When he interviewed for his position in 2006, Sneed thought a lot about what could set this Shakespeare company apart from the rest.

“I was thinking about what made Shakespeare popular in his day,” Sneed said. “I thought about his historical plays. They were so popular because the audiences were seeing their own history on stage.”

Sneed wanted to cultivate scripts that cover specific moments and provide commentary and encourage discussion about U.S. history. At the same time, leaders of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare & Company in Massachusetts were thinking the same thing.

“This must be an idea whose time has come,” Sneed said.

Last month, CSF and Shakespeare & Company hosted a conference of playwrights, historians and others to discuss the project. They covered hefty questions about “the American story” and how to tell it. The conversation is inspiration for the first four plays being commissioned; funding for the writing of two plays has been secured, but CSF is now in search of funds to commission two more and to produce the plays. Sneed doesn’t expect production to start until 2012. That gives them plenty of time to work with the playwrights.

“We are taking the go-slow approach. This is going to be a decades-long project that will hopefully be picked up by our successors,” Sneed said.

On the plays: There are key moments, people or eras that Sneed would like to see put on stage—like the rarely told points of view of American Indians. It’s important, Sneed said, to reproduce history—whether it’s with comedy, tragedy, political drama or satire—with flair, making it entertaining and accessible but still intellectual. “We want to make history come alive in exciting and dramatic ways,” Sneed said.

On the project: CSF will take a curatorial role in overseeing the production of the plays and scripts. “We want it to work as a whole,” Sneed said. “We want to make sure they get it. …The Elizabethan era was an important time for playwrights. They all lived and worked and drank together. We are learning now there was more collaboration than previously thought. …That’s what we are working to achieve. We know that the conversations have started and we want them to continue.”

On the audience: More than anything, Sneed hopes the plays that come out of the project will someday trickle down into community theaters and high school drama clubs. “We do hope that it will add to the national debate,” he said.

For Seefried, the process of creating the site has been a fascinating exploration of women, age, connections and technology.

“At this stage of life, there is a realization that connection with other women is incredibly valuable,” she said. “We empower each other. That’s something that becomes clear the older you get. That’s true with jobs, in parenting, in family.
…I think online communities are a wonderful opportunity to allow people to get connected or stay connected or both.”

With 1,100 users thus far and about 80 percent of them local, MidChix has room to grow. Seefried has increasingly realized that there is an active target audience for her site. She thought it would be a process of finding middle-aged women who are clueless about Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and teaching them the ways of the web. But she’s discovered that her demographic has techie skills and they know how to use them.

“We had a billboard up that said, ‘Give Facebook the bird. Join MidChix,’” Seefried said. “Obviously, we are not trying to compete. It’s the difference between a big cocktail party and an intimate girls’ night out. There is a place for both.”

On inspiration: Seefried originally tried Facebook when her daughter went to college, so they could more easily stay connected. “I thought that a person’s ‘wall’ was like their bedroom wall, not the Great Wall of China. So I wrote something asking if she had found a doctor for her irritable bowel syndrome,” she laughed. “After that, I took a break from it.” When her second-oldest child went to college, she tried again. “My 16-year-old son was just appalled by the fact that I was on Facebook,” she said. “I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll just start my own.” She cashed in her life-insurance policy, hired a software developer and did just that.

On going from mom to blogger: “Being a stay-at-home mom for so many years, my life was really about holding down the fort,” she said. “…It’s completely changed. I’m a whole new person. It’s been fun and exciting. And to have my family and kids be excited for me, it’s just wonderful. I just can’t wait to get up in the morning.”

On the future: Starting a social media site might have actually been the last thing Seefried ever imagined she would do in her life. “But I’ve always focused on connecting with people, writing and supporting causes. And hopefully this will become a way to do all three,” she said. When she does start making a profit, a percentage will support local organizations that help children.

“We knew what we had to do to fix it up and make it right,” Morris said.

Last year, AEG and Kroenke Sports teamed up to create Peak Entertainment, which won the bid to manage the beleaguered BEC. During the last six months, Peak leadership, including Morris, have revamped the mid-sized Broomfield venue, renamed it twice, scheduled already sold-out shows and scored the hottest ladies on wheels: the Denver Roller Dolls. Arguably the most important improvement, Morris has focused on bringing “soul” to the venue—adding art and a coat of paint and giving it a more rock-and-roll venue vibe.

“It had great bones, great ambiance and no soul,” Morris said. “It’s a great building. We felt it was exactly the type of building we wanted—either to build or buy.”

Morris said the 1stBANK Center is the perfect size—6,500 seats—to attract a range of stellar acts, so residents should be prepared.

“It’s intimate yet big enough to bring in big productions and big names,” he said.

Colorado matters: The 1stBANK Center will soon house the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, a nonprofit that celebrates the state’s musical legacy and highlights musicians who have roots here: from Judy Collins and the Nitty Gritty Dirt band to 3OH!3, the Fray and the Flobots. It will raise money for the CU music program. “I’m just hell bent on educating the kids on the great tradition of Colorado music,” Morris said.

What makes a great venue? “The venue takes care of the bands and it takes care of the customers,” Morris said. “That comes down to having great sound, treating the bands well, having convenient parking, making it a great experience for the fans.”

His history: Morris moved to Colorado decades ago when he was given an academic scholarship to CU for political science. “I was on my way to getting my doctorate but I loved music more than political science,” he said. He eventually dropped out to manage and book bands for the Sink on the Hill. Since then he’s reopened Tulagi’s and revamped Mammoth Gardens to become the Fillmore, led Live Nation and was appointed as the head of AEG’s Rocky Mountain offices. “I’ve been very blessed. I thought I would just be in the music business for a year,” he laughed. “Though, up until her last year, my mother still wanted me to go back to grad school.”

On music: “I do have an understanding of music,” Morris said. “I know what is good and bad. After all these years, I still can tell you what a good song is. I don’t consider myself to be as on the ball as I used to be, but I surround self with the right people.”

Do you know someone who’s fascinating, unique, a sociological case study? Email editorial@yellowscene.com.

“Well, yes, there is stress and it gets busy, but you learn to expect it,” said Kathy Beeck, festival director.
BIFF, as it’s called, has grown into a rocking film fest even in its formative years. Getting national press and consistently luring great flicks—from lesser-known offbeat indies to break-out Oscar contenders—the Beeck sisters’ brainchild has not just developed local and regional fanfare but it’s earning a solid reputation in film-making and film-loving circles everywhere. Robin, BIFF’s executive director, and Kathy Beeck call this month’s festival, happening Feb. 11–14 the best yet.

“Our programming has really gotten better and better,” Kathy said. “It’s really an art.”

“You have to understand your audience,” added Robin, who does the programming for the festival. “You want to really stretch them but you want them to feel comfortable too.”

Known as a “filmmakers’ festival,” BIFF focuses on creating an atmosphere that caters to the writers and directors.

“We’ve really made it so that the filmmakers are the most important part,” Kathy said. “That is what makes film festivals so rich. It adds such a great element by putting the focus on them.”

Their Inspiration: The Beecks moved to Boulder in their teens. Both worked at local movie theaters, including the Flatirons Theater and Fox Theater. They both went to Fairview High School and CU. Kathy found her way into the corporate world while Robin focused on making documentaries, including Grandpa’s In The Tuffshed, which Kathy produced.

How BIFF Came To Be: “Well, we went to a lot of film festivals over the years, and we just realized that Boulder would be such a perfect place for an international film festival,” Kathy said. “We kept waiting for it to happen but at some point we decided we shouldn’t wait around for someone else to do it. And we took everything we had learned from all those festivals we had gone to over the years and created the type of festival we wanted.”

On Turning 6: “We are still a young festival,” Robin said. “There are festivals in Colorado that have been around for 20 years. But sometimes it’s great to not have that history. We are flexible and we are ready to do things differently each year. We usually show a big, dramatic documentary on closing night. But this year, we decided to not have a film at all on closing night. We were like, ‘Let’s have Alec Baldwin on closing night instead.’”

Helping Out: This year, BIFF audience members can take action. After several of the issue-focused films, there will be opportunities for people to give, help or take a stand. “This really raises awareness for some of these issues,” Kathy said. “We are saying, ‘Here are concrete things to help.”

“Rugby in America is a lot like rugby in England in the 1980s,” Melville said.

Meaning, it’s on the cusp. But when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to include both rugby sevens, which is played with seven players on each side instead of the usual 15, and golf to its line up for the 2016 games in Rio, it may have given the sport some extra momentum in the US of A. While the decision means business as usual for countries in which rugby is a top sport, it could give American rugby the boost that it’s been looking for. Melville says the IOC vote—81 in favor and 8 opposed; golf had 63 in favor and 27 against—could mean more focus on the sport, more youth interest and more financial viability, including sponsorships and eventually a professional league.

But first, he has to take on football, basketball, golf and baseball to make rugby one of the top sports in America.

“That’s tough,” he said. “But there are enough people to go ’round.”

Career: Born in Leeds, England, Melville grew up playing football (ahem, soccer) and rugby. He opted to focus on rugby in his teens and found his way into a few leagues. Melville played on the national team and even co-captained it. One of his favorite memories is leading the national team out onto the field, a childhood fantasy come true. Injuries took him out of competition and he turned to coaching professionally. He joined USA Rugby in 2006.

On youth: USA Rugby has developed a less thug-ish game for the kiddos out there. “It’s like what flag football is to football,” he said. It’s now being played in schools in Florida.

On the Olympics: While the USA men’s rugby sevens team is ranked 11th by the International Rugby Board, Melville reminds the rugby-enthused nations that the United States is actually the rugby defending champ. The United States won the gold in men’s rugby in 1920 and 1924, which were the last years the sport was played at the Olympics. “We have that going for us,” he said.

On the sport: Meville says his favorite part of playing is “taking the ball and running.” “I never really liked the part about getting tackled,” he said with a laugh. As a half scrum, he was the rugby version of a running back.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided—after being sued by two groups looking to get the pika listed as endangered—to take a look at the pika’s status and will determine if the adorable, wildflower-gathering animal is worthy of being protected under the Endangered Species Act. It would become the first mammal in the lower 48 states to be listed as endangered because of climate change. At its most basic, the ESA works to save species from extinction. And if the pika is listed as endangered because of climate change, it means A) federal agencies will be tasked with influencing global greenhouse gas emissions or B) the ESA risks looking like it’s lost its teeth through inaction.

So it seems the pika might end up being the poster child for the micro-level impacts of macro-level contributions to climate change.

On the FWS: As a leading researcher in her field—studying the pikas’ habitat and survival—Ray has turned over her research to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which will likely announce its findings early next year. “I think it might be hard for them to walk away from some of the models that show (the pika) disappearing from certain areas,” she said. “It’s really a correlation. Then again, they might be able to shoot big holes in those models.”

On the pika: “They are really fun to watch. They are little packets of energy, and they have this call that is a lot bigger than one would think could come from such a small animal. There is something of a little-dog syndrome going on. They are really vigorous and extremely territorial, like little people in a neighborhood bickering over fence disputes.”

There is no great evidence that the pika population in the Rockies is declining—yet. Currently, pika populations in certain elevations in the Great Basin of the Sierra Nevada mountain range are seeing major declines.

On the future: Ray is now working to find the mechanism through which climate change is affecting pikas. She lists off several options: increased summer temperatures could be making it too hot for the animals; decreased snow pack, which helps insulate their habitat, could be leaving them exposed to frigid temperatures in winter; or slightly lower temperatures could allow disease to survive at certain elevations. “Tiny changes in climate can have huge effects,” she says.

It all started when Garnett’s son told his dad to get with the times—to diversify his communication repertoire with some social media. He started Tweeting about cases in June, and then made local and regional news as well as the Associated Press wire when he was given permission from a judge to use Twitter during the murder trial of Kevin Elmarr.

“I got calls from around the country about it,” he said. “Mostly friends making fun
of me.”

Despite the buzz, Garnett is more than just a guy who sums up his thoughts in 140 words or less. Here, he talks about white-collar crime, term limits and being the DA in Boulder.

Term limits: Garnett is pushing to extend DA term limits from two four-year terms to three. He’s one of multiple Colorado DAs asking for term-limit extensions; Colorado is the only state in the country that restricts DAs to two terms. “It’s really about the office, and it’s really good for the office,” he said, noting that it can increase stability and consistency for various projects and cases.

Garnett on Boulder: “It’s where everyone has an opinion about everything, and they have time to tell you about it.”

White-collar crime: Because Boulder County has an older and upper-class population, the residents are more at risk for Ponzi-type schemes, Garnett says. This fact inspired the DA to open a white-collar crime unit. “As people get older, they don’t rob each other as much and they don’t beat each other up at bars as much. But at the same time, you get people who are unscrupulous, who can find people to prey on.” Garnett expects it to take years to see through some cases but they have already started reaping the rewards, so to speak, with cases going to trial his fall and winter.

Garnett on his office: He also made headlines for making some changes to the office staff, with some prosecutors leaving or being asked to leave. His goal: “To strike a balance between invigorating the office and respecting its culture. …I want an office that takes cases in front of the community and is not afraid to get a jury’s verdict. That means sometimes losing cases. But it’s out in the open and not a plea bargain behind
closed doors.”

Twitter: Truly, on this social media outlet, there are leaders and followers. Garnett has 150 followers and follows fewer than 10. “It’s because I don’t want to look like a teenager,”
he laughs.

“It’s a homecoming of sorts,” Kritza said. “I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Kritza—a self-described “tough cookie”—spent the last 14 years as a student, graduate student, athlete, assistant coach and head coach at Tulane. She took the Green Wave to its first conference championship in 2008.

Pi’I Aiu had coached CU’s team for the last 12 seasons, taking the Lady Buffs to nine NCAA Tournaments. But they had losing records the past two years, and Aiu was fired. Aiu was actually the one who encouraged Kritza to apply for the job.
Months later, the team is in serious rebuilding mode; Kritza lost players in the transition and the players who remain are still getting used to her brand of training. Recruiting is usually stunted, if not debilitated, when a coach is replaced. Now it’s about finding the right players and teaching them to be more than just players.

“I really do expect a lot. I ask a lot of my players,” she said. “But I believe in promoting a program that produces self-directed, successful women. If I just have them focus on volleyball without tending to their needs as a whole person, I am short-changing them.”

On positioning CU: “I’ve really felt that Colorado has positioned itself well, as an athletic department and as a university. It’s one school you expect to be successful. It has an amazing location, reputable academics, a great community. That’s a positive package. I see nothing but possibility.”

On local players: “The more Colorado kids, the more well grounded this program will be.” She will also keep her eye out for transfer players, young blue chip players and even international players.

On the game: “My responsibility is to teach this group how to play this game properly and how to give us the best chance to win. …But you have to win and lose appropriately and use it to get better. This group right now has grit and backbone and they don’t go away. They are starting to embrace (my coaching). My personality transfers to the team. We will get beat, everyone eventually gets beat, but if we lose it won’t be because we didn’t play hard, that will never happen here. They are learning to fight.”

On Katrina: Kritza’s first season as Tulane’s head coach was marked by Hurricane Katrina. “I’ll never forget that season, and not just because it was my first season as head coach: It was the way I was required to take care of my team. That’s shaped my philosophy. I was responsible for 15 players that year. It wasn’t about volleyball. It was about continuing to develop them as players and to get through the experience safely. We practiced and focused on the game even as everything around us was crumbling. And it was very difficult personally. I lost a lot. My house was flooded. It’s funny because now I know that nothing can phase me. We had a team with absolutely nothing, no resources to compete. I found my way around that.”