In celebration of the first rehearsal of EVENTIDE, which was yesterday, we bring you this video from the latest episode of “10 Minutes to Curtain“.   Here, Broomfield Mayor Patrick Quinn welcomes Eventide author Kent Haruf to talk about his novel as part of the “One Book One Broomfield” series.

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By Richard Thieriot, actor in When Tang Met Laika, Denver Center Theatre Company

Richard Thieriot

My name is Richard Thieriot and I’m playing The Young Communist (retired) in the world premiere production of WHEN TANG MET LAIKA I was part of the first reading of the play at Perry Mansfield right after I finished my degree at the National Theatre Conservatory (2008). The play has changed and grown a great deal since that first reading. I’ve never worked with a writer who is as active in changing and editing a script as Rogelio Martinez; he has given us a stack of new pages every day since began this rehearsal period on Monday the 14th. An actor gets to watch performances and themes develop in all rehearsal processes but it is a rare treat to watch the actual script change shape and evolve every day. Terry Nolen, our director, has put together an awesome group of actors for this play as well. I sit back during most of the read-throughs and just watch my cast-mates tell this story. They make me forget where I am. Just awesome.

A great deal of the play takes place in space and we’ve been researching the space race a great deal and talking about it. Last week, we had a real life astronaut come into the rehearsal and tell us about his experience in space. Bruce McCandless went on two expeditions in a Nasa orbiter totaling fourteen days in space. He looks pretty unassuming, just a quiet older guy with a bit of a Texas accent, but the stories he had about his life were unbelievable. He was the first man to do an untethered space walk (which means he was just floating around in space with nothing attaching him to the spacecraft). I’ve been on boats far from land and it was enough to make me nervous. FLOATING FREE IN SPACE! It’s a real stretch for me to conceive of being calm doing what Bruce did. He was absolutely calm in talking about it though and said he wasn’t that scared when he did it. I feel brave jay-walking in Denver.

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By Cara Miale, Fourth Wall member

Cast members Megan Byrne and Chris Mixon judging sweaters.

Thanksgiving came and went kicking off another holiday season and all that it brings: family dysfunction, snowflake sweaters, shameless re-gifting, drunken uncles, and oh yes – cheer.

If your holidays are anything like mine, an Ugly Sweater Party and Absurd Holiday Extravaganza with  FOURTH WALL, The Denver Center’s new group of culture lovin’ 20- and 30-somethings, is a more-than-welcome occasion.

At a recent event, friends and members of Fourth Wall mixed and mingled, caught a performance of Absurd Person Singular and rang in the holidays with cathartic cocktails at a lively after party. If Fourth Wall’s party felt different than the usual holiday events, it might be because:

• No one’s judging you – just your ugly sweater. Cast members Megan Byrne and Chris Mixon of Absurd Person Singular had quite the task at hand as official judges of the Ugly Sweater Contest. Fourth Wall Members came dressed to impress in an array of hilariously hideous holiday sweaters, including one with pockets for Christmas cards.
• It Was Nothing Like Little Sister’s Holiday Play. Nope, no two hour Frosty the Snowman medley or snoring grandma at this show.  We laughed our faces off (and not because someone peed their pants on stage) at a performance of Absurd Person Singular, a hilarious comedy featuring some strangely familiar dysfunctional couples at Christmas.
• … of the White Elephant in the Room. No dancing around uncomfortable subjects at the dinner table. The only elephant in the room at the Fourth Wall party was wrapped in tinsel with a bow on top. Our white elephant gift exchange featured piles of fun and festive gifts; even tickets to Spring Awakening – now there’s something worth stealing from a friend. Of course, not every present was equally amazing – someone did go home with a box of rotten bananas. 
• There was Mixing and Mingling with Other Grown Ups – Cool Ones.  Students from the National Theatre Conservatory stopped by the Fourth Wall party for a meet and greet. Yes, real celebrities. As much as we all enjoy the cheek-pinching and Q&A sessions that are par for the course at family gatherings, nothing beats an evening out with other 20- and 30-somethings who appreciate a little culture and a little cocktail.

Happy Holidays from Fourth Wall, and join us at our next event for EVENTIDE on January 30!

Josh Rael and Heidi Bosk in their best sweaters.

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With Christmas literally just around the corner, The Denver Center, like so many others, has created its wish list. In this video, Denver Center Theatre Company Artistic Director Kent Thompson wishes you and yours the happiest of holidays and outlines how you can play a part in making The Denver Center’s holiday wishes come true!

Click here to make your donation today.

Happy Holidays, everyone!  Thanks for supporting us in another fantastic year of theatre.

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By Augie Filholm, child actor in A Christmas Carol                  

Augie Filholm

In this past six weeks I have been performing as an actor at the DCTC (Denver Center Theatre Company). I was cast in the play A CHRISTMAS CAROL directed by Bruce Sevy. It was a lot of fun and it was cool to see how things worked back stage. Let me explain what it was like and what I had to do to be in this play.

First of all I had to audition. The auditions were at the DCTC, in a building called the Newman Center. The first audition was in a small room. First we met the director and the other kids at the audition. Then we had to sing. This was my fear of trying to get into the play. I am not a good singer. They made us sing a very short song in what we call the Schoolboy scene, when the main character Ebenezer Scrooge goes into the past and sees himself as a child. After the singing, we (meaning the other kids at the audition and me) were all assigned parts to audition for. We all got a sheet of paper that had the lines we were to audition for. They had me audition for a character named Peter Cratchit. Peter Cratchit is a boy who is the son of a poor man named Bob Cratchit. Peter has a younger brother and sister and an older sister, and his mother, of course. For my part, I had to read a small part from the Bible. This scene was a sad or gloomy sort of scene. It was not hard, but it was very exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. Every kid who auditioned for this part read the same thing. We all did it in front of each other, which made me even more nervous. After the audition, I waited at home for a call back. A call back is when the people who watched you audition call you back to audition again. This can mean that the director had a hard choice between two people or anything like that. We read and sang the same things as the previous audition, except there were not as many people this time. Feeling that I knew the part a little better than the audition before, I felt more confident and relaxed than the first time.

A couple days later, I got the call that I had gotten the part. Our first rehearsal was to be on November 2.

On November 2, the whole cast and crew showed up in the same room where we had the auditions. It was amazing to see how many people were really involved in it, and to meet them. It was especially fun to meet the kids who had gotten cast, to see who I was going to spend the next month and a half with. At this rehearsal we did not act physically, but we read the script. The director showed us a model of the stage and its props and features. We were going to first rehearse in the room that we were in right now.

The rehearsals were really fun, but they also made us very tired. We would sometimes stay at the rehearsal room from 6pm to 10pm just figuring out a small scene. Sometimes, it would just be a certain call for certain people, and sometimes we would have the whole cast there. Like I said before, this made us all tired. I thought I had it hard, but then we started tech rehearsal, and believe me, just a regular rehearsal was nothing compared to tech.

Tech rehearsal is when you move to the real stage that you will be performing on. Lights and most props are there, and sometimes, but not usually on the first tech, costumes. One would think that tech is really fun because you get to see all the props, and you get to see your costume, and you get out of school early, and things like that. When you get to tech, though, spending 12 hours downtown, with only a two hour break can sometimes make you feel tired, but mostly… very, very bored unless you’re on stage a lot. Finally we started previews, which is when an audience watches, but they can expect errors in lines or technical difficulties. This is also good for the directors, because they can get an understanding of the reaction to the crowd.

The Children of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Photo by Terry Shapiro.

After the previews, opening night came. Opening night is the most fun that there is during the whole run. The reason for this is that it’s opening night for one, and it is fun to celebrate that we are able to make this far, and put on a perfect show. There is also a fun party after the show with the cast and crew. After the opening night, the real show is on. Being in A Christmas Carol, a tradition for most families and schools is to come and see the show. This means that we are almost there every day doing two shows a day. This was a really fun run. The bad part is that we only get Mondays off and Christmas day off. Then when all the other kids are finally off, I only get a day’s rest, because I am in another play, called EVENTIDE, as DJ Kephart. It’s a lot of work, but I love it!

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Little House on the Prairie, starring Melissa Gilbert as “Ma”, opens tonight in The Buell Theatre!  In celebration of the opening, we’ve brought you a couple YouTube videos about the show. 

First, scenes from Little House on the Prairie:
 

Next, here’s actress Kara Lindsay’s vlog about the show.  Kara plays Laura in Little House on the Prairie and was a cast member of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s production of Quilters during the 2008/09 season.

Enjoy!

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Time for a VLOG!  Steffi D, who plays Ilse in the national tour of SPRING AWAKENING, tells us about the show and her character.  The show runs through December 13 in The Buell Theatre!

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By Douglas Langworthy, Literary Manager, Denver Center Theatre Company

Alan Ayckbourn

Ayckbourn, who at age 72 has written more than 70 plays including ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR which is playing now in The Space Theatre, is considered the most prolific professional playwright living.  Each of his plays has some sort of stylistic device that makes each play easy to remember.  Here is a selected list of some of his more popular titles. Let us know which one you would like to see produced next!

Standing Room Only:  A maternity ward on a double-decker bus

Relatively Speaking:  A romance where no one knows who they’re in love with

How the Other Half Loves:  Three couples attend two dinner parties at the same time

Time and Time Again:  Three men chase after the ultimate trophy woman

The Norman Conquests:  Three plays, one cast

Bedroom Farce:  One night, three bedrooms

Season’s Greetings:  Another average Christmas with affairs and gunshots

Intimate Exchanges:  Two actors, one small decision, eight possible plays

Woman in Mind:  A woman with both a real and imaginary family

A Small Family Business:  Family furniture business turned drug-dealing ring

The Revenger’s Comedies: Two plays, one epic tale of revenge

Body Language:  Two women given the chance to exchange bodies

Time Of My Life:  A family drama that spans the past, present and future

Communicating Doors:  A time-travel comedy-thriller

By Jeeves:  A musical-turned-farce, all due to a missing banjo

Comic Potential:  A robot discovers her comedic acting abilities

House and Garden:  Two plays occurring simultaneously in two different theatres

Virtual Reality:  Miscommunication in a world of advanced technological communication

Damsels in Distress:  Three different plays with the same set and cast

Improbable Fiction:  One story told spanning multiple genres

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It’s World AIDS Day AND the first Tuesday of December, which means it’s time for a new episode of “10 Minutes to Curtain”!

 
With Thanksgiving past and the holiday season upon us, one thing is certain at The Denver Center: A CHRISTMAS CAROL is up and running. Charlie goes backstage to talk with some actors about the real drama in the production, then climbs up to the catwalks to give you an exclusive birds-eye-view of the complicated scene changes in ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR. Then, join Ann Kron for a tour of her living room on the WELL set and learn about the upcoming world premiere productions of EVENTIDE and WHEN TANG MET LAIKA.

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