Further Afield Reviews: "Five Course Love"

Photo courtesy of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Even the snobbiest gourmand needs an occasional break from the fancier dishes. You can only take so much filet mignon and lobster bisque before you need relief in the form of a light salad or soup.

Gregg Coffin’s musical “Five Course Love” offers an ideal brand of light theatrical fare, an easily digestible collection of comedic vignettes that are never too cloying or heavy. In five separate stories revolving around themes of love and romance, the three-member cast offers a cartoonish brand of comedy and music that echoes the style of Vaudeville and old Warner Brothers toons.

Top Five ToDos in Aurora — March 3 to March 10

From homespun versions of Irving Berlin's "Putting on the Ritz" to a new exhibit at Red Delicious, there's plenty going on in A-town this coming weekend.

Aurora Police Department investigating $20,000 in missing items at the former Shadow theater

Photo by Heather L. Smith/The Aurora Sentinel

The Shadow Theatre Company's former landlord has reported about $20,000 worth of missing equipment to Aurora police, claiming chairs, computers and other items were gone when the now-bankrupt troupe vacated the Dayton Street building last month.
Cornerstone Equity first moved to oust the troupe from the Aurora theater in January, claiming the company had continually failed to pay its $7,500 monthly rent since early 2010 and citing debt totaling about $200,000. Cornerstone officials say the troupe's departure came after two contentious months - Cornerstone  went to court to forcibly vacate the company after the Shadow filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 2.
In a release dated March 2, Cornerstone Principal Michael Rasser said the company left the Dayton Street theater in February with a "laundry list" of stolen goods, adding that the company reported the missing items to the Aurora Police Department. Rasser said members of the company tried to "re-enter the facility" twice after the eviction, "once with locksmiths who were caught trying to re-key the doors."
APD Spokesman Bob Friel confirmed the department is currently investigating the missing items.

Afterthought Theatre Company bound for Dayton Street theater

Photo courtesy of the Afterthought Theatre Company

A new theater troupe will take the stage at the former Shadow Theatre building in the coming months, hoping to reinvent the Dayton Street facility as a thriving community arts center.

Representatives from Cornerstone Equity, the investment company that owns the 9,400-square-foot building off East Colfax Avenue, announced this weekend that the Afterthought Theatre Company will stage three or four productions at the theater in the next six months. Founded last year by Reynelda Snell and Cris Davenport, the Afterthought has received critical acclaim for their stagings of dramas like “The Meeting” by Jeff Stetson and “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange.

K2 cast and crew prepping to scale the summit

I had the chance to sit in on tech rehearsals for the Aurora Fox's upcoming production of Patrick Meyers' "K2," a cliffhanger in the truest sense of the word. The play's two lead actors divide their stage time between scaling a 17-foot wall and sharing a cramped wooden platform in the Aurora Fox's black box theater, set pieces designed to summon the perilous feel of a mountain that towers about 28,251 feet.
Watching actors William Hahn and Jude Moran prep for the technical challenges of the production was nerve-wracking enough; hooking up to the harness and scaling the massive set piece myself only added adrenaline to the experience.
Here are a few shots of the weekend rehearsals; look for a longer story about the show and its technical challenges in next week's Sentinel.

"Rent" at Rangeview

A weekend run of the Broadway musical "Rent" at Rangeview High School inspired some conflicting input from Sentinel readers earlier this week. One commenter thought the choice was inappropriate for a high school production, specifically because of the musical's adult subjects like drug abuse, promiscuity and AIDS. Another applauded the selection, pointing out that the content fit in with the school's "Diversity Week," a yearly event aimed at encouraging tolerance and acceptance.
What do you think?

Top Five ToDos in Aurora — Feb. 11 to Feb. 18

Johanna Mueller and her fantastical creatures. (Heather L. Smith / The Aurora Sentinel)

From heartwarming musicals to fantastical creatures to kung-fu demonstrations, there's plenty of fun stuff going on in Aurora this week.