By Mike Koch

NMSU’s Theater Department has these shows scheduled for live production in the 2022-23 season:

• “Broadway on Demand!” Directed by NMSU Adjunct Profession Christa Fredrickson. 7:30 p.m. Friday, September 9 and 2 p.m. Saturday, September 10 at the ASNMSU Center for the Arts, 1000 E. University Ave.

This musical revue will feature traditional music favorites voted on by the community and performed by NMSU students and faculty, community members and students from local schools. The event is a fundraiser for the theater department, which helps fund visiting artists and student education, as well as grants to allow students to travel to theater events and competitions.

• Big Frog by Dylan Guerra. Directed by NMSU Assistant Professor Nichole Hamilton. Friday 30 September – Sunday 9 October. Here’s what the NMSU theater department said of the play: “In high school, five close friends met at a golf course in Miami to drink, smoke weed, and … lick a frog? Ten years later, four of them return to clear up their story because a well-known crime podcast host has come to town to investigate an unsolved mystery. Oh yes, and the frog is still there – just bigger.” The play is recommended for ages 16+.

Guerra is a Latinx playwright based in New York City whose mission is “to create diverse and challenging new works that encourage cross-sectional conversation,” according to the author’s website. Guerra, who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Southern Methodist University, will be attending NMSU during production.

• “A Christmas Carol” based on the novella by Charles Dickens. Directed by community member Norman Lewis. Friday 18th November to Sunday 4th December.
• Hookman by Lauren Yee. Led by Larissa Lury, Associate Professor at NMSU. Friday, February 24 through Sunday, March 5, 2023. The theater department said the following about the play: “The freshman year of college is tough when your roommate is weird, you’re homesick and a hook-handed serial killer is slashing you. But when Lexi finds out what really happened to her high school best friend on the drive to the movies, everything will be fine. In this existential slasher comedy, Lexi and her friends learn what it means to grow up—and it’s not pretty.”
• “Godspell”, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwarz, book by John-Michael Tebelak. Directed by Wil Kilroy, Director of Theater at NMSU, with musical direction by Assistant Professor Lisa Hermanson. Friday, April 28 through Sunday, May 7, 2023. In this Tony-nominated musical, “a small group of people help Jesus Christ tell various parables using a variety of games, storytelling techniques, and a hefty dose of comic timing use. An eclectic mix of songs, ranging in style from pop to vaudeville, is used as the story of Jesus’ life dances across the stage. Jesus’ messages of kindness, tolerance and love, which forcefully resolve into the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, come alive.”

Join the NMSU Theater Department Center Stage Society

Community members receive two free season tickets with a donation of $500 or more to the non-profit American Southwest Theater Company (ASTC). The donation will support theater students by helping to fund visiting artists, travel grants, a senior fellowship and to improve NMSU theater department productions.

NMSU Theatre/ASTC donation levels are Leading Player: $1-$99; Marquee Club: $100-249; and Spotlight dispensers: $250 to $499. Center Stage Society donation amounts are Standing Ovation: $500-$999; Showstopper: $1,000 to $1,999; Headliner: $2,000 to $3,499; and Impresario: $3,500 and up.

To donate, contact Melis White at 575-646-5122 and [email protected].

Visit https://theatre.nmsu.edu/performances-events/2022-2023-performance-season.html.

Visit https://theatre.nmsu.edu/ and click on “Performances and Events” and then on “Ticketing and Box Office” to purchase tickets. Call 575-646-4515.