Sarah started her fun doing comedic things on stage in Denver as part of a storytelling event at Lannie’s Clocktower; she started doing comedic things on stage with Buntport Theater in 2010 when she convinced them to conspire with her and other DU faculty on a Denver installment of the Hamantasch-Latke Debate (learn about it here!). In addition to leading to multiple Hamantasch-Latke debates to date, this intervention also inspired Buntport Theater’s “The Great Debate” series (featuring debates like “Bacon v. Kevin Bacon” [a debate in which – alas- she did not participate] and “Benedict Arnold v. Trader Joe” [a debate in which she most definitely did participate!])
Since 2010, Sarah has enjoyed intervening comedically whenever Buntport Theater and The Narrators invite her to do stuff on their stages. Some of her recent excursions include: An argument for the hamantasch based on Aristotelian principles of human bi-pedalism and the dangers of ‘hot pants’; an argument for the hamantasch based on triadic Pythagorean themes (or: ‘holy triangle, that’s delicious!’); an argument for people who wear eye-patches (over pirates; her team did not stand a chance against Adam Cayton-Holland; foiled!); an argument for Benedict Arnold (over Trader Joe) exposing Mr. Joe’s penchant for ‘puppy pelts’; a The Narrators storytelling exploration of “dropping the ball” in which she recounted the travails of a Brooklynite seeking medical care in Denver (Buntport Theatre, 2017; her performance also made it into The Narrators’ podcast and into a Denver Art Museum installation); a story about “dancing with the stars” in Aristotle, Ibn Tufayl, and Philo (Science Riot / The Peer Review, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, 2017); and a story on “keeping up” in which she recalled the horrors of “Scholastic Reading Aptitude” exercises in elementary school (The Narrators, Buntport Theater, 2018). Most recently she shared some insights on the ladies’ boot manufacturing racket in relation to an unfortunately un-American tape measure that led her to spectacular failure (The Narrators, September 2019, “Tools”). She most recently joined a Buntport Great Debate and helped secure a win for Team Vincent Price (vs. Team Price is Right; October 2019)!
Sarah tackles the “Cycle Hypothesis”–related to her inviting everyone to “Asshat Opera” (click below)– on August 16, 2023. Be there or be square!
Sarah talks about the horrors of a faulty tape measure @ The Narrators, “Tools” (September 2019, Buntport Theater, Denver)
For the Narrators’ anniversary special, Sarah reflected on the dreaded ‘Scholastic Reading Aptitude’ box of reading comprehension questions in elementary school. There were 12 or so levels that went from Red to Gold…maybe Platinum?; she doesn’t really know because she never got out of Remedial Red…
In a piece called “Lars Under the File Cabinet,” Sarah bemoaned the tendency of White Protestant inflected health care providers in CO to read her as a hypochondriac when it’s more that she’s a Jew from Brooklyn (and the dropping the ball part had to do with her deciding to believe her doctor when she knew she shouldn’t have).
A line in particular that resonated with the audience: “Shhh! You’re waking the Baby Jesus!…” Her performance was featured on The Narrators podcast (episode #118), and as part of a Denver Art Museum “takeover event” by The Narrators: Untitled Final Fridays at the Denver Art Museum (Feb. 2018)
Sarah debated for (winning!) team Vincent Price (v. Team Price is Right) at Buntport Theater in October 2019: She thought the tags from one online poster vendor– “sexy strip stripes struggle”–were an inspiring way to pay homage to a man whose films, like “Dr. G and the Bikini Machine”, single-handedly advanced the rights of women everywhere: Thank you, Mr. Price, for your “sexy strip stripes struggle” for women everywhere.
Hamantash-Latke Debate Swag Bag
