When Jessica Robblee and Mark Ragan sat down in the airy lobby of Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center last month to discuss their first season as the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s producing artistic director and managing director respectively, it had been nearly a year since co-founders Stephen Weitz and Rebecca Remaly announced their departure.
In December 2022, the fate of one of the area’s finest theater companies was in question. The notion that BETC (or “Betsy,” to its patrons) would be no more was dismaying. Not only were BETC’s productions crisply crafted, they also were cast with some of the area’s best actors.
After 17 years, and post-pandemic, Remaly and Weitz, the parents of a young son, were worn out. As theater artists, they also wanted to explore their creativity in fresh ways.
Their BETC work remained expertly executed and touching right up until their final production, in April. But unlike theater luminaries Chip Walton and Dee Covington of the long-glimmering gem the Curious Theatre Company (which also underwent a leadership change), they didn’t have a succession plan.
“It was heading for extinction. So when I heard, I called Stephen and said, ‘Let’s explore this,’” recalled Ragan, who had a relationship to BETC, having sponsored plays over the years. Robblee and Ragan had recently launched their own theatrical company — Clover & Bee Productions — but Ragan, who has a successful business based in Chicago, saw the possibilities. “There’s a world of difference between starting a company with no audience, no space, and then coming here with a patron database of 8,000 people, all of whom were so loyal.”
“They love BETC,” Robblee chimed in. That afternoon, she was taking a break from prepping the company’s first original holiday show, the family-friendly musical, “Holly, Alaska,” written by directed by longtime BETC collaborator Matt Zambrano with music by Frank Oden.
“Oh, my God, how they’ve greeted us,” added Ragan, underscoring a sentiment that has been palpable in the first two packed runs of their maiden season: the wrenching documentary drama “Coal Country” and the mesmerizing solo show “The Belle of Amherst,” about poet Emily Dickinson.
The season that almost wasn’t
Weitz, who gleaned an opportunity in Ragan’s call, gathered Remaly, BETC board members, Robblee and Ragan for a phone call. “I was at my parents’ house (in Lexington, Va.) and everyone was keeping my niece and my dog quiet. The whole family was together for Christmas,” recounted Robblee, a highly regarded actor, director, writer and educator in Denver.
That’s when things began to appear doubtful again, admitted Ragan. “We’re on our first call and, as a retired guy who’s been out of the office for six years, I’m listening to Rebecca. And I’m hearing what Rebecca and Stephen’s lives are like on the administrative side. Two-thirds of the way through the call, I said, ‘Guys, let’s stop right now. I cannot do this. I can’t. There’s no way I can do this.’ And they were puzzled by that.”
Ragan is a former journalist who has a way of interjecting asides that never derail the train of the saga. “You have to understand, I have 45 people in Chicago who are doing the things that you are doing. I can’t do this.”
He cut off the call.
But because you don’t run a theater company for nearly two decades without pure stubbornness, Weitz called Ragan back two weeks later. “He said, ‘I just want to revisit this,” Ragan said.
Perhaps no one appreciates kismet quite like theater folk. So, enter Heather Sullivan.
The family friend of Ragan signed on to be the operations director. Freed from spreadsheet hell he feared, Ragan could see how he could ply the people skills he’d honed over the years to fundraise. He’s the tall, silver-haired host often introducing the shows. He’s also proven a sure partner for Robblee whether she’s directing (“Coal Country”) or starring, as in the Dickinson play, which Ragan directed.
Robblee and Ragan then added a development director (Margot Crowe). BETC mainstay Heather Beasley is the theater’s Writers Group director. And, perhaps singularly vital to many of the company’s patrons, the duo changed the BETC’s moniker — the Butterfly Effect Theater of Colorado, rebranded in 2020 — back to the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company.
Dwelling in the possibilities
The bar raised by Weitz and Remaly is thus far being held high.
There are challenges, to be sure. The conversation began focused on the financial hurdles of fundraising and climbing costs faced by theaters. (It’s a national dilemma.) But the season has been driven by Ragan, Robblee and the ensemble’s passion and deft craft.
Later this month, Robblee will headline playwright Heidi Schreck’s trenchantly loving play, “What the Constitution Means to Me.” The Obie winner and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama will open at the Savoy in Denver (Jan. 26-Feb. 11) and then head to Boulder’s Dairy in late spring (May 3-19).
A talented director, Robblee’s onstage gifts speak for themselves, and having two shows with Robblee as lead at the start of the tag team’s tenure proved essential to keeping BETC running at a high level, while they plot their second season. Still, the pair were cognizant of vanity project concerns. “Survival project” was more like it, Robblee admitted.
“I had to beg her to do (“Belle” and “Constitution”) because she didn’t want to do that, for obvious reasons: People would say, ‘Oh, you just took over the theater, and now it’s all you all the time.’” Ragan said. “But two ready-made plays. I mean, how do we pass that up?”
What’s ahead
BETC’s incursion into Denver is not new, but welcome. “The Belle of Amherst,” which starred Robblee as the poet, began at Buntport, traveled to Colorado Spring’s Millibo Art Theatre and then on to the Dairy. The Savoy and Buntport also play host to BETC’s monthly comedy series, “The King Penny Golden Radio Show” (running through May).
In addition to the regular performers who make up the 1930-’40s-era King Penny Players, the show has included special guests, among them poet Bobby LeFebre. The next night of tart improv, beverages and bites is Jan. 10.
“I like variety in a season. I like for it to feel like a cocktail of different story styles and people and artists” Robblee said.
She and Ragan head into the planning of BETC’s next season with a sense of what’s possible for theater at this moment. That may be why they announced its 18th season with the invitation to “Dwell in Possibility.”
“I always feel like it comes back to that. Even with all the things with immersive theater or different ways of doing theater, I just always feel like everyone will be with you telling a good story, she said. “That’s what you need. You don’t need to have them wander through a warehouse with flashlights in their hands. I mean, you can, and I think that could be fun, right? But I think if the story isn’t good, then that’s tough. That’s what I think we’re looking for, is good stories.”
Lisa Kennedy is a freelance writer in Denver who specializes in film and theater.
