Eddie and Dave
Written by Amy Staats
Direction by Amanda Berg Wilson
At the People’s Building of Aurora
November 6-28, 2021
Featuring: Janae Burris, Candace Joice, Alicia “Lisa” Young, Missy Moore, and Christopher Berghoff
Costume Design by Steffani Day
Scenic Design by Matthew Schlief
Lighting Design by Viktoria Padilla
Sound Designer CeCe Smith
Technical Direction by Brian Miller
Stage Management by Wayne Breyer
Eddie and Dave, which received its world premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York in January of 2019, is a gender-bending romp about the most infamous of artistic partnerships, that of David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen. The comedy explores the question: What do you do when the person you need the most is the one who drives you crazy? Full of hair-band swagger, Eddie and Dave has a field day with the mix of cock-rock and feminine posturing that characterized the iconic Van Halen, by casting the members with women performers.
“This is the third in a series of plays we have produced which place non-male identified performers in the roles of historical men, after 2016’s The Taming by Lauren Gunderson and 2018’s Men On Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus,” said Artistic Director Amanda Berg Wilson. “We’re ever intrigued by what happens to iconic American myths–like that of the rise and fall of a rock band–are brought to life with performers whose gender and race do not correspond with the gender and race of the historic people. How does it re-frame these stories, and point us toward a differently occupied future?”
One Way-Back Day
Conceived of, Creative Directed by, and Written by Tresha Farris
with James Brunt, James Farris, Ilasiea Gray, Chelsea Frye, Sam Gilstrap, and Peter Trinh
Directed by Alicia “Lisa” Young
At the Dairy Arts Center
Boulder, Colorado
February 26-March 19, 2022
Featuring: Colette Brown, Tresha Farris, Artie Thompson, Simone St. John, Shanae Adams, James Brunt, and Peter Trinh and Musician Santemu Aakhu
Artistic Direction by Amanda Berg Wilson
Associate Production by Sam Gilstrap
Choreography by Artie Thompson
Costume Design by Alicia “Lisa” Young
Costume Construction by Debra Faber of WeeBee Costumes
Dramaturgy by Sean Michael Cummings
IDEAS Costume Intern Ismael Salgado Nunez
Lighting Design by Reed Otto
Fight/Intimacy Choreography by Jenn Zuko
Stage Managment by Teresa Gould
Assistant Stage Managment by Katie Liguori
Props Design by Wayne Breyer
Scenic Design by CeCe Smith
Sound Design by CeCe Smith
Technical Direction by M. Curtis Grittner
Conceived, creative directed, and written by Tresha Farris in collaboration with James Brunt, James Farris, Ilaesia Gray, Chelsea Frye, Sam Gilstrap, and Peter Trinh, who collaboratively adaptated the African, Black, Gullah, and GeeChee American tales and folklore passed down through oral tradition and griot story style.
“I grew up with these tales and I have been enthralled by the art of storytelling ever since. I’m ecstatic to breathe life into the stories that shaped me, and to give them this platform to shine,” -Tresha Farris.
“Modernizing these folktales allows us to observe these stories from a contemporary lens, revealing how far (or how short) we have come.” -Peter Trinh
“The American theatre cannon is lacking fresh new works and traditional tales from marginalized folks and communities. One Way-Back Day gives us a fabulous opportunity to celebrate the African Adinkra principle of “SANKOFA,” to go back and retrieve these oral traditions, legends, and tales.” -Director Alicia “Lisa” Young
The Catamounts developed this original adaptation from 2020-2022. Its world premiere production was woven with live music, dance, and puppetry, as well as an intergration of the seven artists’ adaptations.
Public Domain Theatre Festival
featuring The Catamounts, Buntport Theater, and Su Teatro
Boulder Public Library, Boulder, Colorado and Westminster Station Park, Westminster, Colorado
June 10-19, 2022
An outdoor theatre festival celebrating theatre outside the box. The Catamounts were joined by two lauded Colorado theatre companies–Buntport Theater and Su Teatro– in the presentation of original adaptations of public domain works in select outdoor spaces around the Boulder Public Library on the festival’s first weekend, and around Westminster Station Park on its second and third. Each of the three participating companies presented a twenty-minute adaptation of a public domain work.
Lit by a Colorado summer sunset, against the backdrop of the park’s picturesque nooks, the three adaptations ran simultaneously three times each evening. Audience members were divided into small groups and rotated between each piece, which ensured an intimate experience, and allowed all groups to experience all three pieces and locations in the park.
The Public Domain Theatre Festival was celebration of live performance in public spaces; an accessible and affordable cultural offering; and a forward-thinking effort to move theatre from the confines of four walls into the public domain.
- Buntport “adapted” The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel, making life-size versions of some of the woodcut creatures from its illustrations, and performing a mostly wordless piece in which these creatures attempt to do relatively easy things. A silly, outdoor romp.
- Su Teatro presented Corridos y Cuentos (Ballads and Stories), focusing on traditional storytelling, ballads, and street performance that offers a contemporary twist and explores issues such as immigration, worker’s rights, and cultural identity.
- The Catamounts presented Enough Rope: The Kissining, a wild mash-up of Dorothy Parker’s poetry collection Enough Rope, the John Barrymore-helmed movie Don Juan, and Ernest Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises. Director Joan Bruemmer-Holden is using this Hemmingway quote as a jumping-off point: “ I suppose she only wanted what she couldn’t have. Well, people were like that to hell with people.” What does love have to do with it, anyway?
Each night of the festival opened with a different musical act, including Banthom House, Las Dahlias, and Samba Colorado.