For more than two decades, Boulder Ensemble Theater Company (or BETC, pronounced “Betsy”) has built a reputation for thoughtful, ambitious theater in the Boulder community. Now, as the company enters its 21st season and fourth season under new leadership, BETC is in the midst of an evolution that has expanded both its reach and its impact.
Artistic Director Jessica Robblee and Executive Producer Mark Ragan took the helm after founders Rebecca Remaly and Stephen Weitz announced their departure. The transition came at a particularly tricky moment for theater. “Coming out of the pandemic, it was pretty obvious that BETC was going to close its doors,” Ragan says.
Instead, the company found a way forward. Ragan, who had been supporting BETC as a donor, and Robblee had recently started another theater company when BETC’s development director approached them about taking over. The opportunity made sense, particularly because BETC already had an established audience and a patron and marketing list.
Three seasons later, the results have been striking. BETC has doubled its budget, expanded its staff to seven people, and consistently sells out shows. The company has also established a regular presence at the Savoy Denver, bringing its productions to audiences in both Boulder and Denver. In both cities, audience members have commented that BETC’s warm welcome to the theatre makes them feel like family.
Robblee initially knew expanding into Denver would be a challenge, but the effort has begun to pay off. “It’s kind of shrunk the distance between the two communities,” she says. Boulder audiences are increasingly traveling to Denver for BETC productions, while Denver audiences are making their way north to venues including the Dairy Arts Center and Nomad Playhouse.
The expansion has not changed what BETC looks for in a production. Robblee says the current leadership shares the founders’ interest in plays that are “really smart, excellently written; we gravitate toward plays that are rich with questions and emotional depth.”
For Ragan, the standard is even more personal. “If it doesn’t move me, if I don’t have tears in my eyes at some point in the play, I don’t want to do it,” he says. “I want the audience to feel like they’re seeing the greatest parts of being human on the stage.” That philosophy is reflected in BETC’s upcoming season.
The company’s December production, The Fair Maid of the West, was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and written and directed by Scottish playwright Isobel McArthur. The adaptation combines an Elizabethan story with contemporary music, comedy and choreography. “It takes big swings. It’s really delightful,” Robblee says. “And at its core, there’s a real thread of kindness matters.”
The production will also mark the play’s American debut. After discovering Fair Maid, Robblee met McArthur in London, and the playwright made changes specifically for the American production.
Another highly anticipated production is Liberation, written by Bess Wohl. The play explores a daughter’s attempt to understand who her mother was before she became her mother, moving between the present day and the first-wave feminist movement. For Ragan, the play’s emotional power was immediately apparent. After seeing it on Broadway with his daughter, he looked around the theater and saw “all moms and daughters,” many of them crying. “It is such a heartfelt play about a daughter rediscovering a mother who was a hero to her,” he says.
The season will also include The Effect by British playwright Lucy Prebble, a cerebral combination of romance and psychological thriller. Two young people meet while participating in a pharmaceutical trial and begin to question whether their growing attraction is genuine or the result of the drugs they are taking. “It’s a fascinating play about how the drugs we take and the way we feel about our lives— well, one can’t always tell where one begins and the other ends,” Robblee says.
BETC’s role in the community also extends beyond its own productions. Through Ragan’s philanthropic work, the BETC name supports other arts organizations throughout the region, including the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Boulder Ballet, and Local Theater Company.
That support reflects the company’s broader place within the local arts ecosystem. BETC isn’t simply producing its own season; it is also helping strengthen the network of organizations that makes the region’s theater and arts community vibrant.
For all the growth, however, the company’s leadership sees its future less in terms of expansion for expansion’s sake and more in the quality of each production. “Every show is its own Everest,” Robblee says. “You want to keep giving everything you have to making that show excellent.”
Ultimately, that is what Robblee hopes BETC will continue to offer audiences in both cities: exceptional live theater that brings people together. “They’re in person, they’re analog. They are connective,” she adds of live theater and the arts. “I think that that is what our souls are crying out for. And we just want to keep going.”
To learn more, visit BETC.org.
Upcoming BETC Events
The Fair Maid of the West by Isobel McArthur
Grace Gamm Theatre, Dairy Arts Center
December 3 - 27
Once Upon a Bridge
Savoy Denver, January 28 - February 13
Carsen Theatre, Dairy Arts Center, February 18 - March 14
Liberation
Savoy Denver, February 25 - March 14
Nomad Playhouse, March 18 - April 4
The Effect
Grace Gamm Theatre, Dairy Arts Center
April 15 - May 9