A powerhouse of four female directors – three of whom call Colorado Springs home – will take the helm of Theatreworks’ upcoming 2020-21 season.
Based out of the Ent Center for the Arts, the professional theatre company will celebrate its 41st year with seven shows offered this season, including a Shakespeare comedy, a classic story about sisterly affection and a musical comedy about lumberjacks finding love in the most unexpected of places.
Theatreworks’ Artistic Director, Caitlin Lowans, describes the seven shows as threaded through with themes of family, laughter, loss and love.
“This season focuses on family stories, whether they are siblings, parents, or the chosen families we create with our dearest friends,” she said. “We have some familiar favorites – Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Turn of the Screw, Little Women – balanced with some newer work that will bring audiences together and tug at the heart strings, like Elliot, Aubergine and Every Brilliant Thing. I can’t wait to continue our Free-For-All tour this summer and to embark on a new challenge by directing a piece for the Philharmonic. We’re so excited to continue building community here in Colorado Springs.”
This season’s directorial lineup will include Sarah Sheppard Shaver, the head of theatre at Pikes Peak Community College; Kathryn Walsh, a Chicago-based director with credits at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, who will tackle Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; Lowans, who will be bring her directorial touch to Little Women and the musical Lumberjacks in Love; and local performer Marisa Hébert, who will make her directing debut this season.
Subscriptions to the 2020–21 season are on sale now online or through the UCCS Presents box office at (719) 255-3232. The full season can be viewed at uccspresents.org.
2020-21 season
Twelfth Night
July 8 – August 2
at Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site
The Bard’s classic comedy of finding yourself when you’re in disguise. This madcap tale of identical twins, lost at sea but found by love, lands at Rock Ledge in celebration of our tenth year of Shakespeare at the Ranch.
Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue
September 10 – 27
Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre at the Ent Center for the Arts
A Pulitzer-Prize nominated play about family legacy and service by the book writer of “In The Heights.” A young veteran debates whether to enlist in a second tour in Iraq in this American story, performed in celebration of Hispanic Heritage month.
The Turn of the Screw
October 15 – November 1
Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre at the Ent Center for the Arts
The classic psychological ghost story, just in time for Halloween. A young governess cares for two strange children in a mysterious manor. Are they haunted? Or is she slowly going mad?
Little Women
December 3 – 20
Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre at the Ent Center for the Arts
Come home for the holidays with Louisa May Alcott’s adored novel of family love. Sisters Meg, Beth, Amy and Jo triumph through joy, heartbreak and pickled limes, in a heart-warming new adaptation for the stage.
Aubergine
January 28 – February 14
Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre at the Ent Center for the Arts
What would be your perfect, last meal? A chef struggles to show love to his dying father when an uncle visits from Korea with a secret recipe. Love and loss intertwine with live cooking onstage.
Every Brilliant Thing
March 18 – April 4
Osborne Studio Theatre at the Ent Center for the Arts
Ice cream. Water fights. Dreams of flying. Could you list everything that makes life worth living? Our hero begins a list to save their mother, and ends up saving themselves in this delicate, hilarious story of resilience and true connection.
Lumberjacks in Love
May 8 – 23
Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theatre at the Ent Center for the Arts
A silly, slap-happy musical about finding your match in the most unexpected places. Five musical, merry lumberjacks live in a state of manly bliss at the Haywire Lumber Camp – until a plucky mail order bride arrives to upend their idyll.
Theatreworks is a professional, regional theater company dedicated to creating challenging and innovative productions of classic and contemporary theater for the enjoyment, education and stimulation of UCCS students, faculty, staff and Pikes Peak region community members. Theatreworks was founded in 1975 as an outreach program of UCCS.