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Colorado Theater Company Finds Creativity In Unexpected Places

Stacy Nick
/
KUNC
Kristen Emeola and Ghandia Johnson star in Pop Up Theatre's prodcution of 'Bright Half Life.'

When you think of a night at the theater, there are certain givens: a stage, bright lights, an orchestra pit. But not for Pop Up Theatre.

“We just do theater a little differently,” said founder and artistic director Christopher Huelshorst.

He’s not kidding. Since it began two years ago, the Fort Collins theatre company has popped up in art galleries, empty storefronts and 100-year-old attics. Next up -- the R Bar & Lounge.

The idea is to change the way people experience a play.

“You’re not in a proper theater, you’re in this found space,” Huelshorst said. “And as an audience member you are right there in the middle of it all. It’s just a different way to tell a story, and a different way to experience theater.”

At the R Bar - Pop Up’s latest production, Bright Half Life, doesn’t start with the curtain going up. There is no curtain. There’s also no microphones or even a stage, just a platform in the middle of the dancefloor.

Credit Stacy Nick / KUNC
/
KUNC
Pop Up Theatre will present 'Bright Half Life' through May 13 at the R Bar & Lounge.

But that’s enough for actor Ghandia Johnson.

“I like the freedom that pop up brings to that culture,” Johnson said as she did her makeup in the bar’s basement before the show’s final dress rehearsal. “You know, you can put a play on basically wherever you dream it.”

Pop Up Theatre is fun, especially for the actors, Johnson said.

“I like being in people’s face with art,” she said. “Plus I’m really crazy so stuff like this challenges me, and I like that kind of stuff.”

The space is pretty tight, agreed her co-star, Kristen Emeola. Front row is actually four small loveseats surrounding the makeshift stage, mere inches from the actors. At one point in the show, the bar transforms into a Ferris wheel, taking the audience members seated there along for the ride.

“They see everything,” Emeola said. “If you take a subtle breath, they see it. If you raise one eyebrow, they see it. So it’s really cool. Much different from those large proscenium theaters where you’re -- I don’t know -- 50 yards away.”

It’s not always a small space, but it is always unique, Huelshorst said. It’s important to have the location fit the show.

“With Pop Up, we’re always trying to kind of put our audience in an immersive situation,” he said. “A situation where they might feel a little uncomfortable, and so maybe a lot of our audience has never been to a gay bar.”

In the play, the story follows several decades in the relationship of a lesbian couple. So staging it at a gay bar almost made the location another character, he said.

“This play starts in the '90s; that’s where we went,” Huelshorst said. “That was the safe place. You could go to this probably dark bar, that didn’t have any kind of title out front, but you knew it was safe. It was a sacred place.”

During the actual performances, R Bar will close to the general public. But during rehearsals in the week leading up to opening night, the bar’s patrons got a sneak peek. A night at the theater wasn’t something Leah Hanna was planning on when she stopped in for a drink.

“Normally it’s Boys Night, so I was like what’s that mattress doing in the middle of the floor,” Hanna laughed.

It’s definitely not what she’s used to, not that she’s complaining.

“Pop Up Theater is awesome,” she said after the show. “I like it.”

Hanna thinks others will too, especially non-traditional theatergoers.

“It’s a way to get people to stick around for something maybe they normally wouldn’t come and see,” she said.

Stacy was KUNC's arts and culture reporter from 2015 to 2021.
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