Beer ye, Beer ye: A new, immersive, outdoor, fantasy video game-themed drinking theatre experience is coming to Denver this summer!

Created by local circus theatre group Rainbow Militia and art and media collective WeAreDenver, Beer Quest is a drinking game that combines 2D fantasy with immersive open-world play, theatre and, of course, beer.

“It’s a chance to kind of let go and forget about anything that’s happening in the outside world or anything we went through in the last year and a half and just enjoy themselves,” said Amber Blais, Rainbow Militia owner and one of Beer Quest’s executive producers. “And I think that’s what’s most magical about it.”

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In early January, Eric Jaenike and Jennifer Mosquera of immersive-arts duo Prismajic met over drinks with Amber Blais and Staza Stone of circus-arts troupe Rainbow Militia. Both groups had spent the past few years pushing the boundaries of immersive arts in Denver and were mutual admirers of each other's work. They started talking about how they might collaborate, and it didn't take long before they settled on an idea: a performance set in the clouds and rooted in Greek mythology.

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Amber Blais

Rainbow Connector

In 2021, the sky’s the limit for Amber Blais, producing director of Rainbow Militia Circus, who says that her dream is to grow wings and fly. We’re surprised she hasn’t already. The circus artist, who has a background in public relations, managed to showcase some of Denver’s best artists in amazing, unexpected performances throughout the past year. And while immersive arts are at risk of becoming mainstreamed, Blais has made sure that the independent spirit is strong in town.

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Rainbow Militia Circus, immersive circus entertainment

Not all is dark in 2020. Rainbow Militia Circus is here for escape, said Amber Blais, the producing director of Rainbow Militia Circus.

“It’s important to make art because right now. Times are difficult and art brings such joy,” Blais said. “Right now it’s feeding our souls in such a necessary manner that I couldn’t imagine what we would do if we couldn’t keep creating.”

The group was able to put on pandemic-safe performances this year.

“Every work that we create we hope it’ll allow people to step outside of the really difficult time that we are currently in,” Blais said. “Our hope in 2020 was that we could help people escape a little bit and bring them into worlds that were a little more fantastical.”

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5280 Magazine
Daliah Singer

It makes sense that Amber Blais was drawn to the circus life: The woman knows how to juggle. But we’re not talking about multicolored balls or chainsaws here; Blais knows how to handle a tricky schedule. She spent more than five years as the communications manager for Wonderbound, a local contemporary dance troupe, and in her limited hours outside of work, she launched two creative enterprises. Raconteur Denver is a free bimonthly storytelling series held around town (mostly at coffeeshops and bars) à la New York City’s the Moth; Rainbow Militia, which Blais co-founded, is a circus collective that performs collaborative productions with local musicians and artists. “[Those endeavors] took up pretty much all of my free time,” she says. “There were times my friends would ask me to do things, and I would say no because I was working on my passion projects.”

Both ventures were artistic outlets for Blais and a way for her to connect with the local creative community outside of her job as a marketer; she wasn’t trying to make money (and her day job meant she didn’t need the extra income). She relied on apps such as Wunderlist and ColorNote to keep all of her proverbial balls in the air. “You have to be willing to put a lot of hours into it,” she says. Those would be evening hours and early morning hours and weekend hours, because as any side hustler knows, most of her income will continue to come from her full-time job—unless that side hustle starts paying some, if not all, of the bills.

Staza Stone was featured on Channel 7’s Mile High Living as part of the 2018 Buskerfest

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