The set for the Denver Center’s Romeo and Juliet is austere. The play opens on a stage that is almost bare save for two coffins, the first on the thrust part of the stage, the second behind a transparent dividing curtain. Through the evening, most of the action will take…
Motherhood Out Loud. This play is performed by six actors — five women and a man — and consists of little playlets compiled by Susan Rose and Joan Stein on many aspects of motherhood: a new mother dealing with her own hovering mother, a woman raising an autistic son, and…
The word “robot” first appeared in the play Rossum’s Universal Robotsor R.U.R, written in the 1920s by Czech author Karel Capek. In it, a group of scientists create human-like creatures that ultimately rise against their makers. In the ensuing battle, human beings are wiped out and the formula for creating…
The Boulder theater scene has sprung to life lately, after several years when pretty much the only choice locals had were the — admittedly excellent but generally traditional — offerings of Boulder’s Dinner Theatre. Anyone wanting new or boundary-breaking works had to travel to Denver. But now new or newish…
Blithe Spirit doesn’t mean anything. It’s not a critique of upper-class society or an evocative exploration of the border between the living and the dead, despite all the ghostly goings-on. Even though Noel Coward wrote the play in 1941, when the bombs were dropping on London, there are no socio-political…
This Saturday, February 9, queens will be battling for the crown in the fourth annual Miss Queen of Aces pageant. One of the Colorado Gay Volleyball Association’s biggest fundraisers of the year, the competition isn’t just about beauty — it’s about serious talent, too. See also: – As Drag Machine’s…
Marcus Gardley, one of the five writers featured in this year’s New Play Summit, has received several honors and awards — including the PEN/Laura Pels award for Mid-Career Playwright — and has been widely produced. His Black Odyssey, an ambitious, large-cast production that most theaters would have trouble accommodating, was…
Here’s a play that creeps into your consciousness on little cat feet, so quiet and unassuming, so slow-moving at first, so indifferent to the flashier aspects of conflict and plot, and finally so emotionally absorbing that after you’ve seen it, you find yourself being visited as you drift off to…
Ed, Downloaded. Michael Mitnick’s Ed, Downloaded, which was commissioned by the Denver Center Theatre Company, had a reading at last year’s New Play Summit and is currently receiving its world premiere. It tells the story of a young man with a terminal illness who is engaged to an intellectual Englishwoman,…
Blithe Spirit, now showing at the Arvada Center, doesn’t mean anything. It’s not a critique of upper-class society or an evocative exploration of the border between the living and the dead — despite all the ghostly goings-on. Even though Noel Coward wrote the play in 1941 when bombs were dropping…
Everyone loves a contest, and it’s no different in the world of comedy. The Comedy Works’ Funny Final Four, which has four teams compete for top honors over a period of weeks, is a case in point: It’s so popular it keeps coming back, year after year. See also: -…
Tonight, Cherry Creek’s 7dancers, a nonprofit professional dance company, will perform its newest performance piece, “Celebrate 7,” at the Denver Performing Arts Complex’s Studio Loft. The ambitious choreography makes for a diverse show, with elements of seven styles of dance: jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop, lyrical, modern and musical theater. As…
With Denver’s local comedy scene finally beginning to catch up with Comedy Work’s national acts — in terms of both talent and swelling audience numbers — we figured it was time to assemble some of our favorite standup shows for the coming month. As we salivate over the smorgasbord of…
Laura Norman is one of the more talented actors around, subtle and intelligent, capable of deep emotion but never sentimental or hackneyed. She can rescue a mediocre play and add a very specific kind of shine to an excellent one. In 2005, she received a Best of Denver award for…
Ed, Downloaded. Michael Mitnick’s Ed, Downloaded, which was commissioned by the Denver Center Theatre Company, had a reading at last year’s New Play Summit and is currently receiving its world premiere. It tells the story of a young man with a terminal illness who is engaged to an intellectual Englishwoman,…
Sometimes the small, unpretentious shows provide the happiest evenings of theater. Motherhood Out Loud is a compendium of short pieces by several well-known playwrights — including Michele Lowe, Lisa Loomer and Theresa Rebeck, all of whom have had work shown at the Denver Center — compiled by Susan Rose and…
Early in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, there’s a longish scene of almost pure exposition as Prospero, a powerful scholar and magician, explains to his daughter Miranda why they are stranded on an enchanted island. Prospero had been the Duke of Milan until his brother stole his dukedom and sent them both…
The double race for the pinnacle of dragdom is on again: As Season 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race commences tonight, so does the Ultimate Queen Contest 2013 at Tracks, and it all comes packaged up together in one long, entertaining sashay through a Monday night. See also: – Queens Nina…
Motherhood Out Loud, which opened at the Avenue Theater last week, is a collection of short plays on motherhood by several well-known playwrights. You meet bored mothers, elderly mothers, stepmothers, adoring mothers, a mother accompanying her tween-age autistic son on his first date, another trying to protect a seven-year-old son…
It’s safe to say Vintage Theatre’s RFK is a smash. A one-man exploration of the life and times of Robert Kennedy by Jack Holmes, it garnered excellent reviews (including mine) and a huge amount of Facebook chatter, with dozens of people who had seen the performance sharing information, congratulating the…
Michael Mitnick’s Ed, Downloaded, which was commissioned by the Denver Center Theatre Company, had a reading at last year’s New Play Summit and is currently receiving its world premiere. It tells the story of a young man with a terminal illness who is engaged to an intellectual Englishwoman, Selene, but…
The NBA is teeming with actors. Yes, actors. Maybe not the kind you’re used to in films and plays, but they still act. These “actors” can often be found over-dramatizing physical contact by flamboyantly diving into the air or covering their eyes while pretending to get clocked with an invisible…
