For Playwrights and Thespians

Storytelling is the way in which we connect with each other. Live performance and storytelling has been and always will be the most fundamental way in which we share our stories and explore the deeper questions in the contemporary context of the times. The art of gathering together and witnessing a story with conflict and resolution exists across all cultures. At the BolderLife Festival, we seek to continue exploring the conflicts in life through theater. The beauty of theater is the live setting where people are moving and breathing in front of you, connecting in the most human way possible.

Why Theater At BolderLife?

The BolderLife Festival owes its roots to theater. For many years, BolderLife’s own artistic director Erin Kelly produced Hitching Post Theater which is five plays written, directed, and performed in 11 1/2 hours. The motto of the production is “We make no apologies,” because the attraction of the format is the fact that the seemingly impossible end-of-the-day deadline forces our instincts to emerge unimpaired by intellect. The fast-paced format generates a panic and forces the artists to take risks and ultimately trust themselves and build confidence in the moment that what they create is good as it is. In the frenzy, the deadline alters the attachment to the cursed thing called “result” and allows the truth to be revealed in the players. In that revelation, we are surprised and delighted knowing that something will be created that no one can predict, not even the actors. It is this space that we wish to explore at the BolderLife Festival, and theater offers the perfect arena to do so.

Art lives in this gray area of unpredictability and imperfection and is the very reason why we are so drawn to it. Theater will always live in the gray and has the potential to surprise us at each performance. We at BolderLife desire to give artists a platform to showcase their work in the theater program and truly connect to and engage the community we wish to foster.