Talking film and 'On Screen Colorado,' our new sister site

OnStage Colorado is growing. In this monthly episode, Alex Miller and Toni Tresca announce the launch of On Screen Colorado, a new sister site dedicated to covering Colorado's film and TV landscape — from Sundance's arrival in Boulder in January 2027 to the 20+ festivals already happening across the state each year.

The guys also catch up on recent reviews from the OSC crew — including Much Ado About Nothing at Platte Valley Players, English and Somewhere at the DCPA, Mary Jane, Furlough's Paradise, Jagged Little Pill and We Are the Tigers. Plus, Alex sits down with playwright Mia Burnett and Veritas Productions founding artistic director Nancy Evans Begley to talk about Burnett's new play Divine Bull Transformation, opening May 15 at Denver's Mizel Center. And as always, the episode wraps with the top 10 Colorado headliners worth checking out in the coming weeks.

For more Colorado theatre coverage, subscribe to the Theatre Blast newsletter at onstagecolorado.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Oh yeah, that's good. Yeah, good to be back behind the mic. Hello and welcome to the Onstage Cara podcast. Once again, I'm Alex Miller.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

And I'm Tony Tresca. We're back. I know I've been hearing from a lot of folks out in the theater community, some literally in theaters, who are coming up to me asking, where's the podcast been? Uh, it's not you guys aren't doing it weekly anymore, I've noticed. And all of that is true. This is the second installment of the monthly edition of this podcast because we have got big things going on behind the scenes here at Onstage, including expanding our coverage, securing a fiscal sponsorship to support the business, all while cranking out more theater reviews than ever.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Yeah. Yeah, Tony, especially you've been uh busy, busy, busy, but some of the other uh the rest of the other uh review crew uh has been out there hitting the shows. We did uh a bunch of reviews in April and we're on track to do uh I think even more in May. So so uh we're gonna talk about some of the changes coming to on stage a little bit later in the show, but with all that going on, we just couldn't keep cranking out uh uh those weekly or even bi-weekly episodes. So that's why you know we've moved to this monthly format with an occasional bonus podcast here and there as needed.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Yeah. In this episode, our main topic is going to veer away from theater just a little bit to talk about the wild world of film and television in Colorado. You may have heard if you subscribe to our onstage Colorado Theater Blast that we recently launched on-screen Colorado to cover this side of the state's arts landscape. And while Sundance is absolutely the big news in this space, there are dozens of other festivals that go on around the state all across the calendar year. So we are gonna dig into all of that just a little bit later. Uh, and then in the back half of the show, we'll get to Alex's interview with the playwright Mia Burnett and Nancy Evans Bigley, who is the founding and producing artistic director of Veritas Productions, to discuss Mia's new play, Divine Bull Transformation, which opens May 15th at Denver at Denver's Myzel Center. I'll I know I'm gonna be attending this one. I'm looking forward to checking this one out and hearing this conversation with both of those ladies a little bit later in the episode.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Yeah, yeah, it was great to have new new plays uh on the landscape, especially from a Colorado playwright. So uh all right, well let's uh first take a look at some of the things that uh the you and the review crew have been out to see. Um you saw so I haven't seen your review about this one yet. Much ado about nothing at Platte Valley Players. How was that? I'm sure it was uh another banger production from those folks.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Yeah, it was excellent. Much Ado About Nothing is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. Uh I think I just really love the language. It's a very accessible comedy. I think where our modern education system gets Shakespeare wrong is that it overly emphasizes his language and his kind of contributions to the canon when they should be focusing on how many dick and vagina jokes are all throughout his comedies. And director Kelly Van Osbrey, uh, who directs this production up in Brighton, understands that Shakespeare is best when leaned into that kind of slapstick sensibility. She makes this a production a little bit more accessible for folks. She kind of adjusts the time period rather than keeping it in its uh eye. It's a traditional period back in like the 1400, 1500s. She moves it up. It's set in 1918. So this play is taking place just after World War I. Much Ado About Nothing is always a comedy about what happens in that period right after war, right after a period of great tragedy. How do people keep themselves occupied? What kind of little trifles, trifling things do they distract themselves up with too and uh kind of choose to focus on in the aftermath of a great uh war? And I think that this update works well. It all all of the players here are fantastic, uh, particularly Bill Diggle, uh Bill Diggle as Benedict and Sarah Kitferrell as Beatrice. They make a fantastic uh leading couple. They're so fiery, they have a lot of really incredible exchanges, and then they both make an absolute meal out of their scenes in the middle of the first part of the play in which they're eavesdropping on a conversation that will ultimately lead to them falling in love. Two very different takes, very funny. Uh, just really overall, uh it's only runs about two hours. The whole evening is brisk. You will be laughing and smiling the whole way through. There are some emotional beats, but it is a comedy, so it all works out in the end, more or less.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

All right. Worth the trip up to Brighton if you're if you don't live there already.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Definitely. And I was talking with a quite a few, like I was talking with some folks in attendance. A lot of folks who were there just are members of the Brighton community who are just like, yep, we come to everything that happens here at the Armory. And why wouldn't you? The Armory is this lovely venue. It's got this beautiful wooden ceiling up up top. Um, there they host concerts there, lots of tribute bands. I I was thinking about maybe going to check out the Pink Floyd tribute band. They're doing the wall there in a little bit. I'm like, might be worth uh going back there to s to see that. They've got a lot of cool speakers in that venue that I think would make listening to music really cool.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

What else? Um, so two other productions that I really enjoyed that are both still running um are uh two uh new play and a regional premiere of a musical. So the play is English over at the DCPA. Uh this is a play that is set in 2008 in Iran. And that premise alone, in the midst of an the current ongoing conflict in Iran, is pretty intriguing, causes you to lean in. Although this play was selected well before the war, but unfortunately, war in the Middle East is somewhat always timely. Um but this play really isn't about that. It's about this classroom and these kind of conflicts that exist as five adults kind of try to learn English in this classroom. Each of them has a different reason for being there. It takes place over the course of a semester, and I just found that these episodic scenes uh that the playwright uses and is staged incredibly fluidly by the director really work to tell this story in an evocative, human manner. I I really had didn't know what to expect with the play, but it was very comic uh while also being incredibly grounded in like these characters, very distinct perspectives. Not all of them have a love of English, um, even though they're in this, find themselves in this classroom learning the language. And it's quite interesting to see that dynamic played out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Yeah, and I really enjoyed your review of We Are the Tigers. Uh this is a really interesting sounding uh show. Uh what was this? Can you describe what this one's about?

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Absolutely. So this is a cheerleader murder musical. It was this is not a broad, it never made it to Broadway, but it did uh uh did make it to off-Broadway, which is perfect for this kind of intimate piece. It's all more or less all set in the basement of these uh these cheerleaders who are all meeting together. The first part, uh it's at the start of their season, uh, they had a really embarrassing, viral setback that happened to them. And so now the team captain is desperate to whip them into shape. Uh but along the way, as uh they're kind of getting into these arguments uh amongst friendships, bodies start falling in the basement. And so it's very quickly kind of turns into this homage to a slasher musical. Oh, and did I mention they're also singing kind of really interesting up-tempo pop kind of rock uh punk music? It's I found the whole thing to be an absolute delight, even if there are some elements, some kind of tonal uh so there's a bit of elements in the script that are baked in with kind of how they treat death. In some scenes, you are asked to take it really seriously, and these actors really commit to it. It makes you really sad. And then two seconds later, it is treated as a joke again. And so that kind of whiplash between tones can sit a little bit uncomfortably if you're not open to leaning into the macabre. I was there for it, but I just want to put that out there that this script may not work for everybody because of that kind of the taboos that it plays with.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

Okay. All right. Some of the other shows that we reviewed recently uh that uh got some some strong uh notices from our critics uh was was uh Mary Jane at Betsy, uh our reviewer Garth Gerston uh said uh Candace Arena really uh uh turned in a great performance in there. So uh she's always great. Um and uh also called out Madeline J. Smith, uh stood out in dual supporting roles. Um he also went to Furlough's Paradise at Curiatus, uh really enjoyed that. So this was uh directed by Jada Suzanne Dixon uh with a real strong lead performance from Alex Campbell. Uh and um he really uh thought that was uh a good one too. And then down in the springs, April took was a jagged little pill, but she was kind of mixed on. She's she thought it was a pretty good production, but she didn't wasn't wild about some of the drama between the songs. Um and then uh Alice um Caterlin was at uh somewhere, the other show up at the DCPA Theater Company right now. This is a Matthew Lopez play about a Puerto Rican family in 1959, New York City. And I didn't know that there was a whole neighborhood there in Lincoln's Center that they basically just chased everybody out uh, you know, to build Lincoln's Center. So this is they're uh right around this time, their neighborhoods being uh demolished. They're uh they're uh all excited about trying to get cast in West Side Story. Uh and she really liked it a lot. It's not a musical per se, but it does have some music and dance in it. So uh kind of a little bit of a hybrid there.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Yeah, the set photos from that production look just absolutely stunning. This how the staircase actually goes up in the theater. It's it's the this is staged in the in the round, right? Yeah, the killstrom, yeah. The killstrom, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

So uh so that's uh you know, there's lot we have lots more reviews on the site more uh right now and more coming up. So check that out at onstagecolorado.com. Uh all right, well let's talk about film.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Yeah, we'll we'll move into our main topic. We don't really have any uh ton of news or anything in the mailbag that we wanted to spotlight this week. So we'll just move on ahead. And we are talking this week about something new in the onstage Colorado universe, on-screen Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Yeah, our brand new sister site launched uh May 14th because we just weren't busy enough covering theater. So, Tony, you're gonna you're gonna take on the mantle as the editor of this new venture. So Kara explain why we're doing this.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

I think there's a couple of reasons. Uh the first, obvious kind of elephant in the room is that Sundance is coming to Boulder in January 2027. And that, without a doubt, is one of the biggest things to happen to Colorado film in a generation. I think this is really going to shake up the way that Colorado is viewed at a national level. It already has. I mean, Colorado has some incredible film festivals already. We have the Tell Uride Film Festival, uh, which is regularly attracts stars like uh Emma Stone, Down to That Mountain Town, to debut their splashy new films. We've also got the Denver Film Festival, we've got the Boulder Film Festival, which are both really incredible regional film festivals, but Sundance has now put Colorado on the map in a big way. And at the same time, nobody is really covering Colorado's full film and TV scene in the way that it deserves. There is some coverage in other outlets of some of the big events, like Series Fest always gets a shout. People usually write some profiles and whatnot about the Denver Film Festival, but there's not a dedicated beat uh and a dedicated team of reporters who are really diving into covering what's going on behind the scenes to make it to the screen that you will eventually see. And so since we've bit spent years doing this for theater with onstage Colorado, we figured it was time to do this for the screen.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Yep. Yep. And we got a little bit of a runway until uh the world shows up in Boulder. But uh, you know, it's also launched in time to get some coverage for Series Fest, uh Cinema Q, which is the LGBTQ festival coming up at Denver, film uh Mountain Film down in Telluride, which uh is documentary series uh festival coming up uh in uh around Labor Day, and then Film on the Rocks and other stuff going on. So um I I think what struck me so far as I've been pulling together the initial content for the site is just how much film is going on in Colorado. There are, at first I thought I counted like 13 festivals, and then I was like, oh no, there's even more. So so just for fun, I just wanted to name them starting in January. So we have, of course, Sundance Film Festival in Boulder starting January 2027. Also in January is the Denver Jewish Film Festival at the Denver at Denver Film. Uh in February in Golden, there's a Colorado Environmental Film Festival. And then in March, there's the Durango Independent Film Festival, the Colorado Dragon Boat Film Festival, Aspen Schwarzfest, uh ACT Human Rights Festival in Fort Collins.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Yeah. And then we move into April, and you've got the Denver Silent Film Festival. This takes place over at the sea. Uh in, and they usually have a live pianist playing alongside old films. You've got, of course, Biff, the Boulder International Film Festival, the Women in Film Festival in Denver, Five Point Flagship Festival in Carbondale. You also normally around this time have the environmental film festival that takes place up in Estes Park. Um, then you move into May. You've got the Mountain Film Fest and Telluride, Series Fest, which is the tele uh the festival dedicated to television that really has been, it's a huge deal that happens in Denver. You've also got another silent film festival that kicks off in Estes Park. Another, if you miss the one in Denver, uh they've got events running May all through, I believe it's September, um, in which they're going to be doing uh live uh piano with films up there. Uh and then in June, you've got the URA International Film Festival. So just a ton of stuff in the first half of the year.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

Yeah. And then uh when you get into the late summer, you've got Tell Yuride Film Festival, which you may have heard of, Labor Day Weekend, Aspen Film Fest in September. Also in September is the Breckenridge Film Festival, which uh I used to be involved with a long time ago. Um Crested Butte Film Festival, September, October. You've got the Indigenous Film and Arts Festival in Denver that runs September, like through January. So busy fall and uh of of festivals too.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Yeah, and then October you've got the kind of Telluride Horror Show, which is kind of adjacent. It's too that is right up your alley.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

You need to get to that, Tony.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

I do the horror film. I have been meaning to do that, but it if it's kind of telluride during October is a little bit unpredictable with the weather. Um and uh but I I've got to just commit to the and just and go down one year. Uh they've also got the Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival that takes place in Colorado Springs. Then as we move into November, we've got the big one, the Denver Film Festival, great event that takes place in movie theaters and other venues like the Ellie, uh all in the metro area, Create Film Festival. You've got the Ridgeway Independent Film Festival, the Go West Film Festival in Greeley, and then the Vail Film Festival, as well as rounding out the year in December. It's the Sundance Short Film Tour and Sundance Indigenous Film Tour that take place down in the springs.

SPEAKER_03 17:54

Wow. So, all right, so how are we going to cover all this, uh, Tony?

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Right now it's gonna be a mix. We're in the building mode, so we're focusing on gathering information about all the festivals, the what, the when, the where, that kind of thing. That's all gonna be appearing on our websites, already starting to, if you go there. Plus, we're gonna be surfacing news that comes from the festivals themselves. Later, as we kind of start to build some revenue, we're gonna be hiring writers from around the state to cover those film festivals that we can't really easily get to that are kind of outside the metro area to kind of add more of that on-the-ground reporting as we build the site. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Yeah, and and like we've done with Onstage Colorado, it's really uh it's uh, you know, there's gonna be stories, uh, previews, some reviews, but really it's it's meant to be a resource for people who are looking. So you're gonna be able to find a calendar that's got all the film festivals on it. There'll be, there'll be guides for each festival. Like, where do I go? What do I do? What's cool? What you know, what's what's a good thing, you know, where are the restaurants? You know, uh, so we'll have this, you know, with the film calendar for the entire state, there's no way we can do every individual film, of course, but we'll have the festivals on there, special events like Film on the Rocks, some of the C Film Center screenings, uh, and whatever else we can get on there. But really, you know, we're not gonna like have all of the AMC films on there or you know, everything that's on at Alamo or anything like that. That's just not possible. Um, but you know, we also know that there's there's some really cool filmmakers who live and work here. Um, you know, eventually we'll we're starting to collect names. We'll have a newsletter uh to go out. And like I said, those guides for festivals. And then as far as reviews go, like so, you know, you did a number of reviews. Um I did, I did one, you did a bunch of them for Denver Film Festival. So if it's a festival going on, that the, you know, especially if they're premiers and especially if they're Colorado related or anything like that, we'll do our best to get reviews in there. But I would say that's not gonna be like our main focus like it is with Onstage Colorado.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Definitely not. No, we're gonna be more I'm we're definitely more interested in telling you about the cool film screenings that you don't want to miss. Like every month the C Film Center, for instance, in Denver announces that their series of repertory films that they screen, old films that you can go and check out on the theater in sometimes in interesting ways, like on 35mm and whatnot. We're gonna be sharing information about that rather than individually reviewing every single one of those films. Yeah. And so our promise to you is we the pretty much the same as what we offer you on Onstage Colorado. We're going to be independent, we're gonna be honest, and we have a Colorado first lens. Yes, we want to be a comprehensive resource for film in the state, but we're undeniable, we're not going to be shy about leaning into our Colorado roots and championing the growing industry here. And with reviews, we'll be generous with the praise when it's earned, but not going to be shy about telling you what didn't work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

Yeah, and the big picture is, you know, Sundance is the headline, but Colorado's film story is a lot bigger than one festival, like as we were just saying. Um, and we want to build out a sort of a publication of record for Colorado screen culture for the long haul. Um, and uh really focus on our belief that independent local arts journalism matters. Uh, and this is another piece of that, as uh a lot of the bigger uh, you know, other media outlets have kind of uh let this kind of coverage fall by the wayside.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Yeah. So we'd love for you to sign up for our newsletter uh soon. We'll be launching that any day now. Um we just gotta work out the kinks to that as well as get the site up, go check it out, tell your film-loving friends about that. And if you're a filmmaker, somebody who screens films, a festival organizer, or a writer who is interested in getting in on the ground floor, get in touch with us. We want to hear from you.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Yep. And we have a brand new email, info at on screencolorado.com.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Absolutely. Okay, well, now we are going to switch gears and go back into live theater mode to share a conversation that you had, Alex, with playwright Mia Burnett and Nancy Evans Bigley, who is the founding and producing artistic director of Veritas Productions, to discuss Mia's new play, Divine Bull Transformation, which opens May 15th.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

All right, well, we are here with Playwright Mia Burnett and Nancy Evans Begley, uh founding and producing artistic director of Veritas Productions. And you've had the world premiere of Mia's play Divine Bull Transformation, uh, which is gonna be at the uh Denver's Meisel Center Plus Theater May 15th through the 24th. So welcome to uh the On Stage Colorado podcast.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Thanks so much, Alex. Yeah, thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

Yeah, so uh this sounds like a really cool project. Uh it's uh I was just looking at the script description. It's a uh set in cosmic limbo. As group therapy and follows sick souls and their enigmatic therapists. So I wanted to start just talking about the play itself. Mia, uh, with the title, Divine Bull Transformation is pretty provocative and a little mysterious. Where did that come from? And what does it signal to audiences about what they're what they're walking into?

SPEAKER_01 23:29

So it's sort of based on um, first of all, this is a satirical look at the mental health world. Um, that's a really strong guiding theme of the piece. Um, so I wanted something that evoked it uh uh um evoked um dialectical behavioral therapy because that's the therapy that is being kind of parodied in the piece. Um, and specifically around the idea of a divine bull, that's kind of related to the center of the golden calf in terms of how we mistake the map for the territory in things like therapy. We take things at face value to be the way things have to be, and we don't necessarily incorporate and implement those in our lives. So we're kind of mistaking what's a tool for the way things ultimately should be. And that's kind of what's happening in the piece as they navigate therapy together.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Okay. So uh, like I said, the setup is cosmic limbo disguised as this group therapy. So what what drew you to that framing device and and how did the therapy session and the afterlife conceit evolve as you were writing it?

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Yeah, so um I have spent a lot of time in and out of group therapy in outpatient mental health settings. And this was kind of I wanted to write a piece set in that type of situation because you have a really wide range of people that end up in those spaces with a w wide range of opinions about therapy and perspectives on therapy. And so I wanted something that captured that kind of bizarre situation, but I wanted to make it uh somewhat elevated and surreal. And so that's why I decided to set it in limbo and also kind of the the absurdity of like, you know, we go through these horrible things in life and we go to therapy to deal with them. What if we were going through horrible things in death and had to do therapy to deal with it? It's kind of meant to be sort of a humorous take on.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Yeah, I love it. So so Nancy, when you first read this script, what was the moment you knew that Veritas had to produce it? And and I was also thinking this is a little different than what Veritas has been doing. You've been doing some big musicals and things like that. So uh where did how did you come to uh be like, this is we gotta do this one?

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Uh this is a this is a multifaceted response. Um there was a a workshop and a reading of this play last early last year. And my development director and dear friend Ali Chung was involved in that. And part of Veritas's programming mission when we added the nonprofit wing of Veritas Productions and Theater Arts was something old, something new, a cabaret series, and a charming review. And so this really being a new work, being a local playwright, being an underrepresented voice, dealing with a weighty topic, checked a lot of really great boxes for Veritas just from a programming perspective. So Allie, Allie Chung, she texted me and said, Nancy, Mia's written a really good play. Do you want to read it? Thinking at this point, like I'm I'm not quite ready to program anything. This was before we really did fundraising and hit the ground running. And um, I said, Yeah, send me the script. I'm super interested. And I read it. I am a suicide survivor. I also am um I have mental health challenges and afflictions. Uh, I've been in therapy. I didn't have help back when I was diagnosed, and uh that was back in the late 90s. And uh just the topic in general is really I'm very passionate about mental health and removing that stigma. But with that said, I read this script of seven fully formed characters navigating stages of grief in a in a way that feels approachable for a modern audience. And I I I I said immediately after I read it, I read it in like an hour and 15 minutes. I texted Allie back and I said, I have to produce this play. So I got in touch, yeah. I got in touch with Jennifer Burnett, Mia's mom, my friend, and we put this together last year.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Wonderful. So, Mia, you describe yourself as a queer Jewish Latina playwright. So, how do how do those intersecting identities uh show up in this particular play? It's in the character, the language, or the questions that the play is asking.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Yeah, um, I think that this play is meant to be kind of a more universal piece. Um, so it doesn't necessarily it's not necessarily 100% reflective of those identities in the way some of my other more tangible works are, since it is, you know, these souls kind of removed from their context in the afterlife. I will say a lot of my um problems with the modern mental health industry are rooted in my Judaism because a lot of uh the language that gets used in therapy is recycled from Christianity. And people don't necessarily realize that, but um that that is sort of a thing when you're not Christian, that when you're in those spaces and you're hearing this very Christian language and Christian worldviews around things like suffering and forgiveness and um redemption, like it tends to draw from a very Christian background. And so part of the criticism of therapy that's being presented in this piece is rooted in like this is this is repackaged Christianity in a way people don't always recognize. Not that there can be insights from all sorts of religious traditions that are valuable, but when you're outside of that tradition and you can see it and it's so prominent in this world, it's kind of like, you know, it's exasperating sometimes to be like, do you do the rest of you notice this? Um that's kind of part of the criticism is based in that Jewish perspective. And like um, Raphael is the name of the therapist. Uh, the root word in Hebrew, Rafa, uh, means healing. So he's this angel of healing. Um, so yeah, it's it's rooted in that as well.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Okay. Well, uh, talking a little bit about the development process and the collaboration, uh, how many iterations, uh how much work have you done on the script since uh Nancy first was like, woohoo, let's do it. And what's that conversation uh been like between uh you and so Nancy, you're the director. Uh you know, what's that conversation been like and maybe where the where you've pushed each other to do this, that, or or the other thing?

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Um so I did kind of a self-directed workshop table read on my own last April, and I just invited a bunch of writer friends to sit in on it and give me feedback. And then Nancy read that version while I was revising it and added a couple scenes and cleaned up some dialogue and kind of made some pieces a little a little more clear. Uh, and then Nancy read the new version, and from there we've pretty much just run with that draft. Um, there haven't really been any revisions over the course of the last year.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Um, it's not really the plan isn't for this to be a workshop process. This is, you know, the piece is done, and we're just doing a full production of it at this point.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Yeah, I actually wasn't part of the workshopping of the piece. Um, Mia got the feedback at the workshop last year, early last year, made those edits and revisions, like she said. And then as we started to collaborate on the conversation around the piece and contracting and licensing and all of that, it it was very clear. I had no intention of making this a workshop or continuing to work the piece. It was this is where we are right now, and this is it's a finished product. So that's how I interpreted that. Um, and Mia was pretty specific as well, saying, you know, it's finished. I I have done the work, and she had. So there wasn't anything in here that I thought, oh, maybe we should tweak that.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

All right. Well, Six Souls and a Therapist is a really specific ensemble shape. Uh and uh, so this uh this cast is uh pretty great. Uh Ileana Lucera Barron is Alex, Matthew Combs as Raphael, Jennifer Burnett, so that's your mom on there as Laverne, Allie Chung as Joanna, uh Gray Dumois as Chris, Eddie Schumacher as Tim, and Abigail Koshvar as Julia. So uh Nancy, in uh in this uh your approach to this casting, uh what were you listening for in the room? Like how are you looking at this as the ensemble and how they these folks would all work together?

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Uh this casting process actually was non-traditional. Um we Mia and I discussed last year that anyone who was a part of the reading, we would like to, in the workshop last year, we would like to offer those roles to them. And I knew that original cast, I know all of their skill set, and I was aligned having read the script multiple times. Yeah, like this makes sense. I I feel great about that. Um, several of those folks were not able to come back. And so, based on what I knew about the characters, what I wanted to see in them, I then reached out to people to gauge interest. And I got very lucky um that my top choices on all of these folks said yes. And I didn't need to see an audition because I've already seen their work. Right. Um so it really was pre-cast, essentially. Um, we didn't hold auditions, anything like that. The only role I held an audition for was for Alex. Um I'd seen Ileana perform an ensemble once, but I wanted to hear her read. Um, and within seconds, I was like, there's our Alex.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

So she's great.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Yeah, amazing.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

I you know, I I can I'm trying to think if I've ever talked to a playwright whose mom was cast in the play. Uh, was uh Mia, can you talk a little bit about what that's what that's like? And you you think she you think your mom's right for this part? Did you write it with her in mind at all?

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Um, I didn't write it in her with her in mind, but when I write, I tend to focus more on developing my women characters than my male characters. Um, unfortunately, even with a lot of contemporary plays, uh as well as, you know, historically, traditionally, the male characters are usually so much more developed than the female characters, especially when written by male playwrights. So I personally, one of my priorities as a writer is to write um interesting, nuanced, challenging women. And all the women in this play are challenging in their own ways, as for actors to take on and for the audience to interact with. And so I really want to write challenging women and deep women and women that are more than the love interest. Um, and I also, or the comic relief, um, and I also am watching my mother be uh a well-regarded actress in the Denver area for decades. I've seen a lot of, you know, the roles for older women tend to be the comic relief characters. And this character is in some ways a comic relief character, but I wanted to write something for um a 50 to 60-year-old woman that was really nuanced and deep and difficult. And so I was kind of inspired by her acting journey to write something for an older woman, but it wasn't necessarily written with her in mind. Um, but then you know, when the table read got around, it was like, okay, how about you read this just to like get us started with it and see how it goes? And she did very well and she's brought a lot of nuance to this character. So uh it's been great. It's been great.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

I'm sure she's so excited to be in the play that her daughter wrote. So um Mia, uh playwrights have different uh takes on how much they want to be involved in the rehearsal process, and directors have ideas about whether they want the playwright uh in there. What how are you? Uh are you gonna be uh attending rehearsals and and being giving feedback along the way or are you stepping back?

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Um the plan right now, and Nancy, you could chime in too. I was at the table read two nights ago. Um, and then I might come back to some rehearsals if there's something where it's like, hey, we really need your opinion on this moment or this piece of blocking, or you know, I've I tried to write it with a lot of specifics in the script, but also a lot of room for the contribution of the director and actors. So hopefully there's a good balance there. Um, and then other than that, I would really like to just be surprised opening night with what they've done.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

I told Mia that she is welcome to be as involved or uninvolved as she would like. Um, this is her baby. I want to do it justice. I'm very much, I'm not the person who says, I'm in charge and we have to just run and do it like this. Um and I've let that let the actors know that as well. So it is a collaborative process. There have been some questions that have arisen that I've reached out to Mia. We had a great table read um where we got some clarification questions answered. Um but Mia said to me, you know, I've the play is done. I've done my job, so now it's your show. And that it's terrifying, uh, but also an honor to have that level of trust from a playwright.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

Uh-huh. I wanted to ask, uh, what's the one thing each hope someone is still thinking about on the drive home after they see this show? Start with Yumia.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

What I hope people are still thinking about.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Um or takeaway.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Um, I think all these characters are lovable and they're also all at a difficult spot where they're very stuck. And I think they're all very frustrating in their own ways. And I want the audience, if there was someone they were annoyed by in Act One, that to be a character they have compassion for when they leave. That's the biggest thing I think.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

Okay. Nancy?

SPEAKER_00 37:21

I think that there is a very strong likelihood that audience members will see themselves in many of these characters, if not all of them. And from a mental health perspective, I hope that people leave feeling like this is a conversation I feel like more comfortable having now. Um I can do some reflection, I can do some work on myself, we can start removing the shame from our mental health conversations, and I feel seen. I feel validated. Um I also hope that people drive away going, God, that scene was funny. We just blocked one of the funniest scenes in the show last night. And it is funny. And so I hope that they get that good like escape as well, where they're like, oh man, it just that was that was great writing. They did the actors did such a great job. It was hysterical. I'd go see it again.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Yeah, and there is a lot uh like despite the heavy themes and topics around therapy and mental health, and one character uh committed suicide, and there's a lot of heavy things going on, there's also a lot of humor because when you're in group therapy settings and support group settings, it it can get very hilarious. The types of things people share and the things people say without realizing what they've implied. And there can be a lot of humor in these spaces. Um, and sometimes it's people who are gone through the darkest things that are also the funniest. Um, so that's part of what this play is celebrating, is that resiliency.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

All right. Well, Mia, uh, I know you're you're really focused on this right now, but what uh can you tease us uh what else you might be working on? What's what's next uh for you?

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Yeah, um I have another play premiering in Madison, Wisconsin in June, June uh 6th through the 13th, uh Madison, Wisconsin stage Q. It's called Matches Burned. That's a 10-minute play as part of their LGBTQ Summer Festival. Um I also have some other pieces that are finalists in development programs right now. Uh, and I am hard at work drafting another full-length. This one is about the COVID-19 pandemic. So nice and cheery themes once again. Oh, what about you, Nancy?

SPEAKER_03 39:40

I know you've got all shook up this summer. Uh that's probably gonna be a big, big, big one. And is that uh, can you remind us where that is?

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Yeah, that's at the Pace Center. So that's a co-production uh with Parker Arts. So yeah, very exciting. We've got a fabulous cast, um, incredible team. The set is coming along, just yeah, very exciting for that. Um my own personal cabaret is September 23rd at Vintage Theater, so more to come. And then we have a holiday classic running November 27th through December 20th at the Schoolhouse Theater in Parker. And the title will be announced within the next couple months.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

Okay, great. So lots going on there. Yeah. So uh all right, so Divine Bull Transformation uh by Mia Burnett is gonna be running May 15th through 24th at the Meisel Center there in Denver. Uh, there is a sliding scale on tickets starting at $20. Uh, and then on May 18th, be doing a uh industry night for a fundraiser for the Denver Actors Fund. Uh that's always a great thing to add in there to help with that community.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

So uh and May 17th. Oh, sorry. May 17th is our talk back.

SPEAKER_03 40:45

Okay, yeah, let's mention that too. So you're gonna have a talk back after the show. Break legs, uh uh everybody, uh, for this one. And uh look forward to getting out and seeing this one. Thanks so much for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Thanks, Alex.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

Well, that was a fun conversation. That certainly sounds like a play that has a lot going on in it. I'm curious to see how that all works uh on the stage.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely an interesting premise uh that she's worked up there. So uh let uh we'll see what see what you think. Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

All right, well, now let's move into our top 10 Colorado headliners. These are shows coming up in the next couple of weeks that we think are worth checking out. So, Alex, what do you have to start us off with?

SPEAKER_03 41:28

Let's start off with one for the kids, Cinderella at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden. Uh, this is uh up now, it runs through June 13th. So it's uh uh it's done by um Miners Alley's own Kate Powling adaptation with a 1950s kind of spin to it. Uh and it's it's interesting in that it mirrors the theater's uh you know main stage adult production of Pump Boys Dine Net. So it's a fairy tale world with chrome diners and gas stations and and the like. So that sounds like a lot of fun. And they usually, you know, the kids that want to usually have an opportunity to jump up on stage and uh they have a great uh you know theater for young audiences uh program there at Miners Alley.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

It is a very smart model. Why build two distinct sets when you can just reutilize the exact same set that you already have for your mainstage show for your kids' show? I yeah, it's uh it's not not that Miner's Alley. Uh there's those crazy, crazy kids over there laying in the game. All right, my first pick is it's a musical review that Vintage Theater is programming over in the Aurora Arts District. It's called Ain't Nothing But the Blues that celebrates the genre through a series of musical numbers that changed the way the world hears uh this music. It it covers a bunch of different things, uh, all the way from where the blues started in Africa to Mississippi to Memphis to Chicago. Um it's directed by Jonathan Underwood, features a really cool local cast. Um I'm looking forward to checking this one out. Uh, I think I'll be there May 23rd.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Excellent. Uh my next headliner is a well-known title, but always fun, Avenue Q at Town Hall Arts Center in Leonard Littleton through June 7th. So this is always fun, naughty musical comedy that features creative use of puppets to explore life's messy bits. Uh, and it's kind of show that Town Hall usually does quite well. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

And that's always a fun one. Who can resist watching puppets fuck? It's hilarious. Yeah. Uh my next one is a it's a play that says it's it's about a touchy subject, but it's not a political play. It's uh more comp more complicated than that. It's called The Cake. It's over at Firehouse Theater in Denver, and it centers on Della, who is a conservative North Carolina baker who faces a crisis of conscience when Jen, whom she loves like a daughter, asks her to bake a cake for her lesbian wedding.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

Yep. Very familiar story to us here in Colorado. Uh since that we had that big case here. So uh looking forward to that one at Firehouse. Uh my next one is really more than more than just one thing, but I just wanted to give a shout out to Creed Repertory Theater. Their big summer festival is almost here. I feel like we've been talking about this for a while, but they open on May 23rd and run all the way through September 19th down in the beautiful town of Creed in uh southern Colorado. So this summer they're doing fully committed, uh 25th annual Putnam County Spelly Spelling Bee, Working a Musical Boreardi, plus their Boomtown Improv youth programs, uh, and all kinds of other stuff that they've got going on down there. And as we've said, we're gonna be down there in uh mid July to check them all out and and bring back a report. Uh but uh you can you can start getting your tickets now for for uh Creed. Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

My next one is uh is a is a it's not exactly a theater piece, but it's uh immersive in nature, kind of more of A mobile museum. It's called The Truth About 250-150, and this was created by Control Group Productions in collaboration with some indigenous groups. And this is not exactly an easy piece to do. I I got to go and check it out during an April preview. It's you go into this bus and they have headphones that they give you with an audio tour that kind of breaks down how this the land here in Colorado was stolen from the indigenous communities and kind of the lingering repercussions from that. And I thought that this tour was a really interesting kind of counter to all of the um 250, 150 hubbub that has been coming from the federal and state governments. It's kind of it is really unsettling in many ways. It really asks you to look the horrors, the atrocities that were committed to folks in order to create the land, the parks, the the country, the cities that you enjoy in Colorado. And I think that being uncomfortable is definitely the point. It runs about 45 minutes, no intermission. You experience this thing by yourself. And it's got tour stops in a bunch of different cities all around Colorado, uh, from May all the way through September. So if you are somebody who is interested in confronting that history head on, I can't think of a more of a better experience. I think that this would be great for like high school age students as well. I don't think I don't think much younger. I think it might be a little bit too intense for much younger than that, but it's a deeply moving experience that I would personally uh recommend that folks do check out if they are brave enough to look Colorado's history right in the face.

SPEAKER_03 47:06

Yep. Yep. And yeah, definitely uh check out Tani's review of this thing. It's kind of a review/slash news story um about what it's all about that really kind of gives you a good idea. Um just uh on as an aside, I was just gonna mention that uh when I was at the Colorado Sunfest, uh, the History Colorado had a presentation on a sort of related note on sort of like the more uh, I guess, positive side of the 250-150 thing. But uh, they've got a lot of uh cool exhibits going on for, of course, this is the 150th anniversary for Colorado's uh, you know, statehood. That'll be August 1st. Um and so one of the cool things they have is this thing that's called the Freedom Plain National Tour. So this is gonna be coming through History Colorado May 28th through June 14th. And they're gonna have like things like uh actual copies of some of the original uh, you know, copies of like the the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and uh these other other types of uh documents that uh that you don't have to go all the way to DC to see at the Smithsonian or whatever. So it's kind of it's traveling all around the country, and one of the stops is gonna be in Denver. So if you really want to get into that 250, 150 thing, History Colorado's definitely got a lot going on this this summer. Definitely. Yeah. Back to theater. Uh our friends at Magic Circle Players and Montrose are doing Sweeney Todd through May 30th. Of course, the infamous tale of an unjustly exiled barber who returns to 19th century London seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. So uh, if you're out in Montrose, uh that's playing at uh at Magic Circle Players.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

Definitely. I chose this one just because I like to say the title. POTUS or behind every great dumbass are seven women trying to keep him alive. This is the funny, the farcical comedy about the women who make up the team that supports the president of the United States. It this is a comedy that's been done quite a bit around Colorado. Uh I caught it when it was done at Curious, but I it's been done by a couple of other companies around the state as well. Um, and this time it's being done in the Springs by the Springs Ensemble Theater, um, June 4th through the 21st. Uh great pick for them. I imagine that that will play well in their kind of intimate parlor space that they've got down at Springs.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

Yeah. All right. My last headliner is from Buntport Theater. Uh this is the day 91. This is uh playing May 22nd through June 14th. It's a typical, typical skimpy description that they provided. A comedy with a little bit of nostalgia, your daily dose of kerogenin, and a horse named Markham. Uh but you were talking to them recently. Did you did you get any more detail about what this show is all about? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

So the team told me a little bit more about This Is the Day 91 when I was over there to chat about the rehearsal space that they launched. If folks want to read more about that, uh we've got a full piece about it on Onstage Colorado. But this production is about a group of adults who attempt to reclaim a Guinness World record that they broke as teenagers back in 1995.

SPEAKER_03 50:16

Oh, right, right, right. Yes, I remember this.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

And and this the record that they're attempting to beat is catching small stuffed animals that they throw up in the air while blindfolded. Um and so there this whole group of folks is trying to recreate the exact conditions of when they first did it back in the bedroom in 1991. Um and so uh and they actually joked that uh they could break the record during the show. Uh so they contacted the Guinness team and they were like, we're gonna be filming every single every single performance. Um, and so they may in fact uh capture the a record breaking uh a record-breaking uh throw in Denver, which I think would be just perfect for Buntport. That is that's fantastic. Yeah, just one one more. Uh over at the Aurora Fox Art Center, it is a contemporary musical called Violet that follows a young woman's journey across the American South. It's set in the 1960s and it centers on Violet, who is traveling by bus to seek a tele evangelist who she believes can cure a facial scar that she has. Um, this production is co-produced by the Aurora Fox and Family Theatre Company. It was originally supposed to be kind of done in collaboration between uh Ben, who is the kind of artistic director over there, and then Rich Cowden, who was the former uh artistic visionary over at the Fox. But since Rich stepped away, I I'm curious to see how this one ends up shaking out. Hope I they just announced the cast. It looks like a banger cast a banger lineup of Colorado talent. So they certainly have the cast. Uh and but I I don't know about the material. I can't I personally have never seen this musical before. This will be my first violet.

SPEAKER_03 52:12

Yeah, so we'll find out. All right. Well, uh, new and upcoming reviews on the site, including your review of Pump Boys and Dinett's at Miners Alley, which you liked a lot. Uh Much Ado About Nothing, which she just talked about, uh, Somewhere at DCPA, Doc Holiday's Last Stand, and more stuff. So check it all out on onstagecolorado.com. And then uh kind of the last section is to talk about offstage things that uh we might have seen like uh other film concerts uh um that were out there. You went, and I'm jealous uh about this. You went to see fish at the sphere in Las Vegas. Not so much about fish per se, but I'm curious to see a show at the sphere. How was that?

SPEAKER_02 52:53

Uh it was incredible. I'm not my it was the we went for my girlfriend's birthday. Uh she's a big fish head, and it was an incredible opportunity to actually to check out the sphere, which I was definitely very curious about. And this band utilized it really well. They utilized the entire scope of the venue to just do these incredibly trippy visuals. Like, for instance, they had porta potties in the first musical number that were flying in to create monuments from around the world, like the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa and things like that while they're doing their opening number. And it only got more kind of trippy and absurd from there. Uh, great experience. I thought that the venue itself worked really well. Technically, we were sitting in obscured seating because we were down in the 100s, um, which means that you don't get to see the whole spear itself. Um, you are there's the top of it is cut off by the other seats, the 400 section. But you really couldn't tell. And it meant that since we were in the 100s and those seats were cheaper, marked down, we were cl way closer to the band themselves. And so we still got the the visuals themselves on the sphere are still pretty all-encompassing from down there, and you've got an incredible view of the band. So all around an amazing evening, Tim would recommend.

SPEAKER_03 54:19

Great. You also checked out the uh Meowwolf uh Omega Mart there at Area 15 and wrote a story about that that's on the site that was really illuminating about uh and so included some of your thoughts about uh you know what what Denver's Meow Wolf kind of lacks in in terms of having a kind of an uh an ecosystem of stuff around you know the building.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

Definitely. I I think just seeing Area 15 has all of these other things you can do, uh food and drink built-in, arcade, VR experiences, zip lines, a John Wick experience, another horror thing, an immersive experience, all in this place where that so you don't have to leave. You can really just make your whole day there and then go into the Omega Mart. And it's a really the amount the Omega Mart, it's the one that's the looks like a uh grocery store on one side, and then you go into the trippy world on the other. It lives up to the hype, it's very cool. Um, and then you have a place where you can actually land for the day. Whereas in Denver, you pay 15 bucks for parking, you go into Meowwolf, and that that's it. You kind of have to leave after that because there is nothing in the area around it. And as I kind of muse in the piece, perhaps that could change in 2031 after the Broncos Stadium is demolished and they go and destroy another part of Denver for some god knows re god knows reason. Um, but that could happen. Maybe they could build an ecosystem around that Meowwolf location that could really make it into a place where you could spend a day and it might support that $15 charge. But Area 15, it's parking is free for Nevada residents. So if you're local, you can just go and do the whole thing for free. And it was the day I went, we paid six bucks for parking, and we got all that other stuff too. So I was like, I did not feel bad about paying six dollars.

SPEAKER_03 56:14

Yeah. All right. What else did you get out to?

SPEAKER_02 56:18

Um, some other things that I got out to was I went up to Estes Park to sit in on the Sundance Film Festival and large event panel discussion that happened on April 28th. Uh, I thought this was an interesting conversation just about it illuminated the scope of Sundance really clearly and how the potential that it has to impact not only Boulder in its first year, but all of the surrounding areas via uh tourism add-ons, lodging, and things like that. But I think for folks who were hoping that you might hear of more a tangible commitment to other parts of the state outside of Boulder, they left the meeting quite disappointed because the organizers were really, they're really focused on 2027. It's all going to be in Boulder. They were really not open to kind of furthering the conversation to what that's gonna look like, which totally makes sense. The organizers sound like they are quite overwhelmed with the preparations this year. It's a massive event. They're trying to get the venues in Boulder up to ski up to par for the film festival and plan for that massive influx for the first year. Sure, transportation is all working. And so, yeah, it was a really interesting conversation. But for a lot of the folks who I chat chatted with up in Estes Park, for instance, they were kind of they left kind of disappointed that there wasn't a little bit more tangible commitment out of that. Understandable. And then uh did did you uh did you watch the new Michael Jackson movie, Alex? No. It's been all a rage, massive hit at the box in. I I that is I mean, that is a very respectable stance. I uh I got Laured In group wanted to see it, and I was like, I have the AMC A list, so I'm like, it's free for me. I'll just uh I'll go along with it. It's uh I it's so banal and toothless. The music is objectively great. I'm not breaking any news here to say that Michael Jackson has uh incredible music, but uh as I as I saw online, it would be like making a movie about Jeffrey Epstein that just focused on his time as a financier and didn't address any allegations about him or any of the stickier parts. This movie is just it it ends uh at a point where they don't have to grapple in any serious way with any of the complicated legacy of Michael Jackson. And I think unfortunately that's a huge disservice because Michael Jackson is a figure who has so much cultural importance. I think he really does kind of embody the kind of can you separate the art from the artist debate in our current culture, perhaps better than anybody. And this movie, I think it does a massive disservice to just like turn it into like a turn your brain off popcorn munching movie about just the genius of this man.

SPEAKER_03 59:07

Right. Yeah, I I can't overlook any of that stuff, so I reject him and everything he stands for or stood for to hell with Michael Jackson. That is incredibly fair. Yeah. And then you saw the the documentary about Lauren Michaels uh and said you were saying it was probably just skip it and read the book.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

I I would yeah, it was uh quite disappointing. I as I noted on the podcast last month, I was really looking forward to this. I'm quite somebody who's quite fascinated by the mythology of SNL and the behind-the-scenes process. And this documentary was billed as the first documentary to get Lauren Michaels to speak on the record. And you're like, okay, that's only interesting though if you get him to say anything. And the documentary took such a st it took a such a stance of being like, Lauren Michaels, he's so mysterious and hard to figure out. He just won't say anything when I talk to him. And I'm like, no, dude, I think you're actually just kind of a shitty journalist. You're not asking him any interesting questions. It's like you didn't even bother to read the biography, the excellent biography by journalist Susan Morrison, who actually did interview Lauren Michaels and got him to speak quite candidly about his childhood and the complicated legacies that he had from his Canadian comedy days. And so I just recommend if you have any interest in this subject, skip the documentary that plays like this overly sentimental clip show about how great Lauren Michaels is, and read Susan Morrison's fantastic book instead.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:35

All right. And then you went out to see The Devil Wears Prada, too. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:41

I certainly did. I uh it this is the sequel coming 20 years later to the original film. Um, and you know what, Alex? It's actually it's an actually an incredibly dire comedy about the death of journalism.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:56

Uh really.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:57

Yeah, I wasn't expecting that either. The whole the first scene opens with Ann Hathaway's character, who is a journalist, at a journalism award, she's winning an award, and she and her entire team receive a text that they've all been fired in in layoffs to the newsroom. And the whole movie is that kind of painfully grim about the state of news in America. And I just wasn't expecting that from a big blockbuster film.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:25

Yeah, that's that's alarming. All right. What else you got before as we head out the door here?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

Uh well, tonight I'm gonna be heading over to the C Film Center to check out The Living End. Um, this is Craig Araki's acclaimed outlaw romance couple that's been remastered. It's a it tells the tale of two HIV positive lovers who are on the run in the night in 90s America. I know nothing other than that, but I'm curious to see how what this how this plays out and who shows up. And then, yeah, fine finally, I just wanted I'm this I'm also looking forward to the 25th anniversary of Shrek that's gonna be in movie theaters this weekend. As a big Shrek fan, it's this very important to my childhood. I could not miss a chance to check this out.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:12

25 years, I can't believe it. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:15

I yeah, I I it I know it's I mean, he's literally been around my entire life. So I'm I've never known a world without Shrek. Uh so I had to check it out.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:27

I've got to go. And that's gonna be one of the film on the rocks uh films this summer, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

No? No, no. That Shrek 2 was last summer. Great experience. But this year they did have uh quite a good slate of film at the rock stuff that I'm looking forward to. Uh they've got Princess Bride, June 7th. I I think you you said you're gonna be there, right? Yes, yeah, I'm going to that one.

unknown 1:02:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:50

I think I'll then I'll probably hit I'll I'll probably hit that one up too then. Um Cinners is on June 22nd. Got Little Miss Sunshine, July 13th, Bridesmaids, August 3rd, and then I believe the last one is Jurassic Park. Yeah so a good crop of films.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:09

Yeah. So uh yeah, I've I haven't been out as much. I've been uh um really had my head down working on uh a lot of other stuff, but uh I did Andy and I've been working through the final I think it's the final season of The Boys on Prime, which I don't know if you watch that, but it's I mean basically it's it's about you know these horrible superheroes uh you know uh who are very much part of corporate corporate America. Uh and the evil Superman character is this, is this guy named Homelander, who's who's very he's really kind of a doppelganger of Trump. He's somebody who's got so much power and is constantly frustrated by his inability to really use it the way he'd like to. Uh, and you know, being able to exert his will over everybody. So he's just this fascinating character. And it's a really gory, I mean, some of these, some of the characters, you know, these these soups have the ability to like people's heads explode and there's a lot of gushing blood, and it's pretty gory. Uh, but it's it's uh it's also a really interesting commentary on America and sad in some ways too. But uh and then the other thing we watched, this is so talk about you know something that I watched with my kids when they were growing up, Malcolm in the Middle. Fantastic sitcom, um, you know, that had Brian Cranston, you know, before he did Breaking Bread, like unbelievably great comic actor, also. Uh, and they did this kind of four-part reboot uh years on that was like, it was okay. It was kind of fun to revisit the characters. It wasn't anything uh, you know, I don't know that they really needed to make it, but it really was fun. And and Cranston really just dove right back in with his uh absolutely fearless uh comedy and his take on Hal, this this hapless father in Malcolm in the Middle. So that one's that one's a lot of fun uh to watch. If you're kind of only probably if you've seen the original series.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:00

I I have seen episodes here and there, but I'm I'm I'm glad to hear that it captures the spirit. Yeah. Well, that brings us to the end of this episode, and with that, we wanted to just quickly touch on how this podcast is gonna be evolving as well. We're gonna be turning this into the On Colorado podcast, covering Colorado's performing arts on stage and on screen. It's gonna be Alex and I here with that same Colorado First Lynge, but it's gonna have a slightly bigger tent. Our coverage of theater isn't going anywhere, and if anything, it's gonna be getting a slightly larger platform because we're gonna be talking about it in conversation with some of the biggest film festivals in the country that have national attention. Um, and so we might be throwing some other stuff in there like coverage of music, comedy, uh, and we'll we're kind of working to figure out what's gonna be the right cadence weekly, monthly, all that is to be determined as we kind of work all this stuff out.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:01

Yep. Yep, and if you do enjoy this podcast, please tell people about it because we definitely want to play to a larger audience and uh, you know, know that know that we're we're we're taking the time to do it, that we've got more people. Uh so you know, so that's uh you know what's going on with us, you know. We'll we'll probably uh you know change the name up just a little bit uh and have uh you know, we'll talk touch about uh talk about not just theater and film, maybe some piece of music and arts and things like that. So uh it should be on the same feed with the same subscription and all that. I just need to figure out all those logistics.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:35

Definitely. Well, that is it for this episode. If you want to stay up to date on what is going on in theaters across the state, make sure you are subscribed to the on-stage Colorado Theater Blast, which is our newsletter that comes out once a week. And make sure that you rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast. And as Alex was saying, tell your friends about us. That's how we get new listeners.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:58

Yeah. All right, as always, thanks so much for listening. I'm Alex Miller. And I'm Tony Traska, and we'll see you at the show.