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The Seven:
New Works Fest

New 10-minute plays by great emerging playwrights


With the inception in 2006 of our The Seven: New Works Fest, FUSION Theatre Company has been pleased to host a wonderful new way to fulfill our mission of presenting fresh, new works of extraordinary merit.

With an anual theme selected by our patrons via on-line voting, FUSION Theatre Company has seen exponential interest from talented playwrights the world over. Our inaugural festival in 2006, with the theme Games People Play, drew over 70 submissions, from which the top seven were selected by our artistic staff. They were professionally produced, acted and directed and were enthusiastically received by full houses.

The word got out: the following season, our patrons chose No Regrets as the theme and over 350 playwrights from 39 states and 6 countries responded. The caliber of the top submissions was so spectacularly good, our staff chose seven for the main fest, and produced another seven for cabaret offerings.

And now it's official: the theme for 2008 will be Something Left Unsaid.

You'll want to make your reservations now; last year's Festival, "The Seven," was completely sold out. Expect the unexpected as FUSION Theatre Company selects a crop of diverse and intriguing new works to be presented by the finest directors and actors in New Mexico.


The first year's fest, illuminating the theme Games People Play, generated terrific new works that received outstanding professional presentations and that were extremely well received by critics and patrons alike....

* The Near Life Wax & Smudge of True Clown Love by John Catron; Minneapolis, MN
* The Dressing Room by Jenice Gharib; Santa Fe, NM
* Relax by Aaron Jewell; Seattle, WA
* The Tea Party by Erin Phillips; Santa Barbara, CA
* Surreal Estate by Lori Romero; Santa Fe, NM
* Film Noir by Adam Szymkowicz; Brooklyn, NY
* For and Against by Mark Witteveen; Rochester, NY

Click here for bios for our talented playwrights for Games People Play

Directing the festival plays were Lou Clark, Shelley Epstein, Jen Grigg, John Hardman, Jacqueline Reid, Robb Sisneros, and Brent Stevens. The acting ensemble featured local talents Alli Bivins, Ed Chavez, Leslie Coleman, Kate Costello, Michael Finnegan, Kristin de la O, David Lang, Lauren Myers, Cyndi Noll, Rachel Tatum, Kathy Millé Wimmer, and Aaron Worley.


In 2007, our patrons chose No Regrets as the theme and playwrights responded with over 353 entries from 39 states and 6 countries. The Seven were...

* Silver Men by Amy Fox; Brooklyn, NY
* What I've Learned from Fair-Feathered Friends by Virginia Fry; New York, NY
* Knocking Louder by Tara Meddaugh; Harrison, NY
* 7 Sonnets
by Stephen J. Miller; Orlando, FL
* Trace Evidence by Jeff Stewart; Los Alamos, NM
* The Sentry
by Michael Tooher; Portland, ME
* The Magician and the Memory by Michael Vukadinovich; Santa Monica, CA

Click here for bios for our talented playwrights for No Regrets.


If you are a writer interested in submitting a new work for adjudication, please see our guidelines here. We'd love to see your take on this year's theme: Something Left Unsaid.



Barry Gaines, review, Albuquerque Journal :
"The FUSION Theatre Company presents "The Seven: Games People Play," 10-minute plays selected from more than 70 submissions nationwide— an intriguing theatrical smorgasbord.

The one-acts are connected by theme and linked by Brent Stevens' clever sound design. Some plays are better described as sketches.

In Jenice Gharib's "The Dressing Room," we witness the rapid-fire exchange between a long-suffering Jewish mother (Kathy Millé Wimmer) and her 30-something unmarried daughter (Kristin de la O). The character types are familiar, but Gharib has a good ear for guilt-laden dialogue ("It's not a mother's place to like or not like."). Under Lou Clark's direction, the actors look and sound right.

Also familiar from "The Maltese Falcon" are the hard-boiled private eye (Aaron Worley) and his double-crossing moll (Rachel Tatum) in "Film Noir" by Brooklyn's Adam Szymkowicz. Costumed by Kate Kennedy in cinematic black and white, the actors have fun with the Dashiell Hammett-esque dialogue and situations. John Hardman ably directs.

"Relax" is by Aaron Jewell from Seattle. An actor (Michael Finnegan) and actress (Alli Bivins) rehearse a love scene in her apartment. In their underwear. The scene considers the intersection of role-playing in theater and in life. Director Brent Stevens doesn't help us distinguish one from the other, but perhaps that is the point.

A stranger scene is Californian Erin Phillips' "The Tea Party," directed by Shelley Epstein. In this surrealistic drama, a woman (Jen Grigg) and a man (Michael Finnegan) converse at a table set with a child's plastic tea service. Their costumes are bizarre: his a tuxedo jacket, tuxedo T-shirt, tie, and shorts; hers, a mismatched floral print blouse and skirt plus straw derby. The dialogue has a hallucinatory weirdness, the verbal equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting.

"Surreal Estate" by Santa Fe's Lori Romero is less surreal. House rental agents (John Hardman and Cyndy Noll) manipulate a client (David Lang). Director Jacqueline Reid works to make the material funny: Hardman plays the agent-from-hell with exaggerated expressions, and Lang is reduced to blubbering; the two join in a slow-motion ballet at play's end.

"For and Against" by Mark Witteveen is ambitious in its character development. Hotel workers Alice (Leslie Joy Coleman) and Becky (Shelley Epstein) tease young Theresa (Lauren Myers) about writing to Darryl (Justin Lenderking). Darryl was a dishwasher but is now a soldier in Iraq. The horrors of war are juxtaposed with the silliness of the older ladies' arguments for and against this romance. Under Robb Sisneros's direction Myers gives Theresa complexity, and we want to know more about her.

The last piece is the best. "The Near Life Wax and Smudge of True Clown Love" by John Catron from Minneapolis features the return of local favorites Ed Chavez and Kate Costello as clowns— a tramp and a female Pierrot. Directed by Jen Grigg, they tell stories, relate dreams and court each other in a piece that combines imagination, charm, and wit.

This annual competition is a welcome opportunity to see the latest work of emerging playwrights."



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