Pirate Theatre Stepping Up Its Game: Latest Show Heading to Outdoor Stage and then ... Boulder?

Written by Ally Grownsup Monday, 13 August 2012

After living in its mother's basement in Steamboat Springs for more than a decade, Pirate Theatre is finally "leaving the nest" and taking its show on the road. The troupe's latest multimedia musical comedy, "Powder Haze: A Day in the Life at a Ski Town," will be performing at the Boulder International Fringe Festival from Aug. 23-25, 2012, in the legendary People's Republic of Boulder, Colo.Pirate Theatre's new show hits Steamboat on Aug. 18, 2012, before rolling down into Boulder.

However, the group needed to take some baby steps before leaving its beloved home, so it scheduled a one-time performance in Steamboat Springs on Saturday, August 18, at 8 p.m. But in order to get their coddled and insecure prima donna performers out of their comfort zones, the show will be held, for the first time ever, at the outdoor stage in Gondola Square (buy tix here or at All That Jazz in Steamboat).

"It's about damn time those kids got out of my basement and tried to do something with their lives," said Gaia Pirate, the mother whose basement was a comfortable haven to Pirate Theatre for so many years. "Most of them are grown men and women, yet the idea of doing something outside of Steamboat had them pissing in their knickers."

Brian Harvey, head of Pirate Theatre and lead knicker pisser, admitted that this was a big step for the quasi-famous-in-Steamboat group.

"We've gotten comfortable being relatively big fish in this tiny little pond that is Steamboat Springs," said Harvey. "But we woke up one day and said, 'Dammit, let's go be tiny-ass little minnows in a much bigger pond ... and try not to get eaten whole and crapped out the back.' Wait? Why are we doing this?"

Although being in Boulder for four days, surrounded by freaky artists and hippies, is enough to scare any self-respecting Steamboater, Pirate Theatre further turned up the danger level by agreeing to do an outdoor show in a part of the world known for afternoon thunderstorms and audiences prone to be really drunk by 8 p.m. on a Saturday night.

"Performing the show in front of hundreds of strangers in Boulder should be a piece of cake compared to a giant crowd of boozed and surly Steamboaters who expect us to make them laugh every 14 seconds," added Harvey. "And I've already spent all the ticket money from that show on my new moped, which you may have seen me carousing around town on, so if that performance rains out, I'm screwed."

"You did what with the money?" asked Todd Danielson, lead writer for the show who was silently listening, right behind Harvey. "Great. Better bring your parkas then, people, as the show will go on even if there's a monsoon out there. Can I take the moped out for a spin? I'm feeling very European today ..."

The outdoor show is part of the All Arts Festival taking place in Steamboat from Aug. 16-19, 2012, the first time Pirate Theatre has joined the program.

"They say 'All Arts,'" noted Harvey. "So I guess we qualified in some capacity."