For 10 days, the DCPA NewsCenter will offer not only 10 intriguing theatre titles to watch on theatre stages throughout Colorado. This year we are expanding our preview by featuring 10 musicals AND 10 plays. Today is Day 2.

PLAY OF THE DAY: The Catamounts’ You on the Moors Now

Featured actor in the video above: Anastasia Davidson

• Sept. 8-30
• At the Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder
• 303-440-7826 or thedairy.org
•
Playwright: Jaclyn Backhaus
• Director: Amanda Berg Wilson

• The story: You on the Moors Now features iconic characters from 19th-century novels Jane Eyre, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. Set in the mythical land of Moors, our four heroines have run away after shockingly rejecting the suitors who ardently loved them. Stung by the spurning, the men wage war on the women.

• But what is it about? This timely feminist romp juxtaposes the romantic confines of the past with present ideas of courtship and playfully examines women’s perennial quest to be valued as men’s equals, the ancient interconnectedness of love and loss, and the contemporary recognition that humans must find their own way before finding one another.

Cast list:

• Elizabeth Bennet: Anastasia Davidson
• Cathy: Laura Lounge
• Jo March: Alaina Beth Reel
• Jane Eyre: Alex Forbes
• Fitzwilliam Darcy: Brian Kusic
• Heathcliff: Matthew Blood-Smyth
• Laurie Laurence: Joe Von Bokern
• Mr. Rochester: Jason Maxwell
• Player 1: Caroline Bingley, Amy: Luciann Lajoie
• Player 2: Mr Bingley, Old Grandpa Laurence: Jihad Milhem
• Player 3: Nelly Dean, Beth, Jane Bennet: Maggie Tisdale
• Player 4: Joseph, Mrs. March: Sam Gilstrap
• Player 5: St. John Rivers, Bhaer, Edgar Linton: Austin Terrell
•
Player 6: River Sister, Meg: Joan Bruemmer-Holden

MUSICAL OF THE DAY: Rocky Mountain Rep’s
Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver

Featured actor in the video above: Matilde Bernabei

• Sept. 1-30
• 800 Grand Ave in Grand Lake, located 100 miles northwest of Denver
• 970-627-3421 or rockymountainrep.com
• Director: Jeff Duke
• Music director: Michael Querio

• The story: Almost Heaven is a revue of John Denver songs in wonderfully creative new arrangements, connected with words and thoughts from the artist, about the artist and placing the songs’ creation in context of our country’s history. This musical was premiered by the DCPA Theatre Company in 2003 and was extended for nine months. 

• But what is it about? While the songs are certainly well-known, hearing them performed surrounded by the beauty of Grand Lake will be special. The musical also emphasizes John Denver’s work as an environmentalist and social activist.

Cast list:
• Jack Bartholet
• Matilde Bernabei
• Suzanna Champion
• Paige Daigle
• Jens Jacobson
• Kyle Ashe Wilkinson
• Jeff Duke
• Michael Querio

The cast of Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre’s ‘Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver’ has a little fun at rehearsal in Grand Lake. 

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter

Our complete 2017 Colorado Fall Theatre Preview:

• Day 1: Curious Theatre’s Appropriate and BDT Stage’s Rock of Ages
• Day 2: The Catamounts’ You on the Moors Now and Rocky Mountain Rep’s Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver
• Day 3: Creede Repertory Theatre’s General Store and Town Hall Arts Center’s In the Heights
• Day 4: Avenue Theater’s My Brilliant Divorce and the Arvada Center’s A Chorus Line
• Day 5: Bas Bleu’s Elephant’s Graveyard and Evergreen Chorale’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Day 6: Firehouse Theatre’s The Mystery of Love and Sex and the Aurora Fox’s ‘Company’
• Day 7: Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s The Revolutionists and Off-Center’s The Wild Party
• Day 8: Lake Dillon Theatre Company’s Pretty Fire and the Aurora Fox’s Hi-Hat Hattie
• Day 9: Edge Theatre Company’s A Delicate Balance and Midtown Arts Center’s Once.
• Day 10:  Local Theater Company’s The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias and Thin Air Theatre Company’s The Toxic Avenger Musical

This 2017 Colorado fall preview is compiled by Denver Center for the Performing Arts Senior Arts Journalist John Moore as a service to the Colorado theatre community. Moore was named one of the 12 most influential theater critics in the U.S by American Theatre Magazine in 2011 and is the founder of The Denver Actors Fund.