Who doesn’t like getting gifts on their birthday? Seriously, even your "oh my god, it’s totally not a big deal, I don’t want to celebrate" friend likes getting little gifts on their birthday. So Spark has decided to whip up a little something special for you each time your special day comes around, presenting the Birthday Club!

So how does the birthday club work? Well, it’s super simple: every week we’ll check on Facebook to see who has a birthday coming up, enter all those names into a drawing, and the lucky winner gets to celebrate their birthday with a free ticket to the currently playing Spark show.

→ Friend us on Facebook to be part of the Birthday Club now!

We’ve had quite the ride with Two Gents, and ultimately what has proven most interesting is watching this show flourish in this contemporary context. As we’ve rehearsed these scenes, looked for contemporary parallels and tried to infuse the spirit of the original with a look for today, the piece has so willingly adapted and molded to the Colorado of today.

Truthfully his work speaks (and sings) through time, and characters, situations, and problems feel timely because they’re all so universal. We founded Spark on presenting theater of beauty, substance, and style, and Two Gents delivers on all three counts.

So Sunday starts tech for Two Gents. Props are basically done, costumes the same, and the space has a fresh coat of paint on the walls. What’s funny about doing "tech week" for us, is that there really isn’t much "tech" involved, and that’s the way I like it! Having no sound or light boards means all the lights are actor controlled, the sound run off an iPod, and we do it with the lights on, just like in Shakespeare’s days.

"If theater cannot be rich, let it be poor" - Grotowski. Long live poor theater!

We just had our first run through of the show and it’s really fascinating to see everything come together. A lot of people are exposed to a piece of writing called Backwards and Forwards, about how you need to understand a play from both directions: understand the unfolding of events, but also how each thing that happens has been caused by the previous scene.

What an exciting thing we get to do, to tell stories every which way!

Whether we’re post-post modern, or contemporary post-deconstructuralist, we can’t escape the fact that we’re hearing Shakespeare with modern ears attuned to sarcasm, glibness, and mockery.

In rehearsal we balance two approaches: complete and utter honesty when a character speaks straight from the heart, and modern mockery to make fun of ourselves and the heightened absurdity of the situations.

We’re coming to the close of our first week of blocking, and it’s been amazing to discover the beauty of doing Shakespeare in an intimate 30-seat studio. My opera coach used to say that everything is in the score for you: clean diction, clear thought, and purity of technique is the modern signature in art, and it’s the best way to approach Shakespeare.

What could sum up our era more simply than the cellphone? Giving a Shakespearean character a cellphone can be humorous and relatable, but how do we remember that time was experienced differently in 1600 while keeping it authentic? These are the exciting choices that create new art for new audiences.

The reason I’ve started this writing series is to share the process of producing Two Gentlemen of Verona. For all the times we asked "What was theater like in Shakespeare’s day?", the more important question for us here in Denver is: "What does Shakespeare need to be for today?"

An icy German fashion designer with a propensity for self-destruction? Sounds like a party to me! Join us for a reading of the Fassbinder masterpiece, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. Cocktail hour at 7pm, reading at 8pm.

Check out all the great vintage furniture and props from our production of Rear Window: solid wood dressers, rotary phones, ashtray stands, and 50s camera equipment. Contact us at [email protected] for details!