NATIONALLY RENOWNED PLAYWRIGHTS, BREAKOUT WRITERS, AND STUDENTS BRING BRAND NEW WORKS TO LIFE AT ASNMSU’S CENTER FOR THE ARTS: FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ($5 suggested donation)

On February 16 and 17, 2024, NMSU will present a festival of readings of new plays, workshopped by students, faculty and members of the broader Las Cruces community, as a part of the High Desert Play Development Workshop. The readings are free and open to the public ($5 suggested donation). Food trucks, including Green Chile Paddy Wagon and Luchador will be on site for dinner in between showings.

With a wide range of styles, subjects and themes, the festival will offer something for all lovers of theatre, and will give a window into how new plays and musicals for our time come to be. The plays will include LA MANDA by Maiya A. Corral (directed by Monica Mojica), UNTITLED ANTHROPOCENE PLAY (aka THIS MAN I CALL MI PRIMO) by Benjamin Benne (directed by Larissa Lury), the first act of Professor Lisa Hermanson’s new musical THE GOLDEN DOOR (directed by Mike Wise), as well as excerpts from plays by local writers James Fritz Jerome and Mireya Sanchez-Maes, and NMSU students Vida Vee Montoya, Austin Reeves, and Rissa Wooldridge (directed by students Eva Cullen and Yasmine Jahangiri).

On Friday 2/15: catch the excerpts at 5:30pm, and LA MANDA at 7:30pm.
On Saturday 2/16: see student-written monologues & Act 1 of THE GOLDEN DOOR at 5:30pm, and at 7:30pm take in UNTITLED ANTHROPOCENE PLAY (aka this man i call mi primo).

More info on the playwrights in residence Maiya A. Corral and Benjamin Benne can be found at:
https://www.benjaminbenne.com/
https://maiyaalexandriacorral.weebly.com/