BY LAUREN ARNEST

They don’t actually have a secret handshake, but the founders of Springs Ensemble Theatre (SET), the city’s newest theater company, did indulge in some undercover recruiting, complete with vows of silence.

“That was smart,” says local conceptual art humorist Tom McElroy, in whose performance venue, “Watch This Space” at 218 West Colorado Avenue, the new group will be producing plays starting in February 2010. “It allowed them to emerge fully formed, without being inundated by calls from every hack in town wanting to be part of it.”

Chad Siebert, SET’s president, laughs, “well, he’s half right. The truth is we just didn’t want to be asked questions we didn’t know the answers to yet,” and thus “look like a fly-by-night outfit.” Nevertheless, he acknowledges that the city’s thespians are always hungrily sniffing the theatrical winds.

“A lack of ongoing artistic nourishment, in particular for actors,” characterizes the city right now, explains Siebert. That’s not to say that what already exists is bad — indeed, Siebert is lavish in his praise for the work of other companies in town — “but there’s just not enough to go around.”

Siebert and his wife, actress Lisa Siebert, conceived of starting a new company in January 2009. They then approached actor Steve Emily, and the three of them became SET’s core.

While organizing as a nonprofit, tax-exempt entity, they began to recruit other theater artists in town. Their choices reflect a preference for those with “no preconceived notions of what Colorado Springs theater is or can be,” says Chad Siebert.
This may be one reason why the vast majority of SET’s members are recent (within the last 5 years) transplants to the city, many from places like Los Angeles or New York, where small theaters occupy virtually every other storefront in some areas.
In addition to the Sieberts and Emily, members of SET currently include Miriam Roth Ballard, Molly Earle, Elizabeth Fry, Jeff Miller, Jodi Papproth, David Plambeck, Keri Pollakoff, David and Sarah Shaver, Julie Sweum, and Chris Vitale.

The essence of ensemble theater is to have a group of artists work together regularly so that they can get to know each other’s strengths and can play off, as well as strengthen them, Emily explains. In addition, all the players have a say in running the company. This necessarily limits the number of members in the main ensemble. “We’ll probably put the cap at 21,” says Chad Siebert.

But the Sieberts and Emily are careful to dispel the notion that SET is a closed set. “We will have open casting,” Chad Siebert says. And members of SET will be free to try out for roles in plays at other companies.

David Plambeck, the group’s only longtime Colorado Springs artist, says he “was honored to be invited to join,” and sees SET bringing to Colorado Springs theater “a new mix of talents and tastes that have chosen to move in a new direction.”
That direction is likely to be toward the edgy, along the lines of playwrights like David Mamet, Sam Shepard, and Tony Kushner. SET will also invite suggestions and consider original works by unknown playwrights. “We don’t feel we’ll be in competition with anyone else in town,” says Chad Siebert.

The group also plans to offer classes and workshops for actors and other theater artists. A summer camp for youth ages 12 to 18 featuring filmmaking as well as stage arts is also in the works.

Chad Siebert feels a special serendipity that McElroy’s “Watch This Space” became available just in time to book for 2010. The 50-seat, modular, black-box space close to downtown nightlife will serve SET’s purposes well, he believes.
SET is still negotiating the rights for its first-season offerings. As soon as they are firmed up, they will be announced on the group’s website, springsensembletheatre.com. A fall fundraiser for SET will also be announced soon. There will be three shows in 2010, offered nine times each.

Asked for his feelings about the new kids on the block, Murray Ross, founder and artistic director of Theatreworks UCCS, sends an ebullient welcome. “It’s a fine gang of very nice and talented people, and there can never be enough good theatre here — or anywhere else for that matter,” said Ross. “The consolation of hard times is that they can generate communal energy — with SET and the revival of Star Bar we will be opening more stage doors even as the gates to our parks close. That’s quite a remarkable tribute to the creative energy of Our Town. With any luck we could raise the bar past Handel’s Largo and Whistler’s mom and even past Neil Simon and Christmas Carol. Now that would be something!”