New Mexico Actors Lab Offers 2024 Fall Season Flex-pass For Four Plays

New Mexico Actors Lab has announced its Fall Season of four powerful and provocative plays by award-winning playwrights: Carolyn Gage's Georgia and the Butch (August 9-11, 15-18), Lanford Wilson's Burn This (September 4-8, 12-15, 19-22), Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning (October 9-13, 17-20, 24-27) and Eden Prairie, 1971 by Mat Smart (November 13-17, 21-24, 28-December 1).

All performances will be held at NMAL's permanent home, the Lab Theater, located at 1213 Parkway Drive in Santa Fe - one block from Meow Wolf. The Actors Lab is offering a Flex-pass for $120 that provides four admissions for any combination of any of the four plays. Flex-pass holders can choose dates at their convenience. Without the Flex-pass, individual tickets are $35, with discounted tickets at $15 for students, food service employees, and limited-seating preview performances.

Flex-passes and individual tickets are now on sale at the NMAL website, www.nmactorslab.com or at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/NMActorsLab/6585.

The fall season opens with a limited run of just seven performances of the world premiere of Carolyn Gage's Georgia and the Butch, directed by Robert Benedetti as a staged reading. This dramatic adaptation uses excerpts from the letters between Maria Chabot (played by Mary Beth Lindsey), a young, gender-non-conforming lesbian and the renowned artist Georgia O'Keeffe (Kat Sawyer), in a program hosted by their mutual close friend, Mary Wheelwright (Suzanne Lederer). Georgia and the Butch will also tour to the Taos Art Center on Thursday, August 29, at 7 p.m., and then to the Las Cruces Community Theater on Saturday, August 31, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Lanford Wilson's explosive drama, Burn This, explores the spiritual and emotional yearnings of Anna, a dancer in NYC, and her unexpected love affair with Pale, an edgy restaurateur. Their determined struggle toward emotional honesty and liberation exemplifies the strength, humor, and complexity of all Lanford Wilson's work and confirms his standing as one of America's greatest playwrights. Nicholas Ballas will direct Megan Bode, Alexander Lane, and Garrick Sigl.

Zoe Lesser returns to New Mexico Actors Lab to direct Pulitzer Prize finalist Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery, a scrupulously hewn drama centering on four alumni of a conservative Catholic college who confront themselves and each other, clashing over theology, politics, and personal responsibility. It's an in-depth exploration into the hearts and minds of Christian Conservativism and a timely lead-in to the election. The production features Joey Beth Gilbert, Riley Samuel Merritt, Emily Rankin, and Hania Stocker.

The season closes with Mat Smart's Eden Prairie, 1971, directed by Nicholas Ballas. On the same night Apollo 15 makes its lunar landing, draft-dodger Pete (Koppany Pusztai) steals home to Eden Prairie after a 300-mile trek from Canada risking arrest to deliver an important message to his childhood friend, Rachel (Chloe Carson). Both are caught between duty to the ones they love and their own futures. In a moment of national tension that mirrors our own, Pete must defend his choices and grapple with the sacrifices he has made. This gentle drama, which also features Barbara Hatch, questions our notions of bravery and responsibility.

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