Stage, Colorado Springs Independent

Review: The Drowsy Chaperone ups the ante in every way at the FAC

Todd Wallinger — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Love letter to Broadway by Todd Wallinger Anyone who thinks musical theater is dead, that America has lost its knack for creating it, hasn't been to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center lately. For that's where The Drowsy Chaperone — one of the freshest, funniest musicals of the last 10 years — opened last Friday.…

FAC theater director Scott RC Levy makes his acting debut

Bret Wright — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Nothing Drowsy here by Bret Wright In January 2011, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center announced that Scott RC Levy was to be its new producing artistic director in the theater. He took over that June, then produced and directed classics like Hairspray, Gypsy and A Christmas Story, as well as edgier pieces like Assassins.…

Review: TheatreWorks tries with The Wild Duck, but the material doesn't hold up

Todd Wallinger — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0600

A test of time by Todd Wallinger Henrik Ibsen has not aged well. In the late 19th century, this Norwegian playwright blazed new ground with the naturalism of his style and his audacity in exposing the hypocrisy of middle-class family life.…

TheatreWorks explores whether telling the truth is always preferable in The Wild Duck

Darcie Mankell — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Playing with fire by Darcie Mankell Contemporary Scandinavian authors and filmmakers can thank the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen for putting Nordic artists on the map. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the British television crime series Wallander are two examples of Scandinavia's contemporary presence in popular culture.…

The FAC cultivates new plays in Rough Writers, a festival of staged readings

Darcie Mankell — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Stagecraft inn by Darcie Mankell Kelly McAllister has a good feeling about his play-in-progress, April's Fool, which is a "metaphysical comedy" with a lot of unrequited love. "I have a gut feeling it's going to go far," says the Denver playwright, screenwriter and director.…

Review: Six Women Play Festival finds a new gear in its seventh year

Todd Wallinger — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Picking up speed by Todd Wallinger With the Millibo Art Theatre moving to Ivywild in June, it seems fitting that its theme for this year's Six Women Play Festival should be "Planes, Trains and Automobiles — The Comings and Goings of Life." Now in its seventh year, this popular festival has never before featured such a tight focus.…

How we celebrate, and mourn, goes on stage in Ormao's spring performance

Joshua Michael Torres — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Alla famiglia by Joshua Michael Torres It's a dance about food. Family recipes, to be precise.…

Accomplished dancers return with Springs in their steps

Miguel Bustamante — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

On their toes, in their hometown by Miguel Bustamante It begins like any other day: wake up, get dressed, go to school. But after school, 13-year-old Alex De Herrera will gear up for an hour's drive north to the nearest dance studio, in Alamosa.…

PPCC has set the stage, for itself, with O'Neill's The Rope

Matthew Grieson — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0600

Restart by Matthew Grieson Theater is coming back to Pikes Peak Community College. Six years after its program was shut down, five students and members of local community theater group Springs Ensemble Theatre are collaborating this weekend on Eugene O'Neill's 1918 play The Rope.…

Reviews: Other Desert Cities and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Todd Wallinger — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0600

by Todd Wallinger Last weekend, I took in two new theater shows in Colorado Springs. Since both run for at least one more weekend, we present some thoughts on whether each is worth your time and money.…

Comedian Kathleen Madigan brings her history to the stage

Kirsten Akens — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0600

In retroscript by Kirsten Akens Kathleen Madigan is not a planner. "Stuff just flies into my head and then I say it out loud onstage," the 47-year-old comedian says during a phone interview from her home in Los Angeles.…

Theatreworks rocks out with the People's President in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

RyAnne Scott — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0600

by RyAnne Scott About 170 years separate Andrew Jackson's heyday from that of emo rock. But Jackson once killed a man in a duel for insulting his wife, so you might start to imagine how the former president's penchant for the dramatic could fit within a 21st-century musical.…

Family pain comes home to roost in the FAC's Other Desert Cities

Bret Wright — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0600

by Bret Wright The Broadway production Other Desert Cities isn't child-friendly. But then again, oftentimes, neither is family life.…

Immortal Solstice Home-grown horror blends stage, screen and song

Matthew Grieson — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:00:00 -0700

Bring me to life by Matthew Grieson Juan Ponce de León supposedly hunted the fountain of youth, Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang searched for the elixir of life, and the fictional Gilgamesh tried to stay awake for six days and seven nights — but none obtained immortality. That's the eternal dilemma of all living things, but also an unending source of inspiration.…

Opera Theatre of the Rockies gets a little naughty with Die Fledermaus

RyAnne Scott — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 04:00:00 -0700

Toasting a major milestone by RyAnne Scott Wild parties. Drunken antics and dancing.…