Meet the Playwrights of THE NM SEVEN 2023
FUSION Theatre Company is proud to announce the playwrights of our second annual performance of The NM Seven: The Elephant in the Room!
SANTIAGO CHACON is a Digital Filmmaking student at Eastern New Mexico University. While his main focus is on writing for both the screen and the stage, he has done various jobs related to film and theatre. Some of his recent acting credits including the shows, Six Stories Tall and Wait Until Dark, and the film, Santa Bites. His latest efforts include directing a short film called Polaroid, writing/directing a web series titled Shooting Stars, and writing/producing Talking Crap. When not working on a project, he enjoys living life simply and drinking a good cup of coffee.
GARY DONTZIG’s early post-student years were spent as an actor, performing great roles in some of America’s major regional theatres. He also spent a number of years performing mediocre roles on some of America’s most successful mediocre television shows as well as doing some truly dreadful pilots. The desire for security led him to become a television writer/producer on such shows as Murphy Brown, Suddenly Susan, Becker, and State of Grace, and in the process won three Emmys (nominated for six)—the Humanitas, Alma, Prism, and other awards he can no longer remember. After being hired by Disney to co-write and produce the pilot of Hannah Montana, he realized he either had to leave television or lose his mind. Fast forward: he now resides in Santa Fe, NM, where he wakes every morning to a spectacular view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. After an appalling cup of Chinese medicinal tea, he hikes with his moderately insane dog, Fiona, has a chocolate protein shake, and then joyously writes plays. He’s a proud vegan of forty-seven years; this is amazing since he tells people he’s forty-two years old. He considers the number of animals still living because of his food choices to be far more important than all his years in television.
KELYN WAYNE HUERTAS
Upon receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Georgia, Ms. Huertas moved to New York City where she spent over a decade applying her craft as an actress and writer to small venues and local neighborhood theaters. She moved to Santa Fe in the nineties where she embraced the artistic community and stumbled into the Santa Fe Playhouse. She spent several years as part of the Benchwarmers short play festival as well as a stint on the Board of Directors. Having been out of the dramatic scene for the last four years, she is honored to be selected for The NM Seven (Eight).
ANDREW MAYO is a member of Dramatists Guild, formerly a Network Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and member of Richard Caliban’s The Playwrights Group. His play, Blood and Water, was produced after being selected as a finalist in the AACT New Play Fest. A Valuable Commodity, a 10-minute play, was selected by Santa Fe Playhouse for its new works reading festival. Other produced plays are Confess and Conspire and Wish Upon a Star. He is a co-host of Albuquerque Theatre Guild’s Playwrights Circle and served as literary manager for Aux Dog Theatre’s Laughing Dog production of 10-minute comedy plays.
VICKI MEAGHER is a playwright living in Albuquerque.The radio version of her play, Far from Albuquerque, will be heard on AdobeFest 2023: KUNM Radio Theater in July. Her short play, Wild and Wonderful New Mexico, will have a staged reading in the N4th New Works Theater at N4th Arts Center in August. Her full-length play, The Mind Has Legs, will be co-produced by Teatro Paraguas and Blue Raven Theatre at Teatro Paraguas in Santa Fe in October.
EVAN SPREEN is a local Albuquerque playwright. His work has been on stage in New Mexico, New York, Connecticut, Japan, Poland, Austria, and Australia. Most recently, Evan’s play Lost Oceans received Best of Festival honors in the Know Theatre Festival in Binghamton, NY, and his play Amelia? took Best of 2022 with the OC Playfest in Orange County, NY. As an Actor, Evan will be performing in both Constellations and Dracula this season at the Vortex Theatre. Evan is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and a selection of his plays can be found here.
MARK WAX (he/they) is an artist, writer, and facilitator living in Santa Fe. His previous work has mostly occurred in the midwest at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, American Players Theatre, Redmoon Theater, and the Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre. His short play In Gathering Dusk was produced by the After Dark Theatre Company in Chicago in 2007. He graduated from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and is delighted that his life is taking him back into relationship with the stage. He also works as a consultant for multiple non-profits centered around teaching mindfulness to teens, young adults, and their caregivers. His website for that work can be found here. Big thanks to his family, LA, and YOU for supporting live theater.
ANN WILLOW is an author, playwright, and freelance writer loving life in New Mexico. George & Deborah is Ann’s second play chosen for the prestigious contest, The Seven. Her one-act play, Improbable Encounter, was selected for The 2nd Seven in 2015, and then won a full performance in the popular Santa Fe Playhouse Different Festival. Recently, Ann had great fun writing Sarah’s Spirit in less than ten hours for Durango Arts Center’s “24-Hour Theatre” in Durango, Colorado. And her work as an author and freelance writer have appeared in Parabola, Grande Dame, and Tangled Locks literary journals, and in Navajo Times, Albuquerque Journal, and The Journal of southwestern Colorado. This summer her profile series for Tri-City Record will feature stories of missing and murdered indigenous people of the Four Corners region. Learn more about Ann and her upcoming memoirs at AnnWillow.com and send a friend request to Ann Aboveground on Facebook.