Center for Studies in Beckett and Contemporary Theatre Practice
Partnerships

Colorado State University’s Center for Studies in Beckett and Contemporary Theatre Practice has furthered its mission of promoting the work and encouraging interdisciplinary partnerships and artistic collaborations through a partnership with Fort Collins’ Bas Bleu Theatre.

Bas Bleu Theatre has sustained a commitment to the works of Samuel Beckett since it first opened its doors in 1992 with its production of Happy Days, directed by CSU professor Laura Jones, featuring Wendy Ishii as Winnie and Morris Burns (CSU emeritus professor) as Willie.

As part of Bas Bleu's 2002 season CSU faculty Dr. Eric Prince directed a special collaborative production – Voices From the Dark  (Three Plays by Samuel Beckett – Embers, Footfalls and Come and Go).

The production was staged in CSU’s Black Box Studio Theatre and at Bas Bleu Theatre. The production generated extensive local and media news coverage (including a special feature in The Denver Post) and was also attended by special guest Professor James Knowlson, Beckett’s authorized biographer and friend, as a talkback respondent. Wendy Ishii, Bas Bleu founder/artistic director and acting instructor at CSU, performed May in Footfalls and Ada in Embers and CSU English professor Elizabeth Stein contributed as dramaturg to the production.

“This was one of the best performances I’ve seen of ‘Footfalls’ and I’ve seen some of the great ones.” – James Knowlson (The Coloradoan 10/25/02)

The staging aspects and the re-reading of Embers – one of the three Beckett plays produced as Voices From the Dark - was the subject of a paper given by Dr. Prince to the International Federation of Theatre Research at Amsterdam University in July 2003 and was also published as Rekindling Embers by the international theatre journal Assaph (Tel Aviv University Press Vols. 17-18, 2003). 

Photo: Wendy Ishii in Voices from the Dark, October 2002, Directed by Eric Prince