Update on Crossroads Fundraiser

Okay, here's a little more info on the fundraiser (mentioned in the previous post) set for this Monday, August 4th.
In addition to my return to acting in Jonson Kuhn's Telling The Moon Hannah Haxby Left Boulder (starring the lovely and dynamic Kaliea Schutz, the evening will also feature another of Jonson's plays, The Trouble With Pigtails, also starring Kaliea along with the very talented Jude Moran. In addition to the two plays there will be live music provided by Tijuana Pillbox.
Two plays and a band for just $12 cover, and it's all to benefit a theatre that, since opening its doors, has held them open wide to a variety of different artists and theatre companies.
And, for all of those of you who have been asking me for the last few years, "When are you going to get back on stage again, Brady?"
This is when. This.
So I'll see you there.

A Little Self-Promotion If You Don't Mind (or Even If You Do)

Sometimes when I get heavily involved in a project, I forget to blog. That means that, usually, I forget to blog about the things that I'm working on around town. Well, I've got a lot of stuff coming up over the next few months, so I thought I'd try to get a few things up here in time for you to see them.
First up, I will be performing (after a five-year hiatus from acting) in a short play by Jonson Y. Kuhn called Telling The Moon Hannah Haxby Left Boulder as part of a fund-raiser for the Crossroads Theater on August 4th as shown above in that nifty graphic. (It gets bigger if you click on it. Come on, you know you want to click it.)
It's a full evening of music and theater for just $12, and it benefits a nice little theatre that is currently providing performance space for three shows, including Paragon's This is How it Goes. Too many theatre spaces have gone by the wayside in the last year or so around town, folks. Sure, theatre can be performed in a cardboard box if needed, but isn't it nice when it doesn't have to be?
In fact, the fundraiser is being held at Blackberries next door because Paragon will be using the theatre that night as part of its Trench readings series. Can't get much more magnanimous than that, can you? (Well, except for Buntport's recent announcement, maybe. Major kudos to those guys.)
So come on down, enjoy some music, some really terrific plays (good enough, at least, to draw me back to the stage, anyway, and that takes some doing) and support a local theatre that supports a lot of other local theatre, because, like I always say, "We're all in this together."

Buen Alimento Y El Gran Bailar

I haven't written about any restaurants in a while, and I wanted to bring your attention to a little place over in Lakewood that was recommended by my good friend, playwright Marcus France.
Las Cazuelas is a little family-owned and operated Mexican food restaurant almost hidden away at 6757 West Mississippi. They recently got some attention with a rave review of their green chile in the Denver Post, and I could not agree more.
And I was raised on Mexican food.
The next time my dad is in town, I'm taking him straight to Las Cazuelas, and I could not pay this restaurant a higher compliment than that.
If you like Mexican food then you have to check out this place, and if you don't like Mexican food then this is the place that can cure you of that terrible affliction.
Las Cazuelas
6757 W. Mississippi
Lakewood, CO 80226
303-935-2043

And, for those of you Spanish readers out there, "El Gran Bailar" refers not to a dance floor at Las Cazuelas (although their sopapillas made me want to do the electric slide), but rather is a "shout out" of congratulations to Mandy Moore, older sister of fabulous Denver actress (and my friend from way back) Missy Moore.
Mandy was recently nominated for an emmy for her choreography on "So You Think You Can Dance" for this number from last season:

Open Letter to the "Christian" Audience

It has come to my attention recently that there are a few people out there, who, wrapped tightly in their self-righteous cloaks of Christian superiority, have seen fit to impugn the Christian values of some of the cast members who were involved in Performance Now's recent production of Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical.
Well, I have some news for these self-appointed condemners:

We've been through this before.

There is a long-standing tradition of the Christian church condemning theatre as evil and actors as sinners, simply by virtue of their profession.
This stems, in part, from the fact that the Roman theatre was often used as a venue for persecuting Christians, but we're not talking about the plays of Plautus here. We're talking gladiators, lions, and the Emperor Nero giving the "thumbs down."
Naturally, when the Christians came to power, events theatrical were spurned. This was also partly because the Romans (and the Greeks before them) had so closely associated theatre with their gods, and plays were often performed as part of pagan festivals.
The Christians condemned the pagans and the theatre right along with them. Christian myopia got its start very early on.
Now, it is also theorized that part of Christianity's distaste for all things theatrical results from the "deceptive" nature of drama. Actors pretend to be someone or something that they are not. To act, one must lie. Lying is a sin. Therefore actors are sinners.
Well, I really can't argue with that. If your view of sin is really that black-and-white, then, yep, actors are liars. I defer to your superior existence where you never call in sick when you're not, never fudge your taxes, and only read non-fiction to your kids at bedtime.
If, on the other hand, you can recognize that there is a bit of a difference between being dishonest and playing a part on stage, then let us continue.
Now, I think that the issue for the finger-pointers here was not so much that the actors were playing a part, but rather the kinds of parts they were playing.
Okay, but let's put J&H aside here for a moment. Let's look at something a little less "controversial." How about Godspell, a fun little musical based upon the Book of Matthew. (Well as much "fun" as a musical can be that ends with death by crucifixion, anyway.) In that show, actors play, at different points, Judas, demons, robbers and a number of other unsavory characters. this play has been produced thousands of times over the years by what must now amount to hundreds of thousands of actors. How unfortunate! All those doomed tap-dancing souls . . .
Reductio ad absurdum.
Were there some scantily clad men and women on stage in Jekyll & Hyde? Yup. There sure were. Have you seen an Easter-service passion play recently? The actor playing Jesus wears roughly the equivalent of a loin-cloth.
Were there scenes onstage that were sexually suggestive? Yes, indeed.
Could the scenes have been played down? Well, sure, they could have.
Would they have been as compelling? No.
Would they have told the story as effectively? No.
Theatre tells stories. You might even call them "parables."
The good ones have morals, and the thing about telling a story with a moral is that sometimes (most times) you have to show the immorality to get to the morality.
Good storytellers do not shy away from that.
We are the storytellers. We wear the masks that tell the story. We are not the masks.
So, some boys and girls got up onstage and played some unsavory characters and they did it well enough that you can't separate who they are from who they played?
Um, that means they did their jobs well, you self-righteous, unimaginative dullards!
I feel a little sorry for you that you don't understand that, but only a little.
Here's the thing: some of those boys and girls are friends of mine, and are far, far above your or anyone else's reproach. They are good people, with good hearts and untarnished souls.
They have probably already forgiven your ignorant and hateful words.
They are better people than you.
They are also better people than me, which is why you should consider yourselves very lucky that I don't know who you are.

Yet.