All Aboard the Maid of the Canyon

The party boat! Obviously.

Andrew Hall

He’s putting this expedition on the map – LITERALLY!

Andrew Hall is played by Alex Forbes. She is excited to be making her Openstage debut in Men On Boats. Alex has previously been seen as Jane Eyre in You On the Moors Now with The Catamounts, Mary Warren in The Crucible at Harrington Arts Alliance and currently performs with the Fort Collins improv troupe Comedy Brewers. When not on stage, she teaches improv classes at La De Da Studios and works at Five Tables cafe in downtown Loveland. Many thanks to her friends, family, and wonderful cast mates!

William Robert Wesley Hawkins

Hawkins has a way of cooking up fun and fishing for fights, butter be careful, he's a corny one!

Hawkins is played by Heather Ostberg Johnson. Heather is thrilled to be working with OpenStage again. Heather wears many hats as a theatre maker in Northern Colorado. She is co-owner of La-De-Da Performing Arts, founder of the Fort Collins Fringe Festival, member of Comedy Brewer Improv, and is Box Girl with the Box Clowns. After Men on Boats, Heather will be collaborating on a new touring show called, House Play set to begin touring this summer. She is grateful for the loving support of her husband Reed, and her business partner Dulcie Willis who help her keep all the plates spinning!

Men on Boats

By Jaclyn Backhaus

Directed by Denise Burson Freestone

January 18 – February 15, 2020


“A thrilling, gender-flipped slice of manifest destiny.” -Time Out New York

Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men on Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition when a one-armed captain and an insane yet loyal crew set out to chart the course of the Colorado River. Inspired by John Wesley Powell’s actual travel logs, Backhaus’s nimble and ingenious script is provocative, laugh-out-loud theatre, performed by a diverse cast of non-male actors who infuse America’s historic myths of male conquest with a sly blast of satire. With the speed and force of whitewater rapids, this off-Broadway sensation creates perilous canyons and death-defying cliffs out of sheer imagination, shaping an innovative and innately theatrical experience.

Playing at Lincoln Center Magnolia Theatre – 417 West Magnolia Street