Bowls With the Bard Brings Stoned Shakespeare Experience to the Coffee Joint

If you've ever secretly thought that attending a Shakespeare production might be better if everyone was high, then Bowls With the Bard is for you. The program is redefining how we experience the playwright's timeless works, and will offer a stoned staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream from Thursday, September 21, to Sunday, September 24, at the Coffee Joint, Denver's only open licensed cannabis lounge.

Bowls With the Bard founder Micaela Mannix attended her first Shakespeare in the Pub experience, similar to Drunk Shakespeare, in 2017 in Washington, D.C., where she lived at the time. Although she wanted to get in on the action, she doesn't drink. "I just remember the experience being so ridiculously fun, but since I don't drink, it felt like if I tried to step in and participate without drinking, it was kind of a moot point," Mannix says. "But I do smoke, so I decided to see if we could make something out of that."

But cannabis had only been legalized for two years in D.C., and companies couldn't legally host events with weed. "Since it wasn't quite possible to do a live performance with weed at the time, I thought about what I could do to make Stoned Shakespeare happen right then," she adds. "I quickly realized I could always smoke in my house and talk to people about Shakespeare, and so the YouTube series and podcast were born."
In October 2017, Bowls With the Bard posted its first video to YouTube, introducing its premise: Smoke a bowl with creatives, interview them about their love of the Bard, and then take a look at their pitch for a show or original take on a Willy Shakes character. In the announcement, Mannix exhibits her love of marijuana by puffing on a bowl in front of a Shakespearean backdrop that reads "Get Lit." From there, she proceeded to smoke her way through conversations with artistic directors, actors and other artists about such topics as The Tempest in space, Othello in the original pronunciation, and the zombie apocalypse MCU of Shakespeare.

"I think my favorite part of Bowls With the Bard is that at every stage of our existence, we’ve been pushing the boundaries of what Shakespeare can be," Mannix says. "In our YouTube phase, we were all about challenging stereotypes surrounding Shakespeare being unapproachably difficult and stoners being lazy and stupid. When we evolved into an official podcast, we started asking more questions about who Shakespeare has historically been for, and how we can make it more accessible to everyone."

When the pandemic struck, Mannix and her partner, Jonathan Miot — who plays Demetrius and Bottom in Midsummer and is now her fiancé after their engagement at the Colorado Renaissance Festival this year — briefly relocated to Utah with Mannix's family while they made plans for the future. Although the couple initially planned to move to Los Angeles, in part because that area also has some weed-friendly performance venues, they began to consider the Centennial State as a potential home after attending a family reunion in Winter Park.
"Something about going to Colorado just felt right, and it worked for Bowls With the Bard," Mannix says. "The concept works here, and we liked the area's vibe. I liked Colorado's energy and felt like we could live here, but we were still planning to move to Los Angeles. However, some financial stuff popped up, and we ended up back in D.C. for a full year, totally unexpectedly. While we were back in D.C., we kept thinking about Colorado. I also grew up in Utah, so I missed that mountain vibe and the energy of the people from the Midwest. So that's kind of how we ended up here, and it was ideal, because the concept was perfect for Colorado."

Once the couple moved to Colorado, finding the right venue for their unique concept was crucial. Mannix began researching spaces that were 420-friendly and stumbled across the Coffee Joint. While many spots around Denver still have heavy restrictions on marijuana-related events, the establishment has embraced the idea wholeheartedly.

"I called expecting them to be like, 'Stoned Shakespeare? I've never heard of that; I'm not sure. Maybe we could do one show' — but by the end of our conversations, they were open to letting us do a full weekend run," Mannix says. "The Coffee Joint was so excited about the idea, and they have been such great partners, because they're so easy to work with and accommodating."

Since 2018, the Coffee Joint has operated as Denver's first licensed pot lounge, so the organization already has the infrastructure in place to legally and safely allow for the consumption of cannabis on site. The venue's rules and regulations allow for various forms of consumption, including vaping and edibles, but open flames are strictly prohibited.

Bowls With the Bard has partnered with Eureka, a vaping products company, to allow ticket holders special access to purchase a Eureka Vape for a penny at the Coffee Joint's adjoining dispensary, Yuma Way, that they can enjoy during the performance. Sharing is not caring at the Coffee Joint, where passing between patrons is not allowed, so guests must either buy a vape for themselves or bring items from home.
Doors will open at 6 p.m., and there will be entertainment in the lobby for folks to enjoy before A Midsummer Night's Dream begins at 7 p.m. The party will only continue during the show, which audiences can smoke through while watching the actors get higher than a kite and attempt to remember their lines. "It's been really fun discovering the ways we can free ourselves during the show because of the smoking aspect," Miot says. "We've been carefully staging when we take hits, which is fun to plan out and think about the reason my character is smoking and what it reveals about them as a person."

Bowls With the Bard is also working on smoke games that promise to add an extra layer of fun to the experience. The troupe's adaptation of Shakespeare's classic comedy uses a small, queer cast that promises a slightly condensed, fast-paced version of the play. "Midsummer is a wild hour-and-forty-minute ride with no intermission," notes Mannix, who plays Egeus, Puck and the Philostrate in the production. "Since our performers are double-cast, our lovers also play the rude mechanicals, which can get quite crazy. Prepare yourself for a zany experience with lots of jokes and marijuana coming your way!"

As the first-ever Bowls With the Bard experience in Denver comes to fruition, the troupe has even grander plans for the future. Mannix envisions owning a venue dedicated to making Shakespeare more accessible on stage and in the classroom.

"Our plan is to have a repertory company that is doing Shakespeare all year with us," she says. "Something I've noticed since I've moved to Denver as somebody who loves Shakespeare is that there aren't really year-round adult Shakespeare classes offered in this area. You can get it at the DCPA for a semester, but I would love to offer classes for adults, with some being regular classes and others where you can smoke and have fun. ... As we start to produce our own Shakespeare, we’re excited about the idea that a Stoned Shakespeare audience might not look like a typical theater audience. I’m pumped to share Shakespeare with people in a way that excites them more than it did when they had to study him on a page in high school."

For Deneishia Le’Artiste, an actor playing Titania and Hippolyta in the production, performing with Bowls With the Bard represents the fulfillment of a childhood dream. The company's focus on being inclusive is a reflection of the Denver she wished for when she was young, and she's proud to be a part of it.

"When I was growing up in Denver, I would have to go out with my queer friends and hide in some basement in Five Points to be able to read each other queer stories, poetry and art," Le'Artiste says. "So now to be in a production in Denver that is friendly, fun and queer-focused is so fulfilling. Bowls With the Bard's production of Midsummer is just all of the things that I had wished Denver was in the ’70s and ’80s when I was growing up, before I ran away from home. I think Denver is the best place in the country to launch this kind of production, and I am just proud to be able to do it in my hometown with my people."

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Thursday, September 21 through Sunday, September 24, Coffee Joint, 1130 Yuma Court. Tickets are available at bowlswiththebard.com.