Buntport Theater Company

Buntport Theater Company
Formation	1990s
Type	Theatre group
Location	Denver, Colorado
Membership	Brian Colonna Hannah Duggan Erik Edborg Erin Rollman Samantha Schmitz
Website	buntport.com

Buntport Theater Company is a non-profit^[1] professional theater group based in Denver, Colorado.

The troupe writes and produces both original work and adaptations. They work as a collaborative team without officially designated positions, including writers, directors, or designers.^[2]

The core members are Brian Colonna, Hannah Duggan, Erik Edborg, Erin Rollman, and Samantha Schmitz.^[3] Co-founder Evan Weissman stopped working and performing with the group full-time in 2013 so he could concentrate on a "civic health club" he founded called Warm Cookies of the Revolution.^[4]

The Company hosts a variety of visual and performing artists and has attracted talent from Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle, and Australia to perform for Denver audiences.

History

Members of the company began collaborating while attending Colorado College in Colorado Springs, in the late 1990s.^[5] Their first performance was entitled Quixote and staged in July 1998."^[6]

Initially, Buntport had created a few productions together and toured theaters, schools, and fringe theatre festivals. Later, the company moved into a cement warehouse in 2000 and renovated it into a fully functioning black box theater with modular seating. As of 2022, Buntport has created 45 mainstage productions^[6] and 100 episodes of two "live sit-coms" (Magnets on the Fridge and Starship Troy). They also have an all-ages live comic book show, tRUNks, which has produced over 40 installments.

Buntport has garnered more than 75 awards, including Denver's Mayor Award in 2010.^[7]

Special Productions

Buntport has defined its mission as offering high-quality programming as often as possible, while keeping ticket prices low and keeping audience members engaged. To make people more regularly involved with their productions, Buntport created a live sit-com format. During six months of the year, they debuted a new episode of a "sit-com" every other Tuesday and Wednesday night, complete with commercial breaks and summer re-runs.

The writing of each episode was inspired by an audience suggestion from the previous episode. Each episode often featured guest stars from the Denver theater scene. Their first sit-com production, titled Magnets on the Fridge, became a cult hit, winning numerous awards from the media and critics, and attracting a loyal following. Magnets on the Fridge ran for five seasons before being replaced by Starship Troy, which ran for three seasons. Buntport finished their live sit-coms on December 31, 2008, with the 100th episode of the show.

tRUNks

Based on the format of their live sit-com, a team of the Buntport ensemble's friends and peers creates and performs a family-friendly live comic book called tRUNks. tRUNks runs every other Saturday. Produced by Buntport (and sometimes featuring the ensemble members as guest stars), tRUNks is written and performed by Jessica Robblee, Mitch Slevc, and Matt Zambrano. tRUNks has won awards for great children's theater from every major paper in Colorado as well as from the Colorado Theatre Guild.

Productions (chronological)

Buntport Theater Company creates at least two productions each year. The following is a list of original plays performed by the Buntport Theater with premiere dates.^[6]

• Quixote (July, 1998)
• “...and this is my significant bother.” (March, 2001) – Based on nine short stories by James Thurber.
• Word-Horde: an adaptation of sorts of Beowulf (March, 2001)
• Fin (June, 2001)
• Ward #6 (August, 2001) – Adaptation of a short story by Anton Chekhov.
• Donner: A Documentary (December, 2001)
• Titus Andronicus: The Musical! (May, 2002)
• The Odyssey: A Walking Tour (October, 2002)
• The 30th of Baydak (June, 2003) – Inspired by the novel Too Loud a Solitude.
• Elevator (September, 2003)
• < Cinderella (September, 2003) – An adaptation of Cinderella.
• Idiot Box (December, 2003) – Sketch comedy based on television.
• McGuinn & Murry (January, 2004)
• MacBlank (October, 2004) – Inspired by MacBeth.
• Kafka On Ice (October, 2004)
• Horror: The Transformation (October, 2005) – Adaptation of Wieland: or, The Transformation: An American Tale.
• Realism: The Mythical Brontosaurus (October, 2005)
• A Synopsis Of Butchery (April, 2006)
• Something is Rotten (September, 2006) – Interpretation of Hamlet.
• Winter in Graupel Bay (December, 2006)
• Moby Dick Unread (April, 2007)
• Vote For Uncle Marty (September, 2007)
• Musketeer (August, 2008) - Based the novel The Three Musketeers.
• Anywhere But Rome (November, 2008) – Based on Ovid,
• Seal. Stamp. Send. Bang. (March, 2009)
• The Squabble (May, 2009) - Based on the Gogol short story
• Indiana, Indiana (September, 2009) – An adaptation of the novel by Laird Hunt.
• The World is Mine (February, 2010)
• Jugged Rabbit Stew (June, 2010)
• My Hideous Progeny (September, 2011)
• Tommy Lee Jones Goes to Opera Alone (March, 2012)
• The Roast Beef Situation (May, 2012)
• Sweet Tooth (October, 2012)
• Wake (January, 2013), based on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
• A Knight to Remember- My Quest to Gallantly Recapture the Past by Brian Colonna (April, 2013)
• Electra Onion Eater (November, 2013) – Based on Sophocles’ Electra.
• Jugged Rabbit Stew (February, 2014)
• Peggy Jo and the Desolate Nothing (May, 2014)
• Naughty Bits (September, 2014)
• Middle Aged People Sitting in Boxes (April, 2015)
• 10 Myths on the Proper Application of Beauty Products (March, 2016)
• The Rembrandt Room (April, 2016)
• Greetings from Camp Katabasis (May, 2016)
• Middle Aged People Sitting In Boxes (September, 2016)
• The Zeus Problem (February, 2017)
• The Crud (May, 2017)
• Edgar Allan Poe Is Dead and So Is My Cat (October, 2017)
• The Book Handlers (February 2018) – Inspired by a short story by Brian O’Nolan.
• Remembering A Knight To Remember (April, 2018)
• Coyote. Badger. Rattlesnake. (November, 2018)
• Universe 92 (September, 2019)
• 3×3 Projects: Rocky Mountain Locusts (December, 2020)
• The Grasshoppers (October, 2020)
• Buntport Bored Post Society Society! (September, 2020)
• Cabaret De Profundis or How To Sing While Ugly Crying (January, 2021) – A filmed stage production.
• Space People In Space (May, 2021)
• Cabaret De Profundis, or How to Sing While Ugly Crying (October, 2021)
• ♥️ Richard (April, 2022) – Buntport Theater's 50th collaboratively-created, full-length play^[5][8]
• Public Domain Theatre Festival (June, 2022)
• The Death of Napoleon: A Play in Less Than Three Acts (January, 2023)
• Best Town (May, 2023)

Awards

• The American Theatre Wing's 2011 National Theatre Company Grant^[9]
• Westword Reader's Choice 2008:
  • “Best Theater Season”
  • Moby Dick Unread “Best Theater Production”
• Outfront Magazine Marlowe Awards 2007:
  • Moby Dick Unread “Best Production - Comedy”
• KMGH-TV A*List 2007:
  • “Best Live Theater”
• Alliance For Colorado Theatre:
  • “Theater Company of the Year”
• Denver Post 2007 Ovation Awards:
  • tRUNks “Best Children's Show”
• 5280 Magazine Reader's Choice 2007:
  • “Top Dance/Arts/Theater Company”
• Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Awards:
  • Something Is Rotten “Outstanding New Play”
• Westword Best of Denver 2007:
  • “Best Theater Season”
  • A Synopsis of Butchery “Best Original Play”
  • A Synopsis of Butchery “Best Set - Small Theater”
• Denver Post 2006 Ovation Awards:
  • “Best Year for a Company” Something Is Rotten “Best Comedy”
• Westword Mastermind Award 2005:
  • “Innovation in the Performing Arts”
• Westword Best of Denver 2005:
  • Kafka On Ice “Best Experimental Play”
• Rocky Mountain News Top Of The Rocky 2004:
  • “Top Playwright”
• Denver Post 2003 Ovation Awards:
  • Misc. “Best New Work”
  • “Best Sound Design, The 30th of Baydak”
• Westword Reader's Choice 2003:
  • “Best Season”
  • Titus Adronicus! The Musical “Best Production”
• Rocky Mountain News Top Of The Rocky 2003: “Top Theater Company”

References

External links

• Buntport Theater official website