{"id":36370,"date":"2018-11-29T13:04:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T20:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=36370"},"modified":"2018-12-10T13:01:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T20:01:06","slug":"lowans-makes-her-theatreworks-directing-debut-with-murray-ross-adaptation-of-a-christmas-carol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=36370","title":{"rendered":"Lowans makes her Theatreworks directing debut with Murray Ross’ adaptation of “A Christmas Carol”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Christmas<\/a>
The cast of “A Christmas Carol.” Courtesy Isaiah Downing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New artistic director Caitlin Lowans makes her Theatreworks directing debut with founder Murray Ross\u2019 2016 adaptation of \u201cA Christmas Carol.\u201d The play runs through Christmas Eve at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater, located in the Ent Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m growing to know our local community, and am excited to deepen that relationship by creating art together,\u201d Lowans said.<\/p>\n

Lowans has added music to the play, working with local composer Curtis Schweitzer to incorporate traditional English carols. Schweitzer has created arrangements to be sung and played by the cast, with instruments ranging from melodica to cello.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaitlin and I have discussed creating a musical \u2018thread\u2019 of carols that ties our story together,\u201d Schweitzer said. \u201cWe have very deliberately picked specific carol music to compliment the story and beautiful text of the play. Music gives us a chance to highlight the story of a man moving from isolation into the fullness of community in a unique way\u2014especially since our wonderful performers will be creating most of the music you’ll hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa Wolpe, a director, teacher, playwright, writer, producer and Shakespearean actor known for playing traditionally male roles, makes her Theatreworks debut as Scrooge. Wolpe founded the Los Angeles Women\u2019s Shakespeare Company, known for its all-female, multi-cultural aesthetic, and served as its producing artistic director from 1993-2017. Wolpe\u2019s acting credits include Utah Shakespeare Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cScrooge offers such a lovely arc\u2014from a tight-fisted, stubborn, cold-hearted old curmudgeon, to a wonderfully open, generous, loving person, ready to enjoy all that life has to offer,\u201d Wolpe said. \u201cI am blessed to have been given this fabulous opportunity to play such a rich and complex character for Caitlin Lowans\u2019 first production for Theaterworks\u2014and the bonus, of course is working with this truly magical, delightful cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous local actors round out the cast, including Rebecca Myers (Mrs. Cratchit), Hossein Forouzandeh (Bob Cratchit), Kim Almacen (Christmas Past) and Damon Guerrasio (Fred). Myers recently appeared in Theatreworks\u2019 \u201cOklahoma!\u201d during the 2017-18 season and has performed in numerous Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and Thin Air Theatre Company productions. Forouzandeh, who graduated from UCCS with a degree in visual and performing arts, has performed in numerous Theatreworks productions including \u201cOklahoma!,\u201d \u201cMacbeth,\u201d \u201cAll\u2019s Well That Ends Well,\u201d \u201cThe Merchant of Venice\u201d and others.<\/p>\n

The ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future will be portrayed by life-size, actor-driven puppets, created by WYNOT Productions, a local, full-service puppetry studio led by actor, director and props master Cory Moosman.<\/p>\n

Tickets are now on sale at theatreworksCS.org<\/a> or through the box office at (719) 255-3232. \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d runs Nov. 29\u2013Dec. 24 at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater at UCCS.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

ASSOCIATED EVENTS<\/strong>
\nOn Dec. 2, before the Sunday matinee, Martha Graham Cracker\/Dito van Reigersberg will feature in a discussion entitled \u201cCabaret and Holiday Performance\u201d as part of the Prologue lecture series, co-presented by Theatreworks and the UCCS Theatre Company. A talented cabaret and drag star as well as an engaging and dynamic speaker, van Reigersberg will put this unique style of performance in perspective and relate it to a larger conversation about the styles of performance that we associate with the holidays.<\/p>\n

Theatreworks will host post-show conversations after the Saturday and Sunday matin\u00e9e performances. Saturday conversations will be led by members of the community and Sunday conversations will be led by members of the cast.<\/p>\n

There will also be pre-show Coffee & Cocoa Chats with scholars in the lobby before Thursday performances.<\/p>\n

–by Michelle Winchell, UCCS Presents<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New artistic director Caitlin Lowans makes her Theatreworks directing debut with founder Murray Ross\u2019 2016 adaptation of \u201cA Christmas Carol.\u201d The play runs through Christmas Eve at the Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater in the Ent Center for the Arts. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,45],"tags":[60,275,91],"class_list":["post-36370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-arts-and-culture","tag-student-success","tag-theatreworks","tag-uccs-presents"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/christmas-carol-cast.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-9sC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36374,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36370\/revisions\/36374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}