Last Hurrah

Germinal Stage Denver is leaving the building: Late last year, Germinal Stage founder Ed Baierlein announced that after 26 years in the now-crumbling north Denver theater at 44th and Alcott, he was selling the property and the forty-year-old company would vacate the space after one last golden season. Not that...

By Susan Froyd

August 15, 2013

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Germinal Stage Denver is leaving the building: Late last year, Germinal Stage founder Ed Baierlein announced that after 26 years in the now-crumbling north Denver theater at 44th and Alcott, he was selling the property and the forty-year-old company would vacate the space after one last golden season.

Not that Germinal is calling it quits. Baierlein hopes to continue staging plays in rented houses. But there's a sense of loss nonetheless: If only walls could talk...

Tonight's opening -- Peter Handke's Offending the Audience, a so-called "anti-play" first performed by the company in 1976 and featuring a cast of Germinal friends and veterans (at least a few of them from the original production) -- will be the last play premiere to grace that well-worn stage. Who wouldn't want to risk being offended just to be part of this moment?

See Offending the Audience at 8 p.m. this evening at the Germinal, 2450 West 44th Avenue; the show continues Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through August 25. Tickets range from $19.75 to $23.75 (or take your chance on a $15 rush ticket fifteen minutes before any performance); call 303-455-7108 for reservations or visit germinalstage.com for information.
Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 10, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Starts: Aug. 9. Continues through Aug. 25, 2013

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

Contact: Susan Froyd

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