Great theater isn’t just about entertainment, it’s about making us think — whether through laughter, tears or the vitriolic excesses of a play such as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” “Seminar” doesn’t quite reach those bombastic heights, but when it hits its stride, this searing deconstruction of the literary establishment packs a considerable punch. Presented by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company at The Dairy Center, this regional premiere of Theresa
Archives for October 2013
Successful writers, like most notable artists…
Successful writers, like most notable artists, carry a reverential and romantic aura. Those who aspire to such a life are desperate to learn how to manifest this magic on their own account. In Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar, we eavesdrop on four aspiring writers who have paid $5,000 each to have their work analyzed by a name author. As with any profession, writing has its touchstones that enable philanthropists, award committees, and
SEMINAR has the write stuff
Anyone who has ever attended a writers’ workshop (guilty!) will recognize the characters in Click|keyword[Stephen+Weitz]” href=”http://www.westword.com/related/to/Stephen+Weitz/” title=”Stephen Weitz”>Stephen Weitz, Click|keyword[John+Ashton]” href=”http://www.westword.com/related/to/John+Ashton/” title=”John Ashton”>John Ashton (a Westword staff writer decades ago) is a suitably foul-mouthed and morally ambiguous Leonard, and Click|keyword[Devon+James]” href=”http://www.westword.com/related/to/Devon+James/” title=”Devon James”>Devon James makes Kate pleasantly disheveled, accomplishing an interesting transformation toward the end, and as Izzie, Click|keyword[Sean+Scrutchins]” href=”http://www.westword.com/related/to/Sean+Scrutchins/” title=”Sean Scrutchins”>Sean Scrutchins, he becomes almost incoherently so. The blacker the humor, the more interesting the action, so
There is a simple elegance about BETC…
Reviewer Beki Pineda is a 30-year veteran of the Denver theater scene as a former teacher and director. She has owned and operated All Propped Out, a theatrical prop rental house, and for 14 years reviewed theater for the former publication Time Out for Entertainment. She is a both professional theatergoer with a true love for the art and an unabashed theater groupie. The WOW Factor for each production
Fear and self-loathing in New York. BETC kicks off its eighth season in style
Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC) is one of Boulder’s best, bar none. From its first production, Antigone, BETC began raising the bar for Front Range theater. With Seminar, BETC gets its eighth season started with the second lively, sly and often humorous Theresa Rebeck play it has produced. If you’ve ever been part of a group project that called for each member to provide feedback to the others, you are the target audience of Seminar. If