Crossroads Theater At Five Points

Destination Freedom Week - Neshoba April 7

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), as part of Destination Freedom Week, No Credits Productions presents “Neshoba” April 7^th Destination Freedom Black Radio Days’  “Education of A Harvard Guy” on April 8th and 9th, and “Toussaint” 2010 at 7:00pm at Crossroads Theatre, 2590  N. Washington St. Denver, CO. for information (720-748-1388) donnie l. betts.

 

Tickets $ 14 plus tax and handling. 720-748-1388 for tix and information. Filmmaker Micki Dickoff will attend the screening as well as Alan Gilbert, childhood friend of Andrew Goodman.  Alan is a professor at the University of Denver.

 

Neshoba tells the story of a Mississippi town still divided over the meaning of justice, 40 years after the murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.  In the summer of 1964, these three young men, two whites from New York and a black from Mississippi — went to Philadelphia, a small town in the heart of Neshoba County, Mississippi, to register black voters and investigate a church burning.

 

Toussaint - April 10

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), as part of Destination Freedom Week, No Credits Productions presents “Neshoba” April 7^th Destination Freedom Black Radio Days’  “Education of A Harvard Guy” on April 8th and 9th, and “Toussaint” 2010 at 7:00pm at Crossroads Theatre, 2590  N. Washington St. Denver, CO. for information (720-748-1388) donnie l. betts.

April 10^th at 7PM Crossroads Theatre benefit for the Lambi Fund. Tickets $22 plus tax and handling. 720-748-1388 for tix and information

 

Toussaint L'Ouverture

In front of a live studio audience and KGNU 88.5 FM and 1390 AM

A Radio Play by Richard Durham

Leader of the Haitian Revolution; Toussaint led enslaved Africans and Afro-Haitians to victory over French colonizers, abolished slavery, and secured "native" control over the colony, Haiti.

 

 

Education of a Harvard Guy - April 8 & 9

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), as part of Destination Freedom Week, No Credits Productions presents “Neshoba” April 7^th Destination Freedom Black Radio Days’  “Education of A Harvard Guy” on April 8th and 9th, and “Toussaint” 2010 at 7:00pm at Crossroads Theatre, 2590  N. Washington St. Denver, CO. for information (720-748-1388) donnie l. betts.

 

The live radio broadcast of , "Education of a Harvard Guy", April 8^th and 9^th heard on KGNU 88.5 FM and 1390 AM by Dr. Curtis Williams of Albany, GA as adapted for radio by producer and filmmaker, donnie l. betts and Tj betts. The radio drama is based on the memoirs and soon-to-be published book of former Denverite, John Perdew, and SNCC Worker in the early 60's in southwest Georgia.

 

The evening includes discussions lead by Dr. Vincent Harding with Perdew, Elaine DeLott Baker (Denverite and former SNCC worker) and Rutha Harris, original freedom singer/activist. It will conclude with songs of the Movement lead Harris and The Spirituals Project Choir as well as Rene Marie and violinist/guitarist Lionel Young.

 

All ticket sales will benefit The Spirituals Project , Veterans of Hope Project and Lambi Fund all 501 (c) (3) non-profit organizations. Cost is $22.00 plus tax and handling.

 

In "Education of a Harvard Guy", Perdew recounts how he decided to leave Harvard and risk everything to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC snick) in the struggle for human rights in southwest Georgia, mainly Albany and Americus. The play describes how he Donald Harris, Ralph Allen and Zev Aelony,three-month stay in jail as the "Americus Four", charged with insurrection and facing the death penalty and other confrontations with the defenders of racial oppression.

BLACK INDIANS: An American Story - March 10, 7-9 pm

 

BLACK INDIANS: AN AMERICAN STORY

Black Indians: An American Story, a documentary narrated by James Earl Jones, brings to light a forgotten part of America’s past – the cultural and racial fusion of Native and African Americans.  Following the film will be a panel discussion with Helen Littlejohn (Many Four Nations), Educator/Artist; Darius Smith (Navajo/Black), Director, Denver Anti-Discrimination Office; and Rhonda Williams (Sicangu Lakota/African American), Early Childhood Educator. The panelists will address issues of mixed ancestry from both their personal and professional perspectives.

 

Crossroads Theater, 2590 Washington Street. 

Doors open 6:30 p.m., program begins 7:00 p.m. 

Tickets $12 (plus 10% city tax), in advance or at the door. 

 

For more information on Indie Film at the Crossroadsor advance tickets contact donnie l. betts: 720-748-1388 (office), 720-318-9895 (cell); dlbetts@nocredits.com. 

 

For more information on Black Indians: An America Story, or the Indigenous Film & Arts Festival, contact Jeanne M. Rubin: 303-744-9686 (office), jeannerubin@iiirm.org.

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CROSSROADS THEATER AT FIVE POINTS: Jan 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30 "The Long Goodbye" by Sheldon Friedman

 

Cactus Productions

 

          Presents

   

   The Long Goodbye

                            by Sheldon Friedman

 

                                        

    Directed by   Becky Peters-Combs

       CROSSROADS THEATER

                                    2590 Washington Street

                                    Denver, Colorado 80205

                                    (303) 881-8173

 

                        JANUARY

  21, 22, 23 and 28, 29, 30

                        8:00 PM

 

Tickets: $20 each (purchase online only)       

 

The Play:

The Long Goodbye explores memories of lives shadowed by an incurable illness. Dramatic and comedic, the play begins on a college campus, and delves into resolution of life’s issues sharpened by a key family member developing Alzheimer’s.

 

Cast: Peggy Benedict, Mike Farley, Devon Combs, Jack Wefso,

Melanie Backus, Darrell Brown, Miles Davis, Claire Griffin,

 and Josiah Hatch

 

 

DENVER’S DIVISION OF THEATRES AND ARENAS ANNOUNCES PLAN TO ACQUIRE CROSSROADS THEATER AT FIVE POINTS

DENVER’S DIVISION OF THEATRES AND ARENAS ANNOUNCES PLAN TO ACQUIRE

CROSSROADS THEATER AT FIVE POINTS

 

DENVER, CO ­— DECEMBER 14, 2009 — The City and County of Denver’s Division of Theatres and Arenas – proprietors of the Denver Performing Arts Complex, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the Colorado Convention Center and the Denver Coliseum – today announced an intent to acquire the struggling Crossroads Theatre in the historic Five Points neighborhood.   With the support of Crossroads’ current owner Kurt Lewis and landlord Hope Communities, Theatres and Arenas is working to take possession of the space as early as January 2010.

 

“Assuming the lease and management of Crossroads Theatre is one of the most creative endeavors Theatres and Arenas has undertaken,” said Jack Finlaw, Director of Theatres and Arenas. “Our agency’s mission is to provide cultural and public assembly facilities to Denver’s diverse communities.  Adding Crossroads to the catalog of venues we manage on behalf of the City will greatly advance our goal of offering affordable spaces, and will enable us to foster a diversity of programming for residents and visitors to Denver.”

 

“The construction of Crossroads Theater at Five Points implemented the idea of a convergence of diverse cultures and art forms in an intimate performance space located in the heart of the city,” said Kurt Lewis, current owner and operator of the venue.  “Since its opening, Crossroads has hosted poetry, music, theater, film, dance, visual art, storytelling, lectures and community meetings for all cultures in the city.  I am excited to see Theatres and Arenas take the baton so that Crossroads can continue to provide an intimate affordable venue for Denver’s artists and performers to tell the story of our city.”

 

The 100-seat Crossroads Theatre has served small, independent performing arts groups and the Five Points community since 2007.  When Kurt Lewis began searching for an entity to take over his stake in the venue, Theatres and Arenas recognized an opportunity to partner with and serve two vital Denver communities: the Five Points neighborhood and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) Tier III performing arts organizations.  With collaboration from Denver’s Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA), the Denver Office of Economic Development, the new Five Points Business District, District 8 Councilwoman Carla Madison and Mayor John Hickenlooper, Theatres and Arenas aims to preserve an important cultural space and contribute to the economic development of one of Denver’s most treasured neighborhoods.

 

“Crossroads Theatre is an incredible cultural asset of the historic Five Points neighborhood,” said André Pettigrew, Executive Director of the Denver Office of Economic Development.  “Its continued success is paramount, as it further activates the neighborhood and provides a spark for future growth, as outlined in our office’s Neighborhood Marketplace Initiative District Development Plan for the area.”

"Crossroads has been an important part of the revitalization of Five Points; it was part of the reawakening of the cultural center that Welton Street had been known for," said City Councilwoman Carla Madison.  "When it looked like Crossroads was going to close, neighbors felt like it was a huge step backward.  We are so grateful to Theatres and Arenas for stepping up and not only preserving live theater, but continuing Kurt Lewis' vision of creating a community-based theater. This is a great solution for local theater groups and the community at large."

 

Rather than take possession of the space with a programming agenda already in place, Theatres and Arenas will gather community input through public meetings to determine how the Five Points and SCFD Tier III communities would like to see the space utilized.  Theatres and Arenas will make every effort to provide a venue where these communities can develop organic, sustainable programming that will enhance the cultural economy in Denver, while promoting and preserving the heritage of the neighborhood surrounding Crossroads Theatre. 

 

“The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs is greatly supportive of the decision by the Division of Theatres and Arenas to take over management of the venue,” said Erin Trapp, Director.  “We believe the move will be mutually beneficial to the Five Points community and the local arts organizations that choose to use the space.  DOCA’s own use of the space through the 5 Points Jazz Festival has been a strong success and we hope that other performance groups will benefit from this important community resource.”

 

All events currently scheduled at Crossroads Theatre will take place planned.  For location, event and ticket information, visit www.denvercrossroads.com.  Information on public meetings related to the space will be announced soon. 

 

The City of Denver’s Division of Theatres and Arenas owns and operates Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the Denver Performing Arts Complex, the Colorado Convention Center and the historic Denver Coliseum.  For more information visit www.redrocksonline.com, www.artscomplex.com, www.denverconvention.com and www.denvercoliseum.com. 

 

# # #

 The booking manager for Theatres and Arenas is Jeannette Murrietta – 720 865 4225, jeannette.murrietta@denvergov.org

Speechcraft, a Continuing Legal Education Class at Crossroads the Theater on the Rail

APRROVED FOR FIVE HOURS OF CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION CREDIT

Westword Review of Rene Marie's "Slut Energy Theory" by Juliet Wittman

Rene Marie is a powerful force in Slut Energy Theory

By Juliet Wittman

Published on October 06, 2009 at 1:05pm

• 

  René Marie in Slut Energy Theory.

Details:

Presented by No Credits Productions through October 10, Crossroads Theatre, 2590 Washington Street, 303-83..., www.denvercrossroads.com.

Subject(s):

Rene Marie, Slut Energy Theory

I knew that René Marie was a tremendous jazz artist — but I had no idea that she was also an amazing writer and an astonishingly powerful actress. Not until I saw Slut Energy Theory. Marie's one-woman play has been promoted as a work about incest and abuse; performances are bookended with cautious before-the-show warnings about language and post-show panels of experts discussing the problems of domestic violence. But while incest and abuse certainly provide much of the play's subject matter, Slut Energy Theory goes far beyond our usual jargon-laden and sanctimonious discourse on the topic. This is a work of art, a powerful, unsentimental and original work that should blow apart all the concepts you've ever held about victimhood, survivor trauma and feminist energy, and reconfigure them in dazzling new ways.

The protagonist is U'Dean, born in rural Arkansas in 1912, and now an old woman speaking to us from the other side of death. Marie has said that U'Dean arrived in her mind — along with three other women who will become the subjects of future plays — and essentially took possession of her, and this common author's boast ("I just sit back and watch my characters interact") seems entirely true in her case. Marie is U'Dean. She has immersed herself so deeply in the character that not a gesture or inflection feels untrue. She knows U'Dean as a child, a teenager, a grown woman. She's not afraid of pauses, because every one is filled with significance, and when she sings, the song arises from the story as naturally and inevitably as crocuses from loamy spring soil. There are no big numbers, no showstoppers, no look-at-me-I-can-hold-this-note-forever bits, just the woman living, moment by moment, in the on-stage world she's created.

"You gonna like me," Marie assures us slyly at the beginning of the piece, and indeed we do. We like U'Dean when she's throwing the word "fuck" in our faces, laughing raucously about the grotesque details of her father's death, describing her sexual adventures in graphic detail, cursing the God that betrayed her, writhing in tears on the floor, empathizing with or confronting us, and explaining — in one of the funniest sequences I've ever seen on a stage — how she got her husband to leave her pussy alone. And at the end, when she's kicking along the sand, splay-toed, singing about "Walking to the Grand Canyon," we downright love her.

Marie's work is emotionally naked yet never embarrassing, because of the intelligence behind it. Or rather, the several intelligences: the instinctual stage intelligence of the born performer; the kind of tough intelligence that lets Marie engage in direct audience interaction without manipulation or dishonesty; the musical intelligence of a first-rate jazz singer. And the script itself can stand alone as a fine piece of writing, rich and humorous, filled with surprises.

Marie came under sustained attack last year for singing the words of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" to the melody of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Mayor John Hickenlooper's State of the City address. She was accused of grandstanding and lack of patriotism; even then-candidate Barack Obama weighed in. But the attacks missed the point. Then, as now, she was synthesizing complex experience, working to reconcile the realities she'd faced growing up black in America with the profound love she felt for her country.

Art isn't easy or neat. It confronts the hard issues, has no use for social niceties, pushes constantly at the limits of the acceptable. But at its best, art is transformative. On the night I attended Slut Energy Theory, someone asked about U'Dean's ability to laugh at her own difficult life. Marie responded that there's humor in every tragedy and tragedy in all comedy, and that's the spirit that animates the entire text. Slut Energy Theory balances dangerously between grief and joy throughout, finally erupting into a blinding affirmation not only of its creator's irrepressible artistry, but — and I don't mean this in any mimsy, Hallmark-card sort of way — also of the power of the life force itself, the force that kept illiterate U'Dean laughing, kicking, singing, emotionally vulnerable and entirely sure of who she was in the face of everything a hostile world could throw at her.

Location of Crossroads Theater at Five Points

2590 Washington Street, Denver Colorado 80205

Located at Five Points at Welton and Washington with covered parking in the building.  Enter parking from Washington Street.  Light rail access is perfect, take the D train to the 27th and Welton exit and walk back to the theater one half block.

The theater is next door  to  Blackberries Ice Cream and Coffee Shop and across Washington Street from the Rossonian Hotel. 

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