BETC presents the American Generations Project

The Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company and Circle of Care are working with Boulder County seniors this summer on a new project! The American Generations Project aims to create theatre based on local seniors' life experiences. Class participants will draw on their personal histories to develop playwriting skills through in-class creative writing and storytelling exercises. Area playwrights will teach these creative classes, then use our seniors' wit and wisdom as inspiration for a script to be performed by professional actors during the Boulder Fringe Festival in August 2012. All senior storytellers over 55 and all experience levels welcome!

Longmont class:
Sundays, May 27th through June 24th, 3:00 - 5:00
Firehouse Arts Center, 667 4th Avenue, Longmont
Led by Josh Hartwell

Boulder class:
Tuesdays, June 19th - July 17th, 1:00 - 3:00
St. Aidan's Church, 2425 Colorado Avenue, Boulder
Led by Jim Downing

Registration fee: $25

Upcoming Shows

Announcing SEASON 7
2012-2013

Our first five-show season!

How the World Began

By Catherine Trieschmann
A regional premiere!
November 2nd – 17th
Preview November 1st

In the aftermath of a deadly tornado, a flippant remark about the origins of life brings further chaos to a small Kansas town. As a big-city biology teacher and her troubled small-town student doggedly battle over their divergent beliefs, How the World Began explores faith, grief, and fear and highlights the nature of the chasms that divide our culture and our country.

“An unusually sensitive theatrical dialogue about the nature of belief and the culture of coping, in which Trieschmann complicates each issue she raises.” –Time Out New York

“A thought-provoking look at the complexity of people who find it impossible to empathize with viewpoints not their own when it comes to the topic of religion.” - Huffington Post

The SantaLand Diaries

By Davis Sedaris, adapted by Joe Mantello
December 14th – 24th
Preview December 12th & 13th

Crumpet is back... and our resident naughty elf is bigger and better than ever! Sedaris' real-life story of working as an "elf" in Macy's SantaLand gets a complete makeover as we move it into the Performance Space at the Dairy Center. With a bigger space, redesigned set, and new holiday hijinks, The SantaLand Diaries cements its status as Boulder's best holiday tradition!

"BETC's version of SantaLand reaches out and tickles the bad Santa that lives in many of us." - Boulder Daily Camera

Ghost-Writer

By Michael Hollinger
February 1st – 16th
Preview January 31st

Novelist Franklin Woolsey dies mid-sentence, but his secretary Myra continues to take dictation. Attacked by skeptics, the press, and Woolsey's jealous widow, Myra sets out to prove she is more than just an artful forger. Is she trying to steal Woolsey's legacy or does she truly posses a gift born from a relationship that transcends the professional? An unusual romance blooms from the creative process as Ghost-Writer walks the fine line between fact and fiction.

"Tantalizing, understated and lovely. This engrossing, old-fashioned play is about the drama of writing—and typing—and creativity and love.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

"An absorbing tale. Ghost-Writer works marvelously well—a finely wrought piece of entertainment that does just what it sets out to do." —Wall Street Journal

The Other Place

By Sharr White
A regional premiere!
March 22nd – April 6th
Preview March 21st

Dr. Juliana Smithton has it all together: career, family, fame. But just as her research leads to a potential breakthrough, her life takes a disorienting turn. What starts as merely an "episode" ends in a revelation. One step at a time, the mystery of The Other Place unravels as contradictory evidence, blurred truth and fragmented memories collide in a cottage on the windswept shores of Cape Cod.

"…a haunting drama…so cleverly constructed that the nature and depth of the problem isn't revealed until the last shattering scene." —Variety

"[A] wonderful surprise…in which we the audience collectively discovered we'd been had. And that we'd liked it." —Village Voice

Bach at Leipzig

By Itamar Moses
A regional premiere!
May 3rd – 18th
Preview May 2nd

The “greatest organist in all of Germany” suddenly dies, leaving his post vacant. In order to fill the position, the Leipzig city council invites a small number of musicians to audition for the appointment, including a young Johann Sebastian Bach. Based on actual events, Bach at Leipzig imagines with hilarious wit and uncommon intelligence how six little-known musicians resorted to bribery, blackmail, and betrayal in an attempt to secure the most coveted musical post in all of Europe. A six-part harmony of music and mayhem!

“Lovely, wise, tender, strong…Bach at Leipzig combines Larry Gelbart’s vaudeville instincts with Tom Stoppard’s metatheatrical intricacies” – Chicago Reader

Subscribe today!
A 4-show subscription includes How the World Began, Ghost-Writer, The Other Place, and Bach at Leipzig (25% savings).
A 5-show subscription includes these four shows plus The SantaLand Diaries (20% savings).
Questions? Prefer to subscribe via phone? Call (303) 665-1841.

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Announcing SEASON 7 2012-2013

How the World Began

The SantaLand Diaries

Ghost-Writer

The Other Place

Bach at Leipzig