Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC) Review

A story for our times...........beautifully and convincingly acted

We went to see Every Christmas Story Ever Told yesterday. What a great holiday show!!! Good for all ages, but best for 12+ in my opinion. A mash-up of all your favorite shows (rudolph, a christmas carol, it's a wonderful life, etc.), done with skill and humor. The alliteration alone was amazing! And they keep their humor clean throughout (which was appreciated). All three actors are gifted, and clearly love what they do. I highly recommend making this your 2016 holiday show!

BETC provides great block box theater for the Bolder/Denver area. Most of the productions provoke discussions with others, opening your mind to new thoughts and ideas, and let you see the world through new eyes. A perfect way to spend a couple of hours, DO IT!

Sunday we saw the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company's extremely moving presentation of Silent Sky. This powerfully crafted play, written by Lauren Gunderson, follows the scientific, romantic, and intellectual life of Henrietta Swan Leavitt and beautifully correlates her pioneering astronomical discoveries with progress in women s suffrage, illustrating the non-gender ability of particularly gifted, talented, and passionate people to get it done, often with considerable personal sacrifice and the presence of skeptical authority. You'll laugh a lot, but take Kleenex.

The BETC production of An Iliad was one of the most powerful and deeply moving theatrical productions I've ever seen in my long theatre-going life. The performance by Chris Kendall as The Poet was stunning, earning a leap-to-your-feet standing ovation by the entire audience. I'm grateful to live in a community with such a stellar ensemble theatre company.

Silent Sky is an excellent production and well presented. We highly recommend it.

This year was the first year I attended BETC performances. I thought "Full Code" and "Silent Sky" were simply superb. Wonderful scripts, terrific acting. The first made you think about life and death and marriage and affairs. The second made you think about our place in the universe and women's place in the world of science. I thought "An Illiad" was very good. Superb acting in a one-man show provided an interesting take on a classic tale. "Every Christmas Story Ever Told" seemed a very good farce; unfortunately not my cup of tea.

BeWarned: Scene 2 of Guards at the Taj contains a lot of very graphic blood and severed body parts. And the only warning BETC gives you is the show may not be suitable for children under 16. I found the scene very disturbing and really didn't appreciate being subjected to this scene without warning. In speaking to the artistic director and marketing person they were unapologetic and defensive. I'm still upset emotionally about the scene. It brought back traumatic memories. I expect more sensitivity from theatre in Boulder.

I so loved their show!. These three men are clearly gifted in many ways: great skill, and very witty! I also felt informed and included. I so enjoyed the audience participation. I am looking forward to any performances by these gifted men!

Silent Sky, running until Apr. 30, has one of the best all around cast performances I have seen at BETC (and many other theaters) and the playwright truly created a masterful work. SS is sensitive, funny (!), educational, romantic, well-paced, engaging, all while being a great play for a local theater with small cast. We see the difficult careers of early women in science, fraught but supportive family bonds, awkward and troubled love, and the hard-won advances of astronomy before the age of computers. All beautifully woven together and lovingly, expertly presented. Bravo BETC! Truly exceptional.

Found BETC because I bid on a season subscription at a silent auction. Was very glad I did. I live on the OTHER side of the metro area (in Parker) and it is well worth the trip.

Engaging, thoughtful plays. Well done scene-setting. And of course, amazing actors. If you like things that make you think, and you like original storytelling rather than the same darn musical every three years, you've found the right place. Subscription packages give you some flexibility on scheduling (you pick your date as each play nears) and a modest price discount. Count me in!

Love these guys. First introduction was Doubt back in the fall of 2010 and ever since this has been an annual anniversary gift for my wife. Small ensemble productions are much more intimate than mega-performances, make us think so much more about the content, and help us connect so much more with characters that we could never go back. Buy a ticket....you owe it to yourself...and to them!!

Today we attended the play "Silent Sky" by the Boulder Ensemble Theater Company ( "BETC") at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder. Virtually all of the seats provide the intimacy of practically being in the cast. The play was simply outstanding--easily as good if not better than what we see with our Denver Center Theater Company season ticket subscriptions (renewed for over 25 years straight). The play is set in 1900-1920 and based upon the true accomplishments of a group of women ( including Radcliffe and Wellesley graduates and a talented and authentic Scottish maid) known as "Pickering's Harem" at Boston's Harvard College Observatory. The women were known as star-mapping "computers" (think the Hidden Figures movie, but 50 years earlier!). Combine history, astronomy, love, tragedy, plenty of humor, human vision and striving , set in a period fraught with change--plus excellent casting and direction--and you have a masterpiece. We laughed, we cried and we talked for hours. afterwards.

As a season's subscriber, I am continuously impressed by the thoughtfulness of selections and the quality of the productions. It is wonderful to have the company in Boulder and be able to benefit from the offerings. Gunderson's The Revolutionists was superb in its timeliness, humor, humaneness and, especially, in BETC's rendition. With much appreciation.

Intelligent theatre with strong production values, what's not to love? Their choices are fantastic and the acting is always top-notch. A 4-year BETC subscriber

We've been BETC subscribers for more than six years. This bold theater company consistently hits its high quality mark , presenting superb political satire, lost history (often herstory) and just plain fun. "The Revolutionists" is no exception. Raw, tragic, collaborative, and on point for today's climate. Go see it.

Want to see the worst "theater," you could imagine?! Go to the website and randomly choose any of their productions. We were given three plays as a wedding gift. The first play was well done and very difficult to watch. Tonight's performance - a regional premiere of "Guards at the Taj," was unexpectedly gruesome and disturbing. We had read the description - Which gave no warning of what the play was actually about. It was about how two guards are required to cut off the hands of 20,000 men who built the Taj Mahal. While I'd argue that there was nothing artistic about the play - people can disagree about this. What is unavoidable is that BETC gave no real heads-up. Their Artistic Director was unapologetic and noted that there was a "warning," on their ticketing page. That warning said it may not be appropriate for people under 16 years. We'll never be back.

On Christmas Eve we took our family and 7 friends, who were visiting for the holiday to see BETC Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and then some!) The play was wonderful! It exceeded our expectations. It was funny, contemporary, and put us all in the Christmas spirit. It was perfect to see with young adults. The actors nailed it! I'd highly recommend it.

I love theatre and feel very lucky to live in Boulder where there is so much within reach. BETC is my absolutely favorite company. I moved to Boulder just about the time BETC inaugurated its first season, and have been a subscriber almost from the start. Some of the plays make me stretch my boundaries, and some stories I like better than others, but I am never disappointed. There is always something to love about every production.

Talented, entertaining, and creative! Always a good show with BETC.

We saw Birds of North America last night, and both my wife and I thought it was just phenomenal. I was simply amazed by the natural flow of the dialog, the real and at times raw emotions. The story is relevant, meaningful, moving. I left thinking that I had just been given a gift in the passion and ability of the two actors in the play.
This is a World Premiere, in Boulder at the Dairy Center. See it! This is a can t miss event.

I lovely community theater. It has a couple different venues including some galleries. I've seen a lot of interesting fun shows here and some great art. You can get some refreshments but the draw are the shoes. No bad seats in the house and great layouts. Good place to come for an afternoon or evening enjoying the arts.