{"id":2449010,"date":"2019-09-22T15:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T21:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/review-theatre-aspens-inaugural-solo-flights-offered-front-row-seats-to-new-play-development\/"},"modified":"2019-09-22T15:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-22T21:04:00","slug":"review-theatre-aspens-inaugural-solo-flights-offered-front-row-seats-to-new-play-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/review-theatre-aspens-inaugural-solo-flights-offered-front-row-seats-to-new-play-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Theatre Aspen\u2019s inaugural Solo Flights offered front row seats to new play development"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Beau Bridges in rehearsal for “Coach” last week in Aspen.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo\/Leigh Moose<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Theatre Aspen brought together artists from across the country to test the wings of their new plays at the inaugural Solo Flights festival of one-person shows<\/a>. Three of the four featured pieces, running Sept. 18 to 21, were world premieres \u2013 never seen on-stage prior to their debuts at Hurst Theatre.<\/p>\n

Producing director Jed Bernstein noted that these Solo Flights marked the official launch of the first fall season for Theatre Aspen. Over four days, four artistic teams mounted staged readings of their new creations to see and hear their nascent works in front of a live audience, a crucial step in the development of new plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of theaters offer one-time readings, but the chance to see multiple performances of a new work is a rare opportunity for artists,\u201d said Jenny Giering, who co-created the one-woman musical \u201cWhat We Leave Behind\u201d with husband Sean Barry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to feel engagement to know how people are responding to subtle differences in writing and performance choices,\u201d Barry added.<\/p>\n

For audiences, Solo Flights provided an exciting opportunity to see new plays in the developmental stage and engage with accomplished theater artists via creative discussions and moderated panels. These interactive sessions provided attendees with additional access to the behind-the-scenes process, where they could learn about each show\u2019s history and share in the discoveries of every performance.<\/p>\n

The festival opened with the world premiere of \u201cCoach,\u201d<\/a> written by veteran TV and film writer John Wilder and directed by the adept Joe Calarco. The play, Wilder\u2019s first, featured award-winning actor Beau Bridges<\/a> in an intimate portrait of UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, who led the Bruins to a record 10 championship wins. The carefully researched, autobiographical story provides a glimpse into the character of a man who valued good, old-fashioned virtue and cherished the love of his life, his wife Nell, until his dying day.<\/p>\n

Thursday through Saturday delivered a rotation of shows covering a variety of themes. \u201cWhen It\u2019s You,\u201d written by Courtney Baron, performed by Joy Nash, and directed by Kent Nicholson drew the audience into the role of confidante for a young woman confused and tormented by her proximity to a terrible crime. Wise-cracking, warm-hearted Ginnifer could be anyone who grew up in a tight-knit community, but she\u2019s not. She\u2019s someone whose high school boyfriend became a mass shooter. \u201cWhen It\u2019s You\u201d is a timely play that dares to suggest that any one of us might, overnight, find ourselves closer to gun violence than we care to imagine.<\/p>\n

For those who can\u2019t resist an atmospheric thriller, Jeffrey Hatcher delivered a taut, character-driven, period drama adapted from the Swedish novel \u201cDr. Glas.\u201d Part murder mystery, part existential poem, \u201cDr. Glas\u201d was directed with sensitive precision by Lisa Peterson and starred Obie award-winning Daniel Gerroll as a self-controlled, quick-witted and highly respected physician tormented by a secret longing. Filled with piercing observations about loneliness, isolation, and the deep-seated need for human connection, \u201cDr. Glas\u201d explores the moral dilemma of a man sworn to \u201cfirst do no harm\u201d who is forced to confront the depths of his own suffering as he strives to help a beautiful young patient with an indelicate problem.<\/p>\n

The only musical of the festival, \u201cWhat We Leave Behind,\u201d written by the husband-and-wife team of Giering and Barry, took the audience on an odyssey through the life-changing impact of chronic illness. Stricken with a mystery disease that emerges on the heels of breast cancer surgery, free-spirited writer, performer, singer and songwriter Jenny asks herself if she will ever feel whole again. Smartly directed by Tracy Brigden, and performed by the astonishing Kate Baldwin, \u201cWhat We Leave Behind\u201d juxtaposes moments of euphoria (when life feels as if it\u2019s opening up) with moments of anguish (when it seems to be shutting down), and ultimately suggests that both experiences can co-exist in the timeless and mysterious process of making art.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting a play is an act of courage,\u201d Bernstein proclaimed on opening night. At this first Solo Flights, that courage was on display in rare form. Each production\u2019s team enjoyed only a brief (and therefore, intense) rehearsal period, which began just a few days prior to opening night.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll plays, from \u2018Wicked\u2019 to \u2018Death of a Salesman,\u2019 have to start somewhere,\u201d Bernstein said in his pre-show remarks. Last week, that somewhere was Theatre Aspen.<\/p>\n

Solo Flights closed with a landing party on Saturday evening, where attendees gathered to celebrate the achievements of the fearless writers, directors, performers, producers, sponsors, stage managers, technical designers, and audiences who help bring new theater to life.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beau Bridges in rehearsal for “Coach” last week in Aspen.Courtesy photo\/Leigh Moose Theatre Aspen brought together artists from across the country to test the wings of their new plays at the inaugural Solo Flights festival of one-person shows. Three of the four featured pieces, running Sept. 18 to 21, were world premieres \u2013 never seen […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2449010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 03:53:08","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}