Correspondent Toni Tresca reports from the National Critics Institute, a chat with Shane Delavan at the Colorado Community Theatre Coalition and more
In this episode of the OnStage Colorado Podcast, Toni Tresca reports on his two-week deep dive in criticism at the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. Plus, Alex catches up with Shane Delavan, the board president of the Colorado Theatre Coalition. The CCTC’s annual festival is coming up in August at Denver’s Historic Elitch Theatre, and Shane gives the lowdown on what it’s all about, the role community theatre plays in the greater theatrical ecosystem and a word or two about fancy craft cocktails.
Later in the episode we run down our Top 10 Colorado Headliners — upcoming shows on stage you might want to look out for. This month’s list:
Around the World in 80 Toys, Buntport, Denver, July 16-Aug. 1
The Yeomen of the Guard, Empire Lyric Players at Lakewood Cultural Center, July 17-19
Dames at Sea, Butte Theatre, Cripple Creek, July 17-Aug. 23
Matilda the Musical, Candlelight, Johnstown, through Sept. 6
Come From Away, Thingamajig, Pagosa Springs, through Aug. 27 (Summer also includes Company, Fiddler on the Roof)
Grease, Theatre Aspen, through August 29
Henry V, Town Park Stage, Telluride Theater, July 17-25
Honky Tonk Angels, Little Theatre of the Rockies, Greeley, July 23-26
Witch, BETC – The Savoy Denver and The Dairy Arts Center, Boulder, July 23-August 23
Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Vintage Theatre, Aurora, July 24-August 2
OnStage Colorado Podcast — Episode chapters
00:00 — Welcome and episode preview Alex and Toni introduce the main topic: Toni’s two weeks at the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, plus an interview with CCTC’s Shane Delavan, top 10 headliners and a preview of the Creede road trip.
01:26 — Best things we’ve seen lately Alex raves about Shakespeare in Love at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (now with stadium seats at the refurbished Mary Rippon). Toni recaps Sinners at Red Rocks, complete with costumed vampires and audience jigs. Review crew updates: Kim Nicoletti on A Chorus Line at Theatre Aspen and Murder on the Orient Express in Breckenridge; Alice Kaderlan on Central City Opera’s season.
06:04 — Main topic: Inside the National Critics Institute Toni breaks down his fellowship experience — daily reviews critiqued by peers and program director Chris Jones, writing leaner reviews (700-800 words), leading with a clear opinion, purging hedging language and the three audiences every critic writes for.
14:09 — Being “on the side of the art” The philosophy of criticism: avoiding the twin traps of cheerleading and hating, assigning responsibility correctly (when in doubt, it’s on the director), requesting scripts and standing by your opinions in the community.
25:29 — Newsroom energy and other disciplines Toni on his first real “newsroom” experience, reading 13 fellow critics daily, plus lessons from film, food and dance critics — including Pulitzer winner Sarah Kaufman’s advice to write about body language and motion, not jargon.
30:58 — The state of arts journalism No full-time theatre critics anywhere in the cohort’s markets. Peter Marks’ gloomy outlook, why the future is local platforms like OnStage Colorado and how regional outlets around the country are filling the gap.
36:36 — Interview: Shane Delavan, Colorado Community Theater Coalition The CCTC board president previews the Colorado Theater Festival, Aug. 14-16 at the historic Elitch Theatre: how adjudication works, the 10-minute set-up/strike rules, festival tours and roundtables, and why this cycle year could send companies to regionals and nationals. Details at cctcfestival.org.
59:22 — Top 10 Colorado headliners Around the World in 80 Days (Buntport), Grease (Theatre Aspen), The Yeomen of the Guard (Empire Lyric Players), Henry V (Telluride Theatre), Dames at Sea (Butte Theater), Honky Tonk Angels (Little Theatre of the Rockies, Greeley), Matilda (Candlelight), The Witch (BETC), Thingamajig Theatre’s summer season and Dear Jack, Dear Louise (Vintage Theatre).
1:11:12 — Upcoming coverage and Creede road trip Reviews on deck: Friends, Romans, Countrymen at CSF, Matilda, Master Class, Macbeth and Honky Tonk Angels. Alex and Toni preview their weekend in Creede (July 17-19) with a bonus podcast episode featuring Emily Van Fleet and Noelia Antweiler, plus their recent Colorado Public Radio appearance.
1:14:45 — Offstage Toni looks ahead to Bridesmaids at Red Rocks and Nolan’s The Odyssey; Alex recommends Silo season four and Olivia Wilde’s The Invite.
1:17:41 — Wrap-up Subscribe to the Theatre Blast newsletter (Thursdays) and the podcast.
Transcript
Episode topics: Toni Tresca at the National Critics Institute · Interview with Shane Delavan of the Colorado Community Theater Coalition · Top 10 Colorado headliners · Creede road trip preview
Alex (00:00): Hey, hello and welcome again to the OnStage Colorado Podcast. I’m Alex Miller.
Toni (00:06): And I’m Toni Tresca. In this episode, our main topic is my experience in Waterford, Connecticut, participating in the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. It was basically a big summer camp for theatre critics, and I learned a ton that I’m really looking forward to bringing back to the Colorado market.
Alex: All right — summer camp for theatre critics sounds awesome. Or hell, if you’re not of the persuasion.
Toni: There were definitely some days when lots of bug spray was needed, as well as copious amounts of sunscreen, but all 14 of us fellows made it through.
Alex: Definitely looking forward to hearing more about that and how what you learned can be applied to the Colorado market. In addition to that main topic, we’re going to dig into some of the best things we’ve seen recently, share an interview I conducted with Shane Delavan of the Colorado Community Theater Coalition about that organization’s upcoming festival in August, talk about the most exciting shows coming up around the state and preview our upcoming theatre road trip to Creede. So let’s get into it.
Best things we’ve seen
Toni (01:26): Tons of fun stuff to talk about this episode. But let’s start like we normally do, with some of the best things we’ve seen since we last podcasted in June. What do you want to kick us off with, Alex?
Alex: Strictly speaking of theatre, I saw Shakespeare in Love at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival — the adaptation of the film written by Tom Stoppard, adapted for the stage in 2014. It’s really a great piece of comic theatre, and it’s an incredibly well-done production. I can’t say enough about it — just a really, really fun show all around. It’s kind of a short run, so if you’re interested in seeing it, you need to jump on tickets. It’s also in the newly refurbished Mary Rippon outdoor theatre — you saw the first show there this summer, Twelfth Night. One creature comfort they’ve introduced: they give out stadium seats, so you don’t have to lug in your own or sit on the hard rocks of the theatre.
Toni: That definitely helps make the experience a lot more comfortable out there — and it’s a lot easier on your back.
Alex: I’ll talk about some film and TV a little later when we do our offstage segment.
Toni (02:59): Sounds good. I’ll spend a quick moment on film — but it’s film at Red Rocks. I saw Sinners out there with tons of other folks in late June, and that was quite an experience. There were tons of folks donning vampire attire, lots of fake blood, and it was the perfect film to see as the sun set. As the film ramped up in intensity, it got darker and darker, and there was nowhere to look but the big screen. That film is just awesome — if you haven’t seen Sinners, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Alex: That’s a wild film. Was it sold out?
Toni: It was not totally sold out, which was a bummer — Colorado, where were you? But it was pretty full, and the folks who were there had incredible energy. When the Irish dancing part started, there were folks in the audience who got up and started doing the jig along with the Irish vampire. That was very fun.
Alex (03:50): That’s great. Other members of the review crew were out and about. Kim Nicoletti took a trip to Aspen and saw A Chorus Line at Theatre Aspen, and she had some interesting things to say about it — most notably about the choreography, which she thought was quite different from previous productions she’d seen.
Toni: A Chorus Line is a really interesting piece of musical theatre. With most musicals, you buy the rights to the score and the book, and you’re obligated to perform the lyrics and written text exactly as written. A Chorus Line goes a step further: when you license a production, you also have to license the original choreography and are obligated to perform it. This one was different in that they actually added more ensemble choreography throughout. Typically, after the big ensemble number at the start when they do the cuts, those ensemble members are offstage, and the other dancers are isolated during the solo numbers. This production didn’t do that, which is fascinating to think about. I wonder how they got the rights to do that.
Alex: Maybe because they have lots of money there in Aspen. Also in the mountains, Kim saw Murder on the Orient Express at the Breckenridge Backstage Theatre — Ken Ludwig’s humorous take on the Agatha Christie classic. And Alice Kaderlan was at The Ballad of Baby Doe at Central City Opera. She’ll also be checking out Master Class, and she covered The Marriage of Figaro there. She’s been covering all the shows there this season, so if you’re interested in opera, definitely check those out on the site.
Main topic: Inside the National Critics Institute
Alex (06:04): All right, let’s switch to our main topic. Toni, you recently spent nearly two weeks at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut as one of 14 fellows at the National Critics Institute. I wanted you to talk about it — not because we necessarily have a lot of critics listening for tips, but because it sounded like an amazing experience, and it reveals a lot about how critical writing about the arts is thought about at this level, and what others are saying about how important this kind of coverage is.
Toni: It was an experience unlike pretty much anything else. I can honestly say I’ve never been in a room with that many working critics all at once. There were 14 of us at the O’Neill from July 1-12, totally living in the world of writing and learning how to improve our criticism the whole time. As program director Chris Jones — head of the opinion section and chief theatre critic for the Chicago Tribune — put it, it’s like a grad-school program in theatre criticism packed into two weeks. And that it was.
Alex: It’s an interesting kind of writing because it’s pretty rarely taught. You’d be hard-pressed to find a theatre criticism class at a college — a lot of us are self-taught in one way or another. So the fact that you got a more formalized education in it is really cool. Starting with the experience itself: what exactly did they put you through?
Toni: Pretty much every day we’d wake up super early. We got oriented right away, and that first night we saw a production of Crazy for You at Goodspeed Opera House. Then we had that evening and the morning before 9:30 to write a review of the production, which we’d edit and submit for group criticism with our instructors and the other fellows. Critics criticizing critics’ work — rather intimidating, to be honest. But you quickly fell into a rhythm, and as you got to know everybody in the group, it became a lot more comfortable to share your work. And it was incredible to do that on rinse and repeat: every day, see something, have an opinion — and not just an opinion, but a really specific argument about the show.
That was one of the things I took away most tangibly: too many theatre reviews try to cover everything — a long, exhaustive laundry list where you mention every element you think worked. That’s just not compelling for a reader. What’s way more interesting is to isolate what really worked or really didn’t, and not comment as much on competence. Competence isn’t rewarded by audiences; it’s glossed over. So I’m using that to make my writing leaner and really get to what works and what doesn’t at the heart of a theatre production, rather than trying to summarize the entire experience of a sometimes two-and-a-half-hour-plus theatrical production. Theatrical reviewing is an art in and of itself, and if you’re just doing an exhaustive summation of how each element worked rather than sharing an opinion and a distinct perspective, you’re doing your writing and our readers a disservice.
Alex (09:58): That’s interesting, because you and I have talked recently about how your reviews have tended to run on the longer side — up to 1,500 words, which is pretty long. Are you really rethinking how you approach these?
Toni: I am. Those longer pieces are going to be reserved for a diagnostic review — potentially on a new work where nothing really works in its current form, but it could get there, so here are some really specific, detailed notes to push the process forward. For your more average show, I’m going to be aiming for about 700 to 800 words: crystal clear for readers, not bogged down in too much summary — don’t want to spoil the experience for folks — and really trying to capture the “why now” element of the show and the emotionality of the experience of going to the theatre. What originally attracted me to theatre in the first place was the raw authenticity of seeing a performer on stage in real time and being present with them in that moment. I’m trying to evoke more of that in my writing rather than just the technical effectiveness of the experience. I’ve gotten away from that a little bit — I’m critiquing myself here — and I think you’ll see it reflected in my writing going forward: a really specific point of view, plus the emotionality of the experience and how that either worked or didn’t work with the piece itself.
Alex: That’s interesting, because I was just talking about Shakespeare in Love, and I kind of felt like I was doing that when I wrote the review — there were so many good things that I felt like I was checking boxes. And sometimes you feel like if you’ve mentioned one actor, you have to mention more. Getting away from feeling like you have to make sure everybody’s feelings are satisfied is probably for the best.
Toni (12:05): Chris Jones put it into words: there are really three types of audiences you write reviews for. The first is people in your local market — readers who primarily read OnStage Colorado and are listening to this podcast right now, who may actually go to a show based on what we write or say. They’re the most important group to write for. The second is people who are maybe not in the market, or too far away to actually attend, but who are curious about the happenings of the Colorado market — so the review serves archival purposes. It’s really important to think about the longevity of your review when choosing your words and your argument. Any good piece of theatre should be able to stand the test of time — will your words stand the test of time? You should actually think about that before you hit publish, and it was great to deeply consider that with some other great minds from around the country.
The third audience is the theatre insiders: the artists, the theatre admin folks, the institutions like the DCPA. They’re the people most likely to read our work, but the audience we should consider the least in our writing. Because if we’re overly considerate of the artist’s perspective and trying to please everybody, we aren’t actually engaging with the art itself and what’s on stage. That doesn’t create the most interesting criticism to read. The reviews I enjoyed reading most were always the ones that offered a really clear argument on the piece or captured the experience of attending the production in a way I really admired — and I’m definitely going to be stealing that for my own work.
“On the side of the art”
Alex (14:09): One phrase you came home repeating was that critics should always be, quote, “on the side of the art.” What does that mean when your job still requires you to say that a production does or doesn’t work?
Toni: One thing I really came home with is that critics are the biggest lovers of whatever they’re criticizing. It was largely theatre critics, but there were also some food writers and dance critics there, and every one of them had a deep love for their discipline. And Chris Jones kept saying that phrase: a good critic should always be on the side of the art. What I think he was really trying to say is that a good critic tries first to see what the art is doing, and assesses that. You don’t treat a comedy as if it were an experimental theatre piece — you really try to deeply understand first what the art is. And if it doesn’t work, your assessment should come from either a frustration or a sadness that it doesn’t live up to the mode of the art form — not a contempt for it. You should never dismiss the artist or say this shouldn’t have been created, or that it’s a waste of everybody’s time. Don’t treat it from a place of disdain. If you have criticism, it’s to make the work better and help audiences make a more informed decision. It’s not personal. Your role as a critic is still to champion that art, uphold it, have a high standard for it. Don’t be a schmuck and just say everything is great.
The two biggest killers of criticism, they postulated at this camp, are cheerleading — where you say everything is great all the time and have no clear standards — and being a hater, where everything is bad and nothing is good enough. Both do the same thing: they’re not on the side of the art. The cheerleader is on the side of the artists — totally, just the people — being a champion with no critical perspective. And the hater is on the side of themselves, upholding their own opinion at the expense of the form. You don’t want to be either. You want to be in the middle, on the side of the art — the advocate for the art and the surrogate for the audience. Because that’s what we are: the ultimate audience champion.
Alex (16:56): That’s a great way to think about it. Another note you had was about assigning responsibility — how critics sometimes blame actors for choices that may belong to the director, or even the lighting designer who’s not lighting them well. That’s a really interesting question for me, because one of the things I struggle with when I write reviews is that sometimes I don’t know what the director did. I don’t know if something was in the script or something the actor made up — I wasn’t there during rehearsal. How did they talk about addressing that?
Toni: This was a really big point: too often, critics get it wrong and blame actors for choices that are either in the script, like you just said, or on the director. The big thing I took away: when in doubt, first, you should always request the script — that’s something theatre companies can send you. If you’re going to argue that something doesn’t work because of the script or the way a character was written, you should have actually read the script to be able to intelligently make that point. And honestly, I’ve had great success requesting scripts from companies here in Colorado. I’m not always doing a detailed read — usually there are very specific things within the script I want to go back and check if I’m going to make a certain point.
But by and large, when you’re assessing theatre, everything comes down to the director. If something is tonally off — say, an actor’s performance is way too over the top compared to the more serious tone — rather than blaming the actor and that performance, put that on the director. The director is ultimately the big person in the room; they’re the person all the decisions fall on. And I can admit it: I’ve definitely blamed an actor for something that, when I think back on it, was actually the director’s fault — a tonal imbalance I wrongly criticized an actor for. The element was still off, but I had placed the blame in the wrong place, and that’s super important to think through. It’s hard, because we weren’t in the room, but when in doubt, I’m going to be blaming the director. And if you have a problem with the script itself — if you think a script has no value and shouldn’t have been produced — that’s not the director’s fault, and it’s not the actor’s fault for embodying it or the designers’ fault for designing the show. Blame the producing company. Thinking critically about how I assign blame, and keeping the people who have the most power in those rooms the most accountable for the choices made, is super critical and something I’m absolutely doing going forward.
Alex (20:09): Did you talk at all about the role of the critic and how to respond to feedback from the community — whether it’s other people who saw the show and say you’re nuts, or people from the theatre community saying, “How could you say this?”
Toni: We did talk a little about that. Chris was very open: this is not for everybody. If you’re not comfortable holding a position of some power in a community — being an authoritative voice, standing by your words even when they’re unpopular and being willing to call out things that don’t work — this is probably not the industry for you, because those things will happen regardless of who you are, what market you’re in and how kind you try to be in your writing. It’s an intrinsically difficult form and a tricky relationship to navigate. Critics play a vital role in the arts ecosystem, championing the audience, but it’s an uncomfortable relationship because we’re also going to be critical sometimes. The thing I learned was to be willing to stand by your opinion while respectfully engaging in conversations with folks in the community — not shutting them down, not refusing to listen to people with different opinions. But if you’re going to make that statement, really think it through and be willing to own your opinion. Critics should expect that they will be criticized.
Alex (22:17): Thinking about the nuts and bolts of the writing — as you had your own critiques critiqued, did you discover habits you needed to break? I always think of phrases like “in my opinion,” or “but that’s just a little nitpick” — those little phrases you use to temper things. Did they talk about exercising that out of your writing?
Toni: Oh yeah. It was all about purging any hedging from your writing. Going back to that last point — just own your opinion. If you’re going to say a thing, don’t try to modify it to make it appeal to everybody or go down a little easier. The people making this art are adults — we don’t review any children’s theatre at OnStage Colorado — so just say the thing. It’s often kinder to actually say your opinion than to couch it to make everybody feel better; otherwise you’re just doing our audience a disservice.
We also talked a lot about how attention spans are a lot shorter, so your lede really needs to work. For the non-journalists listening, the lede is the opening of your story — the first couple of paragraphs, or even just the first sentence or two, that hooks a reader and makes them want to continue reading. I had been getting a little poetic or overly funny in my ledes without actually having a value judgment, not making it clear what I think about the piece until further down in the review. And one thing they were very clear about: readers make decisions really quickly, and they’ll move on if they don’t immediately know what your opinion is and what you’re going to say. So make the top a lot clearer while still imbuing it with some artistry. People tell me they just read my headlines — and yes, if you’re writing headlines, the headline is the most important part, because most people won’t read beyond it. But if you’re lucky enough to get them to click, that lede is the make-or-break for whether they read all the way to the bottom. So you’ve got to make it sexy and actually put a value judgment in it. I promise you, readers — from now on it’ll be super clear exactly what I’m thinking about a show, right from the top.
Alex (25:02): One of the things I was thinking about while you were away: as a journalist, you’ve really been a freelancer — you’ve never worked in a physical newsroom. It must have been a different experience to be with real, live people in the same place. How did that feel?
Toni: Honestly, really invigorating. Like I said at the top, I’d never been in a room with that many working critics, and I’d never been in an actual physical newsroom. Everything I’ve done in the journalism industry has been in the online space — which is very rewarding in itself, and because I cover live performance, a big part of my job is actually going out, experiencing things, talking to people in public and doing interviews. So I get out; I’m not isolated. But it’s not the same as being in an environment where you get real-time assessments of your work and honest feedback about how something lands — being able to hear, “This was all really great, the argument was really clear, and then we got to this point and you just totally lost me.” I can work on a piece for a really long time, hit publish and have missed the most basic thing, because I’d read it so many times I couldn’t see the piece clearly anymore. Being able to have my peers give me intelligent, real-time feedback was amazing.
Also, I’d never read that much criticism in real time. Every single day, I read 13 other pieces of criticism about the thing we’d just seen the night before. Reading that much in that environment made me realize I need to do it more — start reading arts writing from around the country and find some really good writers I respect. And honestly, I’ll be reading a lot of the folks in my cohort — like Daniella over at American Theatre magazine. Fantastic writer. I do think reading more makes you a better writer, and I felt that.
Lessons from other disciplines
Alex (27:41): The National Critics Institute didn’t limit you to just theatre — you looked at dance, food, music and film criticism. Is there any real difference, other than some of the technical aspects? How did it feel writing about those other arts?
Toni: What I really learned is that they’re not all that different. In all of them, you’re the champion for the audience. A live-performance audience is definitely different from a diner at a restaurant — the experiences are very different — but in essence, you’re there to do the same thing. A big part of the institute was special guests coming in to share knowledge. We had Katie Walsh, a big film critic in LA who does a lot of work for the LA Times; a Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic; lots of theatre critics from around the nation; and music writers.
The dance material I got a lot out of, because I’ve always been intrigued by dance, but I’m not a dancer myself, and I’ve honestly felt insecure when tasked with writing about it. I’ve mostly felt more comfortable writing about Wonderbound because it’s dance theatre — I can use the theatre as the entry point and just say, “and the dancing happened.”
Alex: I think I can spell plié and jeté, and maybe pas de bourrée.
Toni: Exactly. But Sarah Kaufman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic, encouraged us not to get caught up in all that complexity trying to impress a dance reader. Most people aren’t actually dance people — it’s a pretty niche thing. What you can focus on is body language and motion. Everybody understands those concepts; we all deal with them on a daily basis. Just describing the motion you saw, how it made you feel within the experience and how it related to the larger dance piece is honestly a more interesting entry point for most readers than “and then they did XYZ dance technique, and it was okay, but there was a little shakiness.” That appeals to maybe 10 super dance aficionados in your area, but the majority of your readers — the people actually buying tickets — aren’t buying because they know the most about dance. They like how it made them feel. So lean into describing the motion and the body language and how it contributed to the storytelling — or, if it’s an abstract piece, the thematic ideas it’s circling — rather than getting bogged down in the jargon.
The state of arts journalism
Alex (30:58): We know there are no full-time theatre critics working at newspapers inside Colorado or in most other states — that’s kind of gone away. Did the group talk about the importance of what we’re doing, and what’s lost when that local criticism disappears?
Toni: It was a major theme, and everybody there was really honest about it. There was not a person there who was a full-time staff theatre critic in any market. I had folks from Detroit, Philly, New York, South Carolina and Washington, D.C., and all of them were in a similar boat to me: freelancing, doing theatre criticism in addition to other things to make ends meet. We had a guest, Peter Marks, the former Washington Post theatre critic, who came in and gave a very gloom-and-doom talk about the state of the industry — he was let go, slash left, three years ago, depending on who’s telling the story. He had some strong words, saying there will never be any more mainstream positions. The group was encouraged to push back against him, but we mostly agreed: Jeff Bezos is not going to support arts journalism at the Washington Post. And that sucks — it might be a better world if the rich folks supported journalism in a more robust way. Or maybe that’s part of how we got where we are right now.
But it’s not coming from the mainstream pockets. Where it is coming from is these localized efforts, like what we’re doing here at OnStage Colorado — folks stepping up to fill the gap left in the marketplace, often building their own platforms and cultivating new audiences. Because the thing I learned from talking with folks from all around the country is that interest in the arts is still there. There are people who want to read about this stuff and want this information. What’s changing is how you get to them. There are no legacy media outlets where you’re guaranteed a newspaper delivered to a hundred thousand people every Sunday with your theatre review in it. You have to think about how you’re meeting those audiences, and do it in a more localized, authentic way than a lot of the mainstream outlets were able to do. They’ve lost a lot of credibility, and I don’t think they’re getting it back anytime soon. So the answer isn’t trying to force the mainstream models to adapt — it’s leaning into these local solutions. And if you’re listening and want to be a part of that, OnStage Colorado would love to talk to you, because we are super invested in being part of that solution at the state level.
Alex (34:08): In speaking with these other people, were there similar websites to OnStage Colorado doing similar things?
Toni: There definitely were. Not necessarily in New York — there, they’re still very much worshipping at the altar of the New York Times and the Post. And honestly, the folks in my cohort from New York seemed a lot more stressed about the state of everything than the folks in the regional markets. Take that for what you will. But in regional markets like Detroit, Philly and D.C., there are folks building really interesting, largely online platforms that are attracting a large readership. They’re able to pay people; people are able to make a living doing it. It’s a different way to make a living — full transparency, I freelance, I don’t have healthcare anywhere, I pay out of pocket for that. It’s a different model than being at a newsroom full time with all those benefits built in. But everything about the world is adapting. I talk to a lot of folks my age who can’t get a full-time job doing anything — or if they can, it’s not in the thing they’re interested in and passionate about. So I feel very fortunate to have found a way to make it work. And from hearing from folks in other markets, it sounds like there are people in those places who are also invested in ensuring arts journalism — and theatre criticism in particular — doesn’t die away, and that it continues to serve that vital role in the theatrical landscape.
Alex (36:05): Thanks so much for sharing those thoughts — it’s really fascinating, and I look forward to seeing how your reviews change, and to you spreading some of that wisdom to me and the rest of the review crew here at OnStage Colorado. If you want to hear more about Toni’s experience, he’s written a piece digging deeper at onstagecolorado.com about the lessons he learned and how we plan to apply them to our coverage here in Colorado. Thanks, Toni.
Toni (36:36): It was a pleasure chatting with you about it. Moving on, we’ve got an interview Alex did with Shane Delavan, board president of the Colorado Community Theater Coalition, about this year’s festival, taking place at the Historic Elitch Theatre in Denver on August 15 and 16.
Interview: Shane Delavan, Colorado Community Theater Coalition
Alex (36:59): We’re here with Shane Delavan, board president of the Colorado Community Theater Coalition. Welcome to the OnStage Colorado Podcast, Shane.
Shane: Thank you, Alex, for having me.
Alex: I was just joking with you — I follow you on Facebook, and you’re always posting these beautiful cocktails you’ve made. I always want to reach through the computer and grab one, because they look so good. What was the last fancy cocktail you made?
Shane: I do it weekly, and the last one was a Clover Club, which is a pre-Prohibition cocktail. It’s quite a nice, delicious, light, summery, citrusy something you can just sit on the porch and enjoy.
Alex (37:46): Well, that’s one of your claims to fame. The other has been leading the board at CCTC. This is an annual adjudicated community theatre festival — I believe it’s every other year that it’s adjudicated, right?
Shane: Kind of. In the past, we had an annual festival that was always adjudicated, and every other year the companies that rose to the top would advance to additional festivals. In the off year, as we call it, they’d still be adjudicated and ranked, but it stopped at the state level. Since COVID, things have changed — the needs have changed for community theatres — and we took a hiatus like a lot of people did. Now we’re back to the annual production of the festival.
Alex (38:57): The festival this year is August 14-16 at the Historic Elitch Theatre in Denver. We’ll get to that venue in just a bit, but I wanted to start with a really basic question. From your perspective, what is community theatre? How do you define it?
Shane: It probably varies from person to person, to be honest. For me — and leading an organization that enriches and supports community theatres throughout the state of Colorado — community theatre is any theatre where there’s some element where it’s important to engage the community. Whether it’s in a large city where a lot of attractions are competing for people’s attention, or a really small community where you’re one of the very few opportunities for people to connect with theatre and storytelling. And it has a different focus relative to true professional theatre, where you’re really trying to pay a living wage to your production staff, your actors and so on. Community theatre can be a hybrid of that, where some people have some compensation but it’s really an avocation for them — they’re contributing out of love for the craft of theatre — or it can be straight volunteer. There are a lot of theatres around the state where people truly do it for the love of theatre.
Alex: Absolutely. It could be two guys in a tent performing in a park, all the way up to something that looks like professional theatre, but maybe they’re not using Equity actors. It’s a real continuum — one of those squishy terms. It doesn’t always mean volunteers or amateurs; it really runs the gamut. So for people who’ve never been to a theatre festival like this: what does it mean to be adjudicated?
Shane (41:06): We use professional adjudicators. We usually try to have one who has an educational background — someone who has been a theatre professor — and the other person is a practitioner: somebody who certainly has education in theatre but is implementing it in a theatre environment as an executive director or artistic director. They bring those two different perspectives to how they view each production. There are specific guidelines the adjudicators follow to determine the show that is, as we call it, most fully realized. There can be a wide range of production sizes, and the quality of the scripts can vary, but what the adjudicators are really looking for is: is that theatre company taking all the resources available to them — the script and all the other production elements — and presenting the most fully realized version of that show possible? Those that succeed tend to get a lot of accolades from the adjudicators.
The nice thing about adjudication is that it’s a very constructive opportunity for theatre companies to be acknowledged for the good work they’re doing, but also to get some really constructive guidance. We’re very careful with our adjudicators that it be constructive — guidance that will help that theatre company grow the effectiveness of that production or of future productions. So we look at it as an opportunity: if the theatre companies take notes and want to continue improving their ability to deliver theatre, they actually improve their productions as a result of the experience they’ve had at the Colorado Theatre Festival.
Alex (43:28): Yeah — after they complete their performance, they come out and sit in the front row, and the adjudicator gets up on stage and gives it to you. So it’s immediate feedback. And a lot of times, especially with dramas, you don’t know how it landed — with a comedy, if you’re getting lots of laughs, you probably have a pretty good idea you’re hitting it. As I recall, the rules are: you have an hour to perform, so you’re either doing a one-act or a cutting; you’ve got 10 minutes to put up your set in a 10-by-10-foot square and 10 minutes to strike it; and if any of those don’t work, you get DQ’d. So there’s definitely a hurry-up-and-get-it-done element. It’s really an interesting thing to see if you never have. So how does a theatre company get selected to be in the competition? Do they just raise their hand?
Shane: It is raising their hand. Interestingly enough, this year we have good representation from around the state. Often we’ll have companies that tend to be closer to the host venue — it’s just easier for them to get all their production elements there. But we do have a company representing the Western Slope, a company representing the mountain region and some theatre companies representing the Front Range as well. It’s really whoever feels they want to try something out, grow from the experience, make connections with other theatres, learn, share ideas and share resources. Those are the companies that raise their hand and end up presenting a show at the festival.
Alex: And if you win an award, you can stick “award-winning” in front of your theatre forever, right?
Shane (45:34): You can, absolutely. And there are a lot of companies that sometimes depend on that kind of recognition for grant writing, so there’s a bit of a financial benefit to participating, along with other opportunities to really up your game. We’ve had some pretty small theatre companies that have done really well at the festival, and they’ve used that recognition to grow their ability to deliver theatre in their home community — they’ve demonstrated that they’re not only strong at what they do but continuing to improve their product.
Alex: Right. The other interesting thing is that this is on top of whatever else they’re doing. It really is a lift for theatres, especially small ones, to ramp up a whole other production, find a set that’s going to work, travel with it and all that. It’s definitely a labor of love, but it is fun. So beyond the performances themselves, do you have any other workshops or things going on at the festival?
Shane (46:58): This year we’ve really tried to hone in primarily on the performances, so we’ve scaled it down a little. We will have a couple of roundtable discussions, which really give an opportunity — sometimes you hear “roundtable discussion” and think, God, there are going to be three people on a panel talking ad infinitum, and you’ll just get bored. But the way we design our roundtables is as a community conversation. The intention is to convey some information around a topic, but also to have people get feedback, resources and ideas they can take back to their theatres and use. And then, of course, we’re going to be at the Historic Elitch Theatre, which has such a fascinating history. So another thing we’re going to offer is tours of the venue — hear about the history, hear about all the people over the hundred-plus years who have performed at that historic theatre. That should be a lot of fun, especially for those who really love theatre, remember all of those old-time performers and recognize that they, quote, trod the boards just like today’s performers do on the stage at the Historic Elitch Theatre.
Alex (48:24): That was the next thing I wanted to ask you about. It seems like a perfect venue for this, and you’ve bounced around to different venues over the last few years. How did this come about?
Shane: Interestingly enough, it was a connection between one of the Colorado Community Theater Coalition’s board members and an association he had with the Historic Elitch Theatre. It was a natural, built-in connection, and we just started the dialogue with the venue. One of the things that really appealed to us about hosting the festival there: historically, the theatre was dormant for multiple decades and was at risk of being torn down at one point. People saved it, and it continues on with a historic landmark designation, which is wonderful. They’re just starting to rebuild that venue and have programming more regularly — restoring it, at least a little, to its status as a gem of a performing opportunity in the Denver metro area. As we all know, venues are harder and harder to come by, so it’s really nice that in the past two or three years this has started to emerge as another place for community theatres to have a production — a really cool venue with a lot of history.
Alex (50:07): That’s great. It’s got such a story to it, and it’s a fun place to go — and it’s cool that there will be tours so people can poke around and see what’s going on there. So say I’m a community theatre in Delta or someplace else in Colorado, and I’m thinking, wow, that might be kind of fun. What advice would you give a theatre that wanted to participate?
Shane: We have resources on our website, cctcfestival.org. There are a couple of pages that really spell out the benefits of participating as a company and the guidelines the adjudicators use to evaluate the shows — so you know what you’re getting yourself into before you raise your hand and say you want to participate as a presenting company. Especially since this year is what we call a cycle year — the top two companies from this festival will advance to a regional and potentially a national theatre festival — there are some additional guidelines people need to be aware of. So the starting point is to go to our website and find those pages under the Colorado Theatre Festival banner. And there’s an opportunity to literally click a button and say: I have an intent to register, I want to learn more, I want to talk to somebody. We’ll obviously get in touch very quickly. We just want to make sure you have sufficient time to be prepared to be at the festival.
Alex (52:02): Right. And it is really fun to advance to a regional and a national — and you could even get an invite to an international festival from the national one, right? So I wanted to ask: how long have you been involved with CCTC?
Shane: That is possible, yes. As a board member, it’s been about 15 years, so it really has been quite a while. We do have people rotate on and off, but some of us have stuck around because there’s such a love of supporting community theatre. Some board members are involved with their own community theatre. I’m one of the people who is also a performer and does some things around town, but I don’t have an affiliation with a specific community theatre. So I really love the opportunity to get to know all the players around the state and see the new, interesting things they’re doing — how they’re adapting to the new environment, how they’re attracting additional patrons, choosing seasons, all those sorts of things. It really is fascinating to see what’s working, what isn’t working, what used to work. Things have been changing a lot, so a lot of theatres are constantly trying to figure out what that secret sauce is, and it’s really interesting to see what people have found works for them.
Alex (53:33): You’ve been to a lot of festivals. Do you have any favorite memories that stuck out — a performance that just blew everybody away, or something that really sticks with you?
Shane: Yeah — and it’s been a while, so I might forget the title of the show, but it was presented by a theatre that has since renamed itself. At the time it was called Theatre Esprit Asia. One of the heads of that theatre, Maria Cheng, wrote a show, performed in it and presented it at the festival. It was one of those immersive experiences into Asian culture — the comedic element, the dramatic element. She crafted a really beautiful piece of theatre, and you just got lost in it. You were there with her. And when the show came to an end, people were crying — not because it was emotional, but because they’d seen something magical. That was a handful of years ago, so it wasn’t a recent production. But there are those moments when something is special and magical and it lands and touches everybody, just like any theatre piece we go to. There’s obviously a very unique experience with live theatre versus any other performance mode — you feel like you’re all in it together. That was one of the highlights of the theatre festivals I’ve been to so far.
Alex (55:22): That’s great. For someone who wants to go to the festival, any advice on how to take it in — especially if you don’t have the ability to be there both days?
Shane: Especially for people who aren’t representing a theatre — who just want to attend, get a little escape from the everyday world and live in the world of community theatre and make those connections — the majority of the performances happen on Saturday and Sunday. You can register as a full festival registrant, see all the shows, be there the whole weekend and do what we call networking — just talking to other people who love and are passionate about community theatre, going to a restaurant or a bar and having a fancy cocktail or a non-alcoholic beverage, and just communing. It’s a really nice opportunity, and a different experience, to go all in and become part of this community for the weekend.
But there are a lot of people who just come to see and support a particular show, or who are interested in a couple of shows and go for an afternoon. Even if you just see two shows that are no longer than an hour each, you get a really interesting taste of a variety of theatre, and you see the whole process. Then you can go on your way and do other things that weekend. So there are varying levels of ways people can come support, be part of and commune with the community of this festival.
Alex (57:21): It’s a great opportunity to get out and support community theatre, and it’s a very different experience. The Colorado Community Theater Coalition’s Colorado Theatre Festival is happening August 14-16 at the Historic Elitch Theatre in Denver. Should be a banger. Shane, thanks so much for coming on OnStage Colorado and telling us all about this.
Shane: Should be a banger, absolutely — we’re very much looking forward to it. My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, Alex.
Toni (58:00): Well, that was a cool conversation. Thank you so much to Shane for dropping by the OnStage Colorado Podcast.
Alex: Yeah, that’s a neat program. As I’ve talked about in previous podcasts, it’s something I was really involved with when I was doing theatre back in the ’90s with the Breckenridge Backstage Theatre, and I got to go to a lot of these competitions. It really is a ton of fun. And almost like what you were talking about with being around other theatre critics — it’s a rare opportunity to be around other whole theatre companies, see what their programs are like and compare notes. It’s a neat opportunity, not just for the competition, but for theatres to check in with each other and maybe learn from each other.
Toni: Yeah — in a state like Colorado that’s so spread out, it can sometimes be hard to build community within the theatre community. Even though there’s so much activity happening, we don’t have a centralized arts district for that kind of free exchange of ideas. It can be hard for companies to really authentically network, and places like the Colorado Community Theater Coalition’s festival are one place for that to happen.
Top 10 Colorado headliners
Toni (59:22): All right, now let’s turn to our top 10 Colorado headliners — shows coming up in the next few weeks that we think may be worth checking out. Alex, what have you got to start?
Alex: The first one is a really incredibly unique show called Around the World in 80 Days. I’d really like to try to get out to this, because you and I were at an earlier iteration of it that had a lot of technical difficulties, but we really saw the potential in it. This is Thaddeus Phillips — it’s a mixture of theatre and film and little shadow boxes, and boy, it’s really hard to even describe, but it’s a fascinating little show. I’d definitely recommend getting out to Buntport to check it out before Thaddeus takes it to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on a global tour — so this is a chance to see it here in Colorado.
Toni: I remember this piece being a really surreal experiment at Buntport about a year ago. Like you mentioned, there are a lot of complicated live video elements used in combination with little figurines, either on camera or used as shadows. Not all of it worked out — there were places where the camera would turn to nothing and he’d have to manually adjust it. But my God, were the bones of it cool. When it was hitting, it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen on a stage. So given that he’s taken another year and had extra time to polish it — maybe I just have to get over to Buntport. My schedule’s already so packed in July, I don’t know what I’m saying — I can’t commit to that, but I would love to.
Alex: What’s your first headliner?
Toni (1:01:19): Over at Theatre Aspen, it’s a classic: Grease, which follows the ups and downs of teenage love, friendship and finding your place in a crowd. It had an eight-year run on Broadway, followed by two revivals, and it’s been performed in tons of school and community productions — definitely one of the more popular musicals in the repertoire. It’s on stage at Theatre Aspen through August 29 in that incredible theatre. And if Grease is not your cup of tea, also on stage in Aspen is A Chorus Line, which we talked about earlier — our correspondent Kim had a lot to say about its new choreography.
Alex: Grease is funny — it was one of the first Broadway shows I ever saw as a kid. It was part of a field trip from my junior high school, and I don’t think they realized what it really was, because at least the original script had a lot of F-bombs in it. It was definitely not suitable for 12-year-olds, or whatever I was at the time — but we all thought it was great. It’s a very funny show.
My next headliner is a Gilbert and Sullivan show I’m really not familiar with, called The Yeomen of the Guard. Empire Lyric Players — really Colorado’s only regular purveyor of Gilbert and Sullivan — do a show every year at the Lakewood Cultural Center. This one is July 17-19, so just this weekend. It’s set in and around the Tower of London in Tudor times and follows a man falsely condemned to death for sorcery, awaiting execution. It sounds like a really interesting show.
Toni (1:03:07): That’s a Gilbert and Sullivan piece I don’t think I’ve heard anything from — fascinating. Well, it wouldn’t be Colorado without some outdoor Shakespeare, and Telluride Theatre gives you an opportunity to see one of his histories, Henry V, outdoors on the Town Park stage as part of their yearly tradition of putting Shakespeare outdoors. If you’re not familiar with this one, it follows Henry, the young and newly crowned king impatient to assert control over the people of England. After receiving a humiliating gift from overseas, his bruised ego leads him to double down on a military invasion abroad in a bid to expand his power. It’s certainly an interesting time to be programming this play — I wonder if there are any political undertones in the current staging.
Alex: The follies of kings with too much power and buckets of hubris is always a theme.
Toni: It feels like it’s perhaps relevant solely to our time, but bombastic rulers crazily pursuing power for their own self-interest seems to be a common theme of humanity.
Alex: I think what makes it seem a little more unusual in our time is that it’s not as easy for them to amass that much power in so many democracies around the world — that’s what’s so striking about it. But they certainly knew plenty about it back in the days of kings, when they could just do whatever the hell they wanted, damn the consequences. “I’m going to leave my kingdom and go on a crusade for the next two years — take care!” Or just attack whoever’s around and try to grab some land.
On a totally different note, my next one is from the Butte Theater in Cripple Creek: Dames at Sea, running through August 23 — it opens this weekend. It’s a really campy show with a lot of nostalgia for the Hollywood musicals of the ’30s. It’s the tale of the kid from small-town USA going to the big city to make her mark on Broadway; she meets another kid from hometown USA, and all kinds of hijinks ensue aboard a ship.
Toni: One of these days we’ll get down there and see one of these melodramas. They always sound like such a hoot.
Alex: That’s also around where all these fires have been happening. Hopefully it’s not impacting the show.
Toni: Yeah — thoughts to the folks in that community; hope all is well there. My next pick is Honky Tonk Angels, being performed by the Little Theatre of the Rockies in Greeley for just one weekend, July 23-26. It’s a jukebox musical featuring a bunch of pop-country favorites, celebrating the enduring power of music and female friendship. They’ve got songs like “Stand by Your Man,” “Ode to Billie Joe,” “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” “I Will Always Love You” and a lot more. It really sounds like a feel-good crowd-pleaser.
Alex (1:06:35): My next one is a really familiar title: Matilda the Musical, being done by Candlelight in Johnstown. I think you’re going to see that this week, aren’t you?
Toni: I’ll be there Thursday afternoon — actually for a non-dinner-theatre performance of Matilda. It was the only time I could get there at a reasonable point in the run.
Alex: I didn’t know they even did that at Candlelight.
Toni: I’m going to have to ask when I get there whether it’s a new thing, because I wasn’t familiar with it either. They said it was for folks whose attention spans couldn’t last that long — it is a pretty lengthy experience you’re committing to at Candlelight, with the full dinner service plus usually a two-and-a-half-hour musical with intermission.
Alex: I think everybody’s pretty familiar with Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical — a little girl surrounded by a bunch of horrible adults, which seems to be a common theme for Roald Dahl, in this case at school. If you get a chance to head up, it’s right in the wheelhouse of shows they do really well at Candlelight.
Toni (1:07:56): Speaking of shows right in a company’s wheelhouse: BETC, the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, is doing Jen Silverman’s reworking of the 1621 drama The Witch of Edmonton, called in this version simply The Witch. It revolves around a devil who appears in a small village to recruit souls and finds that everyone is very happy to give theirs away in order to get whatever they want. But one woman is not having any of it. She calls out all this BS — and she happens to be the same person everybody thinks is the town witch, leading to a kind of political drama unfolding in the town. The play runs about 90 minutes and, as is pretty standard for the company now, it’s being done in two locations: it opens at the Savoy in Denver in late July, then moves to the Dairy Center in Boulder for the rest of its run through August 23. I’m going to check this one out. BETC has been doing a really impressive job of producing these meaty dramas in an interesting manner, and I believe it’s also the regional premiere of this script. Jen Silverman’s a fascinating writer, so I’m looking forward to this one.
Alex: Me too. You’re reviewing it, but I’ve got to go see it as well. For my last one, I wanted to give a shout-out to Thingamajig Theatre Company down in Pagosa Springs. They’re generally most active in the summertime, and they’re doing Come From Away through August 27, which is always a big crowd-pleaser. They’re also doing Company and Fiddler on the Roof this season. So if you’re tooling around southern Colorado this summer, check out Thingamajig at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts.
Toni: I love that season — you’ve got two big crowd-pleasers, your Fiddler and your Come From Away, and then this really heady Stephen Sondheim musical about relationship drama tucked right in the middle.
Alex: I’d be curious to see what their ticket sales are like for those three shows.
Toni: I would bet Come From Away is the best seller, since they and every other regional theatre in America seem to be doing that musical.
My final pick is Dear Jack, Dear Louise at Vintage Theatre in Aurora. It’s written by Ken Ludwig, and it’s a romantic comedy that unfolds in letters exchanged between a military doctor and an aspiring actress during World War II — the whole thing inspired by Ken Ludwig’s parents. This version is directed by Linda Suttle. We saw a really spectacular production of this at a Bailey theatre back in 2024. It’s a really wonderful script — very poignant, and it tugs at your heartstrings.
Alex (1:11:12): It is a really neat script. And it’s interesting coming from Ken Ludwig, who’s much better known for his comedies and farces, but it’s a deeply personal story based on his parents. Really cool.
Upcoming coverage and the Creede road trip
Alex: Other upcoming reviews on the site include Friends, Romans, Countrymen, which will be the last Colorado Shakespeare Festival show we review this year — Toni will be at that one. Matilda, as we just talked about. Master Class — Alice will be at that production at Central City Opera. The Witch, which we just discussed. And Macbeth from Foothills Theater Company — is that the one in Littleton where they do it outside for free?
Toni: I think that’s right — Clement Park in Littleton. I’ll let you know after I go.
Alex: And then Honky Tonk Angels, which you just talked about — you’re going up to Greeley to check out the Little Theatre of the Rockies production.
Toni: Absolutely. I like Greeley — it’s a nice area, and there are some good restaurants there.
Alex: Also, Toni and I are going to be in Creede this coming weekend. We’re going to hit all four shows as part of our theatre road trip, and we’re also doing a special bonus episode of the podcast: we’ll be interviewing Emily Van Fleet, the artistic director at Creede Repertory Theatre, as well as the well-known, well-loved, usually Denver-based actress Noelia Antweiler, who’s in a couple of the shows down there. That’ll be a lot of fun.
Toni: It should be a fun podcast episode. We’re going to be recording it together in our Airbnb in Creede — a sort of unusual setup for the podcast; we’re taking it on the road. It should be an interesting way for you to get a feel for what it’s like to be in Creede, along that one main street where everybody performs, lives and does business. And if you happen to be milling around Creede from Friday, July 17 through Sunday, July 19, and you see Alex and me wandering around, don’t be afraid to say hi. We’d love to talk theatre with you.
Alex (1:13:24): Absolutely. The last thing I wanted to mention: if you didn’t happen to hear it, we were recently featured on Colorado Public Radio’s Raise the Curtain series, which covers theatre and the performing arts in general. That was a lot of fun — Toni and I talk about a lot of the theatre going on this summer, as well as theatre criticism in general and lots of other things. It was recorded a little while ago, but they finally got it on the air, and you can catch it on the CPR website in the Raise the Curtain section. Did you get a chance to listen to it, Toni?
Toni: I did. It was a very generous edit, and I thought the segment turned out really well. If you’re wondering why a lot of the news we discuss sounds like it’s from April, it’s because that’s when we recorded the segment — the Buntport news and the stuff with Curious was all fresh on the mind. We might have picked slightly different news topics if we’d known it was coming out in July. But even so, it was great to share information about Central City Opera, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and what’s happening at some of the other summer-stock locations around the state with a broader audience on CPR.
Offstage
Alex (1:14:45): All right — our offstage section, where we talk about the other arts: film, concerts and so on. Toni, what have you got?
Toni: I’ve got a couple I’m looking forward to. My final Film on the Rocks this season is Bridesmaids — I’m very much looking forward to seeing how a comedy like that plays on the big screen with a ton of other folks. And I’m very eagerly anticipating the release this weekend of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey — me and every other film bro, but listen, I’m excited; I can’t help it. It looks really epic. I don’t have my tickets yet because we’re going to Creede this weekend, so I didn’t want to buy anything in advance, but I’ll see it at some point.
Alex: Me too. The Odyssey is just such a great story — everybody knows it, but it’ll be interesting to see a new take on it. If you want to really brush up on your Odyssey, the podcast The Rest Is History has a two-parter this week. I just listened to the first one this morning — really, really great, and it can definitely get you ready for this one. I love those guys.
A couple of things I’m watching: Silo season four, this fantastic sci-fi series on Apple TV+ with Rebecca Ferguson, about people living in an underground silo after some sort of apocalypse. They don’t really know why they’re there, and they’ve been there hundreds of years — a really compelling series that I enjoy. And then for film — boy, I went and saw The Invite, Olivia Wilde’s new film, the other day. Holy crap, this is a really good film. Think maybe later Woody Allen mixed with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — a real pressure cooker of two couples in a small apartment. And it’s got a great cast: Olivia Wilde is in it, along with Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Ed Norton. She directed it, and I think she wrote it too. I’d definitely recommend checking it out.
Toni: I’m planning to see that this week — it’s the next movie on my list, since I’d been in Connecticut for a bit. I’m glad to hear it lives up to the hype; I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.
Well, that’s it for this episode. If you want to stay up to date on what’s going on in theatres across the state, be sure you’re subscribed to the OnStage Colorado weekly Blast, the newsletter that goes out every Thursday and shares all the reviews and news we’ve published, as well as some really detailed calendar entries — so if you want to plan your weekend, you can check it out there. And be sure to rate, review and subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode.
Alex (1:18:07): As always, thanks so much for listening. I’m Alex Miller.
Toni: And I’m Toni Tresca, and we’ll see you in just a little bit in Creede.
Alex: That’s right.
News about live shows in Colorado, press releases 'n' such
Leave A Comment