Article by Marcia Darnell
Drama – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT’S THE BIG 4-0 for Creede Repertory Theatre, and the company is marking the occasion with a theatrical-themed season.
“We are celebrating show biz in Creede,” says Creative Director Maurice LaMee.
Noises Off will kick off the season on June 3. The famous farce has been called the funniest play of all time. “It may be true,” says LaMee. The play-within-a-play format is hilarious and reinforces the theater code that the show must go on, no matter what happens offstage. Noises Off ran on Broadway for quite some time.
Beginning June 10 will be Lumberjacks in Love, written by Fred Alley, author of The Spitfire Grill. LaMee says it’s “a silly musical, great for the entire family.” A member of a group of lumberjacks sends for a mail-order bride, and her arrival leads to mistaken identities, lost love, and the spectacle of lumberjacks playing music.
Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky is another Broadway hit and will begin June 24. In it, a theater group awaits the reviews of their show with optimism; when it seems the reviews will be negative, their good cheer turns to infighting and blame. When the notices are good, however, that leads to awkward attempts to make up.
Broadway Bound continues the theater theme on July 15. “It’s not only funny,” says LaMee, “but a very wise play about family relationships.”
The autobiographical material concerns two writers’ attempt to come up with a comedy sketch and their decision to broadcast their own family’s quirks, leading to a predictably bad reaction from their parents.
“I think it’s Neil Simon’s best play,” says LaMee.
Harbledown, which opens Aug. 5, was created by CRT alumnus Mark Houston in 1982 and is the most-requested revival by patrons. The musical profiles a Victorian girl on the eve of her confirmation. She ventures out at night and finds a group of odd people who need her help, and who consequently help her grow and accept adulthood.
“The music is gorgeous,” says LaMee.
CRT fan favorite Peggy Pharr-Wilson stars in the one-woman play, Shirley Valentine, beginning May 27. The show features a British housewife whose children are grown and whose life is stagnant. When a friend offers her a trip to Greece, she begins to blossom again.
Portraits will be a series of one-person shows throughout the summer. There will also be a kids’ workshop culminating in a children’s play in mid-June and July.
Other events will include the annual small print show; a meet-the company potluck dinner and dessert auction on May 28; an opening night dinner on June 3; and a performance of Noises Off to benefit the new Creede Health Clinic on June 11.
Special performances will include young dancers on June 27 and Mining Stories of Old Creede on July 4. Concerts are slated by Colcannon on July 18; Betsy Randall and John Green on July 30; jazz by Ed Wheatley on Aug. 8; and the Sweet Sunny South bluegrass band on Sept. 4.
CRT will note its 40th year with a street festival on July 31. The Stanleytones Bluegreass Band will perform in downtown Creede.
Stories on Stage will bring Denver Center actors to read short pieces; and the fall season will open with a dinner and Slabtown on Sept. 2. A story with a local slant, Slabtown is about Leadville in 1877, between the gold and silver rushes.
“It’s a tough little script,” says LaMee, “I like it a lot.”
The fall tour begins Sept. 26 through Colorado, and nearby states, and will feature English as a Second Language by Tom Smith. The tour will also feature four bilingual children’s stories.
Creede Repertory Theatre was built in the 1930s, as a movie house. It later became a melodrama house, then closed until its rebirth as a repertory theater. The main stage offers 243 seats and the upstairs “black box” stage has seating for 88.
For more information and tickets, call CRT at 719-658-2540, or toll free at 866-658-2540 or check the website at www.creederep.org.
Marcia Darnell lives in the San Luis Valley and sees at least one CRT production every summer.
