Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
Las Cruces theaters had an outstanding 2019, and just wait until you see what’s coming in 2020!
We welcomed two new theater companies to Las Cruces in the last year with the founding of Junk Drawer Productions, whose principle, Diane Thomas, is a longtime musical theater genius; and The Blank Conversations Theatre Company (BCTC), whose founder, Gus Sanchez, is a freshman theater major at New Mexico State University already making a name for himself as a talented actor and director. BCTC’s production of the musical “The Last Five Years” will run from Feb. 7-16 (including a Valentine’s Day performance) at Mayfield High School. Find BCTC on Facebook.
LCCT will follow “Arsenic” with “Harvey,” directed by my dear friend Gail Wheeler. Everyone knows the 1950 movie starring James Stewart, but the play came first – in 1944 – and won playwright Mary Chase a Pulitzer Prize. “Harvey” ran for 1,775 performances and was in production at the 48th Street Theatre on Broadway at this time 75 years ago.
“Harvey” runs March 20-April 5 at LCCT, followed by the One Act Play Festival, April 24-26, and the season-ending production of “Nunsense,” June 5-21, which returns this hugely popular show to Las Cruces. “Nunsense” ran for 3,672 performances beginning in 1985, making it the second-longest running off-Broadway show in history.
“The Killing Game” will open Jan. 24 at BBT and continue through Feb. 9. It will be followed by “Bosoms and Neglect” (March 6-22), written by John Guare and directed by longtime Las Cruces actor and director Monte H. Wright.
BBT co-owner Ceil Herman will direct Mark Medoff’s “The Majestic Kid” April 17-May 3 during the first anniversary of Medoff’s death. Known for the strong women (Sarah Norman, for example, in the Tony-winning “Children of a Lesser God”) and anti-heroes (Stephen "Red" Ryder in “When You Comin’ Back, Red Rider?”) he created, Medoff died last April, leaving a gaping hole in local and national theater that no one will ever fill.
BBT will close its season with the musical “Next to Normal,” directed by the wonderful and talented Nikka Ziemer.
The NMSU Theatre Department’s production of “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” directed by department head Wil Kilroy, will open March 6. It will be followed by William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” directed by Michael Wise, May 1-10. These will be two outstanding productions.
It’s going to be another great year for Las Cruces theater. If you haven’t been to a play or musical, this would be a great time to try it out.