‘FEED Aprés’ combines dinner + theatre for a uniquely Colorado evening

The Catamounts present the 27^th edition of the popular series

One of my favorite types of show are of the “above-and-beyond” category where I go in not really knowing what to expect. That was the case on opening night of FEED: Aprés by The Catamounts. One way to look at it is dinner theatre on an elevated level; another is a unique showcase for new, short pieces of theatre by local writers.

Overall, though, the goal of the FEED series is to create a memorable experience celebrating local talent from theatre to culinary arts plus beer and spirits making. On that score they succeed tremendously, with an intimate evening in one of the Boulder Dairy Center’s smaller theatres and the audience seated at half a dozen tables. There’s a stage area, but the performers move through the tables as both actors and servers.

With four courses, each is accompanied by a food and drink pairing and a short piece of theatre. This is the 27^th iteration of FEED, and director Amanda Berg Wilson and team run a tight ship, efficiently managing the multiple elements of the evening while a musical duo play between the performances. For this iteration, it was Catamounts Associate Producer Nika Garcia singing a neat variety of standards and songs in Portuguese accompanied by guitarist Bill Kopper.

The “Aprés” comes from a skiing theme, with all of the bits having some association with the sport. A spare set has a mounted deer head hanging overhead in front of a few beams to suggest a ski lodge. A brief prologue (and later epilogue) featured Sam Gilstrap and Maggie Tisdale with silly Euro-posh accents moaning about the less-than-ideal conditions on the hill, ultimately concluding — as many do — that chilling in the lodge with a cocktail is probably a better way to go.

Over four courses, Wilson worked with Bob Sargent of Savory Cuisines to attempt pairing the food with the theme of the performance. With a light winter salad and a glass of spiced Cava came Peter Trinh’s After the After Party performed by Jason Maxwell. On a ski trip with his buddies, he’s just finished hosting a dominos-and-beer party and is left alone with his game console, phone and upended love life.

Maxell is convincing as the person inside all of us wondering why the hell he’s here and how it’s come to be that the “rectangle” (phone) that never leaves his side has become so all consuming. Trinh’s script is an economical exploration of loneliness as it’s reflected in the devices with which we’ve merged our lives. At just about 10 minutes, it’s a quick in and out of a heady topic but succeeds to whet our appetites for what’s ahead.

Trinh, who was seated at my table, thought the salad with a lemon vinaigrette was a spot-on pairing with its sharp citrus flavors mirroring the zinger by the character’s girlfriend over the phone. For me, trying to watch the performances while contemplating the pairing accuracy proved impossible, and I simply enjoyed them all on their own.

Musical entertainment was provided by Bill Kopper and Nika Garcia | Photo: Michael Ensminger

Jessica Austgen’s Scoot accompanied the second course — a rich “pirate” stew served alongside a dark-and-stormy dubbed a “Bomb-Cylcone-Hurricane-Tidal-Earthquake.” Its post-pandemic theme featured Tisdale as an uptight germaphobe sipping a cocktail in the ski lodge when an old friend (Joan Brummer-Holden) shows up and horrifies her with her lack of pandy protocol.

The funniest of the four pieces, Tisdale peppers her performance with an inventive variety of facial expressions and utterances as her bombastic friend — inexplicably dressed as a pirate — pooh-poohs the germ worries and continually foists herself upon her. At one point, she’s scooting her barstool ever closer as Tisdale’s character scoots backward — a funny bit that inspired the name of the piece.

Brummer-Holden is a hoot as a woman so invested in YOLO philosophy that, dammit, if she wants to wear a pirate getup while out skiing, that’s what she’s going to do.

The third course is a bratwurst paired with one of my favorite IPAs: Juicy Bits from Greeley’s WeldWerks brewery. I’d chosen the vegetarian option, so I wound up with a less-than-successful faux-brat that was rescued by a yummy potato cake and mushroom sauce.

For this one, Felice Locker’s A Winter’s Tell has McPherson Hale portraying a woman still reeling from a bad ski accident some time back. Alone on stage, she’s talking to her (I think) ex-husband either for real or in her mind. The “tell” is her discovery that sympathy — even among her family and precious grandchildren — only goes so far, and she’s devastated to see how alone she becomes during her convalescence.

For dessert, it was an excellent pot du chocolate from Mateo Boulder served with a curious tipple: a tiny cup of chamomile spiked with rye from Commerce City’s Dry Land Distillery. Sam Gilstrap performed in his own bit Devising Out of Fear that included participation from the other players as well as audience members asked to name their biggest fears. This one didn’t really land for me, but I’d be happy watching Gilstrap read the phone book so, despite the darker theme, the evening landed on a high note as the musical duo performed one more piece.

One of the other nice elements of this event is the ability to chat with the others at the table. With the themes of loneliness that permeated the performances, it was a neat counteractive to what’s becoming a real problem in this country. For this night, at least, The Catamounts serve up a delightful evening not just of theatre, food and drink but also music and companionship. Tickets are limited — try not to miss this one.