After over a year of virtual performances, Metro Theater Company is bringing back in-person performances to Grand Center Arts District — at a price anyone can afford.

Their first show, Digging Up Dessa, opened this weekend, and will run through November 7 at the Grandel Theatre located at 3610 Grandel Square. 

Metro Theater Company will be running a pay-what-you-can model, meaning anyone can pay any amount they want to get a ticket to the in-person performances on October 22 at 7pm and October 23 at 4pm. Viewers can also utilize the pay-what-you-can model for the streaming version that will be streaming from October 21-23. 

Viewers can purchase pay-what-you-can tickets to an in-person performance here, and tickets to a virtual performance here. Regular priced tickets can be purchased here. 

About Digging Up Dessa: Dessa is a modern-day 12-year-old with no shortage of mysteries to solve and fossils to find. Her days are filled with buried treasures just waiting to be uncovered. But when her family of three unexpectedly becomes a family of two, this smart, funny young scientist struggles to overcome her grief and anger at all the changes in her world. Dessa’s unlikely comfort comes from a remarkable new friend, one only she can see and hear—Mary Anning, the 19th-century paleontologist who discovered a breakthrough dinosaur fossil at the age of 12 and became a pioneer in her field. But why is her portrait not on the museum wall alongside those of her male counterparts? Dessa decides that she’s going to fight to earn Mary the respect she deserves. With help from her new classmate and once-rival, Nilo, Dessa unearths secrets of the past and present—for Mary’s legacy and her own way forward.