NEWS | MONDAY, MAY 25 | BY FUSION STAFF WRITER, RUDOLFO CARRILLO
Sit down folks, the show is about to begin. The seven are here.
Just in case you missed out on the big news, THE SEVEN, FUSION’s first-class, highly rated, and thoroughly popular festival of short plays begins its twentieth trip across the boards on Thursday, June 4, 2026, at 7:00 PM; the joy continues through that weekend with performances scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of that week, as well. PLUS staged readings for THE 2nd SEVEN on June 8, at 7 PM, and THE NM SEVEN on June 12, at 7 PM. Please see the notes below for specific showtimes and special events related to THE SEVEN: The Heart of the Matter.
Anyway, make sure you are comfortable, and if you need some liquid refreshment, please note the small bar just past the stage right entrance. They also have great grilled cheese sandwiches downstairs, but I don’t recommend bringing them into the auditorium. Maybe at intermission, que no?
Are you good? Okay: as the lights go down and the curtain rises, I ask you to recall the following definition and statement of mission: "FUSION / n: 1. a merging of diverse, distinct or separate elements into a unified whole; 2. a political partnership; 3. the union of atomic nuclei resulting in the release of enormous quantities of energy when certain light elements unite.”
When you are done with that light reading, please note the FUSION that is centered on the stage but also taking place all around you…
If you wanna know, that’s how I’d start my story about the local theatre company and arts community called FUSION, about their world-class, professionally notable yearly festival of premiere one-act plays, THE SEVEN. It’s a story that also makes a triumphant call-out to the festival’s twenty-year history of defining and vitalizing the local arts community.
And I get it, as a staff writer for the above-referenced, lauded arts organization, what I write here is naturally bent toward my colleagues and their mission. But that fact doesn’t disallow me from telling a true story.
So, I’d set the whole thing up so it seems like magic, which is what I’ve experienced every time I am in that place that I imagine you to be at, right now.
Of course like anything made mythic by the culture where it manifests, FUSION and THE SEVEN represent Albuquerque, where it was and where it’s going, arts- and culture-wise. So before we get to this year’s festival, let's take a brief look at what happened to get us all here.
To get a better take on the creative, collaborative process driving yearly production of THE SEVEN, FUSION Co-Founder Dennis Gromelski was consulted. He told this reporter that “we do not simply open up a submission process and invite playwrights to submit their work. Rather, we invite our patrons and playwrights worldwide to offer theme suggestions, then allow them to later vote upon a curated choice of seven finalist themes. Each year there is a different thematically-inspired subject which the work must follow. This year, the theme is ‘The Heart of the Matter.’ This [theme] narrows down the focus of the submissions and enables playwrights to create new works for the fest. It is a very positive exercise for all involved. Despite narrowing our submission window this year, we received 476 submissions from 38 states and 6 countries. Two primary readers then narrowed the finalist pool down to 35, which I then further lessened to 20. These 20 scripts were then adjudicated by a jury of 12 theatre professionals.”
A deeper look into that annual road to production yielded more details from Gromelski, who wrote to me saying, “All of these scripts are read blindly, no one is aware of the playwrights involved. The top seven scoring scripts are THE SEVEN, which will be fully produced. For the 12th year, we will now also hold a staged reading of THE 2nd SEVEN, the plays that finished 8th–14th in the jury scoring. And for the fifth year, we will be honoring the top seven scripts from New Mexico with a one-night reading of THE NM SEVEN. These events are all wonderful, as the differences in scoring amongst these top scripts are only a degree of shading. All told, there are 122 individuals involved in the production of this year’s festival.”
At some point in 2005, conversations between FUSION collaborator Jen Grigg and Gromelski were held, and THE SEVEN was born, with a commitment to fully produce selected short works as a component of the main stage season. This feature is not common elsewhere in the world of professional theatre, Gromelski emphasized, while also noting that Jen was the sole primary reader for the festival from inception through the Covid period.
In September of 2006, five years into FUSION’s reign, Weekly Alibi Arts Editor Steven Robert Allen waxed dramatic about those scripts and those productions, writing, “During its short but impressive five-year lifespan, the company has focused on quality rather than trendiness, and the results, quite frankly, have almost always been spectacular”… Well guess what, it’s been twenty years and the critics are still raving.
DENNIS GROMELSKI
PC: The Albuquerque Journal & Chancey Bush
Broadway World, a tried and true source of professional theatre dialogue and criticism in America, recently made this note, regarding FUSION co-founder Jacqueline Reid and 2023’s production of The Height of the Storm: “She is always sure-handed in her direction, always probing for the deep underbelly of the material. As usual, she hits the mark with ease.” The same critic, Robert Spiegel, also wrote, “As with virtually every FUSION play, the production crew is excellent.”
Such heights come after years of consistency and innovation, too. But even thirteen years ago, the writing was on the wall for all in the Albuquerque arts community to witness. That message was aptly summarized by critic Anya Sebastian, who wrote about the upcoming festival in 2013: “Since it began in 2003, FUSION Theatre Company's festival of short works, THE SEVEN, has acquired a reputation as one of the most notable events of its kind in the nation, and even beyond.” That sense of the beyond, that tendency toward sure-handedness, has reached us in the now.
And the sorts of reflections and research above, that brief dip into historical context, brings us to today, a day in late May in the year 2026, a Sunday to be exact. A quick trip to the FUSION campus, at the peak of Memorial Day weekend, revealed a joyfully coordinated cadre of cast, crew, and other collaborators doing what comes naturally while they prepare for the twentieth iteration of a storied and resoundingly compelling festival of one-act plays.
So deep in rehearsal that they did not notice me on the periphery, I watched as FUSION co-founders Jacqueline Reid and Dennis Gromelski began molding the actual stuff of this year’s work. “The Heart of the Matter” is the theme of this year’s set of productions. And the actors I encountered were deep in the world conjured by that theme and the resulting phrase, rehearsing a play called “The Sound of Light,” by Mary Donnet Johnson, as I crept around them. The play is this year’s winner of the prestigious Bradford Gromelski Jury Award.
Bradford Gromelski, for whom the prize is named, was the father of FUSION Co-founder Dennis Gromelski. Dennis had this to say about his father’s legacy and the festival, reminding this reporter that THE SEVEN has heart at all levels: “The overall highest scoring script receives the Bradford Gromelski Jury Award, including transportation to/from and lodging in ABQ for the festival. This award means a lot to me, as Bradford was my father. He was a playwright, director, and Professor Emeritus at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, for 45 years. Brad directed a FUSION main stage production in FUSION's inaugural season; he helmed the scripts for three FUSION citywide tours of children's theatre projects, underwritten by the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund; and was a juror for THE SEVEN for many years.”
Further, the SEVEN caused Dennis to recall his life in the theatre, as he remembered, “Growing up, I witnessed firsthand the toil, dedication, creativity, disappointment, and joy that comes with the title of bard. THE SEVEN is a way for me to honor those who willingly choose to undergo the process and to bring their stories into the light of day. It is also a measure of gratitude for my father, who willingly shifted from the world of the independent artist to a more consistent collegiate teaching career in order to provide for me and my sister. I am eminently grateful for the opportunities his choices have provided me”.
Those sorts of opportunities and choices are reflected in the work being done by all the founders of FUSION, Gromelski included… Folks who my former colleagues at Alibi-Central referred to so lovingly over the years.
In fact, Co-founder Jacqueline Reid plays Jennifer, the mother of a neurodivergent son, in this year’s award-winning, premiere production of Johnson’s personal and poetic vision of life with and without words. Meanwhile, FUSION Co-founder Laurie Thomas will realize the production of her own short play, approved and hailed by the customary blind jury selection process that started the whole thing. Her work, “The Hail Mary,” will come to life as the company celebrates twenty years of THE SEVEN in Albuquerque.
As noted at the outset of this introduction to THE SEVEN: The Heart of the Matter, there is going to be some magic involved as opening night approaches, a kind of magic that involves a whole city: “This theatrical event,” Gromelski notes, “is beloved by both the artists and patronage and shines a very positive annual international light on Albuquerque as a creative hub”.
And so the curtain will arise again and again on THE SEVEN. We hope to see you there, in the midst of that magical FUSION.
FUSION Theatre Company presents THE SEVEN: The Heart of The Matter
FUSION | 708
708 1st Street NorthwestAlbuquerque, NM, 87102
PERFORMANCES
Thursday, June 4 at 7 PM
Friday, June 5 at 7 PM
Saturday, June 6 at 2 PM & 7 PM
Sunday, June 7 at 2 PM
THE SEVEN WINNERS
The Bradford Gromelski Jury Award Winner
THE SOUND OF LIGHT by Mary Donnet Johnson, Knoxville, TN
THE FORCE OF ATTRACTION
Ron Davies, Ottawa, Canada
THE HAIL MARY
Laurie Thomas, Albuquerque, NM
THE JULY EFFECT
Andrea Trotenberg, Highland Park, IL
DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT HANG THAT MISTLETOE TONIGHT
Mike Byham, Southlake, TX
THE DARK CLOUD: A FABLE
James W. Perry, Manteca, CA
ALL ROADS LEAD TO PROSPECT PARK
Dan Perry, Los Angeles, CA
THE 2nd SEVEN
As a part of THE SEVEN short works fest, THE 2nd SEVEN is a staged reading for the next seven highest scoring submitted scripts.
Come experience a staged reading of the plays that finished 8–14 in the Jury selections for the 20th Anniversary of THE SEVEN, one of the nation's premier short works festivals. The degree of quality difference between all fourteen plays is merely shading—all are great plays!
WINNERS OF THE 2nd SEVEN
VISITING MASHA by Donald Ray Schwartz, Baltimore, MD
SOFTSOAP & HARD WATER by Logan Cutler Smith, Cleveland, OH
HOT, FULL-BODIED FINISH. by Paula Williamson, Richmond, CA
LYDGATE IN LOVE by Deborah Savadge, New York, NY
ONE MILLION by Vilém Dubnička, Pilsen, Czech Republic
LAURA WINGFIELD WALKS INTO A BAR by Kristen Field, Kalamazoo, MI
THE TIES THAT BIND by Nancy Temple, Needham, MA
Staged Reading on June 8 at 7 PM.
THE NM SEVEN
As a part of THE SEVEN short works fest, THE NM SEVEN is a staged reading for the highest-scoring scripts submitted by New Mexican playwrights.
Come experience a staged reading of the plays by New Mexican playwrights selected by the Jury for THE SEVEN, one of the nation's premiere short works festivals. Support local playwrights and enjoy hearing these exceptional plays!
WINNERS OF THE NM SEVEN
MEMORIES by Peter Schuyler, Albuquerque, NM
TO BE by Scott Harrison, Santa Fe, NM
SATELLITE by William Reynolds, Albuquerque, NM
CORPUS by Owen Conway, Albuquerque, NM
LEGACY by Karin Diann Williams, Albuquerque, NM
WHAT I MEANT WAS by Ryan Clarke, Albuquerque, NM
THE APPOINTMENT by Talia Pura, Santa Fe, NM
Staged Reading on June 12 at 7 PM.