Audio By Carbonatix
The Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company produces some of the most interesting plays around — contemporary, smart, surprising — and it’s just added a regional premiere to its upcoming season. George Brant’s one-woman play Grounded has generated a lot of buzz and hugely positive reviews. At a time of acute international tension, with the U.S. sending drones to bomb ISIS, Grounded couldn’t be more timely. It tells the story of a fighter pilot who becomes pregnant. Now, instead of dropping ordnance from the free blue skies, she spends twelve hours a day controlling drone flights over Afghanistan from a trailer in the Las Vegas desert, fighting both boredom and a slow awakening to the effect of those drones on the ground.
Although Grounded won the New Play Network Smith Prize for a script about American politics, it is anything but a polemic. Rather, it’s a thoughtful exploration of the inner life of a fascinating and conflicted woman. And with Laura Norman, one of Denver’s finest actors, starring in the BETC production, this could be the performance of the year. See it at the Avenue Theater, 417 East 17th Avenue, beginning with previews tonight and tomorrow and running through September 28. For information and tickets, ranging from $16 to $27, call 303-321-5925 or go to betc.org/grounded.
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 4 p.m. Starts: Sept. 11. Continues through Sept. 28, 2014
