{"id":794127,"date":"2019-03-19T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T00:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/new-artistic-director-puts-breckenridge-backstage-theatre-back-in-the-limelight\/"},"modified":"2019-03-19T18:57:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T00:57:00","slug":"new-artistic-director-puts-breckenridge-backstage-theatre-back-in-the-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/new-artistic-director-puts-breckenridge-backstage-theatre-back-in-the-limelight\/","title":{"rendered":"New artistic director puts Breckenridge Backstage Theatre back in the limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"
Breckenridge Backstage Theatre’s new director, Nathan Autrey, during a rehearsal Friday, March 15, in Breckenridge.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sitting down for a Q&A with the audience following a recent performance, Breckenridge Backstage Theatre\u2019s new artistic director couldn\u2019t keep the self-described \u201ctheater nerd\u201d from coming out.<\/p>\n

During the callback, Nathan Autrey was thoughtful, articulate and deeply fascinated with the play and all things theater, as the audience posed questions of him and the cast from \u201cBoeing, Boeing.\u201d Together, they covered everything from plot and character development to overarching principals of the performing arts, and the audience seemed to eat it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think I like it better,\u201d Autrey said of an actress reinventing her character for the play. \u201cI think it kind of changed the relationships around her. It\u2019s just little choices like that, that transform things.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the actors and actresses aren\u2019t the only ones transforming Backstage Theatre.<\/p>\n

Autrey came into the position with the nonprofit, community theater on Oct. 22 after his predecessor\u2019s abrupt resignation<\/a> last August. With only two days on the job before holding his first auditions, Autrey had little time to get settled into the role before the curtains came up on November\u2019s season-opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first day, I actually pitched an entire season,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

But to his credit, the new artistic director has hit the stage running by most accounts, and his work has been picking up some strong reviews along the way as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis small town theater production delivers an evening of bright wit and constant laughs, more than worthy of a Broadway stage,\u201d wrote Shauna Farnell<\/a>, a critic for On Stage Colorado.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t believe the pundits, as Farnell\u2019s assessment has been seconded by Jim Anderson, who\u2019s been volunteering with Backstage Theatre and attending its shows since moving to Summit County in July 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen it twice, and it is very well done,\u201d he said of the satirical play based on a French comedy made famous in the 1960s. \u201cIt\u2019s a very tight performance. It\u2019s a classic farce, and I think it\u2019s hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Set in the apartment of a man who has three fianc\u00e9s, all flight attendants with different airlines, the play opened Feb. 28 to a sold-out audience and got a standing ovation. The response was no less complimentary after the March 8 performance, when Autrey and the cast sat down in plain clothes after the show for the free-flowing chat with the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Nathan is doing an outstanding job,\u201d said Anderson, who in addition to building sets as a volunteer also landed a role in last summer\u2019s children\u2019s production of \u201cAnnie.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Autrey has directed three plays with Backstage Theatre. Speaking with the man who has come to love Breckenridge\u2019s passion for the performing arts \u2014 even saying it\u2019s on par with New York \u2014 it sounds like Autrey\u2019s only getting started. In fact, he\u2019s has already pitched the next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen searching for our new artistic director, I knew we wanted to bring in someone with an MFA in directing and the expertise to oversee all of the artistic elements of the theatre,\u201d said Backstage Theatre\u2019s executive director Debbie Trevino.<\/p>\n

\u201cNathan is exceptionally talented and his dedication to his artistry is an inspiration,\u201d she continued. \u201cIn the short time that Nathan has been here he has expanded our season and brought a fresh approach to our programing. This summer, for example, he will be producing \u2018The Taming of the Shrew\u2019 and bringing Shakespeare to the Backstage Theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Autrey said he\u2019s based his plan for the 2019-20 season on trying to watch the people in the audience this season, and he hopes to remain audience-centered and produce shows that locals want to see.<\/p>\n

Providing a taste of what\u2019s to come, Autrey revealed Backstage Theatre will open the 2019-20 season with \u201cSweeney Todd.\u201d Additionally, he said, Backstage Theatre has already gotten permission to open in October, about a month earlier than it has in previous years. Meanwhile, Backstage Theatre\u2019s current season will wrap up in September.<\/p>\n

Efforts are also underway to expand the children\u2019s theater programming this summer, including lengthening all of the children\u2019s theater workshops.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more plays you do, the better you get even if it\u2019s small roles,\u201d Autrey said of his reasons for wanting to facilitate added opportunities for local youth.<\/p>\n

One of the summer\u2019s kids camps comes from a playwright who reached out to Backstage Theatre, said Backstage Theatre\u2019s new associate artistic director Cara Janes, who will be leading a lot of the children\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually a take on \u2018Phantom of the Opera,\u2019 and kind of introduces kids to those characters,\u201d without hitting them with the full-blown play, which Janes agreed might be a little too much for the youngsters. The theater is also starting some skill-based children\u2019s theater camps that will bring in specialty coaches and teachers to work on specific forms of theater, like improvisation, vocals and commedia dell\u2019arte.<\/p>\n

For the older age groups, Janes said, Backstage Theatre is creating a new series of classes that focus on bridging the gap between children\u2019s theater and any teenagers who might want to pursue theater in college or as a career.<\/p>\n

Realizing what it takes to get into a college theater program, Janes said that students coming out of high school will need an audition portfolio with a professional headshot and resume, a comedic monologue and a dramatic monologue, and several different songs that showcase their full vocal range, just to name a few of the items that will be required for college and covered in the workshops for teens.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these skills, we\u2019re going to put them in concrete trainings so (the teenagers) are as prepared as they can be if they want to do (theater) in the future,\u201d Janes said.<\/p>\n

Registration is now open for Backstage Theatre\u2019s summer camps and workshops. For more about the remainder of Backstage Theatre\u2019s 2018-19 season, volunteering with the nonprofit or its opportunities for children and teens, go to BackstageTheatre.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breckenridge Backstage Theatre’s new director, Nathan Autrey, during a rehearsal Friday, March 15, in Breckenridge.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com Sitting down for a Q&A with the audience following a recent performance, Breckenridge Backstage Theatre\u2019s new artistic director couldn\u2019t keep the self-described \u201ctheater nerd\u201d from coming out. During the callback, Nathan Autrey was thoughtful, articulate and deeply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-794127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 22:37:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}