New Mexico Actors Lab Will Host its Third Annual Benefit in April

To inaugurate its 10th anniversary season, New Mexico Actors Lab has announced that Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross will return for a third benefit production, this time performing a staged reading of Lanford Wilson's endearing love story, Talley's Folly. Performances on April 11, 12, and 13 will begin at 7:30 p.m.; tickets are $50. A special performance followed by a reception to meet the stars will be held at 2 p.m. on April 14; tickets are $150. All performances will be held at NMAL's permanent home, the Lab Theater, located at 1213 B Parkway Drive in Santa Fe - one block from Meow Wolf. Tickets for all performances are on sale now at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/NMActorsLab/6585 or www.nmactorslab.com.

Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Award, Talley's Folly is set in 1944 at the ornate, deserted Victorian boathouse on the Talley place in Lebanon, Missouri. Matt Friedman, an accountant from St. Louis, has arrived to plead his love to Sally Talley, the susceptible but uncertain daughter of the family. Bookish, erudite, totally honest, and delightfully funny, Matt refuses to accept Sally's rebuffs and her fears that her family would never approve of their marriage. He gradually overcomes her defenses, sharing his innermost secrets and, in return, learning hers as well. Eventually he awakens Sally to the possibilities of a life together until, in the final, touching moments of the play, they are two kindred spirits who have truly found each other-and who, in their union, will find a wholeness rare in human relationships. The New York Times called Talley's Folly "...a play to savor and cheer" and The New York Post described it as "(a) funny, sweet, touching and marvelously written love poem for an apple and an orange."

In addition to Family Ties, Meredith Baxter starred in four other television series, Bridget Loves Bernie, Family, The Faculty and Finding Carter. She has appeared in 14 feature films, including All the President's Men, and made almost 70 movies for television, among them the two Betty Broderick movies. In 2020, Baxter filmed Christmas on the Vine for Lifetime. She has been nominated for four Emmys. Her theater credits include Butterflies are Free, Vanities, Country Wife, Love, Loss and What I Wore, Agnes of God, and Vagina Monologues, as well as touring productions of Talley's Folly, Guys and Dolls, and Diaries of Adam and Eve. In recent years she starred in City of Conversation at the Ensemble Theatre Company in Santa Barbara, in Sarah Ruhl's Dear Elizabeth at Center Stage Theatre, and Women Beyond Borders at the Rubicon. In 2019, the St. Louis Repertory Company cast Baxter in the Pulitzer Prize winning play Angels in America with Peter Frechette and Barrett Foa. Baxter's NY Times Bestselling book UNTIED, a Memoir of Fame, Family and Floundering was published in March 2011. She is a speaker on alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, breast cancer, abortion rights, and LGBT issues. Aging gracefully with purpose -- she might be speaking about that, too.

During his nearly fifty-year career, Michael Gross has portrayed a remarkable range of characters, starred in dozens of television films, guest-starred in numerous series, and was a regular on the number one-rated daytime drama, The Young and the Restless. He has appeared on Broadway, in numerous regional theatres, and was the recipient of the Obie Award for his off-Broadway work. He has been honored at multiple film festivals for his role in the award-winning short film, Our Father, available on Netflix. Among his big screen appearances, Gross enjoys cult status among sci-fi and horror fans for his portrayal of survivalist 'Burt Gummer' in the 1990 feature film Tremors, its Sci-Fi Channel series, and its six sequels, the latest of which, Shrieker Island, was released in October 2020. He and his wife, former casting director Elza Bergeron, have lived part-time in Santa Fe for over 30 years. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Yale School of Drama where his acting teacher was Robert Benedetti.

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