Playbill: New Theater in Denver and Boulder March 10-13

This weekend on local stages, Su Teatro transforms a Chicano literary classic through drama and dance, LOCAL Theater Company gets the public involved in play-making, and Vintage Theatre turns on the tear machine with a story about the breakdown of intimacy in the face of tragedy.
Bless Me, Ultima
Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center
March 10 through 26
7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturdays
2 p.m. Sunday, March 20
Tickets: $17 to $20
Director Tony Garcia and Su Teatro pay homage to Chicano lit pioneer Rudolfo Anaya with a fully staged version of Anaya’s iconic breakthrough 1972 novel, Bless Me, Ultima, adapted by the author. “I wanted to be a writer, but what Chicano was ever a writer before?” says Garcia of his own rite of passage as a playwright and his personal connection to Anaya's novel. “I had drawn inspiration from Mexican writers and Puerto Rican writers, but here was a Chicano from New Mexico speaking in rhythms, prose and themes that I understood.” Su Teatro veteran Yolanda Ortega plays the curandera Ultima in this tale set in New Mexico in the ’40s.
LOCAL Lab
eTown Hall
March 11-13
Tickets: $99 Festival Pass, $12 to $22 individual performances
Boulder’s LOCAL Theater Company returns for a fifth round of its LOCAL Lab mini-fest staged play readings, inviting the audience to take part in the development stage of new works. Over three days, the women-led company will present three plays — Amelia Roper’s Lottie in the Late Afternoon, Michael Yates Crowley’s The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias, and Charlie Thurston’s The History Room — along with a series of related workshops for Lab passholders; there will be some parties thrown in for good measure. Commit to the whole weekend and dip your toes into the play-building process.
Rabbit Hole
Vintage Theatre
March 11 through April 17
Tickets: $24 to $30
303-856-7830
Director Bernie Cardell tackles David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole, the tale of a couple torn apart in the aftermath of an accident that takes the life of their young son. A fine cast featuring Haley Johnson, Marc Stith, Maggy Stacy, Deb Persoff and John Hauser helps get the poignant story across.

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