The Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s upcoming holiday offering of Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” is reflective of the 50-year-old company evolving from a strictly seasonal troupe to more of a year-round company.
The CSF has offered smaller-scale holiday shows in the past, but has never before applied the same resources to a holiday show that it would to one of its lavish summer productions.
Producing artistic director Philip Sneed will stage “Wales” in the University of Colorado’s 400-seat mainstage theater from Dec. 7-24. It’s an adaptation he wrote and developed with his former Foothill Theatre Company of Nevada City, Calif.
Why do it? He’ll build audiences for next summer, fill a holiday theatrical void in Boulder, and boost revenue during the most popular theatergoing month of the year.
“There are people who go to holiday plays who will never go to plays at any other time of the year,” said Sneed. “So if they won’t come in the summer, at least we are serving a segment of our community that is looking for live entertainment during the holidays.”
Sneed has loved Thomas’ story for years “because he has managed to create a fun and warm and humorous but not sentimental look at Christmas through remembering his own Christmases,” he said.
“What’s different about it is that he acknowledges early that memory is faulty. One of the famous lines says, ‘I can never remember if snowed for six days and six nights when I was 12, or if it snowed for 12 days and 12 nights when I was 6.’
“I think he’s really captured the way memory works, especially at really important times in our lives.”
Sneed’s adaptation is just 75 minutes with an intermission. That not only serves the original spirit of Thomas’ work, but acknowledges that audiences are busy, especially during the holidays.
“I think this story has defied a successful stage adaptation,” Sneed said. “I find the published adaptation to be very unsatisfactory and not true to Dylan Thomas. It’s as if someone decided it had to be what is considered full-length, so it has whole scenes and characters that just don’t exist in Dylan Thomas’ story. I don’t think we should ever say a play has to be 2 hours. Plays need to be the length they need to be.”
Sneed’s six-member cast includes three actors who have helped him develop his adaptation in California since 2000, joined by CSF member Rebecca L. Remaly and two local children.
Sneed says his focus is developing a holiday tradition that is suitable for all ages but is not children’s theater.
“We hope to bridge intergenerational divides,” he said. “I think it’s a win-win because we are filling a niche in the local market. Before, if Boulder audiences wanted to see a professional Christmas play, they had to drive to Denver to see one, so we’re saving them a drive, we hope.”
For showtimes and ticket information, call 303-492-0554.
“Role” models
You don’t see this often: divorcing parents playing married parents onstage. But that’s what the Arvada Center got when Rod Lansberry cast popular veterans Mark Rubald and Heather Fortin Rubald to play a French bureaucrat and his wife in “La Cage Aux Folles.”
“We’re just grateful Rod didn’t dismiss the idea without asking us about it,” Fortin Rubald said. “Of course, Mark and I just thought it was good casting.”
Briefly …
April 18 will mark Next Stage’s debut at the Aurora Fox, as well as the Fox’s new studio theater. Both will take their bows with a production of “The Falsettos” that runs through May 10 …
Shadow Theatre will present “A Rose Among Thorns,” a dramatic tribute to Rosa Parks created and performed by Ella Joyce, Friday through Dec. 9 at the University of Denver’s Hamilton Hall. Joyce is best known for her role as Eleanor on the TV show “Roc” (303-871-7720)
Paragon Theatre has reached another milestone: In a …year when it staged three of its highest-grossing shows in its history, it has designated its first full-time salaried employee, Warren Sherrill
And finally, the Broadway demographic is changing: It got younger, more diverse and slightly less rich during the 2006-07 season. The average age fell 2 percent to 41.2, a drop attributed to the proliferation of Disney fare and the Tony-winning best musical, “Spring Awakening.” A record 1.42 million theatergoers were under 18 — up 23 percent. Thanks in large part to “The Color Purple,” nonwhite theatergoers were up 13 percent, to 3.18 million tickets (of the 12.3 million sold). Females continue to make up 64 percent of audiences, and average household income fell $3,200, to $98,900.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
This week’s openings
Wed.-Dec. 27. Crossroads at Five Points’ “Sistas and Storytellers.”
Thu.-Dec. 23. TheatreWorks’ “The SantaLand Diaries,” with Kelly Walters. Colorado Springs
Thu.-Dec. 16. Longmont Theatre Company’s “The Long Christmas Dinner” and “The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden.”
Fri.-Dec. 24. Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” (at CU’s Mainstage Theatre). Boulder
Fri.-Dec. 9. Shadow’s “A Rose Among Thorns” (at University of Denver).
Fri.-Dec. 26 The Bug Theatre’s “The SantaLand Diaries,” with Gary Culig.
Sat.-Dec. 13. Stage Left’s “The Happy Holidays Collection.” Salida
This week’s closings
Today. Comedy Works’ “Tony ‘N Tina’s Wedding” (at 1770 Sherman Street Event Complex).
Today. El Centro Su Teatro’s “Drive My Coche.”
Today. Dangerous Theatre’s “Mission to Zolbott.”
Dec. 9. New Denver Civic’s “Depth of Illusion” (magic show).
Dec. 9. Wolf Theatre Academy’s “Cabaret” (at the Mizel Center).
Listen to John Moore’s podcast with Hannah Duggan
Running Lines with … Hannah Duggan: John Moore talks with one of the ensemble stars of the Buntport Theatre’s “Titus Andronicus: The Musical.” Listen by
