My daughter Allie and I had front row seats Saturday for the Denver Center Theatre Company production of David Mamet's adaptation of Harley Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance (click here for script.)

There is an excellent review in today's Denver Post (click here to see it.)

After the play we had a great conversation sitting on one of the sidewalk cafes on the 16th street mall, it was a great evening. The play is very much worth seeing, get your tickets now, it's sure to sell out. For more information (watch the 10 minute preview) see
http://www.denvercenter.org/shows-and-events/Shows/thevoyseyinheritance/about.aspx

In case you didn't notice, I've been asked to be the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Inventors Association. We have a meeting tonight (Thur, Sept 24), I hope you'll join us. See calendar for address and other details:
http://www.rminventor.org/contactus.htm

Yes, I'll still be facilitating the Denver IDEA Cafe and the Franklin Circle Denver Open meetings each Friday. More info about those meetings and optional RSVP at:

Denver IDEA Cafe, 2 p.m., Panera Bread, 13th & Grant
http://meetup.com/Denver-IDEA-Cafe

Franklin Circle Denver Open, 3:45 p.m. Panera, 13th & Grant
http://meetup.com/Franklin-Circle-Denver-Open


Last call for my book?
Darning Mighty Things-- The Simplest Way to Start Your First (or Next) New Business is still available on this site (look <--- to the left) but this may change. Also, my consulting services continue to be available for now, and that is subject to change. Depends on how final negotiations go with the RMIA board. So if you want the little book and some of my time, act now!

Is the Franklin Circle the ultimate "happiness board"?
Tal Ben-Shahar in his best selling book Happier-- Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment says

"Create a personal happiness board-- a group of people who care about you and your well-being, and who will hold you accountable to the ultimate currency (happiness). Ask your board members to keep track of your commitments and ensure that you follow through on them. Meet regularly to discuss your progress, where you have made significant improvements, where you would like to put more effort, or where you would like to change course.

"Following up on our commitments and goals isn't easy. It takes time for a practice to become a habit, a ritual-- and therefore most efforts at change ultimately fail. Change of any sort-- be it starting an exercise regime, overcoming p;rocrastination, or getting to spend more time with our family-- is more likely to last when we enjoy the support of others.


"In addition to creating your own happiness board, become a member of other people's boards (you may have one small group, in which you serve on one another's boards). By doing so, you will be helping them as well as yourself: by holding others accountable to the ultimate currency and reminding them to pursue meaningful and pleasurable activities, you will be indirectly strengthening your commitment to your own happiness."


When I'm upset with someone if I stop and think about it my upset is the result of either: 1) Me projecting my faults onto that person (this is why we teach what we most need to know, like me writing this to you now); 2) Truth the person is telling me I just don't want to hear; 3) Unrealistic expectations of mine; or 4) Unresolved conflicts in the past the other person is taking out on a safe target (me), they aren't doing it to me, they are just doing it. Who are you upset with right now? Can you see one of these four reasons behind your emotion?

Miners Alley Playhouse presents

A Picasso

By Jeffery Hatcher

(Co-author of Tuesdays with Morrie)

Directed by Robert Kramer

Paris, 1941. Pablo Picasso (Chris Kendall) has been summoned from his favorite café by German occupation forces to a storage vault across the city for an interrogation. His questioner; Miss Fischer (Paige Lynn Larson), a beautiful "cultural attaché" from Berlin. Her assignment: discover which of the three Picasso paintings recently "confiscated" by the Nazis from their Jewish owners are real. The ministry of propaganda has planned an exhibit, and only the great artist himself can attest to their authenticity. What Miss Fischer finds leads to a cat-and-mouse drama about art and politics; sex and truth; and a twist at its climax.

Miners Alley Playhouse presents “A Picasso” September 25 through November 1. With performances every Friday and Saturday at 7:30.p.m. and Sunday’s at 6:00 p.m. *Sunday, Nov. 1 will be at 2 p.m.-no evening performance on this date.* On Saturday, October 3, Miners Alley holds its "Second Saturday" talk back with the cast after the performance.  Tickets are $20 ($21 online) and are available by calling 303-935-3044 or online at minersalley.com

Jeffrey Hatcher co-wrote the stage adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie with author Mitch Albom and Three Viewings, a comedy consisting of three monologues - each of which takes place in a funeral home. One of his most interesting works is a stage adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, Henry James's psychological thriller.

"Artful, remarkable and genuinely dramatic, with impressive sensitivity and wit." —NY Daily News.

"Sex, art, Nazis, and a classy twentieth-century icon, all wrapped up like a tasty cultural burrito. Expertly done." —Star-Ledger.

 "A polished production with carefully sprung surprises." —NY Times.

Miners Alley Playhouse presents

“A Picasso”

A cat-and-mouse drama about art, politics, sex and truth, with a twist at its climax.

September 25 – November 1
Fri./Sat. 7:30 p.m.; *Sun. 6 p.m. \ *Sunday, Nov. 1 will be at 2 p.m. There will be no evening show on this date.

1224 Washington Avenue (13^th and Washington 2^nd floor entrance on 13^th).
Tickets: $20 ($21 online)
Call 303-935-3044  or online at minersalley.com

The Denver Center Theatre Company opens the 2009 2010 Season with two classic dramas – one with special relevancy to the nation’s current economic crisis in David Mamet’s adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance by Harley Granville-Barker and one celebrating the bruised but undaunted search for the American dream in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. 

The Voysey Inheritance

by Harley Granville-Barker

Adapted by David Mamet

Directed by Bruce K. Sevy

September 18 – October 24, 2009    (Opening Thursday, September 24)    The Space Theatre

           

Greed, guilt and high-level financial corruption are subjects frequently discussed and viewed by today’s media-savvy Americans.  In David Mamet’s acclaimed recent adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, Edward Voysey discovers that the business and wealth he will inherit upon his father’s death were accumulated through a Ponzi-like scheme.   Edward’s ethical battle becomes whether to perpetuate his father’s scheme and provide some restitution to the victims or to blow the whistle and bring the blue-chip business crashing down.  What makes this play so highly entertaining to contemporary audiences is that Harley Granville-Barker wrote the original script for The Voysey Inheritance not in 2009 but in 1905 – years before these pyramid schemes were tagged with the Ponzi moniker and a century before the shocking Bernie Madoff scandal became breaking news on CNN.

A Raisin in the Sun

by Lorraine Hansberry

Directed by Israel Hicks

October 1 – 31, 2009    (Opening Thursday, October 8)    The Stage Theatre

“There is simply no reason why dreams should dry up like raisins or prunes or anything else in America,” wrote Lorraine Hansberry becoming the first African American woman to have a play produced on Broadway with her breakthrough drama A Raisin in the Sun.  Israel Hicks (director of DCTC ten-play August Wilson cycle) returns to the Denver Center to direct this classic and moving exploration of individual expressions of the American dream on Chicago’s Southside.

Father’s $10,000 life insurance settlement inspires three generations of the inner-city Younger family to dream of very different ways to spend the money.  Mama dreams of living in a better neighborhood, her daughter plans to go to medical school and her son intends to buy into a liquor store. 

Tickets and Subscriptions

New and renewing subscribers may reserve their subscriptions now by calling 303.893.6030.  TTY (303) 893-9582. 

Single tickets for all performances this season start at $18 (some restrictions may apply) and are on sale now.  The Denver Center Box Office located in the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex is open from 10am to 6pm Monday through Saturday.  To purchase tickets by phone call (303) 893-4100 – for those outside the Denver calling area, 1 (800) 641-1222, TTY (303) 893-9582.  Buy and print tickets on-line by visiting www.denvercenter.org. 

Student $10 rush ticket are available one hour prior to curtain with a valid student ID subject to availability.

Groups of 10+ contact 303.446.4829 or groupsales@dcpa.org

No children under six will be admitted to any theatre.

Performance Schedule

Stage, Space and Ricketson Theatres

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday performances at 6:30pm

Friday and Saturday evening performances at 7:30pm

Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:30pm

Perspective on the Play

Complimentary pre-show discussion.

           

            The Voysey Inheritance,    Friday, September 18 at 6:00pm, The Jones Theatre

Buie Seawell, Professor of Business Ethics and Legal Studies for the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business.

           

            A Raisin in the Sun,            Friday, October 2 at 6:00pm, The Jones Theatre

                                                        Terry Nelson from the Blair-Caldwell African American 

                                                       Research Library and Dr. Marilynn Lewis.