Santa Fe Playhouse will present its inaugural 505 ALIVE! Summer Festival Series from Thursday, June 5, through July 27, featuring eight productions by New Mexican artists that explore themes of ancestry, identity and cultural transformation.

The festival emerged from concerns about dwindling performance spaces for local theater makers in Santa Fe, according to Anne Hogan, Santa Fe Playhouse’s producing artistic director. After reading an article in The Santa Fe New Mexican about the issue, Hogan said she began considering how the Playhouse could better serve the broader theater community beyond simply renting space.