The New Normal

How does a local independent theater deal with translating a Broadway show to the small stage? When the touring drama Next to Normal came to the Buell Theatre nearly a year ago, it arrived with a state-of-the-art, multimedia set. Ignite Theatre has had to build its production of the groundbreaking…

Snowflakes to Melt You

Wooden Snowflakes offers a new interpretation of the timeless holiday tale: A grumpy character with a hardened heart meets someone who helps him or her believe in the magic of Christmas. Rather than Scrooge or the Grinch, however, the non-believer in Catherine Bush’s play is a woman named Eve Lawson…

An Artistic Bucket List

The abandoned house in her New Orleans neighborhood was a wreck. But artist Candy Chang decided to give it new life, by turning it into a giant chalkboard and stenciling the words “Before I die I want to…” onto the side, then encouraging people to write their own end to…

The Impossible

When the words “true story” appear twice in a film’s opening disclaimer, it’s a guarantee that what follows will include at least one questionable fiction. The Impossible is inspired by the Alvarez Belons, a Spanish family of five who survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed almost 300,000 lives;…

Pop Life

Always adventurous and always ambitious, Floyd Tunson is high on the list of Colorado’s top contemporary artists, and he’s being feted with a well-earned career retrospective, Floyd D. Tunson: Son of Pop, which opens to the public today at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. “It’s an expansive look at…

Express Yourself

The Clyfford Still Museum might just be jumping on the bandwagon by presenting its new show, Vincent/Clyfford, as a prelude to the Denver Art Museum’s Van Gogh blockbuster, which opens in October. But Still Museum director Dean Sobel thinks viewers will find that the connections between the work of Vincent…

Wizards of Comedy

Welcome to Hogwarts, post-Voldemort: The mythical school has been rebuilt, and the children of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy are now learning about wizardry and witchcraft themselves. This is the setting for Bovine Metropolis Theater’s popular series, a futuristic fan-fiction parody called The Heirs of Hogwarts: An Improvised…

Dog Days of Winter

Colorado is full of people who love the outdoors and chock-full of people who love their dogs. So when they can take their dogs with them outdoors, well, that’s the gold standard — and that’s exactly what today’s Skijoring Clinic at Devil’s Thumb Ranch Resort & Spa in Tabernash is…

Resolutions for 2013: Bring on the rejection letters

One of the aspects of Twitter I love more than any other social-networking site is its actual ability to connect you with people with whom you might otherwise not cross paths. (I also like that 140 characters limits the amount of proselytizing one can do at friends and strangers, unlike…

The arts in Denver: Ten people to watch in 2013

The Denver Art Museum was on a roll in 2012 and it isn’t slowing down in the new year, with exhibits showcasing Georgia O’Keeffe and Nick Cave’s Soundsuits on their way. At MCA Denver, the Ladies Fancywork Society will soon have its day in the sun its own exhibition. The…

Reader: We pros stay at home on New Year’s Eve

What are you doing New Year’s Eve? When we quizzed a baker’s dozen of the town’s cultural tastemakers for our Lucky ’13, we asked them what they were planning to do tonight. As revealed in this Latest Word post, some are performing, some are snuggling with their beloved, and some…

Ten best (and strangest) arts and culture experiences in 2012

Denver, you’ve got it going on. This year, I was lucky enough to be a part of many incredibly cool events involving local and national artists, musicians and performers. Combing through the past year of Westword stories, I compiled this list of the best (and strangest) arts- and culture-related experiences…

Denver’s ten best women’s street styles of 2012

What a dazzling display of women’s wear we witnessed in 2012! The spectrum of stylish females is wide and varied in Denver: from servers to fashion designers, makeup artists to comics. Keep reading for the most memorable looks we spotted in 2012, as well as the stories of the ladies…

Denver’s five best zombie moments of 2012

Every year, there are more and more zombie events in Denver. Zombie crawls, zombie balls, zombie burlesque, zombie proms, zombie car washes… it never stops. For those of us who can’t get enough zombie action, it’s like Christmas came early and often, only with more flesh-eating and less tinsel. For…