I recently read an interview with the brilliant writer and art critic John Berger, now ninety years old, in which Kate Kellaway quotes Berger’s Ways of Seeing: “The secret of reading aloud well, he says…is ‘refusing to look ahead, to be in the moment.’ And he says that a story…
A man in a hospital bed is having a lively conversation with the woman sitting in a chair by his side. Amid all kinds of teasing and laughter, Sander explains how he came to be injured: something about the scent of a certain perfume, taking an elevator he’d been warned…
The Denver arts community loves nothing more than seeing its native sons and daughters succeed in the wider world. This week presents yet another opportunity to catch a veteran Mile High comic crush on a nationally televised stage: Chris Charpentier will make his debut on Fuse TV’s Uproarious on October 21. Hosted by…
When I last saw Jada Suzanne Dixon, it was in White Guy on the Bus at Curious, and she was a single mother, a nursing student traveling by bus to visit her brother in prison, a poor and powerless woman who’s eventually confronted by a wrenching dilemma. Dixon couldn’t be…
Few comedians in Denver (or anywhere, for that matter) are as industrious and self-starting as Zac Maas. Whether toiling away at open mics, snatching up any emcee and feature spots that come along, doing improv, shooting sketches or co-hosting the Whiskey & Cigarettes podcast, Maas always seems to have several…
Denver’s fall arts season is in full swing, bringing ballet and fresh theater to Denver stages, along with a touch of the spooky. Take your pick from these three seasonally friendly diversions. Colorado Ballet, Swan Lake Ellie Caulkins Opera House 7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 20, through Saturday, October 22 2 p.m…
The vampire flies on, and our fascination with him never seems to falter. We find him in television shows, teenage novels and the pulsing hearts of teenage readers, and in films both serious and camp — from F.W. Murnau’s subtle, haunted Nosferatu to Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers, with…
Somewhere in the mid-1970s, when we were both students at the University of Colorado, Terry Dodd worked with a feminist theater group I’d co-founded, playing the unnamed man who absconded with a beautiful store-room dummy in Joanna Russ’ one-act, Window Dressing. My mother was dying of cancer at the time…
We’re so used to camp and comic versions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that it’s a bit of a shock to encounter a theatrical experience that takes the story seriously as a statement about scientific hubris and an exploration of love, loneliness, hatred, good and evil — and what it really…
Josh Androsky is a writer, standup comedian and karaoke enthusiast who hails from Los Angeles. After a precocious career in television that brought him into contact with human rights-violating despots, Androsky began pursuing comedy, eventually running his own regular shows and becoming a festival favorite around the country. A viral video wherein…
Nemr Abou Nassar is widely known as “Lebanon’s King of Comedy.” By far the most famous comedian in his country, Nassar — who’s often billed as simply “Nemr” — regularly performs for crowds all over the world. He’s recorded five standup specials, been on the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour…
Reruns, last runs, new chances at life and the return of the undead: Denver stages will see it all this weekend. Keep reading for details on a four-pack of fresh productions. This Aunt Is Not a Cockroach Buntport Theater 8 p.m. October 6, 7 and 8 Tickets: $14 to $18…
The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, which turned forty this year, includes art galleries, meeting rooms, community gathering places and two theaters: the original Main Stage, which usually hosts big musicals, and the newer Black Box Theater, which is as large and well-appointed as many companies’ main stages…
October, a month of harvest moons and costumed goons, is upon us. While there’s perhaps no better month to take in the natural beauty of our fair state, the early sunsets and evening chill leave plenty of time for comedy. Fortunately, a bountiful joke harvest awaits leaf- and laugh-peepers alike this…
The Taming, a political satire by Lauren Gunderson, is the first offering of the Catamounts’ 2016-’17 season. The play doesn’t probe very deep, despite the reference to Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and a nod to Sartre’s No Exit. But it does provide some points to ponder, some feminist verve, a…
The mood was celebratory at the opening of the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s Ripcord, the first show of the company’s eleventh season, and also the first at the Dairy Arts Center after the building’s year-long renovation. Over the past twelve months, BETC has performed in the Boulder Chamber of Commerce…
Buntport Theater Company is kicking off the fall season by bringing back Middle Aged People Sitting in Boxes; the show opens tomorrow. Here’s our capsule review of the original production: A clothesline on which tops and bras are hung spans the stage. Other than that, the set consists of four shrouded…
The room, with its floor of lighted squares, seems small and isolated in darkness. It’s edged by the black metal railings of the fire escape. This is St. Louis, where author Tennessee Williams grew up, during the impoverished years of the 1930s, and The Glass Menagerie is autobiographical, a memory…
At the start of God of Carnage, four people are sitting in a beautifully appointed living room. The decor (courtesy of Jonathan Scott-McKean) has orange and turquoise notes but is never garish; there’s a vase of flame-colored tulips on the coffee table, which also holds a stack of expensive art…
Family, friends and fans are mourning the loss of Denver comedian Jordan Wieleba. Rushed to the hospital after a severe asthma attack left her in comatose last week, she remained unresponsive and unaware of the well-wishing throngs of visitors she received. Few knew of the seriousness of her circumstances; Wieleba herself had tweeted…
Water by the Spoonful is the second in a trilogy of plays by Quiara Alegría Hudes being shown as part of Curious Theatre Company’s serial storytelling project. The third, The Happiest Song Plays Last, opens next February; the first, Elliot, a Soldier’s Fugue, was presented in March. But artistic director…
New Orleans grande dame Violet Venable is interviewing Dr. Cukrowicz. A young researcher, he is setting up a lobotomy clinic and needs money, money that she’s willing to supply if he’ll agree to lobotomize her niece, Catharine. Catharine was on vacation in Europe with Violet’s son, Sebastian, when he died…
