Reviews – Buntport Theater

A man in a sweater and a cap holds up a 2D fish on a line, as though he has caught it. In front of him is a vintage microphone and, in the distance, another man sits, dimly lit and staring at the first man.

Marlowe’s Musings- 125 “NO”s

Lightly skimming over an armature of Sartre’s “NO EXIT,” Buntport Theater’s production of ‘125 “No”s’ is, in this reviewer’s interesting point of view, their best in years. It’s FUNNY and PROVOCATIVE! All four of Buntport’s intrepid actors get lots of superb lines and a plethora of plum moments! A make-up artist (Hannah Duggan), a special effects man (Erik Edborg), an extra who worries if he will be natural enough onscreen in the role that he performs naturally in everyday life (Brian Colonna), and a script consultant insistent on keeping good morals always onscreen (Erin Rollin) are living a just offstage purgatory! All four of these brilliant comics co-write, co-direct and co-design their original work.

Inspired by a quote on a poster in the lobby of a movie theatre that announced that Greer Garson had to do 125 takes of her saying the word “No”in the 1947 film, “Desire Me,” this original production shines!!!

Besides the stunning performances of the onstage actors you can also expect to be dazzled by the offstage voices of such Denver favorites as Jim Hunt( Director), Josh Hartwell (assistant) and Diana Dresser (Greer Garson).

This existential comedy is absurdist theatre at its best!

Run to get tickets!

– David Marlowe March 4th, 2024 Marlowe’s Musings

A 1940's woman is standing an old fashioned looking microphone that is hanging from the ceiling. She is holding both her hands up in exclamation about how wonderful an onion sandwich can be. Above her, hanging, as if suspended mid air, are three similar painted 2- demensional onions.

OnStage Colorado- Buntport explores the absurd with ‘125 “NO”s’

Or what happened when Greer Garson just couldn’t get that one line right

In their never-ending quest to take the tiniest shard of a story and turn it into a play, Buntport Theater set its sights on a long-ago anecdote involving a film star from the 1940s and her very bad day on set at the hands of a jackass director.

What would it look like, the Buntportians wondered, if we could get a look just off set to see how people were reacting to the director hassling Greer Garson to get a one-word line — “no” — just right over 125 takes? In 125 “NO”s, the usual lineup of Buntport actors — Brian Colonna, Hannah Duggan, Erik Edborg and Erin Rollman — takes us on a weirdly entertaining trip to explore the situation.

The soon-to-be bomb is MGM’s Desire Me starring Garson and Robert Mitchum. Crew members Walter (Edborg – lighting) and Bertie (Duggan – costumes) are joined by a local fisherman named Vincent (Colonna) and Rollman as Ruth, the censor. Vincent is there because he’d rescued Garson in a real-life incident in Monterey when she was knocked off a rock by a freak wave. To thank him, the film crew added him as an extra playing … a fisherman.

Colonna is quirky and endearing as the starstruck Vincent. But we soon find he’s no ordinary fisherman, with plenty of opinions about everything from Sartre to human anatomy. (At one point there’s quite a bit of discussion regarding the philtrum — the two ridges just below the septum.) Vincent also spends a fair amount of time practicing how to walk like a fisherman. It’s a goofy gag that somehow underscores the character’s seriousness about his extra role. It also serves as one of many physical bits to provide action amidst a good deal of philosophical discussion.

As Bertie, Duggan is in her element as the brassy everywoman who’s just doing her job despite the bullshit happening on set. She gets plenty of laughs, as does Edborg’s Walter. He’s that “you want it when?” kinda guy who’s happy to snark at the powers-that-be from the blue-collar vantage point.

Along with Vincent, the other wild-card character is Ruth, the on-set censor on the lookout for anything she deems naughty. Prim, proper and annoying in a stuffy tan skirt and jacket, she could be played just for the stereotype she is. But Rollman is a gifted comic actor who introduces several layers to Ruth, including a dizzying array of bizarre vocal and facial expressions.

Buntport works in a black-box setting with minimal set pieces. For this one, they included an interesting gimmick that involved a collection of objects lowered from the ceiling by strings operated by the actors. Signs, faces, movie posters, a fish — all kinds of stuff —descend at appropriate times. These include four old-timey microphones — one for each player — that are used for monologues on a variety of topics.

It’s a clever device that adds some business in an otherwise very wordy play.

One other unusual aspect of the show is the addition of some non-Buntport actors — albeit in recorded fashion. While we never see the action on the set, we do hear the voices of the director (played by Jim Hunt), Greer (Diana Dresser) and an assistant (Josh Hartwell).

For those accustomed to more structured scripts with rising action, climaxes and all that, you may be mystified by the Buntport approach. But for those willing to embrace absurd flights of fancy that veer well outside the lanes of what you might expect, 125 “NO”s is a kick.

-Alex Miller, March 2, 2024, Onstage Colorado

A man with glasses and a green suit jacket stands with his hand in a miniature library. Projected on the screen behind him is the tiny library with a bearded face of a man wearing a floppy hat in the window.

Denver Post- Based on Colorado history, Buntport’s “Best Town” is a zany work

The play digs into a big bag of ideas, jokes, images, pop culture knick-knacks and historical archives

It doesn’t seem fair or smart or particularly nimble to write that the folks at Buntport are at it again. And yet: The folks at Buntport are at it again with their latest original play, “Best Town.” By “it” I mean digging into a big bag of ideas, jokes, images, pop culture knick-knacks and historical archives to craft a witty, intellectually omnivorous bit of business that dares to be silly, too.

It’s hard not to detect an echo of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” in the title of this larky, post-pandemic dive into the subjects of loneliness and connection — and, oh yeah, libraries, Olivia Newton-John and Thomas Pynchon. Only the burg here, Kitsault, is an abandoned mining town in Canada, about 17 hours northeast via the Cariboo Highway from Vancouver, B.C. And its denizens are a goofy little trio of caretakers: groundskeeper Dodge (Brian Colonnacq), interior-buildings steward Stanley (Erik Edborg), and emergency go-to Hilary (Erin Rollman), who has decided to be the town’s videographer and marketer.

Somewhere nearby they’ve spied another person, and refer to her as Number Four. Hannah Duggan plays the mine monitor, whose lonely gig has been rendered lonelier with the closing of the mine. Will they actually connect? And if so, how?

Some of the show is factual. There is a Kitsault. It was a molybdenum mining town but the market for the elemental mineral took a hit and the mine and town shuttered in 1982 after only 18 months. A Canadian businessman bought the ghost town with its libraries, mall and bowling alley in 2004 and later closed it to a public no doubt clamoring to gain access.

“Best Town” covers this history, the pronunciation of molybdenum and so much more. It also spends a great of time at the town’s library, via projections on a screen or by visiting a charming little replica of the library. A “time capsule,” Stanley says of the library, its replica and the town early in the play. And so, Aussie hit-maker Newton-John is something of a patron saint to the tale of Kitsault; her hit single “Physical” provides the achy soundtrack for these isolated souls. Thomas Pynchon’s easy reading “Gravity’s Rainbow” provides the punchline. While that tome was published in the early 1970s, it was still very much on the list of greatest novels when the mine closed.

Buntport’s choice of theme mineral seems hardly coincidental: Colorado has two molybdenum mines. But then, the play is punctuated with intertitles that read like hints and rebuffs simultaneously. So, is it intentional? “An opening. But probably not the beginning of anything,” one states playfully at the start.

“Everything is connected but does that mean everything is meaningful?” nudges another. Leave it to the folks at Buntport to provide a query that might be asked (and wryly answered) of this zany work.

-Lisa Kennedy, June 1, 2023, Denver Post

In the center is a man with a beard wearing a safety vest and a floppy hat. He is seated and holding a steering wheel. In the foreground is a miniature version of the man on a tractor. Behind The man is a projection of himself as the miniature.

OnStage Colorado- Buntport gets lost in a 1980s ghost town

In ‘Best Town,’ a society suspended is the backdrop for a play about isolation

Coloradans are perhaps more familiar with the element molybdenum than other because we have one of the largest moly mines in the world up at Climax, near Leadville. Another big moly mine is located in a remote area of British Columbia about 550 miles north of Vancouver, and in the late 1970s, Amax Canada built a town nearby for mine workers. They named it Kitsault, and as a way to retain workers, they built up an entire infrastructure of modernity in the wilderness including a mall, a library, rec center and hospital.

Opening in 1980, Kitsault was only inhabited for about 18 months when the price of molybdenum — which is used in steel production — crashed and all 1,200 workers abandoned the town. What they left behind was a near-pristine ghost town, an early-’80s mini-city frozen in time with books still on the shelves of the library and stuff on the shelves of the grocery store. (This video shows it in detail.)

That’s the backdrop for the new play Best Town from Buntport Theater Company, with a script imagining what it’d be like to live in such a place. As with all Buntport shows, this is an original play created by the five members of the ensemble and acted by Brian Colonna, Erik Edborg, Erin Rollman and Hannag Duggan (the fifth member, SamAnTha Schmitz manages off-stage tech and other stuff.)

In creating the show, the Bunportians wanted to show as much of the town as they could, and to do so without creating a bunch of alternating sets, they hit upon the clever device of using models with cameras. The set is equipped with a variety of screens of different sizes, and models are wheeled out on cars while the characters poke a live video cam into its nooks and crannies.

Even before the show starts, Best Town leans heavily into the ’80s, with a pre-show mix of some of the most execrable pop hits of the time (“Eye of the Tiger,” “Don’t Stop Believin’” and the like). Olivia Newton John figures prominently in places, and Rollman’s character Hilary enjoys wearing leg warmers and headbands. Colonna plays Dodge, who spends a fair amount of time on a riding mower, and Edborg is super-nerdy Stan. The fourth character, known only as Number Four, is played by the feisty Duggan, although her usually over-the-top persona is tempered somewhat in this show to that of an almost-sweet mine worker with a lot of philosophical questions.

Loneliness and isolation are dominant themes in Best Town, and although it’s got a few laughs throughout, the play is more somber than many of Buntport’s productions. The four characters are in the same boat, trying to make sense of who and where they are and there’s not a lot of conflict to drive the action. As such, Best Town seems adrift in places, not entirely sure where it wants to go and taking a long time to get there. Repeated gags, like Dodge’s “Little Man” residing in his injured hand and an endless fascination with Thomas Pynchon’s unreadable 1973 novel “Gravity’s Rainbow” seem untethered from the action and don’t always land.

Best Town may not be Buntport’s best in terms of a fully realized story, but it does have quite a few of the troupe’s signature quirky humor scattered throughout — alongside winning performances from the four actors. We may not have much of a plot to cling to, but there are plenty of nice moments where life’s big questions are distilled into focused discussions around minutiae. And what better place than an abandoned town where life was abruptly suspended to contemplate the meaning of “it all?”

-Alex Miller, May 28, 2023, Onstage Colorado

Napoleon stands arms crossed at his chest, showing that one of his hands is focaccia bread

Denver Post- Denver theaters offer three intimate shows, lots of big laughs

EXCERPT OF ARTICLE

Funnier.

If you are a fan of absurdist theater, you can’t err ere you see Buntport’s “The Death of Napoleon: A Play in Less Than Three Acts.” The ingenious theater company returns with this welcome original work that finds Napoleon Bonaparte exiled once again, this time to the island of St. Helena (this time for good) with only his moody ruminations, his overtaxed chef, a formidable bee, and a precocious 12-year-old to keep him occupied.

Brian Colonna continues to evolve as a performer, and he doesn’t play “Boney” — as young Betsy Balcombe dubs him — for easy laughs so much as lets the one-time world conqueror wallow in his sour moods, his petulance, his self-pity. These moods are signaled via flags hoisted on the island. The Bee (Hannah Duggan) raises flags. So does young Betsy (Erin Rollman). There’s a flag for “Contemplation” and one for “Languor and Dejection,” among others. But steer clear, regardless.

One poor soul who can’t refuse Napoleon’s beck and call is Chef (Erik Edborg). In white uniform and toque, he high-steps in and out of scenes ensnared in Napoleon’s obsession with whether one sort of bread once baked can become another type.

Given his sulky nature, the tiny sandy atoll that he’s confined to is more sandbox than isle. But for all his temperamental outbursts — “I am not short, I am average” — he knows well that this is his final stop and drafts Bee, Chef and Betsy to help him rehearse his death.

Press materials hinted that this tale of a little-big man furious that his reign has come to an end might resonate with other petty if dismayingly consequential tyrants. But this Napoleon needs no modern antecedent to hold his own and earn the audience’s amused attention.

Did I mention there’s a teeter-totter in the middle of the spare yet handsome set by behind-the-scenes enchanter SamAnTha Schmitz and the rest of the company? Evocative sound and lighting design bring surf sounds and a nighttime hue to the island in the middle of the black box theater on Lipan Street.

See-sawing is not a bad description of the pleasures of “The Death of Napoleon,” which was created by the five-person company. There are history-tweaking jests and then ridiculous physical comedy. Intellect and belly laughs. A cursory peek at Napoleon lore suggests the Buntporters did not loaf in devising another playfully shrewd work so soon after their 50th original work (spring’s “Richard” about Richard III).

There were rhymes made up about Napoleon and Betsy upon hearing her father would be briefly hosting the prisoner (and was terrified he’d have a flaming eye in the middle of his forehead). And that Bee is not a figment of his lonesomeness but the symbol he chose for the empire. And, because this wee comedy is about huge power trips, there will be roses along with that ongoing riff on bread and national identity. Focaccia or baguette, anyone?

-Lisa Kennedy, February 10, 2022, Denver Post

A person dresses as a bee whispers with hand to face.

OnStage Colorado- At Buntport, a very funny take on ‘The Death of Napoleon’

In his last days, the former emperor is surrounded by characters hell-bent on reminding him of his failures

After causing the deaths of an estimated 3-6 million people during the Napoleonic Wars, the erstwhile emperor is sulking on the extremely remote island of St. Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic. The only ones around are his chef, a teenage girl named Betsy … and a bee.

That’s the setup of Buntport Theater’s new comedy The Death of Napoleon: A Play in Less Than Three Acts. Staged in the round, the set consists of a patch of sand with a wooden seesaw in the middle and a flagpole with a variety of different flags meant to telegraph Napoleon’s mood.

Napoleon died on St. Helena in May of 1821 at age 51, and he really did have a seesaw upon which to “exercise” in his final year. He did also enjoy the company of a 13-year-old girl named Betsy Balcombe who lived on the island, and bees were a symbol of his reign. Beyond that, the rest is pure Buntport doing what it does best.

Brian Colonna plays Napoleon as a sniveling weenie, his hugely diminished station exacerbated by the illness that precedes his death and the unfortunate fact that his right hand has been transformed into a piece of focaccia (explaining why he’s got his hand tucked into his coat in so many portraits).

(Check out this great Vox video about the hand-in-the-coat thing and how it was by no means just a Napoleon pose.)

Not one to take such a deformity lying down, he keeps his chef (Erik Edborg) hopping to come up with some way to transform the bread back into a hand. The chef, for his part, makes clear on multiple occasions that bread, once baked, pretty much is what it is.

Playing Betsy, Erin Rollman is a stitch as she flits around the crazy Corsican trying to get him out of his slump but taking every opportunity to deliver zingers about his situation and recent failings on the battlefield. Napoleon for his part calls the disastrous Russia campaign — where he lost an estimated 380,000 soldiers — a “draw” since it was really the weather that caused all the problems — not his fault!

As for The Bee: You haven’t really lived until you’ve seen Hannah Duggan stuffed into a cutesy bee outfit complete with antennae, wings and stinger. Almost always playing the bull-in-the-china-shop, Duggan’s character epitomizes what we’d all like to say to every one of these stupid, power-hungry men over the ages, from Alexander to Trump, who cause so much death and destruction in service to their own egos. Napoleon deserves every moment of discomfort and unhappiness he’s enduring on St. Helena, and it somehow feels right to have a giant female bee buzzing around reminding him what a terrible person he is.

And she does, at one point, even sting him, leading to the funniest bit in the show as Duggan’s bee gives a spirited, self-nauseating science lesson about what happens to honeybees when they use their stinger and then die leaving behind part of their digestive tract.

As the Bunportians told Westword, some of the inspiration for this play came from the pandemic, where the theme of isolation was ever-present. But even as the troupe mines every laugh possible from the story, there’s a seriousness to the idea that even when we think the Napoleons of the world are a thing of the past, there’s always another Putin waiting in the wings to remind us that power-mad assholes will always be with us. In that sense, it’s cathartic to see Napoleon wither away on St. Helena — even being mocked by the other three characters with a bastardized version of Abba’s “Waterloo” to rub more salt in his wounds.

The main point, as it always is with Buntport, is to be funny, and Napoleon has plenty of laughs. While the other three play their characters big and broad, Colonna’s Napoleon has a wealth of great lines about his circumstance that he delivers as muttered asides — seeming to know that none of the others will give a damn or sympathize with him.

As is so often the case with Buntport, the audience spends a fair amount of time not 100 percent sure what’s going on but nonetheless happy to be along for the ride. For their 51^st original production, Team Buntport is as fresh as ever, delivering another rollicking, wholly original comedy that’s sure to put a smile on your face — alongside a look of puzzled bewilderment.

-Alex Miller, January 29, 2023, Onstage Colorado

A woman dressed in 15th Century clothing with a giant t-shirt over it sits at a table with snacks and a severed head on it.

Marlowe’s Musings- RICHARD

Whether you’re “in the vein” (sorry!) for a ridiculously funny play, or willing to give up your “kingdom for a horse”- laugh, (sorry again!) Buntport’s RICHARD’s the one for you!

Lucky for us, Buntport’s shows are never what anyone can possibly imagine.

So…

Imagine yourself in a seat in a school gym where self-absorbed pundits eat strawberry snacks.

In a nut shell, The Richard the Third Society is having its meeting in the school gym this time. Having invited special guest, Philippa, a novelist and famed reporter on the finding of Richard’s bones neath a parking lot, this society of Richard enthusiasts is set for a grand interview.

Played with delightfully absurd propriety by Hannah Duggan, Phillipa goes from prim to explosive in a nano-second when sports activity from the other side of the gym interrupts her coy presentation.

There’s also a wondrous representation of Queen Margaret by the dynamically gifted comic, Erin Rollman. In eye-popping period robes, headgear and pointy shoes, this actor punctuates the evening with hilariously engaging trivia involving everything imaginable, from Victorian undergarments to a discussion of accents!

Arriving late for the festivities, George, the president of these Richard enthusiasts, played with preening narcissism by Erik Edborg, spars with every man ‘Also George,’ (Brian Colonna) who does everything from setting up and tearing down, to writing of the minutes once the meeting is over.

I hope I haven’t said too much about this 50^thoriginal play by these intrepid players. By now everyone knows that Buntport is a national treasure. All four of these astoundingly talented actors are famous for keeping us guessing as to which comic universe we’ll be exploring next.

Get set to be wondrously entertained!!!

Oh, and let me know if the Bard actually did malign King Richard. I mean, Really!!! Isn’t everyone ‘discontent in winter?”(not sorry.)

– David Marlowe April 11th, 2022 Marlowe’s Musings

A woman dressed in 15th Century clothing with a giant t-shirt over it sits at a table with snacks and a severed head on it. Shee looks bored and/or sad.

OnStage Colorado- Unhinged ‘Richard’ marks Buntport’s 50th original show

Hoo-boy, OK, where to start?

So in Richard, its 50^th original production, Buntport Theater Company transformed their space in Denver into the gymnasium of the Apple Valley Junior High for a gathering of the Denver chapter of the Richard III Society. With half a basketball court and hoop, divisional championship flags and brightly painted walls, the stage was set as the audience filed in to take our seats in what amounted to the bleachers section. (This is really well done, so much so that for a moment I was thinking, “Gee, I don’t remember Buntport being in a school.”)

And here I thought I was going to be seeing some kind of medieval court sendup or something, which is my bad for making any assumptions about what Buntport is up to. When last we met, it was in their parking lot last spring for a dizzying trip to Mars in Space People in Space. Now back inside, finally, the focus is on a decidedly niche, nerdy little group of Richard III enthusiasts who are excited to have a special guest in the form of screenwriter and lightly qualified historian Philippa Langley (Hannah Duggan).

Erik Edborg (l) and Brian Colonna as the Georges

But first, society president George (Erik Edborg) and his counterpart and secretary Also George (Brian Colonna) must deal with their newest and most disruptive member, played with trashy panache by Erin Rollman. Dressed for the meeting as Queen Margaret of Anjou, Rollman’s character is both bull-in-the-china-shop and skunk-at-the-garden-party for the two Georges. Festooned with an outrageous hairdo (think Princess Leia caught in a pair of fishing nets), full-on robes, super-pointy red shoes and a bloody prop head hanging from a string around her shoulder looking like something from the Spirit Halloween bargain bin, the Queen appears to know a great deal more about her history than the Georges. And while she’s busy braying sarcastic criticism at the guys, her cosplay reveals her own deep need to be here — for where else could she go?

Silly, yes, but the level of detail the Buntport team puts into this is impressive — a testament to their geeky devotion to the topic at hand as well as, no doubt, a lot of time and frustration pent up after two years of pandemic bullshit. Enter the lobby and two entire walls are covered with a timeline that includes everything from the death of various Richards to the births of the Buntport crew. In addition to the program, we also get “Queen Margaret’s Handout!!!” — a 12-page newsletter kinda thing that has an “overly detailed timeline” of English monarchs from the 14^th and 15^th centuries, an “overly simplified family tree of Buntport Theater,” a quick history of the graham cracker, some stuff about split-crotch drawers, a Ricardian word search, a bibliography and a bunch of other stuff that mirrors the high-speed collision of history and comedy onstage.

There really isn’t any other place in Colorado you can find this kind of original work being done, with everything created by the four actors named above as well as SamAnTha Schmitz off stage. The pure joy evident in the creation and presentation of Richard is a heartwarming reminder that it’s still possible to keep a theatrical freak flag flying — ya just gotta believe.

Hannah Duggan as Philippa

Historical discord

From the get-go, we understand that there’s plenty of friction between the Georges, with Colonna’s character focused on an orderly running of the meeting and Edborg’s more focused on satisfying his outsized ego. When we finally meet the guest of honor, Philippa, she’s already been eclipsed by the Queen, and Duggan’s character has to fight her way back to relevance with her slideshow documenting the discovery of Richard III’s skeleton underneath a parking lot in Leicester a decade ago (Philippa is a real person and this is all true, BTW).

Also George points out that they already know all about this, but for Philippa, it’s all she’s got. Meanwhile, Queen Margaret continues to grab the mic and spout all of her many and varied theories about what was really going on back during The War of the Roses and the 100 Years War — none of which I will make the slightest attempt to document here. Rollman is all over the place, at one point standing next to me in the audience chomping on Goldfish while ranting about accents and later spearheading the climax of what’s clearly the craziest fucking game of basketball every staged in the vicinity of Lipan and W. 7^th Avenue.

To keep up, Philippa resorts to DaVinci Code-style numerology and BS letter pairings to “Dan Brown the shit” out of the proceedings. Still gamely trying to keep things on track, Also George nonetheless starts to run with the crazy as George goes all in and the two ultimately end up limping about as they suffer from jock itch and athlete’s foot. No worries, it all sorta makes sense at one point.

As Richard lurches toward its conclusion, the audience is left addled and spent — but in a good way. At 90 minutes sans intermission, it’s a shot-out-of-a-cannon experience that shouldn’t be missed.

Watching this familiar cast put themselves out there time after time in so many funny, wildly original shows is one of the brightest spots on the Denver theatre scene. Congrats to Buntport on 50 shows — we’re all looking forward to the next 50!

A sample of Queen Margaret’s handout

-Alex Miller April, 10th 2022 OnStage Colorado

5 people stand in front of a wall of awards making faces.

Denver Gazette- Buntport Theater: Denver’s one and only

Here’s the thing about the Buntport Theater collective: There’s nobody like them. Not in Denver. Not in Colorado. Not in the United States.

Get this: Five friends decide to form their own theater company right out of college. Not to “do plays.” To do their own quirky, creative, thought-provoking and completely original plays.

Without a designated playwright, director or boss of any kind. Everyone in the company is equal. Everyone is paid the same. Everyone writes. Everyone builds the sets. Everyone takes out the trash.

There isn’t even an equivalent to the Buntport model in world politics. That would be what academics call an “isocracy” – a form of government where all citizens have equal political power. And the reason you’ve probably never heard of that word is because that kind of thing would never, ever work.

Buntport somehow works. And it’s worked for more than two decades. Because they work their butts off.

This Friday, Buntport opens its 50th original, full-length play, called “❤️ Richard.” (Yes, they have created so many play titles with words that they are now resorting to emojis.)

To put that into context, let’s consider some of the more prolific playwrights of all time. Spanish author Lope Félix de Vega de Carpio is said to have written as many as 1,800 plays – but he doesn’t count given that, 400 years later, none of us have ever heard of him.

Shakespeare, we’ve heard of. He’s dubiously credited with writing 37 plays (although, granted, they are long enough to constitute 137.) Neil Simon wrote 30. August Wilson wrote 10.

The Buntport collective of Brian Colonna, Hannah Duggan, Erik Edborg, Erin Rollman and Samantha Schmitz have created 50 new plays at a pace of about three a year. Not to mention about 120 additional original episodes of two popular live sit-com serials they have staged over the years called “Magnets on the Fridge” and “Starship Troy.”

When the conversation turns to the development of new plays in Colorado theater, it often skips right over Buntport – when in fact, the conversation should start with Buntport. And they have done it all with modest resources, but just enough support to consistently pay themselves a modest, full-time wage, making them among a handful of Colorado theatermakers who have made their careers doing what they love, without having to take on second or third jobs.

They are living the dream. A very tired, but happy dream.

“When looking back on our own history, even we are surprised by the sheer amount of work we have developed and produced,” said Rollman.

When you think of it, creating a nonprofit, artist-led company model that works differently than traditional theaters is pretty punk rock. ”I never would have thought this when I was a younger person, but looking back now and realizing that we’ve completely bucked the system for so long does seem like the most punk-rock thing we could have ever done,” said Colonna.

Buntport’s origin goes back to 1998, when seven pals from Colorado College began creating collaborative works ranging from political satire to absurdist comedy with ingenious intellect, often all in the same plays. In 2001, they turned an empty warehouse at 717 Lipan St. into their permanent home. (The company name, by the way, is a mangled reference to the Bush presidential retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine.)

So what is it about Buntport, exactly?

Don’t ask them. They have no self-awareness that they will cop to. But we already know that working in this unique way only could have succeeded if all the players shared the same general aesthetic, sense of humor and lack of evident ego.

“Having no hierarchy is actually a feminist concept, as is the overall approach and leadership,” said Evan Weissman, one of two founding company members who have moved on from having daily involvement in Buntport, in his case to form an innovative nonprofit civic health club called Warm Cookies of the Revolution. “From start to finish, from how shows are pitched to the writing, the characters, the acting, the design and the marketing, it is evident that Buntport is – mostly accidentally – counter-cultural, feminist and artist-led.”

Also feminist: For being such a fixed company of players, Buntport has been remarkably open to welcoming collaborative guest artists and partnering with local arts groups. One was Gary Culig, who played Franz Kafka in the truthfully titled “Kafka on Ice.” He has a pretty good idea why the Buntporters are so beloved by artists and audiences alike.

“Buntport puts the play in play,” Culig said. “They’re truly having so much fun up there, and that rubs off on the audience. They’re also so good at creating such brilliantly magical moments — usually something really simple but super-clever and ingenious. I know I’ve gasped more than once watching one of their shows because I was surprised or caught off-guard by a moment of true theatricality. And they usually achieve that magic with such simple things they get at the hardware store or scavenge from a thrift shop. It’s like the best parts of children’s theater – but for adults.”

It’s always difficult to describe with any degree of predictive accuracy what a new Buntport play will turn out to be like. But we do know that “❤️ Richard” is loosely based on the actual discovery of King Richard’s body under a parking lot in Leicester, central England, back in 2012. And that the story involves a meeting of the Richard III Society – a real-life group dedicated to reclaiming the sullied reputation of the humpbacked king. And that it’s set in a high-school gymnasium.

Like always, the Buntporters don’t know if you’ll like it. But they hope you do.

Given that the Buntporters are only entering the start of their middle ages, they were asked whether they make try to make it to 100 plays someday.

“I mean, we’ll try, I guess,” said Rollman, without an ounce of guile.

If they do or they don’t, here’s one thing Edborg is proud to own: “We’ve done something that is pretty frickin’ rare,” he said.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

We asked area creatives, “What is it about Buntport?”

• Thaddeus Phillips, international theatermaker: “Buntport is a national treasure. But because they don’t ‘play the game’ and they make 100 percent original plays, they are they are largely ignored from a national perspective. This is because theater in the U.S. is 99 percent based on just remounting plays that had success in New York rather than unique ensembles like Buntport creating utterly original work. For more than 20 years, Buntport has created an unreal and unrivaled body of work. Buntport is, without any question whatsoever, one of the most unique and vital ensembles in the U.S.”

•GerRee Hinshaw, host of The Bug Theatre’s monthly “Freak Train”: “Besides the lovely, interesting and talented people the Buntporters are, I think the magic is in their approach to idea generation and then getting those ideas to their feet. I have a secret wish to take a hiatus from my job and just hang with Buntport and observe their creation process for a year, like a Buntport Artist’s Retreat™.”

• Adam Stone, musician and multimedia artist: “From top to bottom, every aspect of Buntport is informed by their generosity and thoughtfulness as community members and human creatures.”

• Emily K. Harrison, Artistic Director of the intentionally lower-cased square product theatre: “The thing that delights me about Buntport’s work is that it’s consistently clever and unpredictable and unpretentious. It’s not traditional fare, but it never falls into the trap of inaccessibility. Buntport doesn’t talk down to their audience. Their work manages to be incredibly smart and totally relatable, even when it’s about something seemingly lofty or artistic. They aren’t precious. Ever. That’s so refreshing. I don’t think Colorado realizes how lucky we are to have them.”

• Lisa Young, founder of IDEA Stages: “I can’t even tell you the number of times they literally made me pee my pants laughing.”

-John Moore April 7th, 2022 Denver Gazette

A woman dressed in 15th Century clothing with a giant t-shirt over it kneels with a basketball in front of a screen showing a picture of the crooked skeleton of Richard III.

Westword- Buntport’s 50th Production Takes on England’s Murderous — or Innocent? — King Richard III

Some twenty years ago a group of ex-students from Colorado College founded Buntport, a unique Denver theater company that is opening its fiftieth group-created original production, Richard, this weekend.

The troupe has held innovative productions from the start. The earliest Buntport offeringincluded visiting fellow student Thaddeus Phillips presenting two Shakespeare plays, King Lear and The Tempest, in a solo, one-evening performance. Lear’s daughters were represented by inanimate objects — a plastic flower, a high-heeled shoe. The ocean at the heart of The Tempest was a kiddie pool. The theater’s cavernous warehouse home was bitterly cold, but when someone cranked up the heat, the sound drowned out Phillips’s words.

The prevalent viewer response to the production was a mixture of bemused admiration for a brilliant and entirely original evening, as well as a persistent question: “How long could this crazy organization survive?”

A long time, it turned out.

Richard will take place in a cleverly configured and decently heated and/or cooled space in front of an ever-expanding audience of Buntport devotees. The play was inspired by England’s Richard III, a king whose image has been indelibly shaped by Shakespeare’s play, named for the king. Richard III depicts the king as a physically and mentally twisted goblin of pure evil, guilty of the murder of two young princes who stood in the way of his succession to the throne, along with many others. Not everyone buys this characterization, however. There’s a dedicated group called the King Richard III Society that’s been struggling for decades to clear the monarch’s name, and whose dedication helped lead to the discovery of Richard’s corpse — missing its feet — buried under a parking lot in the town of Leicester.

What Buntport will do with this strange history is anyone’s guess. The program description is typically brief: “Richard is a comedy about Richard III enthusiasts, Victorian undergarments, and the lying liars that make theater.”

Buntporter Erin Rollman adds a touch more: “It’s a comedy that explores art as propaganda and the tenuous relationship we seem to have with history. It takes place at a meeting of Richard III enthusiasts and hopefully reminds people that there is an agenda in storytelling — including in our own.”

After watching Buntport’s productions through two decades, most of us have some idea of what we’re in for. These artists are experimenters, influenced by Eastern European theater, among other forms, and intensely creative in their use of props and fluid arrangement of sets. They are also often inspired by some odd tidbit of news or observation: Are there really people paid to deface your books so you’ll look well-read, and who are they? What was Tommy Lee Jones doing standing in line for the opera Turandot in Santa Fe? Why was a well-known clown imprisoned in London for saying the words “roast beef” on stage? Famous literary names often appear in the plays — Mary Shelley, Alexandre Dumas, James Thurber, Franz Kafka. And there has also been a mystical, beautiful rendition of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, sans kiddie pool.

The group is comprised of Erik Edborg, Brian Colonna, Rollman, Hannah Duggan and SamAnTha Schmitz, who doesn’t appear onstage but is involved in every aspect of the work — financial, managerial and artistic. We know by now that all the actors are terrific performers, each with their own particular and eccentric style. Duggan tends to carry a hilarious sense of aggrieved injustice with her onto the stage, mixed with a crazed originality. No one who saw her as Lavinia in the company’s insanely comic version of Titus Andronicus trying to speak while her severed tongue — represented by a strip of red felt — dangled from her mouth. Brian Colonna is as convincing playing an aristocratic Englishman as a singing lab rat. We’ve seen Edborg portray a pedantic art critic, a sadistic hare and a puppet. In every role he tosses aside convention to create someone or something both completely fantastical and fully embodied. As for Rollman, she can inspire gusts of audience laughter as easily as she can stun everyone into a deep sad silence or a profound realization.

We asked each of these creatives what they felt they’ve achieved during their years together.

“I think I’m drawn to shows that include moments of magic,” says Colonna. “When the unexpected happens and it’s truly transporting or even transformative for the audience.”

Asked to describe Richard, he says, “It’s about art and making it, and the effect it has on the world.” He pauses, then asks, “Are all our productions about that?”

As for Duggan, “The purpose of any entertainment is to give people a second to live a life outside of their own heads.”

Looking back on twenty years of close collaboration and experimentation, problems and successes, grants, awards and critical praise — followed by over two years of dealing with COVID — we wondered what the Buntport folks would tell their younger selves now.

“Take care of the people around you,” says Colonna. “The journey isn’t really about you. It’s about everyone else.”

“I would tell myself that expectations only lead to disappointments, and have fun,” comments Duggan.

Rollman says, “I’m not sure I have any more clarity on life or theater now than I used to. Sometimes, no matter how much experience you have, it feels like you are reinventing the wheel. I guess that’s a good thing to tell my younger self: Try not to get frustrated; it’s all part of the process.”

For Schmitz, the question brings up a memory. “I wrote a letter to the other members of Buntport when I was graduating college to ask for a job,” he recalls. “It said I couldn’t think of any job I’d rather have than making theater with them. I still feel that way. To my younger self, I might explain that it will at times be exhausting, and sometimes she’ll want a regular job that stops at 5 p.m., but that twenty years later we will still be showing our work to audiences that love it, and that was the goal.”

Edborg adds, “I would tell my younger self, ‘Be patient! You’ve got a good thing going.’”

-Juliet Wittman April 6th, 2022 Westword