{"id":367,"date":"2026-06-05T05:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=367"},"modified":"2026-06-05T05:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:33:15","slug":"inside-a-former-macys-parking-garage-boulder-artists-transform-shipping-containers-into-immersive-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=367","title":{"rendered":"Inside a former Macy\u2019s parking garage, Boulder artists transform shipping containers into immersive theater"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The evening of May 28, I joined around 50 other audience members in the old Macy\u2019s parking garage, located at the corner of 30th and Walnut streets, for the opening night of \u201cUncontainable,\u201d a genre-bending performance co-produced by 3rd Law Dance\/Theater and the Catamounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Boulder County survey finds strong opposition to trail-use pilot that could limit bike access<\/a><\/p>\n

The performance unfolds across six different shipping containers and in the negative space between them. Each container houses a distinct environment, animated by communal practices: listening to records, raising a toast, humming a song on a front porch or tossing coins into a wishing well. Katie Elliott, artistic director of 3rd Law, describes the production as \u201ca mosaic of gathering rituals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

3rd Law and the Catamounts are Boulder-based performing arts nonprofits known for experimental work in unconventional spaces. \u201cUncontainable\u201d marks their second collaboration, following \u201cTiny Dictators and Tea Cups,\u201d which took place at the Dairy Arts Center in April 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The production\u2019s unconventional setting also reflects a broader reality for local arts groups. Affordable rehearsal and event space remains a persistent challenge for Boulder arts organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs is true of all Boulder theater companies except for the Shakespeare festival, we don\u2019t have our own dedicated performance space,\u201d Amanda Berg Wilson, artistic director of the Catamounts, said.<\/p>\n

The Catamounts currently operate out of The Studio, a coworking and event space at Pearl Street and Foothills Parkway. Berg Wilson said alternative venues have become an effective strategy for containing production costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of us are professional companies,\u201d she said, referring to the Catamounts and 3rd Law, \u201cso all of our artists are paid professional wages. Between that and the cost of materials, it\u2019s always a squeeze to do high-level professional work in an expensive town like Boulder.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Site-specific productions also allow performances to resonate in ways not always possible in traditional theater settings. Repurposed venues foreground considerations of how art intersects with daily life. \u201cWe\u2019re igniting these spaces where you wouldn\u2019t normally see art,\u201d Elliott said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, 3rd Law staged a socially distanced performance in the parking garage next to the Cinemark theater,\u00a0where audience members watched from inside their cars. The Catamounts, meanwhile, has mounted productions at farms, trailheads, public libraries and even on a golf course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The idea for \u201cUncontainable\u201d emerged in the wake of federal arts funding cuts. \u201cI physically felt squeezed into a small space,\u201d Elliott said. Inspired by the image of an old-school ViewFinder, she began imagining\u00a0how to create the sensation of a big world glimpsed through a confined frame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter some of those shifts in funding,\u201d Berg Wilson said, \u201cwe were joking, Let\u2019s just do a show in a box.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Set in the former Macy\u2019s parking garage at Twenty Ninth Street, the production\u2019s themes of connection and presence unfold against the backdrop of a commercial district shaped by decades of redevelopment and decline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crossroads Mall opened on the site in 1963 and became one of Boulder\u2019s primary shopping destinations. By the late 1990s, however, vacancy rates were rising and city leaders were debating its future. The mall closed in 2004, though Foley\u2019s \u2014 formerly May D&F \u2014 remained open through the transition. The store became Macy\u2019s in 2006, the same year Twenty Ninth Street opened as a mixed-use development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShopping malls used to be gathering spaces,\u201d recalled Berg Wilson. \u201cI went to high school here and my friends and I would hang out at the Crossroads Mall! . . . Now malls are this strange artifact of a former way of doing business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Macy\u2019s on Twenty Ninth Street closed in 2022. Since then, Corum Real Estate has redeveloped the building into a mixed-use complex with office space and retail space. As of June 1, upscale furniture company Design Within Reach had opened in the retail space, but Boulder29 had yet to secure office tenants, reflecting broader vacancies in Boulder\u2019s commercial real estate market.<\/p>\n

The backdrop of redevelopment and underused infrastructure gives added resonance to \u201cUncontainable,\u201d which asks: Where and how do we gather in the age of digital saturation?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are snakeskins,\u201d declares Jason Maxwell, who plays Fischer, in the production\u2019s opening monologue. Dressed in a candy-striped button-down and a plaid blue bow tie, Maxwell gestures toward\u00a0the shipping containers and the silhouette of Twenty Ninth Street visible through the geometric openings of the garage. \u201cSnakeskins shed by that mammoth serpent of commerce and food courts . . . \u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than simply critiquing modern life or indulging in nostalgia, \u201cUncontainable\u201d invites audiences into a tactile, participatory experience. \u201cWe\u2019re re-imagining how audiences encounter live art,\u201d Elliott said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I emerged from the final shipping container, night had fallen. Summer lightning flickered beyond the open edges of the garage. Inside, the concrete caverns echoed with applause and conversation \u2014 an overlooked vacant space, activated for an evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUncontainable\u201d runs in the parking garage at 30th and Walnut through Sunday, June 14.<\/p>\n

Read more Boulder raises Pride flag amid growing fights over LGBTQ rights<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Uncontainable” uses shipping containers to examine how people gather and connect amid arts funding cuts and the decline of public spaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nInside a former Macy\u2019s parking garage, Boulder artists transform shipping containers into immersive theater - Boulder Moving Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=367\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inside a former Macy\u2019s parking garage, Boulder artists transform shipping containers into immersive theater - 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