Nourish your inner herbivore at Lone Hawk Farm with The Catamounts farm dinner and a show

Aug. 24—In 2023, the closest thing modern humans can come to living like ancient Grecian royalty is perhaps buying a fig at the farmers market, draping oneself in a sheet and snacking on the fig under the direct rays of the midsummer sun.

Just close your eyes — you could be in the Mediterranean wearing a toga.

However, for those of us yearning for a more luxurious, immersive and less UV-heavy experience, "FEED: Plant" — brought to the Front Range by Boulder theater company The Catamounts — is the next best thing after finding a time machine.

"FEED: Plant" is a dreamy and truly singular event that's best described as a pairing of plant-based food, drink and live performance theater through a multi-course community meal that's set in the backyard of Lone Hawk Farm in Longmont. All of the courses revolve around the central theme while live music weaves the evening together.

"'FEED' is a multi-layered event where every course is a dish, a drink and a piece of performance," said Amanda Berg Wilson, artistic director and co-founder of The Catamounts. "It's a totally original event, in a format that certainly draws from farm dinners — but we always shy away from the term dinner theater, because it's very different from that."

Berg Wilson said with most dinner theater shows, patrons eat the meal, then watch the show.

"'FEED,' on the other hand, is really everything happening at the same time," she said. "You're eating and drinking while the performance is unfolding."

Attendees can expect a one-of-a-kind evening that would make Epicurus long for an invitation.

The two-weekend event wraps up this weekend with performances at 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $125. "FEED: Plant" is intended to be an intimate, cozy event, so the guest list will cap at around 50 people.

This intentional and unconventional take on live theater was the creation of Berg Wilson, who found a gap in the Front Range theater world after moving back from Chicago 13 years ago.

"When I moved back, there was Boulder Dinner Theater, the Shakespeare Festival, and Boulder Ensemble was in its first five years," Berg Wilson said. "And though I admired the work that was being done, nobody was doing the type of theater that I had fallen in love with in Chicago, which was very audacious, very mold-breaking with lots of different companies making up their own rules about what theater could be. So I wanted to live in Boulder but wanted to make the kind of work that I had fallen in love with in Chicago, so I started The Catamounts as an alternative and a more boundary-pushing experimental theater company.

"Early on, we were setting out to integrate different art forms into the theater-going experience, and I had a company member who was very into food and drink, and she suggested the idea of a farm dinner with theater at the same time. And thus, 'FEED' was born."

Now in its 13th season, The Catamounts have put on dozens of "FEED" events, with past themes including "FEED: Fermentation" and "FEED: Smoke."

"We really like 'FEEDs' to wrestle with issues that are in the zeitgeist," Berg Wilson said. "We want to offer guests an opportunity to have a lovely evening, but to leave the event having explored and thought about larger and relevant issues affecting the world today."

This summer's "FEED: Plant" will focus on the intersection between humans, the food we eat and the way we consume — whether it be nourishment, current events, or theater.

Guests of "FEED: Plant" should expect an evening that is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.

A four-course meal, catered by Boulder-based catering company Savory Cuisines, will showcase the versatility and utility of plants as nourishment. Meanwhile, the company will perform three original pieces for the dining audience, as well as an adaptation of "Uncle Vanya" by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, all exploring how plants function.

"People are exploring more plant-based options for food because of global warming and because of how the cultivation of meat is not the best for the earth, and so we were really interested in experimenting with that theme," Berg Wilson said. "Our performances explore the great diversity of plant life, and our relationship with them, and our relationship with one another — so we're using plants as a metaphor to explore the complexities and need for diversity in all natural life."

Later this season, The Catamounts will host "FEED: Dry" at the Dairy Arts Center, beginning in late January. As more and more people shift away from drinking alcohol and explore sober-curiousness, Berg Wilson saw a great opportunity to explore "dry" as both an avenue to dive into non-alcoholic beverage pairings as well as the concept of the earth, quite literally, drying up.

"I have a lot of friends who do dry January, so I thought that was an interesting theme," Berg Wilson said. "We're also dealing with the concept of dry forests, droughts and how that's connected to global warming and larger issues."

In addition to the two "FEEDs" taking place in Boulder County, The Catamounts will be performing two immersive collaboration shows in Denver and Thornton as a part of the company's 2023-24 season.

For more information on "FEED: Plant," "FEED: Dry," and other performances in the theater group's 2023-24 season, visit thecatamounts.org.

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FEED: Plant features a four course, plant-forward menu catered by...

FEED: Plant features a four course, plant-forward menu catered by Savory Cuisines Catering.

(Michael Ensminger/Courtesy photo)

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Guests enjoy a performance from The Catamounts at Lone Hawk...

Guests enjoy a performance from The Catamounts at Lone Hawk Farm in Longmont on Aug. 20. (Michael Ensminger/Courtesy photo)

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Guests of the Catamount's latest production, FEED: Plant at Lone...

Guests of the Catamount's latest production, FEED: Plant at Lone Hawk Farm on August 20, 2023. (Michael Ensminger/Courtesy photo)

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The Catamounts core company member Sam Gilstrap performing at the FEED:...

The Catamounts core company member Sam Gilstrap performing at the FEED: Plant event last Sunday, August 20, 2023. (Michael Ensminger/Courtesy photo)

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Guests at FEED: Plant sit and enjoy a course while...

Guests at FEED: Plant sit and enjoy a course while immersed in a performance by members of the Catamount theater group. (Michael Ensminger/Courtesy photo)

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