Staged reading of new play at Readers Theatre

It is set in a retirement home that includes elderly residents with a wide range of quirks, passions, identities and infirmities, along with an ageless zest for life, knowing they are in the last chapters of their lives and that every moment counts.

A staged reading of a new play, “Second Chances,” written by two Las Cruces playwrights, will be held at 7 p.m. Friday April 3, at Isabel Crouch Readers Theatre on the New Mexico State University campus. There is no charge to attend, and everyone is welcome.

“Second Chances” is a one-act comedy written by NMSU Theatre Department Head Wil Kilroy and department instructor Monica Mojica, who are also co-directing the staged reading. The performance will run about 75 minutes without an intermission and will be followed by a talk-back with the playwrights and cast.

The cast also includes a middle-aged retirement home director, and a much younger new employee and their best friend.

Mojica, a trial consultant and business owner, also wrote “Weighing In,” which was produced at Black Box Theatre in Las Cruces in 2019.

“Wil and I wanted to write something for people who aren’t always fully represented, who are tired of feeling invisible,” Mojica said “People who are older, in nursing homes, tend to be written off. It’s also fun to write for non-binary people. It can be a struggle to embrace what my 19-year-old son embraces. We wanted to shine a spotlight on the learning curve, to help everyone to see people as people. You can either embrace the forward motion or rebel against it. But it’s getting harder and harder to ignore it.”

The play was written with older actors and non-binary/gender nonspecific actors in mind – “younger interacting with older,” said Kilroy, who became NMSU Theatre Department head 10 years ago and has directed plays and musicals at NMSU and Las Cruces Community Theatre.

Many of the characters and the setting for “Second Chances” were inspired by real events and real people he and Mojica know personally, Kilroy said. The play was originally intended to be a docudrama on how aging affects casting for acting roles, he said, and evolved into “something light and comical with some serious themes.

“My hope is that people will walk away entertained but also thinking about life,” Kilroy said, like “Why is it we want to put older people away?, or why we think older people don’t understand the younger generation.”

Mojica said working with Kilroy “is a real gift,” and she is grateful for the cast they have put together for the staged reading. “I just feel so lucky to work with everybody,” Mojica said.

Both playwrights said they are grateful for the arts seed grant they received from NMSU for the playwriting project. The grant allowed them to attend the Austin Film Festival in Austin, Texas last October to explore the possibility of developing the play into a television pilot and TV series.

The cast of “Second Chances” includes a mix of NMSU theatre students and community actors. Performers are Rachel Maze, Britney Stout-Bardey, Katalina Elizabeth Hadfield, Kirk Murphy, Mike Cook, Bruce Demaree, Denise Welsh and Conda Douglas. 

To reach Isabel Crouch Readers Theatre, take University Avenue to the intersection with Jordan Road, where the NMSU bookstore is located. The theatre is located on the southwest corner of the bookstore parking lot. Playgoers can park in that lot without an NMSU parking sticker on the evening of the performance. 

For more information, contact Mojica at 575-405-8405 and fremoni@comcast.net.