9/11 Remembered with Lovers Leapt and World Trade Center paintings
Sept. 11 | Performances at 2:30 & 4:30 p.m.

Featuring Steve Emily and Kara Whitney in Leslie Bramm's Lovers Leapt

Free with gallery admission

The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center will remember the events of 9/11 on the 10th Anniversary of that tragic day through visual and performing arts.

On Sunday, Sept. 11, the Fine Arts Center will present the short play, Lovers Leapt, in front of four World Trade Center paintings by Denver artist Joellyn Duesberry in the El Pomar Gallery. The play will be performed at 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The play contains adult subject matter and is free with gallery admission.

“The arts have a huge capacity for healing,” said Sam Gappmayer, FAC CEO and President. “They highlight the best aspects of our humanity and remind us that while we are capable of acts of incredible destruction, we are also capable of both creating and responding to tremendous beauty.  George Bernard Shaw said that, ‘Without art the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.’”

Joellyn Duesberry, First Pairing: Ground Zero & Elephant Graveyard, 2002, Oil on panel, 32  x 63 inches, courtesy of the artist

Lovers Leapt playwright Leslie Bramm believes the arts provide a catharsis during trying times and it is instinctual for artists to respond to tragic events.

“It is what is most true to our nature,” Bramm said. “It’s instinctual. Like the people who respond by rebuilding what’s been destroyed, or those who respond by realizing how fragile life is, and that love is all there is. Sometimes they respond with outrage.  Artists do that a lot.” 

Lovers Leapt by Leslie Bramm
Commissioned by New York City's THE PRESENT COMPANY, one week after the attacks of Sept. 11, this 10-minute play muses on what inspired the World Trade Center workers who chose to jump rather than endure the fireball within. It is a hair-raising premise yet, the resulting play—about two pining office workers who finally connect in a shared demise—has a surprisingly light tone.

“Lovers Leapt is a reminder of, among other things, the lost potential that is central to the loss of any human life,” said Gappmayer.

“For the people who were in the towers and decided their only way out was to jump, we will never know what they were thinking,” said Scott RC Levy, Director of Performing Arts. “But Leslie Bramm has created a fantasy that showcases the possibilities and the fragility of life. In the end, I hope that audience members recognize that life is fleeting, and if we choose to not say what we really feel, we may never have the opportunity to do so.”

Leslie Bramm, a New York playwright, received a Stanley Drama Award (Oswald’s Backyard), Paul T. Nolan Award (Islands of Repair) and the Tennessee Williams Literary Award (Big Ball). He is published by JAC Publications, Smith and Krause, Brooklyn Publishers, One Act Play Depot and the New York Theatre Experience. Bramm, a published poet, is also a member of the Present Company’s Pool, The League of Independent Theatres and the Dramatists Guild.