Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company to Present GROUNDED

Fresh off the holiday hit "The SantaLand Diaries" at Off-Center @ the Jones, a remounting of George Brant's "Grounded" at the Dairy Center, and numerous end-of-year accolades and awards for its 2014 productions, Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC) now stages the work of Guggenheim Fellow and Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Baker.

Out back of a tiny Vermont coffee shop, long-time dropouts KJ and Jasper consider the finer points of Bukowski (and brownies), while high schooler Evan Shelmerdine navigates the awkwardness of teenage turmoil. These unlikely mentors and the boy they befriend are the subject of playwright Baker's simple, compassionate observations of life between the lines and greatness found in the most unlikely of places.

"We loved 'The Aliens' from the moment we first read it," says Producing Ensemble Director Stephen Weitz. "Annie Baker has such a distinctive voice, in the way she uses language and silence. And the story of these three characters is so full of laughter and pathos, we felt it added a wonderful diversity to the fabric our Season Nine."

Annie Baker won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play "The Flick." The New York Times wrote "Ms. Baker, on of the freshest and most talented dramatists to emerge Off Broadway in the past decade, writes with tenderness and keen insight."

"'The Aliens' is a deceptively simple play," says show director Rebecca Remaly. "The further we dig into the script, the more layers we unearth. It's so rich in humor and heartbreak, an incredibly rewarding experience."

A show for the young and the old, the lost and the looking, "The Aliens" comes to the Dairy Center for the Arts as part of BETC's Season Nine.