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.

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.

The International Film Series, which kicks off today, is an outlet for experimentation, and this season IFS Director Pablo Kjolseth created a program full of original ideas. Kjolseth’s job is

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.

Usually fairy tales start with a beautiful princess waiting for Prince Charming to whisk them away. But in the new book CURSES! A F***ed Up Fairy Tale, Julie Kazimer takes a different approach — Cinderella gets hit by a bus on page two.

Deadheads rejoice — a new documentary chronicling the life of the late guitar-god Jerry Garcia is in the works for an end of the year release.

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.

In a world where the Adam Sandler fiasco Jack and Jill makes $68 million at the box office, it’s easy to forget that movies are pretty much magic. But that’s the dominant theme of a new documentary coming to Boedecker Theater Dec. 26 to Dec. 31: the magical sense of childlike wonder that cinema can evoke.

’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.

In his latest film, Midnight in Paris — now entering its 1 billionth month in local theaters—Woody Allen explores the lure and danger of nostalgia. Those who came out of the film wishing they could travel to the past have a chance this weekend: Boulder Elks Lodge will host its second annual 1940s-themed Big Band Christmas Ball Saturday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m.