The Denver Gazette: The mod couple: Using physical theater and humor as agents for change
By John Moore
Buba Basishvili and Meghan Frank grew up worlds apart.
Basishvili was born in Tbilisi, in the Republic of Georgia, under the occupation of the Soviet Red Army. “I am a product of war,” he said. “I am a product of how political propaganda was used to motivate and manipulate the masses.”
Frank grew up right here in Denver, graduating from Cherry Creek High School before crisscrossing the country exploring theater as an agent for social change.
Buba, as he is known to all, performed with Georgia’s national Pantomime Theater for almost 15 years before moving to the United States at age 33, leaving behind a country that declared its independence in 1989 but has been punished for that by the Russian military ever since.
“In moving here as a first-generation immigrant, I often wonder about my identity and place in the U.S., and how the art I make can create understanding and meaning for many marginalized communities, including my own,” he said.
Their worlds became one at an international training school for physical theater in Northern California, where they discovered they were kindred spirits in life, love and the possibilities of performance art. They married, settled in Denver and in 2017 formed their own company – Theatre Artibus (it means “of the arts” in Latin). Artibus is dedicated to community collaboration and creating wildly varying original theatrical experiences for adults and children.
“We create approachable, weird performances created by an ensemble of artists on themes that are interesting to us – often with as few words as possible,” Frank said. For example, “INbox” was a silent comedy about the climate’s future. (Think Buster Keaton meets “Blade Runner.”)
Their performance style blends non-verbal storytelling. metaphor, movement, slapstick comedy, clowning and mask play. The intent is to dissolve barriers and forge audience connections.
And they do this work, for the most part, at the Savoy Denver, a turn-of-the-century social hall built in 1889 in Denver’s Five Points/Curtis Park neighborhood that the couple now co-owns and operates as a home for local artists of any stripe. They have updated the space and fashioned it into an ADA accessible cultural center while keeping its old-timey charm (and killer bar).
As stewards of the Savoy Denver, Basishvili recognizes what he calls the privilege of operating a cultural space in Denver, “especially in the oldest neighborhood in this growing city whose cultural communities of Black, Latinx, Japanese and other immigrant groups have been subject to racist policies such as redlining, and have experienced erasure and displacement.”
The Savoy hosts swing dancing on first Wednesdays and has magic, comedy, and dance parties on its September calendar. It also recently served as a venue for the emerging Denver Fringe Festival.
But the focus right now is on Artibus’ next big theatrical offering, "The Pâstisserie," which it teases as both a treatise on the dangers of nostalgia – and, just in time for Timothée Chalamet’s upcoming movie remake, “a Willy Wonka-esque odyssey for adults.” It runs Sept. 28-Oct. 15 at the Savoy Denver.
The story follows the odyssey of a soldier who stumbles into a rift in the fabric of space and time and is transported to a tantalizing chocolate factory where personal memories are extracted from its workers and converted into delightful treats for the public. That leads to widespread joy while also causing private pain. Frank calls the story “a blend of comedy and peculiarity” that ultimately explores the potential for our memories to be manipulated for purposes of marketing, politics and even war.
The Artibus ensemble conducted interactive workshops with community members who explored their relationship with nostalgia by sharing their stories, items and songs – all of which informed the production.
Now firmly re-rooted in her hometown, Frank sees Denver today as a city on the cusp of becoming a sexy little artistic flytrap.
“Although it has grown and changed since I was a teenager, I still feel like Denver is ever-percolating, never boiling,” she said. “It is still not possible for artists to stay in Denver with work that both inspires and pays them. How can we make Denver alluring locally, inspiring nationally and financially viable?”
Editor’s note: For our 2023 fall arts preview, the Denver Gazette is profiling several emerging artists who are introducing new ideas, voices, skills and approaches that are changing the ways audiences are experiencing and engaging with the arts. Look for the third installment in our series Monday.
Meet the Artists
• Name: Boris (Buba) Basishvili and Meghan Frank
• Your genre: Physical ensemble theater
• What is that, exactly? “At its core, it is a dedication to working together as an ensemble to produce something new. There is a deep history of physical storytelling all over the world, and it can be a cathartic, chaotic and challenging way to create.”
• What are you going for as artists? “To make new work that excites us, and to try to really listen to the community to amplify other voices, cultural communities and stories. Our focus is on telling hyper-local stories – especially those featuring our cultural community here in Five Points/Curtis Park.”
• How do you begin to create? “As the playwright starts on the empty page – we start on an empty stage. In that charged, open space, we begin with physical improvisation based on text, images or themes and build outward from there. We conduct interviews, do lots of research and often collage together what rises to the top. These projects culminate in ‘immersive’ or ‘site-specific’ performances – the audience travels through non-traditional spaces, and the performers interact with the audience directly.”
• How does humor play a signature role in your work? “We believe that humor can provide not only respite from hard topics but avenues to discuss them in ways drama cannot.”
• What is the change you would like to see in our cultural ecology? Basishvili: “There are nonprofits with gigantic funding, but for independent artists, there is not a chance to create serious work here under the stress (of raising money). In Colorado, it seems like theater-making is required to be a hobby for lots of people – and I want it to feel nothing like a casual thing.”
• What is your hope for Denver as an arts hub? Frank: “Is there a way to experience the history of Denver – its characters, its perspectives, and stories – in ways that make people lean in? I want there to be more of a culture of interest in supporting intimate, boundary-stretching, story-driven work in Denver.”
• Shout another local artist: Our collaborators for ‘The Pâstisserie’ are Tiffany Ogburn, David Rynhart and Nicole Dietz.