The Backstage Theatre is pleased to announce its 39th Season – a winning combination of new and classic shows, regional and world premieres – to inspire, enlighten and enthrall you.

Here’s our exciting selection of shows for 2012-2013:

*****

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
adapted by Josh Hartwell [A World Premiere]
November 16, 17, 23, 24, 25, 30
December 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29
featuring Jim Hunt
Puppetry by Cory Gilstrap
Directed by Christopher Willard (A Christmas Story)

Award-winning Denver actor, Jim Hunt, stars as Ebenezer Scrooge. He is joined by four other actors who portray all of the other characters – using half-masks, puppets, and theatrical illusion – in this innovative new telling of the classic Dickens story. Featuring puppets designed by master puppeteer Cory Gilstrap, Denver Post Ovation Award-winner for his work on Backstage’s 2007 hit production of The Hobbit.

Love, Loss and What I Wore by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron [Regional Premiere]
based on the book by Ilene Beckerman
January 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 31
February 1, 2
featuring a rotating cast of local and regional actresses
directed by Christopher Willard (The Vagina Monologues)

A sensational new play of monologues and ensemble pieces about women, clothes, and memory covering all the important subjects – mothers, prom dresses, mothers, buying bras, mothers, hating purses, and why we only wear black. Based on the bestselling book by Ilene Beckerman.
Adult language and mature situations.

“Funny, compelling…Brought down the house…” – NY Times.

“So funny and so powerful; so dear and sweet; so remindful of our female wiles, our worries, our
insecurities, our remembrances . It can’t miss.” – WowOwow.com.

Out of Order by Ray Cooney
February 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 28
March 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23
directed by Seth Caikowski (star of The Full Monty)

WINNER! Olivier Award Winner, Best Comedy

When Richard Willy, a government junior minister, plans to spend the evening with Jane, an administrator for the opposition, things go disastrously wrong – beginning with the discovery of a “body” trapped in the hotel’s only unreliable window. Desperately trying to get out of a potentially headline-making situation, Richard calls for his administrative assistant, George. However, with a conniving waiter, a suspicious hotel manager, an alert private detective, and angry wife, a furious husband, an unconscious nurse, and a dead body to deal with, this is not the romantic evening Richard had planned. Mature situations.

“Gleefully funny.” – Guardian

“Made me laugh more than any play I have seen in the West End this year.” – Evening Standard

“A classic.” – Today

“A triumph.” – Financial Times

“Brilliant.” – Observer

“A textbook model of pyramiding lunacy.” – Variety

“Wildly funny.” – Telegraph

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion [Limited Engagement] [Regional Premiere]
March 28, 29, 30
April 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13
Starring Patty Mintz-Figel (Paragon’s A Lie of the Mind)
Directed by Christopher Willard (The Syringa Tree)

“This happened on December 30, 2003. That may seem a while ago but it won’t when it happens to you…”

In this dramatic adaptation of her award-winning, bestselling memoir (which The New York Times called “an indelible portrait of loss and grief…a haunting portrait of a four-decade-long marriage”), Joan Didion transforms the story of the sudden and unexpected loss of her husband and their only daughter into a stunning and powerful one-woman play. Performed by recent
Westword Best Actress winner, Patty Mintz-Figel. Adult language and mature situations.

AVENUE Q
Music and Lyrics by Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez
Book by Jeff Whitty
June 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30
July 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

Directed by Christopher Willard (The Full Monty)

The Backstage Children’s Theatre presents
Charlotte’s Web by Joseph Robinette
from the book by E. B. White
June 28, 29, 30
July 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14
Directed by Christopher Willard (Babe the Sheep-Pig)

The Children’s Literature Association named this “the best American children’s book of the past two hundred years,” and Joseph Robinette, working with the advice of E. B. White, has created a play that captures this work in a thrilling theatrical presentation. All the enchanting characters are here: Wilbur, the irresistible young pig who desperately wants to avoid the butcher; Fern, a girl who understands what animals say to each other; Templeton, the gluttonous rat who can occasionally be talked into a good deed; the Zuckerman family; the Arables; and, most of all, the extraordinary spider, Charlotte, who proves to be “a true friend and a good writer.” Determined to save Wilbur, Charlotte begins her campaign with the “miracle” of her web in which she writes, “Some Pig.” It’s the beginning of a victorious campaign which ultimately ends with the now-safe Wilbur doing what is most important to Charlotte. A beautiful, knowing play about the power of friendship.

*****

Season 39 Subscription and Donor packages will be available to purchase beginning
June 21. For more information, contact The Backstage Theatre at 970.453.0199 or at info@backstagetheatre.org.