credits to his name, including the television shows Cheers, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and Newhart. The 83-year-old acting coach also has written several books about the craft. Artistic Director Nicholas Ballas, a director and actor who serves as its treasurer. The lab was shuttered amid the pandemic in 2020, but productions resumed in August 2021. Two plays remain in the 2022 season, which concludes with The Seafarer (Nov. 9-27). The play, set in Ireland, involves the holiday interactions between a man trying to conquer alcoholism and his newly blind brother.
TAKE NOTE: The Children, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Oct. 23, $15-$30
Three retired nuclear scientists on the coast of England end up playing unlikely heroes following a disaster akin to the 2011 Fukushima, Japan, nuclear explosion. The play explores themes such as how having children might affect one's sense of social responsibility. It premiered on Broadway in late 2017, garnering Tony Award nominations for Best Play and Best Featured Actress in a Play. The Santa Fe production is directed by Benedetti and stars Brent Black, Leslie Dillen, and Lynn Goodwin.
0 SANTA FE PLAYHOUSE
142 E. De Vargas St., 505-988-4262, santafeplayhouse.org
The playhouse has celebrated its 100th anniversary with seven productions, including Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance; Everybody, 2018 Pulitzer Prize nominee by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; and on Nov. 4, it hosts a centennial masquerade party at La Fonda on the Plaza (100 E. San Francisco St.). The season wraps in December with A Year with Frog and Toad (Dec. 1-18), based on a 1970s series of children's books based on the two animals' adventures and friendship.
TAKE NOTE: The Mountaintop, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, through Oct. 16, $15-$75
Martin Luther King Jr. is beloved for his actions on behalf of humanity, but The Mountaintop is aimed at showing the human — and fallible — side of the civil rights titan. In the play, the night before King's April 1968 assassination, he returns to the Lorraine Hotel after delivering his final speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop." He flirts with a maid, and their conversation deepens, eventually touching on issues such as racism, justice, and the divergent paths of legacy. The Mountaintop was written by Katori Hall, who became the first Black female playwright to win a Laurence Olivier Award for her work. The Playhouse production stars Langston Reese and Catia as the maid Camae. Zuhairah McGill directs.
0 TEATRO PARAGUAS
3205 Calle Marie, 505-424-1601, teatroparaguasnm.org
Hurricane Megan, a comedy about a newly arrived actress' interactions in New York City, and an accompanying vampire-themed short called Necking end Sunday, Sept. 18, and had been planned as the final events on the theater's 2022 season. But COVID-19 illnesses delayed the theater's penultimate production, making it the 2022 season-closer. Hurricane Megan was written by Santa Fe's Ron Bloomberg, whose quick-turnaround work has been featured at various venues in the city. Past productions at the theater include Our Lady of Mariposas, directed by Argos MacCallum; Revolution, directed by Malcom Morgan; and Daphne's Dive, directed by Sheryl Bailey.
TAKE NOTE: Lola's Last Dance and Astonishing Light: Conversations I Never Had With Patrociño Barela, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13, through Oct. 23, $12-$25
In Lola's Last Dance, a retired prostitute in the final days of her life is visited by dolls representing people from her past: the banker, the senator, the rag-and-bone man. It was inspired by late playwright Tony Mares' (1938-2015) interactions with retired prostitutes during his early years in Albuquerque's Old Town in the 1940s. The play is accompanied by a staged reading of Astonishing Light, a poem by Mares. The production had been planned for August; illness forced a delay about three weeks before it was scheduled to begin.
