By Clare Barron
Directed by Heather Ostberg Johnson
May 11–May 26, 2024
Playing at Outrun Parkour (2026 Bear Mountain Dr #117, Fort Collins)
Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. But more is at stake than a first-place trophy: puberty, friendship, rivalry, and girls becoming women, to be exact. Fangs come out as the competition heats up, and the blood, sweat, and tears get very real. Portrayed by adult actors of all ages, these adolescent girls (and one boy) struggle with their tween confusion—and their future adult selves. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Dance Nation is a play about ambition, growing up, and how to find our souls in the heat of it all.
Content Warning: Dance Nation contains gore, coarse language, depictions of self-harm, simulated masturbation, and descriptions of: masturbation, sex, and sexual violence. May not be suitable for patrons under the age of 18.
OpenStage Theatre’s etcetera Season is raw, real, honest, and intimate cutting-edge theatre in non-traditional spaces. With the actors only a few feet away audience members are drawn deeply into the action of the play, creating a powerful and unforgettable experience. Be prepared for a moving, intimate experience that will leave you thinking and feeling long after the lights come up.
The location of Dance Nation will be determined soon.
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Clare Barron is a playwright and performer from Wenatchee, Washington. Her play Dance Nation recently received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in May 2018 and subsequently its UK premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London. It was a 2019 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and is the recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and The Relentless Award established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Other plays include: You Got Older (Page 73; Steppenwolf) which received two Obie Awards for Playwriting and Performance, a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Play, and was a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist and the #1 most-recommended play on the Kilroys' List; I’ll Never Love Again (The Bushwick Starr); and Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb; Woolly Mammoth).
She is the recipient of a Whiting Award for Drama, the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award at The Vineyard, and the Page 73 Fellowship; and is a member of New Dramatists.
