Playbill: Three New Plays in Metro Denver May 15-17

Sartre reimagines the Greek gods in an existential world, acting students rip through the Tennessee Williams canon and a shocking Jazz-Age murder case is revisited: Here’s what’s new on metro stages this weekend.

The Upstart Crow, The Flies
The Dairy Center for the Arts
May 15 through 30
7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays
2 p.m. Sunday, May 24
Tickets: $21 to $25, name-your-price on Thursdays
Jean-Paul Sartre Sartre’s The Flies re-envisions the tale of Electra and Orestes from a modern, existential view, showing how the perfection of the gods creates havoc and fear among worshippers on the earth below — simply because of their own human imperfections. Jim Valon directs the long-lived Upstart Crow ensemble in a stage classic.

Blue Roses Festival: 6xTenn One-Act Festival
Beacons Community Space
Fridays and Saturdays, May 15 through 30
Free admission
Tackling the broad dramatic territory of Tennessee Williams is a traditoinal challenge for any serious actor, and students at the Denver Academy of Dramatic Arts at Visionbox studio will take on the task for this cavalcade of one-acts performed in repertory throughout the remainder of May in Cherry Creek North. For a complete schedule of free shows, scheduled at various times on Fridays and Saturdays, visit the Visionbox website; performances include food and drink before each show. It all wraps up from 10 a.m. to noon on May 30 with a director’s notes coffee talk at Visionbox headquarters in the Skylite Station on Santa Fe Drive.

Spotlight Theatre, Rope
John Hand Theater
May 16 through June 13
7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
2 p.m. Sundays
7:30 p.m. Monday, June 1
2 p.m. Saturday, June 13
Tickets: $19 to $21 
720-880-8727
Based loosely on the sensational 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, and the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking film of the same name, Patrick Hamilton’s Rope tells the macabre story of two young men who murder a classmate just for the sport of it. Spotlight brings the psychological drama to life at the John Hand Theater through mid-June.

Find a stage near you: Check out Westword's online listings for more theater events for this week. 

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