Have you ever turned the corner on an actor? After years of watching them, maybe on screen — or, in this instance, on stage? You go from not registering just how good they are to becoming forever intrigued? (Scarlett Johansson’s “Match Point” performance did that for me.) You begin to ponder why they work on you and others, why you’re drawn to their performances, why, when you see their name in a Playbill, you get a wee leap of faith that whatever the night brings, it’ll be more interesting for them being on stage? This weekend, Anne Penner begins a run as the Pilot in the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s production of George Brant’s taut drama “Grounded,” about an Air Force pilot who goes from soaring in F-16s to joy-sticking drone missions. The show runs through July 21 at the Dairy Arts Center.
I first saw, as in really , Penner in Local Theater Company’s fascinating, wry riff on the Scottish play “Undone: The Lady M Project,” in 2023. Penner — who cowrote the work with Mare Trevathan and Hadley Kamminga-Peck — played the lady in question with a bodily (and brainy) authority. “The thing I find exciting about her work onstage and off is that she’s really courageous,” Trevathan said in an email.
“She’s a braveheart. She asks for challenge, asks to do hard things.” And so, on a recent Saturday morning, Penner walked into the black-box rehearsal space on the University of Denver campus.
She wore black boots, green khakis, a dark blue.