About 10,000 playwrights live and work in the country, but in the past 10 years, there have been an average of two new plays produced on Broadway each year, according to Jason Loewith, executive director of the National New Play Network.

Put the name of Quebec billionaire Guy Laliberté, the mercurial founder of Cirque du Soleil, into YouTube, and the first result isn’t circus-related but a six-and-a-half-minute clip from a high-stakes game of Texas Hold ’em.

What is your first thought when you hear the phrase “the phantom of the opera?” Unless you’re an unabashed bibliophile or literary-minded Francophile, it’s almost certainly not the novel, Le Fantome de l’Opera, written by Gaston Leroux in 1910. Still, that early 20th century flight of fancy introduced the world to the grotesquely deformed music lover and catacomb dweller, Erik, he of the half mask and three-quarters madness.

A typical Cirque du Soleil show is a long way from the “Greatest Show on Earth” of the early 1900s. Gone is the ringmaster entreating you to step right up and see a fabulous variety show, and animals and sideshows are nowhere to be seen. The Big Top, that is, the tent where it all goes down, is no longer a requirement either.

Four college students with no prior dance experience enrolled in a dance class and, lacking the traditional dance vocabulary, started to play with what their bodies could do. They went on to launch a dance company that has been turning the ideas of modern dance on their head — and wrapping them around, tying them in knots and bending them backwards.

What do you get when you mix Marxists, socialists and communists? A cooperative housing unit in the heart of Boulder known as Chrysalis. And what happens at coops after the collective gardening and cooking and cleaning gets done? Pure, enchanted creativity.

’Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the town, some people were up while others were down. Some loved the snow and the cold and the lights; some felt the whole thing just wasn’t right. Whether this time of year makes you joyful or crass, the holidays can be one big pain in the ass. So take a quick break from the candles and bows, and enjoy a guffaw from these thespian pros.

It’s unclear exactly what stood out in Michelle Ellsworth’s repertoire. There’s a lot to choose from. United States Artists (USA) calls Ellsworth a “dancer, choreographer, video maker, writer, cartoonist and web designer,” to which one could add professor and co-director of CU Boulder’s theater and dance program.

Considering how many hats she wears, it’s unclear exactly what stood out in Michelle Ellsworth’s repertoire. But something caught the attention of United States Artists (USA), a nonprofit that has selected the Boulder artist to receive a $50,000 unrestricted grant.

Experiencing a theater company for the first time is very much like going on a blind date. High hopes compete with trepidation. The possibilities are limitless. You might discover your soul mate, or you could end up with a hefty tab and a nasty case of crabs. Thankfully, my first go around with Devil’s Thumb Productions, a relatively new Boulder troupe, was much more the former than the latter. She may not be my soul mate, but I’d definitely ask her out again.