THEATRE13 @ The Dairy Center for the Arts
Recent Articles About Theatre13
Theatre 13 has goal of becoming professional troupe
By Carol Maskus - Boulder County Business Report
Theatre13 presents controversial play about activist Rachel Corrie - By Mark Collins - Daily Camera
Exploring the Corrie controversy - By Mark Collins - Daily Camera
Theatre13 director, Lemon Sponge Cake choreographer team up for unique performance - Daily Camera
Other News About Theatre13
"Art"
Opens on 12/4
Directed by Charlotte Brecht Munn, Assisted by Claire Patton & starring Joseph Lekarczyk, Michael Gunst, & Sam Elmore
click here for more details
Why not just see a movie?
With times as tough as they are right now, one of the first things that we might consider cuting out is a night at the local theatre. Founding member, Michael French had this to say:
Theatre is a way out of loneliness
We stand at the edge of a worldwide recession and everyone is scared to death. With the future in chaos before it has arrived, jobs being thrown overboard by the dozen and a life’s worth of savings being flushed away in a flood of tears, it’s hard not to think that the end of civilization is just around the corner. And if you work in the arts, things look even worse, or at least common wisdom would have us believe. When times are tough, it is said; people reassess what is essential to their quality of life and get rid of everything else. The thinking goes that it is better to sit in a padded cell going slowly insane, than buy a ticket to the theatre, movies, or a concert, which you can’t afford. And if you do manage to venture out and do something, it’s said you will seek out the most superficial, distracting, and escapist form of fluff possible. And there lies the rub: how do you gauge what is food for your soul?
There is no question that escapist entertainment can offer fleeting and sometimes necessary reward, after all, who hasn’t dreamt of leaping tall buildings in a single bound and for a moment really felt it. But in the long run, during times of great uncertainty, only art truly nourishes. Film, music, painting, and dance all have a place in keeping us emotionally healthy, but it's theatre, even in its most rudimentary form, that is as intrinsic to life as breathing. Reduced to its core, theatre is the sound of the human voice telling a story; and as children, listening to stories is how most of us were introduced to the outside world. This is why when an audience comes together to watch a play there is something magical that takes place even before the actors have said a word. There’s a child-like anticipation as we sit in the dark waiting for the “once upon a time” to begin. We know that we are going to experience the human condition, and we know that we are going to be reminded that we are, thankfully, not alone. Unlike all the other arts, which produce finished creations that can exist in isolation, theatre needs an audience to come alive. When an audience collectively imagines that what they see is real, when they laugh together or cry together, they are bound not by bodies sitting in seats, but by a collective imagination. It is this collective imagination that allows the audience to feel a sense of community and their responsibility to the world at large. No other art form can do this.
Despite the gloom that surrounds us, this is an extraordinarily hopeful time to be working in the arts. Collaborations between artists and businesses that no one could have possibly foreseen will soon become the norm. Human beings want more than the mere basics of life and businesses want a happy and fulfilled worker. The connecting point between these two agendas is art. In the face of the digital revolution one might have expected theatre to be obsolete by now, yet it still thrills us, challenges us, inspires us, and revitalizes us like nothing else on earth -- And to think it does all this with nothing more than the sound of the human voice telling a story. What more could we possibly need at this time?
- Michael French
Directions to The Dairy Center for the Arts:
From Denver: Take I 25 North. Take the US 36 exit to Boulder. Stay on 36 all the way into Boulder (36 turns into 28th Street as you come into town). Take 28th to Canyon (one street north of Arapahoe). Take a left on Canyon, then a right on 26th. Go down two blocks and The Dairy is the large white building on the left-hand side of the street on the corner of 26th and Walnut. To park in The Dairy lot, take a left on Walnut and then your next left into the parking lot.
For more information on The Dairy Center for the Arts please visit the website at TheDairy.org