In ‘CO2020,’ the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company gathers Colorado voices to make sense of a pandemic year

In this episode of the OnStage Colorado podcast, host Alex Miller catches up with Stephen Weitz and Lynde Rosario to talk about the upcoming video production of CO2020. The show is a devised documentary, comprised of a variety of Zoom interviews with dozens of people around the state which were then transcribed, edited and portrayed by Colorado actors.

“This type of devised documentary work is something we haven’t taken on before,” says Weitz, co-creator and producing artistic director at BETC. “But so much has happened in Colorado throughout 2020 and we saw it as a vital part of our mission to capture the events through the lens of theatre. By actually going out and talking to members of our community, we were able to present a rich tapestry of what people have experienced in this tumultuous year.”

Due to popular demand, a second run of CO2020 is now available through May 9. Tickets are $10.

According to the theatre, CO2020 takes viewers on a journey utilizing interviews of Coloradans spanning the Front Range and beyond. Through the voices of students, artists, healthcare professionals, faith leaders, activists and more, viewers will feel the frustrations, fears, heartaches and hopes that dominated lives of Coloradans in 2020.

The CO2020 script was co-created by Heather Beasley, Jada Suzanne Dixon, Ilasiea Gray, John Moore, Lynde Rosario, and Stephen Weitz.

“The unfettered creative collaboration with the team and working with the interview transcriptions has been creatively challenging in a good way,” said Dixon. “We worked hard to ensure we were genuinely reflecting the truth, richness and depth of experiences through the words of our interviewees.”

The production video was produced and edited by Ray Bailey of RayBaileyTV and is partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. CO2020 streams March 29-April 11 on Vimeo.

Ticket price is on a pay-what-you-want model and can be procured by visiting betc.org.

The original version of this post incorrectly identified Stephen Weitz as Stephen Dietz.