ABOUT THE PLAY
A reclusive writing professor at Yale becomes enthralled with a gifted but troubled student. A mystery unfolds that will leave you riveted.
It is part love story, part thriller and part meditation on the origin of genius.
Our production stars Anne Penner, the 2025 winner of the Best Actress Award in Colorado for her role in Grounded, and Denver actor Nate Cushing, seen this summer at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.
Here is an excellent review from The New York Times, if you’d like to delve deeper into the play.
RUN TIME
The Sound Inside is expected to run approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.
CONTENT CONSIDERATIONS
The Sound Inside contains discussions of suicide.
BETC does not offer more specific advisories about the subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person. If you have any questions about content or age-appropriateness, please call the BETC Office at 303-351-2382.
SHOW SCHEDULE
BOULDER
The Dairy Arts Center (Carsen Theater)
Thursday, November 19, 7:00 pm - Preview
Friday, November 20, 7:00 m - Opening
Saturday, November 21, 2:00 pm
Saturday, November 21, 7:00 pm
Sunday, November 22, 2:00 pm
Friday, November 27, 7:00 pm
Saturday, November 28, 7:00 pm
Sunday, November 29, 2:00 pm
TICKETS
The Sound Inside will be a special and free eight-show run for everyone who has supported BETC over the past three years.
Tickets from the Dairy Arts Center will be emailed to you directly from the box office, and copies can be found on your Dairy Arts Center account.
If you need any assistance, please email tickets@betc.org.
CAST
Nathaniel Cushing (CHRISTOPHER DUNN) is a professional actor and Denver native who has worked all across the state of Colorado. His recent regional credits includes Twelfth Night and Shakespeare in Love (Colorado Shakespeare Festival), Henry IV / V (Theatreworks); Heroes of the Fourth Turning (UpstART) and the DCPA’s Shakespeare In The Parking Lot. This is his third outing with BETC, previously seen in Dorothy’s Dictionary and The Sound Inside. At the 2018 Colorado Thespian Conference, he was named Best Actor - Male, and is a graduate of the University of Denver, where he earned degrees in both Acting and Psychology.
Anne Penner (BELLA BAIRD) is a Professor in the University of Denver Theatre Department and co-host of the acting/psychology podcast The Actor’s Mind. Favorite performances include UNDONE: The Lady M Project (Local Theater Company), which she co-wrote; Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Cymbeline (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (Stories on Stage); Amelia in Letters of Suresh (Curious); Soccer Mom in The Wolves (BETC); Beckett’s Not I/Rockaby (Edinburgh Fringe); and Grounded, Abundance, Crimes of the Heart, and Savage in Limbo (Sis Tryst).
ARTISTIC TEAM
Tina Anderson (SCENIC DESIGN) Tina’s most recent designs for BETC: Mary Jane, Brooklyn Laundry, The Thin Place, Cry It Out, The White Chip, Hope & Gravity, Little Women, What the Constitution Means To Me, Coal Country (True West Award) and Eden Prairie, 1971 (Henry nomination). Other set designs include Pump Boys and Dinettes, Assassins (Miner’s Alley); True West, What the Constitution Means to Me, POTUS and Hurricane Diane. (Thunder River Theatre Company); What The Constitution Means to Me. (Silco Theatre); The Little Mermaid, Twelfth Night, Sweeney Todd. (Off Square Theatre) Dracula, a Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really & The Laramie Project. (Arvada Center); POTUS & Cullud Wattah.(Curious Theatre Company) Tina is always grateful for design opportunities.
Katie Hopwood McCleaf (PROP DESIGN / OPERATIONS COORDINATOR) Katie’s prop work was most recently featured in BETC shows: Witch, Mary Jane, Brooklyn Laundry, Every Brilliant Thing, The Thin Place, Cry It Out, Holly, Alaska!, The Children, The Royale, Eden Prairie, 1971, and the touring truck shows- Amelia’s Big Idea and Dorothy’s Dictionary. She graduated from Salisbury University with a degree in Theatre Production.
Rowan Livengood (SOUND DESIGN) Rowan is a local sound designer, proud to be rejoining BETC. Previous BETC sound designs: The Weir, Hope & Gravity and Enemy of The People, Cry It Out and Mary Jane. Additional credits include ASM for Coal Country, Eden Prairie 1971, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson Apt. 2B, The Royale, and The Children and audio engineer for King Penny Golden Radio Show. A music lover and all around creative individual, Rowan is constantly raising the bar for himself and his craft.
Alex MacNeill (STAGE MANAGER) couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with BETC for the second time. Previous BETC credits include being the Assistant Stage Manager for Witch. She is a senior at the University of Denver, and is expected to graduate in June 2027 with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre. In the past, she has worked as an ASM and prop master for DU’s production of Into The Woods, served as deck chief and on run crew for DU’s Senior Short Play Festival, and is currently a part of DU’s Technical Theatre Internship Program. She is so grateful for the support the Witch team has shown her throughout this process!
Mark Ragan (DIRECTOR / EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) is an actor, director, and producer active in the Denver and Boulder theater scene. His recent directing credits include It’s a Wonderful Life, (3 Henry Awards), and Romeo and Juliet at the Dairy Arts Center. As an actor, Mark has appeared as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and as Laertes in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s The Odyssey. Shakespeare has been central to his career, with roles including Mercutio, Lord Capulet, Lysander, Bottom, Angelo, and Hotspur. A former national political reporter who covered the White House and Congress in the 1980s and 1990s, Mark also owns a nationally recognized content and communications company based in Chicago. Beyond his artistic work, Mark proudly supports the Colorado arts community, backing nonprofit arts organizations across the region. He lives in Boulder with his wife Jamie, a Juilliard-trained classical pianist, and their three daughters, all named after Shakespeare heroines: Juliet, Kate, and Olivia. “O, they doth teach the torches to burn bright.”
Colin D. Young (LIGHTING DESIGN) BETC: “Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson”, "WTCMTM", “The Children” (Henry nomination), “14 Funerals”, “Bloomsday”, “Pride & Prejudice,” and “Curious Incident.” Curious Theatre: “Truth Be Told”, “Gloria” and “The Secretary.” Off-Broadway - Public Theatre: “Detroit ’67”; Signature Theatre: “Fragments” & ”Talking Pictures”; Primary Stages: “In the Continuum”; Classical Theatre of Harlem: “Native Son,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “The Blacks: A Clown Show,” “Crazy Locomotive,” (Audelco Award); 59E59 Theatres: “Rearviewmirror,” and “Widows”; Reverie Productions: “Fatboy,” “American Ma(u)l,” “Mephisto.” Regional – Baltimore Centerstage, Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Kirk Douglas, Goodman, PTC, and Cincinnati Playhouse. Founding Festival Tech Director: NY International Fringe Festival; Artistic Director: Co-founder of Reverie Productions, where he produced 18 New York, U.S., or World Premieres. Adjunct Professor, Lighting Design: CSU Music Theatre & Dance; Photography: www.RockLightPhoto.com