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SIGHTLINE
BY JANICE SINDEN
WWelcome to the launch of our 2024/25 season!
For those joining us for KIMBERLY AKIMBO, you are in for a treat… and an exclusive first look at this national tour, which kicks o in Denver. We are delighted to have been selected to launch our fourteenth national tour thanks to the incredible enthusiasm of our local audience.
Across the galleria in the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex is a three-show lineup that kicks o the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 45th season: Hamlet, directed by none other than our Artistic Director Chris Coleman; Avaaz, the hysterical story of an Iranian immigrant written and performed by her son, and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter based on the acclaimed novel and soon-to-be movie.
Over in the Weeks Conservatory Theatre on October 18, we’re opening a charming production of Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!” designed to introduce PreK through third graders to the joy of theatre.
Plus, if you’re out and about in the community, join us for two events. First, O -Center’s MONOPOLY LIFESIZED: Travel Edition makes its US premiere at Broadway Park® (Broadway & Alameda) and DCPA Education’s Shakespeare in the Parking Lot travels throughout the metro area with free abridged versions of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Visit denvercenter.org/community for details.
Finally, starting this season, you will see a change in how we display ticket prices. Rather than adding fees as the final step of your purchase, you will see the total price up front. This is not a price increase; rather, this change aligns with Colorado’s new ticketing transparency law. The price you see on our website is the price you’ll pay — including the base ticket cost, all fees, and the city seat tax.
Whether you’re a loyal season subscriber or a first-time theatregoer, thanks for joining us for our 2024/25 season. We’re glad you’re here.
Vladimir Script
Warm regards,
Janice Sinden
Janice Sinden, President & CEO
HONORING OUR ELDERS
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts honors and acknowledges that it resides on the traditional and unceded territories of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples. We also recognize the 48 contemporary Indigenous Tribes and Nations who have historically called Colorado home.
Applause is published eight times a year by Denver Center for the Performing Arts in conjunction with The Publishing House, Westminster, CO. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Call 303.893.4000 regarding editorial content.
Applause magazine is funded in part by IN THIS
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter pg 10
Avaaz pg 14 Hamlet pg 18
KIMBERLY AKIMBO pg 22
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF UPCOMING SHOWS:
Angie Flachman, Publisher For advertising 303.428.9529 or sales@pub-house.com coloradoartspubs.com
Denver Center for the Performing Arts is a non-profit organization that engages and inspires through the transformative power of live theatre.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Hassan Salem, Chair
Ruth Krebs, Vice Chair
David Jacques Farahi, Secretary/Treasurer
Nicole Ament
Dr. Patricia Baca
Brisa Carleton
Jerome Davis
Deb Kelly
Kevin Kilstrom
Lynn McDonald
Susan Fox Pinkowitz
Manny Rodriguez
Alan Salazar
Richard M. Sapkin
Martin Semple
William Dean Singleton
Robert Slosky
Tina Walls
Dr. Reginald L. Washington
Sylvia Young
HONORARY TRUSTEES
Navin Dimond
Margot Gilbert Frank
Jeannie Fuller
Robert C. Newman
Daniel L. Ritchie
Cleo Parker Robinson
HELEN G. BONFILS FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Martin Semple, President
William Dean Singleton, Vice President
Dr. Reginald L. Washington, Secretar y/Treasurer
Nicole Ament
Marco D. Chayet
Kevin Kilstrom
Ruth Krebs
Susan Fox Pinkowitz
Hassan Salem
Robert Slosky
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT
Janice Sinden, President & CEO
Jamie Clements, Vice President, Development
Chris Coleman, Artistic Director, Theatre Company
John Ekeberg, Executive Director, Broadway & Cabaret
Charlie Miller, Executive Director & Curator, Off-Center
Lisa Roebuck, Vice President, Information Technology
Charles Varin, Managing Director, Theatre Company & Off-Center
Allison Watrous, Executive Director, Education & Community Engagement
Jane Williams, Chief Financial & Administrative Officer
LEGACY MONTH
HONORING OUR HISTORY AND THE LEGACIES THAT ENSURE OUR FUTURE
Every September, we celebrate Legacy Month at the DCPA. Our mission as a non-profit — to engage and inspire through the transformative power of live theatre — is made possible each generation thanks to the generosity of donors and the legacies of those who came before.
If you believe in the transformative power of live theatre, we invite you to make your legacy a part of ensuring our future. Connect with us, share your story, and make a legacy pledge to include the DCPA in your will, IRA, or retirement giving Scan the QR code below to learn more!
To connect with us about your DCPA legacy or to learn more about Legacy Month and the various opportunities and benefits of legacy giving, check out our website or reach out to Connor Carlin, Associate Director of Development, Major Gifts: ccarlin@dcpa.org | 303.446.4842 | denvercenter.org/legacy
Bobby G 2023, photo by McLeod9Creative
Leslie Alexander and Sophia Dotson in A Little Night Music
Photo by Amanda Tipton Photography
Adams Design + Photo
Photo by McLeod9Creative
UPCOMING ADDED ATTRACTIONS
Complement
A CONVERSATION BETWEEN FRIENDS
The Making of I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER with Playwright
Isaac Gómez and Director Laura Acalá Baker
BY MARLOWE MOORE
WWhat’s going to happen at the Denver Center Theatre Company starting in September has been years in the making. Longtime friends and collaborators Isaac Gómez, playwright, and director Laura Alcalá Baker reunite for the first time since the pandemic for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an adaptation of Erika L. Sánchez’s award-winning novel. For the first time, the play will take place in-the-round, giving audiences unprecedented access to the rich, inner world of Júlia, the main character who is painfully aware of how much she is not the perfect Mexican daughter. Isaac picked up Sánchez’s novel shortly after its publication in 2017. From the first words, they knew they were reading something crackling with life, transmitting a razor-sharp, inescapable truth: YOU ARE SEEN. Júlia struggles. She laughs. She dances. She grieves, she says the wrong things, she hurts. Júlia loves. She fails. She causes the most awkward public scene at the worst possible time. Her rage is real, her despair is real, her flawless sarcastic timing never fails to make the exact point no one else dares to confront. Isaac read the opening line in the bookstore, then immediately shut the book. “I couldn’t read it in public. The book was going to make me feel a lot of things I knew would touch on parts of me that I hadn’t experienced in literature before.”
Isaac was sitting in the tech rehearsal of their play La Ruta for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company when they finished the book. “I was so blown away by it, and I thought ‘this would make an excellent play,’” Isaac says. They pitched the idea to Hallie Gordon at Steppenwolf, and she immediately bought in after reading the novel.
“I’ve told Erika that, from the opening line, there’s something about the way that this story is written that makes me feel very naked and vulnerable.”
“I identify as non-binary,” says Isaac, “but I was raised in a household of all brothers. And as the outspoken, surly rebel of my family who was very alternative and the daughter that my mom never had but always wanted — I, too, wasn’t the perfect Mexican daughter. Because I couldn’t be. For me, there was so much about Júlia’s story and her voice…when I talked with Erika about this, she was like, ‘the person most like Júlia is you’.”
Isaac adapted the novel, preserving the crackling energy and unflinching vulnerability, as they are known for in their work. “Finding my way to this story and adapting it for the stage remains one of the greatest honors of my career,” says Isaac. “This story just feels very close.”
The story grabbed Laura, too. “This play feels so raw,” says Laura. “I had to put it down multiple times while reading it. The vulnerability thing is really real. It feels like it is cutting so close to the vein — really fast, too. She shows all of her ugly. It’s so brutal, it’s so hard. And with a story like this, the playwright has to embody the narrator to pull the story and the audience along.”
“I find, inherent with all of Isaac’s work,” says Laura, “that we are speaking the same language. Isaac has this way of making people feel known. There’s something about an Isaac Gómez play
I find, inherent with all of Isaac’s work, that we are speaking the same language. Isaac has this way of making people feel known. There’s something about an Isaac Gómez play where I go “oh! I know these people! I know how it breathes, I know the heartbeat,” and that makes my work exciting.
— LAURA ALCALÁ BAKER,
DIRECTOR
where I go ‘oh! I know these people! I know how it breathes, I know the heartbeat,’ and that makes my work exciting.
“So, Isaac called recently and was like this [Mexican Daughter] is happening in Denver, and I put your name forward. You’re the one I want for it. There’s nothing like having a friend and a person you admire say you’re the one for this. It makes you feel chosen and seen. At this point, I have an understanding of their writing. Even as I read the first page, I was like ‘I know what this is, let’s go.’”
When we enter Júlia’s story at the start of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, a terrible thing has happened. From the moment the lights go up, we’re on this turbulent ride with Júlia, rolling up and down in her mind, her writing, her memories, as she tries to make sense out of a fatal accident that undoes her sense of reality. “The mental health piece of it is probably the most significant part of Júlia’s journey,” says Isaac. “This is the story of a young woman who desperately wants to feel seen, to feel heard, and whose dreams are bigger than anyone else’s.”
When Isaac and Laura reunited for this play, they knew the challenge of staging it in the round. “When you’re in the round, you’re on display all the time. Every single thing has to be so intentional, everything is on purpose,” says Laura. Inspired by the energy of Isaac’s script, she decided to create a version of this play, as she says, “that no one has ever seen before.” The openness of the theater-in-the-round lets her take I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter deeper into Júlia’s “mind palace,” so that the space itself becomes Júlia’s rich, complex, funny, and complicated inner world, with the textures of Chicago, Mexico, and her home life woven into it.
“I’m most excited to see Laura’s vision,” Isaac says. “She’s one of the most brilliant directors I’ve ever worked with. This is going to be a notyour-typical production of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.”
“I’m so glad to be back in the room with Isaac,” Laura says. “It’s going to be an incredible adventure, and we’re not letting the audience go.”
I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT
MEXICAN DAUGHTER
SEP 27 – NOV 3 • KILSTROM THEATRE
ASL Interpreted and Audio Described performance: Oct 13 at 1:30pm
Stay for a post-show discussion on select dates following our 7pm performances: Oct 10, 17 & 22
READ THE FULL ARTICLE
• All people are equal • Moments are shared • Differences are valued
• Discussion is encouraged
We respect that everyone experiences our stories differently.
AVAAZ: SUCCEEDING AGAINST ENORMOUS ODDS
BY MISHA BERSON
IIn a workshop on playwriting some years ago, Michael Shayan was instructed by the leader to put a hand over his heart, to feel the heartbeat of a character — and to “just listen.”
The voice he heard was one Shayan had known all his life. It was that of his remarkable Jewish-Iranian mother, Roya.
Writing about one’s mom is not an easy exercise — though many playwrights (and other scribes) have been moved to do it. And immigrant parents often have fascinating stories to tell.
Roya is one such colorful and extraordinary person. And her relationship with her son is both close and complex, as many parent-child kinships are. So that assignment eventually blossomed into the critically acclaimed new play, Avaaz, which comes to Denver Center Theatre Company this fall and marks the beginning of a national tour.
“It’s an honor to take Avaaz across the country, particularly at a time of overwhelming anti-immigrant sentiment,” says Shayan. “Avaaz offers a different narrative and grapples with complex truths in a fabulous, decadent party on stage.”
“Avaaz,” in Farsi and several other languages including Hindu and Urdu, means (aptly) “voice” or “song,” more specifically “a song as it is being sung.” And to portray her in this solo theater piece, Shayan adopts his mother’s unique voice, her love of Iranian culture, her bitter and sweet memories in her homeland and adopted country.
Avaaz proved to be not just a great vehicle for Shayan the actor-playwright (he has also worked as an Emmynominated screenwriter and television producer) but also an opportunity to learn more about the woman who raised him.
Avaaz was also a chance to meld his mother’s extravagant humor and joy with a serious exploration of the hardships Roya faced as a political refugee, the difficulties and rewards of raising her son after departing an abusive marriage, and the challenges of accepting Michael’s open homosexuality.
What first beguiled Denver Center Theatre Company Artistic Director Chris Coleman about Avaaz, however, was Shayan’s comic flair.
“I saw Avaaz in its world premiere at South Coast Repertory Theatre, and I had no idea what to expect,” recalls Coleman. “At first, I just thought it was hilarious. Michael has standup comedian skills, and was ridiculously funny.”
But as the show unspooled, continues Coleman, “I realized how political and poignant it is too. That was tucked so deftly inside the humor, you were happy to digest it.”
Coleman’s admiration for Avaaz and decision to share it with Denver theatergoers in DCTC’s 2024/25 season, spurred his own research into the history of ancient Persia and its modern equivalent, Iran. Though Denver has a relatively small Iranian community, he tapped into it via discussions with investor-philanthropist and Denver Center for the Performing Arts Board member David Jacques Farahi, whose Jewish family also hails from the country.
“Jews have been in Iran for several thousand years,” notes Coleman. “Actually, most of us in America know little about Iran, other than from current news headlines. We don’t know what it’s like to live there, how deep the intellectual and literary community is, how old the culture is, or the Jewish community’s place in the country’s history.”
Avaaz alludes to all of that, beginning with the spread of foods, flowers and cultural objects arrayed on an eye-popping set created by Tony Award-winning Broadway designer Beowulf Boritt, and with Roya’s flowing brocade robes, an Iranian-style garment designed by Emmy winner Joshua “Domino” Schwartz. The production is helmed and directed by the celebrated Tony Award-nominated director Moritz von Stuelpnagel (I Need That, Hand to God ).
A witty, elegant woman, Roya graciously invites the audience into this decorous environment to celebrate Nowruz with her. She explains that Nowruz is a traditional New Year’s holiday observed for centuries each spring (by Iranians, but also by people in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Kurdish Iraq and other nations). She’s prepared a larger-thanlife celebration that features music, dancing, storytelling, as well as symbolic foods laid out in a ritual arrangement called a haft-sin
As the play unfolds, Roya waits for her son to show up (they haven’t been on good terms recently, she confesses). She speaks of fleeing to the United States as a young adult and finding refuge in an area of Los Angeles where many Iranian expats have settled. And she jokes about the culture adjustments and culture clashes she encountered in her new country.
With little money, Roya and Michael shared a small L.A. apartment in Westwood. In the only bedroom, they slept on twin beds “so close we could feel each other breathe” and studied together as they each pursued their educational goals.
But that bond was tested once Michael grew up and came out as a gay man. Roya’s pride in his attending Harvard University and becoming a professional actor-writer, was tempered by her difficulty in fully accepting his queerness.
Shayan doesn’t glide over the difficulties in their relationship. But it is clear that, despite the tensions and differences, their fondness for one another remains. Avaaz offers a fresh, new perspective on mother-son dynamics that is both specific and deeply universal; it’s one we rarely see on stage.
At the performance of Avaaz he attended, Coleman got a look at the real-life Roya — a glamorous woman, Sheri Rabeie, who has a successful career as an engineer.
The play, says Coleman, “is a success story. It’s about somebody who against enormous odds comes to this country, and builds a life. It’s enormous fun, and we can learn from it. But it’s not a lecture. It’s a discovery.”
Denver Center Theatre Company presents the Olney Theatre Center production of AVAAZ
OCT 4 - NOV 17 • SINGLETON THEATRE
ASL Interpreted and Audio Described performance: Oct 20 at 1:30pm
Stay for a post-show discussion on select dates following our 7pm performances: Nov 6 & 13
WOMEN’S VOICES FUND
Join the DCPA in creating dedicated opportunities for female artists and leaders in theatre.
Established in 2005, the Women’s Voices Fund is an initiative designed to foster and elevate the work of women in the theatre. The fund helps create, develop, and support the voices of women – past, present, and future – and advances their work in the American theatre repertoire.
Become a Women’s Voices Fund member today and help support women in theatre! Help us give equal voices to women in theatre.
For more information please contact: Caitie Maxwell cmaxwell@dcpa.org 303.446.4840
(above) Samantha Steinmetz and Amelia Pedlow in Emma
(left) Minita Gandhi. Cowboys and East Indians, Colorado New Play Summit 2024. Photos by Jamie Kraus Photography
Revisiting HAMLET Through New Eyes
BY JOANNE OSTROW
Cby Kyle Malone
Chris Coleman never aspired to direct Hamlet
The Artistic Director of the Denver Center Theatre Company never saw himself in that role. He had played the title character onstage twice — senior year in college at Baylor University and again at Actor’s Express, a theater company he founded in Atlanta — and “literally never wanted to direct it because I couldn’t get those (productions) out of my head.”
But now, as director of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s season opener, Coleman said, “it’s like visiting an old friend, seeing it through new eyes.”
His understanding of the play has evolved as he has aged. He now sees it as “a play about growing into your destiny. What’s at stake politically in that kingdom is giant. I don’t know that I felt that or got that in earlier times.”
The setting Coleman has created for his Hamlet is inspired by Norse legends, referring back to the peak of the Viking period. “I told the costume designer everybody should look like they could go into battle within half an hour. We’re not trying to be literal about it, but that gives us permission to have the story make sense.”
Coleman is a self-described history nut, political junkie and lover of Shakespeare. Those interests all come together in directing this play — he sees parallels and historic relevance everywhere.
In the course of discussing Hamlet, he references a number of historic and contemporary world figures and cultural moments that echo for him. Elizabeth I (someone who was groomed for the throne from childhood,
unlike Hamlet), Barack Obama (a professorial leader and nuanced thinker who, like Hamlet, could be slow to act), Alexander the Great, Elizabethan theater and preChristianized Viking Scandinavia.
The history and politics combined with the incredible language, he said, “just feels so rich and fun to play with.”
Two of his undergrad professors first turned Coleman on to Shakespeare and he’s felt connected ever since.
“Every time I’ve worked on one (of his plays), I’ve learned a little bit more about how to decode the structure of the language.” Directing Hamlet has been “the most glorious pleasure in the world,” he said.
In Elizabethan times, Coleman said, the revenge story was the runaway hit of the day, akin to our actionadventure story. Audiences couldn’t get enough. What Shakespeare did that was revolutionary was allow the audience to see inside the mind of the hero in a way they hadn’t before.
“Shakespeare revealed consciousness before psychology was defined as a science,” Coleman said.
“It’s almost like Hamlet’s psyche is transparent to us. We get to see every internal twist and turn that he is struggling with.”
Rather than depict Prince Hamlet as depressed or inactive, as some literary critics suggest, Coleman prefers to believe “he’s heartbroken at the beginning of the play.” He feels deceived by his mother, Gertrude, who has married his uncle, Claudius, shockingly soon after the death of his father. Hamlet takes a long time testing
Illustration
whether the ghost encouraging him to avenge his father’s death is a benevolent spirit or, as he says, “a demon come to lure me into hell.”
“What I never considered as a young man,” Coleman said, “is, if Hamlet were a more intuitive politician, like Alexander the Great, who charged into battle when his father was stabbed in the middle of the court…” things would have gone differently. Imagining an alternative fictional history, Coleman wonders, for instance, what if Hamlet had met Fortinbras and his army at the border, where the Norwegian crown prince is waiting to regain territory his father lost?
“But that’s not who he is.” A different political mind could have pursued it, Coleman said, but not Hamlet.
Instead, “it takes Hamlet the whole play to become the man who is as ruthless as he needs to be to operate at this political level.”
In most productions, Hamlet is cast as a mature man. But Coleman believes the character is quite unformed. “I think he’s a kid, he’s in
Every time I’ve worked on one [of his plays], I’ve learned a little bit more about how to decode the structure of the language.… [Directing Hamlet has been] the most glorious pleasure in the world.
— CHRIS COLEMAN, DIRECTOR
college, completely unprepared to step onto the throne.”
Coleman cast actor Ty Fanning to play Hamlet, an accomplished actor who, Coleman is happy to say, can appear to be mid-20s. That suits the director’s idea of the prince as youthful, even immature.
The character is “very overwhelmed with his emotions at the top of the play. He’s got an amazing mind…he’d be a great professor. He can see every facet of a possible action. But that can be paralyzing. I think in some ways about Obama, such an inspiring speaker and person but if your thinking is that nuanced…it was tougher for him to get to a solution.”
Given his many insightful reflections on history and the relevance of Shakespeare’s play, does Coleman perhaps see parallels to a certain modern revenge-seeking politician in the play that is all about revenge?
“I would rather leave you room to see the correlations that you find,” he said. “Certainly there’s a lot to be thought about.”
Ultimately, how does a director approach such an iconic play, often cited as the greatest of all time?
“It’s like, how do you eat an elephant? A bite at a time,” he said. “You take it a piece at a time and pay attention to the story, that’s the exciting part, decoding the language enough to get to hear the truth of the story.”
HAMLET
SEP 13 - OCT 6 • WOLF THEATRE
ASL Interpreted, Audio Described and Open Captioned performance: Sep 22 at 1:30pm
Stay for a post-show discussion on select dates following our 7pm performances: Sep 24 & Oct 1
4 New Play Readings
2 World Premieres
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A DYNAMIC DUO: KIMBERLY AKIMBO ’ S
JEANINE TESORI AND DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE
BY JOANNE OSTROW
KKimberly Akimbo is one of those magical musicals that makes you wonder, “how did they pull that off ?” An intimate, smart, deeply human musical that arrived on Broadway without a big star or a recognizable title, it nevertheless became the talk of the town by winning over audiences and critics alike and by making them rethink what a Broadway musical can be.
And while the story of Kimberly Akimbo may seem atypical for a Broadway musical, its combination of heart and humor has earned it five Tony Awards, including 2023’s award for Best Musical, with a score by Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home) and book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole).
The story concerns a New Jersey teenager who is about to turn 16 but who looks 70-something. Kimberly Levaco has a rare genetic condition that causes her to age rapidly.
The show is both laugh-out-loud funny and heart wrenchingly sad, a wise collision of humor and suffering with mortality at its core.
“That’s where David’s house is built,” Tesori said in a joint interview, “at the corner of Humor Street and Heartbreak Avenue.”
“It’s why Jeanine and I connect so much and collaborate,” Lindsay-Abaire said. “We have a similar sensibility. We both grew up in a very specific way, working-class, our family experienced a lot of pain and suffering. The way we mostly coped with that is through humor. And so it’s not something we try to do, it’s where we live.
“Our show is about living life to the fullest in whatever
time you have left.” he said. “It’s funny, it’s life-affirming, but it’s also about a teenage girl facing her own mortality and facing her first experience of first love and she has a deeply dysfunctional family, but everybody’s trying to be better. It says life is as funny as it is sad and at least for us, maybe most people, that’s the way they experience life. It’s complicated.”
Their shared worldview allows them to dig into the sad-funny themes with a punch. When asked how their personalities work together, Tesori just laughs. And laughs.
When she finally stops laughing, she says, “I think David is the most hilarious person I’ve ever met. He’s not about jokes, he’s about finding things very funny, and that life is heartbreaking and hilarious and his plays are a deep reflection of that…it’s like if Christopher Durang and Thornton Wilder had a baby…”
“I wish they did have a baby.”
“They did, and it’s you.”
They banter breezily. “Obviously, Jeanine and I share a sensibility and a very twisted sense of humor,” he said. “We are so similar in our tastes and also very different in the way we approach the craft of it sometimes. I am much more a control freak than Jeanine is, and I structure; Jeanine is very free-wheeling. She pokes at things and breaks things apart in a way that makes me uncomfortable.”
Only occasionally will she go too far, he said, and he’ll have to pull her back.
The play is about growing up and growing old, not necessarily in that order. But it’s more profound than that.
The Original Broadway Company of KIMBERLY AKIMBO photo by Joan Marcus.
“I really think it’s about the time of your life,” Tesori said, “I mean that both ways. People can have the time of their life even when your life is timed. I mean she knows—and don’t we all know—that life ends. I don’t think it’s fun to talk about and it can be seen as something that’s morbid, or it can be seen as an opportunity to look at the time that you have.”
It ’s about living in the moment.
Tesori references Thornton Wilder once again, paraphrasing a line from Our Town: “does anybody really know about life while they’re living it? “I think that’s why the play is so great,” Tesori said, “like, this play’s going to remind you to go outside and live differently.”
Our show is about living life to the fullest in whatever time you have left. It’s funny, it’s life-a rming, but it’s also about a teenage girl facing her own mortality and facing her first experience of first love…
— DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE, BOOK & LYRICS
Lindsay-Abaire recalls the time during previews when an older man was exiting the theater, looking angry. Lindsay-Abaire braced for negative feedback as he approached. “The man asked, ‘are you with the production?’ He said, ‘I just want you to know that tomorrow I’m going to live more fully because of this!’ He had tears in his eyes, he just walked out the door. I thought, ‘Good lord, that’s the nicest gift you could give to a writer.’ So, it worked for him that night. If people walk away with that, then we’ve done our job.”
Besides living at the intersection of tears and laughter, Kimberly Akimbo lives in the world of smart, small-scale tragicomedy while much of Broadway is given over to huge spectacles tied to superheroes or superstars. Is it a continual struggle?
“If you look at the history of Broadway,” Tesori said, “it came from operetta and vaudeville. It’s always going to be a dance between those things. One says ‘come here and leave life,’ one says ‘come here and look at life’.”
“There will always be those mega-hits based on movies audiences know the names of,” Lindsay-Abaire said, “and people will plunk down some money to see that and that’s fantastic. The good news is, there’s also room for Kimberly Akimbo to go into a little room and win the Tony Award. There are nine people in our show and we won Best Musical!”
So, what’s next for this team, the multi-Tony and Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright and lyricist, and the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history?
That’s under wraps for now. The good news is, “we’re working on something.”
SEP 22 - OCT 5 • BUELL THEATRE
ASL Interpreted, Audio Described and Open Captioned performance: Sep 29 at 2pm
COMING UP FROM BROADWAY
HAMILTON
Hamilton is returning to the Buell Theatre this fall. This epic saga following the rise of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is based on Ron Chernow’s acclaimed biography and set to a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway. Hamilton features book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, and musical supervision and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire.
Hamilton took the world by storm in 2015. Did you know these five fun facts about the revolutionary musical?
Hamilton began as a project by Lin-Manuel Miranda called The Hamilton Mixtape
Hamilton premiered Off-Broadway in February 2015, where its severalmonth engagement was consistently sold out. It wasn’t until August 2015 that the musical officially opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
The original Broadway cast recording for Hamilton debuted at 12 on the Billboard 200, making it the earliest entrance for a cast recording since 1963.
The first non-English version of Hamilton opened in Hamburg, with the production translated into German.
When the filmed stage production premiered, the film was one of the most-streamed films of 2020 and was named one of the best films of the year by the American Film Institute.
Don’t throw away your shot to see Hamilton in Denver from October 16 to November 24.
CompanyHAMILTON National Tour(c) Joan Marcus.
Chris Coleman, Artistic Director
Charles Varin, Managing Director
present
HAMLET
BY William Shakespeare
With
Shannon Altner, Brik Berkes*, Anatasha Blakely*, Seth Andrew Bridges*, Todd Cerveris*, Jacob Dresch*, Ty Fanning*, Erick González*, Ðavid Lee Huỳnh*, Corey Jones*, Xavier Edward King*, Maeve Moynihan*, Mark Rubald*, Shannan Steele*, Brian Vaughn*, Moses Villarama*, Rebecca Watson*
SCENIC DESIGN BY Chika Shimizu
Stage Managers: Sage Hughes*, Kristen Mun*
COSTUME DESIGN BY Meghan Anderson Doyle
DRAMATURGY BY Leean Kim Torske
VOICE AND TEXT BY Robert Ramirez
LIGHTING DESIGN BY Paul Whitaker
PSYCHODRAMATURGY BY Barbara Hort, PhD
CASTING BY Grady Soapes, CSA And Chad-Eric Murnane, CSA Murnane Casting
DIRECTED BY Chris Coleman
ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN BY Lindsay Jones
FIGHT DIRECTION BY Sordelet, Inc./Rick Sordelet
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT BY Matthew Campbell
The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited.
THE WOLF THEATRE • SEP 13 – OCT 6, 2024
SPOTLIGHT SPONSOR
DIANA & MIKE KINSEY IN HONOR OF ISABELLE CLARK
DIANA & MIKE KINSEY IN HONOR OF ISABELLE CLARK
SEASON SPONSORS
CAST
(In order of appearance)
Barnardo/Lucianus/Captain ................................................................................................................... Xavier Edward King*
Hamlet ................................................................................................................................................................................... Ty Fanning*
*Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
WHO’S WHO
ACTING COMPANY
(In order of appearance)
XAVIER EDWARD
KING (Barnardo/ Player/Lucianus/ Captain/Follower/ Attendant/ Ambassador).
Regional credits: Relentless and The Winter’s Tale (The Goodman Theatre); Dracula (Actor’s Theatre); Titanic (Court Theatre); The Star (ACT); Defacing Michael Jackson (Miami New Drama); Write Me A Murder, The Rainmaker and Ripcord (Peninsula Players); Hamlet and A Midsummer’s Night Dream (St. Louis Shakespeare and Notre Dame Shakespeare); Hamlet, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Pericles (Notre Dame Shakespeare). TV/Film: “61st Street,” “4400,” “The New Edition Story,” “Sweet Vicious,” “Mary & Jane.”
MOSES VILLARAMA (Francisco/ Reynaldo/Player/ Sailor/Osric) (He/ Him) has worked with some of the most prestigious directors and playwrights in American Theatre. Most recently he was on Broadway playing the DJ in Here Lies Love written by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, directed by Alex Timbers. Moses was also in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band at Signature Theatre, directed by Chay Yew. He was a company member at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for five seasons, working with influential directors such as Bill Rauch, Lileana Blain-Cruz, and Mary Zimmerman. Moses holds an MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory at DCPA.
SETH ANDREW BRIDGES (Horatio) (He/Him) is a NYC based actor and stuntman and is happily making his DCPA debut. OffBroadway: Mint Theatre Company. Regional: Alley Theatre, Indiana
Repertory Theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Riverside Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, Geva Theatre Center, Florida Repertory Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, TheatreSquared. Film/TV: Over 100 credits, including “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” “The Walking Dead: Dead City,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Severance,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Succession,” “American Horror Story,” “FBI,” “Modern Love,” and “Law & Order.” Interactive: Red Dead Redemption 2. Training: NYU
COREY JONES
(Marcellus/Player/ Fortinbras).
Broadway: The Book of Mormon (First National Tour).
Regional: Intimate Apparel (Arizona Theatre Company); Raisin in the Sun, King John, Titus Andronicus, The Tempest (Utah Shakespeare Festival); A Distinct Society (Pioneer); A Few Good Men (La Mirada); Million Dollar Quartet and Our Town (South Coast Repertory); Grinch (Old Globe); Wild With Happy (Pittsburgh City Theater); The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Dallas Theater Center); The Color Purple (Celebration Theater); Gee’s Bend (Arkansas Repertory); Othello (Shakespeare Santa Cruz); Macbeth, Ragtime (PCPA). Education: UT-Austin, Washington University
BRIK BERKES (Hamlet’s Ghost/ Cornelius/Player King/Attendant/ Follower/ Gravedigger 2) (He/ Him). Regional credits: Moon Over Buffalo (Oregon Cabaret Theater); The Curious Case of the Watson Intelligence (Relative Theatrics); Charm (Salt Lake Acting Company); The Little Dog Laughed (Portland Center Stage); Proof, Glengarry Glen Ross, Medea with Phylicia Rashad (Alliance Theatre); The Tempest, King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The 39 Steps, among others with Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Film credits: Kill the Messenger; Run, Ronnie, Run!, and Ruby in Paradise. TV credits: “Good
Eats” with Alton Brown and “Foods That Built America” on the History Channel.
BRIAN VAUGHN (Claudius). At the DCPA: A Christmas Carol. Broadway/ National Tours: Beetlejuice the Musical. Regional: Multiple productions as an actor and director at The Utah Shakespeare Festival; 13 seasons as a Resident Company Member at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Red Bull Theatre, Renaissance Theatreworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Northlight Theatre, PCPA, Skylight Music Theatre, South Coast Rep. brianvaughnofficial.com / @brianvaughn11.
MARK RUBALD (Voltemand/ Attendant/Follower/ Priest/Soldier). At DCPA: A Christmas Carol, Comedy of Errors, Arcadia, The Winter’s Tale, Man Of The Moment, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Lonesome West, Measure for Measure, Sideman, Merchant Of Venice, John Brown’s Body, Servant of Two Masters, The Taming Of The Shrew, Ladies Of The Camellias, The Misanthrope, The Imaginary Invalid, The Tempest, The Madwoman Of Chaillot, A Flea In Her Ear, Grapes of Wrath, Room Service, and others. He has also worked at the Arvada Center, Lone Tree Arts Center, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Theatreworks, Central City Opera, Old Globe, New York stage and film.
ÐAVID LEE HUỲNH (Laertes) (He/They) is an award-winning actor and writer based in NYC. OffBroadway: The Merchant of Venice (TFANA); Once Upon A (korean) Time (Ma-Yi Theatre Company); the Drama Desk-nominated Henry VI (NAATCO); Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Gingold Theatrical Group); Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Transport Group); No-No Boy and Emperor’s Nightingale
(Pan Asian Rep). Regional: Yale Rep, Alley Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare, Everyman Theatre, Mixed Blood, The Shakespeare Theatre, and many others. TV/Film: “Blue Bloods,” “FBI,” Solitary, Children of the Dust. Starring in the Dungeons & Dragons series “Encounter Party” streaming on Freevee and Plex. MFA: University of Houston | davidleehuynh.com | Insta: huynhsome
TODD CERVERIS (Polonius/ Gravedigger 1). Broadway: South Pacific and Twentieth Century. OffBroadway: A Man for All Seasons, Yours Unfaithfully, Southern Comfort, Almost Maine, The Butcherhouse Chronicles, Time and the Conways, Somewhere Someplace Else, Dick in London. National tours: War Horse, Spring Awakening, Twelve Angry Men, and The Acting Company. Film/TV: “East New York,” “The Other Two,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Madame Secretary,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Homeland,” “Allegiance,” A Stage of Twilight, One True Thing. Regional: DCPA, Long Wharf Theater, A.C.T., Arena Stage, Old Globe Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Play House, TheaterWorks S.V., Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
TY FANNING
(Hamlet) (He/Him). Off-Broadway: Spain (Second Stage) and Boswell (59E59). Chicago credits: Lindiwe (Steppenwolf Theatre Company –World Premiere), Teenage Dick (Theater Wit – Chicago Premiere), and multiple productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. He spent five seasons at American Players Theater where some of his credits include An Iliad, Three Sisters, She Stoops to Conquer and Sense and Sensibility Other credits include Writers Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival (two seasons), Indiana Rep, Palm Beach Dramaworks, and Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. TV/Film: “Search Party,” “Chicago Med” and “Hot Mess Holiday.” Training: BFA, Oklahoma City University.
REBECCA WATSON (Gertrude). Broadway: To Kill a Mockingbird. Regional: To the Lighthouse (World Premiere/Berkeley Rep); Realistic Joneses (A.C.T.); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Sunday in the Park (Rep of St. Louis); Much Ado About Nothing (Pioneer Theatre); Julius Caesar (Portland Stage); Old Times (Shakespeare Theatre); 1776 and Me and My Girl (Goodspeed Opera); Sweeney Todd (Human Race); Ring Round The Moon (Barrington Stage). Film/TV: The Great Lillian Hall, The Good Nurse, “Fallout,” “The Gilded Age,” “The Night Agent,” “Looming Tower,” “The Good Fight,” “High Maintenance,” “Difficult People,” “Normal Heart,” “FBI.” Rebecca is Black Belle in Red Dead Redemption II.
MAEVE
MOYNIHAN (Ophelia/Court).
First National Tour: To Kill a Mockingbird. Regional: Steel Magnolias (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Music Man, The Master Butcher’s Singing Club, Little House on the Prairie the Musical (Guthrie Theater); Hamlet (Park Square Theatre); While You Were Out (Red Eye Theater); Richard III and The Comedy of Errors (Montana Shakespeare in the Parks); Violet (Theater Latté Da); The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella (The Children’s Theatre Company); The Grapes of Wrath (The Minnesota Opera). TV: “Blue Bloods.” Education: BFA, University of Minnesota/Guthrie.
ANATASHA
BLAKELY (Rosencrantz) (She/Her). Theatre: Richard III (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, All’s Well That Ends
Well, The Tempest (Utah Shakespeare Festival); Julius Caesar and Macbeth (Alabama Shakespeare Project); The Comedy of Errors and The Winter’s Tale (Kingsmen Shakespeare Company). TV/Film: “Colony,” Inch Thick, Knee Deep, Death Parts Us, Maladjustment. Best Actress Awards: Filmquest, Houston Horror Film
Festival, Horror Haus, Haunted Fear Fest. Improv Comedy: Buddy Puzzle (Second City LA), Stormchaser (iO West), Three Beautiful Lips (Rise Comedy).
SHANNAN STEELE (Player Queen/ Courtier/Messenger/ Attendant) (She/ Her). At the DCPA: Sweeney Todd, A Christmas Carol and Animal Crackers (DCTC); My Way, The Taffetas, The Last Five Years and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, (DCPA Cabaret) Regional credits: Noises Off, Into the Woods, Mamma Mia, Tarzan, and The 1940’s Radio Hour (The Arvada Center); Chicago (Breckenridge Backstage Theatre). Film: Ink. Special awards/Education/ Training: Doctor of Physical Therapy, Denver Post Ovation Award and Henry Award nominee.
ERICK GONZÁLEZ (Guildenstern) (He/Him). At the DCPA: Twelfth Night Off-Broadway: El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba, La Dama Boba, Valor Agravio Mujer, En el Nombre de Salomé, El Loco por Fuerza, Aire Frío (Repertorio Español); Marfa Lights (INTAR Theatre); Noche Tan Linda (Pregones/PRTT). Regional: Native Gardens (Portland Center Stage, Geva Theatre, Syracuse Stage); Farragut North (Premiere Stages). Other NY credits: La Caída de Trujillo (Teatro Círculo); Pericles, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar (Hip to Hip); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth (Frog and Peach). TV/Film: “Evil,” “Madam Secretary,” “StartUp,” A Nice Girl Like You
SHANNON ALTNER (Understudy) (She/ Her). Select credits include Shakespeare In The Parking Lot and Uncle Vanya (DCPA Education); As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare In The Wild); Our American Cousin: A Nation Divided (Benchmark Theatre); Steel Magnolias (Cherry Creek Theatre); Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (BETC), and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche (Avenue
Theater). Special Awards: Henry Award nominee, Our American Cousin: A Nation Divided shannonaltner.com
JACOB DRESCH (Understudy). Favorite credits: The School for Scandal (Off-Broadway; Red Bull Theater); It’s A Wonderful Life (2022 Henry Award Winner; Breckenridge Backstage); A Christmas Carol (DCPA); One Man, Two Guvnors, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); Lend Me a Tenor, The Foreigner, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Macbeth (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival); The Comedy of Errors (Chautauqua Theater Company); Twelfth Night, The Great Gatsby (Orlando Shakespeare Theater). Currently serving as an Adjunct Professor at MSU Denver, Dresch received his MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Full credits at jacobdresch.com.
PLAYWRIGHT
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was born in late April 1564 in Stratfordupon-Avon. As a young actor, poet and playwright, he joined The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, one of the most successful acting troupes in London. In 1599, the troupe lost the lease of the theatre where it performed and built its own theatre across the Thames, south of London, which it called The Globe. The new theatre opened in July of 1599 built from the timbers of the old theatre. In 1603, when James I came to the throne, the new king designated the troupe as the King’s Company. Shakespeare entertained the people of London at The Globe until June 19, 1613, when a cannon fired from the roof of the theatre during a performance of Henry VIII set the thatch roof on fire and burned the theatre to the ground. Shakespeare retired from the stage but continued to write until his death in 1616 on his 52nd birthday. To this day, Shakespeare is the most widely admired and well-known poet and playwright in English literature.
DIRECTOR
CHRIS COLEMAN is passionate about the connection between stories and community. He joined the Denver Center Theatre Company as Artistic Director in November of 2017 and has directed Rubicon, A Little Night Music,
Hotter Than Egypt, Much Ado About Nothing, Rattlesnake Kate, Twelfth Night, A Doll’s House, Anna Karenina, and Oklahoma!. Previously, Chris served as Artistic Director for Portland Center Stage in Oregon for 18 years. Under his leadership, PCS renovated the city’s historic Armory into a new home, saw annual attendance nearly double, workshopped 52 new plays that went on to productions at over 100 theaters around the US and UK, and became a national leader in how theaters engage with their community.
In 1988, Chris founded Actor’s Express in Atlanta (in the basement of an old church), a company that continues to be a cultural force in the Southeast today. He has directed at major theaters across the country, including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Alliance Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Baltimore Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, ACT/Seattle, the Asolo, Pittsburgh Public, 59E59, and New York Theater Workshop. He and his husband, actor/writer Rodney Hicks, live in Reunion with their 18 lb. terrier mix. Since moving to Colorado, he has hiked Dominguez Canyon, wandered the Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde, explored a working mine in Creede, and rafted down the Arkansas River.
CREATIVE TEAM
MATTHEW CAMPBELL (Production Manager) is grateful and honored to support, collaborate, and work with our brilliant and outstanding production team, shops, crews, artisans and guest artists to create extraordinary theatre. Previously a stage manager at a few stops in the mid-west as well as numerous Colorado theatres, and Assistant Professor of Theatre at Brooklyn College in New York. Joined the DCPA stage management team in 2010 and after several years moved over to the production management team. Every show along the way is a favorite, but some DCPA and Off-Center highlights have been Sweet & Lucky, The 12, Lord of the Flies, Animal Crackers, Frankenstein, The Book of Will, Rattlesnake Kate, The Chinese Lady, and Wild Fire.
MEGHAN ANDERSON DOYLE (Costume Designer) (She/Her). At the DCPA: 30+ productions. Select credits: Rubicon, The Chinese Lady, A Doll’s House, A Doll’s House, Part II, American Mariachi, The Wild Party, Sweet & Lucky, Xanadu and
Act of God. Other select credits: Noises Off!, The Drowning Girls, and others (Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities); The Book of Will, King Lear, and others (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); The Secretary, The Cake, The Brother/Sister Plays, and others (Curious Theatre Company). Special Awards: Henry Award Outstanding Costume Design – A Doll’s House 2020. Training: BA-University of Denver, MFA-University of Florida. DoyleCostumeDesign.com
BARBARA HORT, PHD (Psychodramaturg) has maintained a private practice in Portland, Oregon for over three decades, based on the work of the psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Dr. Hort has served as psychodramaturg on numerous productions at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and Portland Center Stage, providing material on the play’s psychological dynamics that is used by the artists creating the production. She is the author of Hollow Crown of Fire: A Discovery of Meaning in the Coronavirus Pandemic and Its Predecessors (2023) and Unholy Hunger: Encountering the Psychic Vampire in Ourselves and Others (1996).
LINDSAY JONES (Composer and Sound Designer) (He/Him). Broadway: Slave Play (Tony nominations for Best Original Score, Best Sound Design of a Play), The Nap, Bronx Bombers, A Time to Kill. Off-Broadway: Privacy (Public Theater), Bootycandy (Playwrights Horizons) Feeding the Dragon (Primary Stages), and many others. Regional: Guthrie, Center Stage, ACT, Hartford Stage, Alliance, Goodman, Arena Stage, Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, and many others. International: Stratford Festival (Canada), Royal Shakespeare Company (England), and many others. Audio dramas: Marvel, Audible, Next Chapter Podcasts, awardwinning “The Imagine Neighborhood.” Film/TV scoring: HBO Films A Note of Triumph (2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject). Other: Co-Chair – Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association (TSDCA). lindsayjones.com.
CHAD ERIC MURNANE (Casting) (He/Him) is a New York-based creative professional and the founder of Murnane Casting. Previously, Chad enjoyed six years as a casting director at Binder Casting, a renowned office within the theatre industry, where he
collaborated on dozens of high-profile projects. Career highlights include casting Into the Woods (Hollywood Bowl), Emojiland (Off-Broadway at The Duke), along with national/ international tours of Lincoln Center Theater’s My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Tootsie, and the Tony Awardwinning revival of The Color Purple On film, Chad worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and the reboot of Friday the 13th (Paramount).
ROBERT RAMIREZ (Voice and Text Coach) has worked as an actor, director, voice artist, and voice and text coach at theaters across the country including the Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, Hartford Stage, Alley Theater, Public Theater, American Players Theatre, as well as numerous Shakespeare festivals in every region. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Los Angeles Theatre Academy at Los Angeles City College and earned his MFA at the University of Delaware’s Professional Theatre Training Program. Robert is currently the Head of the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University. This is his DCPA debut!
CHIKA SHIMIZU (Scenic Designer). Regional: Signature Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Alliance Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Paper Mill Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Portland Center Stage, TheatreSquared, Yale Rep (The Caucasian Chalk Circle, CT Critics Circle Award Nom). OffBroadway: WP Theatre, Irish Rep, The Pond Theatre Company, Epic Theatre Ensemble, The Barrow Group, Yangtze Repertory Theatre. Installation: “Another Dream, Un(re)solved” (Ado Ato Pictures, 2022 SXSW Innovation Award, Emmy Award). Other recent projects include Soft Power (Signature Theatre) and Furlough’s Paradise (Alliance Theatre). MFA in Design from Yale School of Drama. chikashimizu.com
SORDELET, INC/RICK SORDELET (Fight Director) and sons, Christian and Collin Kelly-Sordelet, created SordeletInc.com, a Native-owned action movement company with 80 Broadway productions, including The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Tina. Resident fight/intimacy directors at Santa Fe Opera since 2015, Moby Dick at the MET. Film: The Game Plan, Dan in Real Life, Ben is Back starring
Julia Roberts, Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson, One True Loves starring Simu Lim. Instruction: William Esper Studio, HB Studio, CUNY Harlem, Montclair State and 22 years at Yale School of Drama. Rick and David Blixt run a publishing company at Sordeletink.com. @Sordeletinc on Instagram.
GRADY SOAPES, CSA (Casting) (He/Him) is the Director of Casting and Artistic Producer with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Grady has cast over 40 DCPA productions including Rattlesnake Kate, Theater of the Mind, The Chinese Lady, The Who’s Tommy, and The Wild Party. Choreography credits include A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night, Goodnight Moon, Anna Karenina, As You Like It, Drag Machine, Lord of the Butterflies, DragON (Denver Center); Into the Woods, The Liar (Arvada Center); Comedy of Errors (Colorado Shakespeare Festival). Grady also works as a Casting Director for Sylvia Gregory Casting where he has cast multiple commercials, TV, film and video game projects.
LEEAN KIM TORSKE (Dramaturg) is the Director of Literary Programs for the Denver Center Theatre Company. In the past, she’s served as the Literary Manager and Casting Associate at Northlight Theatre, Director of the Russ Tutterow Fellowship at Chicago Dramatists, and a publicist and discussion facilitator at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. As a freelance dramaturg and theatre artist, she worked with theatres throughout the Chicagoland area including A Red Orchid Theatre, Congo Square Theatre, Definition Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, and more. Her play Pity Party is featured in Smith & Kraus’s 105 Five-Minute Plays for Study and Performance. Most recently, her play And the Wind Howls was commissioned and produced by Relative Theatrics with support from the Wyoming Arts Council.
PAUL WHITAKER (Lighting Designer). At the DCPA: Much Ado About Nothing, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. New York credits include work at The Public Theater, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company and others. Regional credits include The Guthrie, The Alley, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse, The Children’s Theatre Company, The
Long Wharf Theatre, The Huntington Theatre Company, Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Minnesota Opera, San Diego Opera, and others. Paul is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Paul is a Principal Lighting Designer/Theatre Consultant for Schuler Shook. www.schulershook.com www.paulwhitakerdesigns.com.
STAGE MANAGEMENT
SAGE HUGHES (Assistant Stage Manager) (She/Her). Previously at the DCPA: Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, Emma, Cebollas, A Little Night Music, Theater of the Mind, Colorado New Play Summit, Choir Boy, Rattlesnake Kate, and A Christmas Carol. Other regional credits include UNDONE: The Lady M Project and Local Lab 12 (Local Theater Company), Kinky Boots, The Revolutionists, and The Phantom Tollbooth (Hangar Theatre Company), and Shoes for the Santo Niño (Santa Fe Opera). Production management credits: Sweeney Todd, Queens Girl in the World, Lost Girl, and The Sun Serpent (Hangar) Sage holds a BA in Theatre and English from the University of New Mexico.
KRISTEN MUN (Stage Manager) was born and raised on the island of Oahu and is a proud AEA stage manager who has been working in Portland, OR for over 10 years. She started her stage management journey in Ashland, Oregon at Southern Oregon University where she received a BFA in Theatre Arts and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she was the stage management intern on Don Quixote (2009) and Throne of Blood (2010). At the DCPA: Choir Boy. When Kristen is not stage managing, she is a fight choreographer.
THEATRE COMPANY LEADERSHIP TEAM
CHRIS COLEMAN (see Director)
CHARLES VARIN (Managing Director) and his team are responsible for the administrative, financial, and business operations for Theatre Company and Off-Center productions and other artistic initiatives. Since joining the Theatre Company in 2006, he has played a major role in executing the artistic vision of the organization and facilitating the production of shows such as Sweet & Lucky, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Sense & Sensibility the Musical, The 12, Sweeney Todd with DeVotchKa and many more. Charles is passionate about artistic innovation and firmly
believes in DCPA’s long-standing commitment to new plays and new voices.
In addition to DCPA staff, the following crew worked on this production: Delaney Althauser, Arbor Arzola, Andy Bruening, Lisa Ehrle, Katarina Kosmopoulos,
Marting, Nikki Mayer, Fox Rhodvin, Ann Sanchez.
The Director and Fight Director are members of the STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union.
The actors and stage managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
Backstage and Ticket Services Employees are represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States and Canada. (or I.A.T.S.E.)
The scenic, costume, lighting and sound designers in LORT Theatres are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.
PLEASE BE ADVISED
• LATECOMERS and those exiting the theatre are seated at predetermined breaks in designated areas.
• CHILDREN 4+ are welcome in our theatres and must be ticketed.
• ASSISTIVE LISTENING DEVICES, LARGE PRINT PROGRAMS & BOOSTER SEATS are available in most theatres. Ask an usher to direct you.
• BRAILLE PROGRAMS are available with 2 weeks’ notice to accessibility@dcpa.org
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is one of the largest non-profit theatre organizations in the nation, presenting Broadway tours and producing theatre, cabaret, musicals, and immersive productions. In its 2022/23 season, the DCPA engaged with nearly 865,000 visitors, generating a $205.6 million economic impact.
The Theatre Company is grateful for the funds provided by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District. Special thanks also to grants from the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation; and contributions from corporations, foundations and individuals. The Theatre Company is a division of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, a non-profit organization serving the public through the performing arts.
The Theatre Company operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States; and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. The Theatre Company also operates under an agreement with Denver Theatrical Stage Employees Union, Local No. 7 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States and Canada.
The Theatre Company is constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for not-for-profit resident theatre companies.
The costumes, wigs, lighting, props, furniture,scenic construction, scenic painting, sound and special effects used in connection with this production were constructed and coordinated by the Theatre Company’s Production Staff.
TAKING PHOTOS AT THE THEATRE
We welcome you to take photos in the theatre before and after the performance. If you post on social media, please credit, and tag the DCPA and the design team: @denvercenter #DCPATheatreCompany #Hamlet
Director: Chris Coleman @chriscdenver
Scenic Designer: Chika Shimizu @chikashimizu
Costume Designer: Meghan Anderson Doyle @mdoyle19
Lighting Designer: Paul Whitaker
Composer and Sound Designer: Lindsay Jones @mrlindsayjones
Dramaturg: Leean Kim Torske
Psychodramaturg: Barbara Hort, PhD
Fight Director: Rick Sordelet @sordeletinc
Voice and Text Coach: Robert Ramirez @robearamirez
Casting: Grady Soapes, CSA @grayzvander and Chad Murnane, CSA/Murnane Casting
Photos and the video and/or audio recording during any part of the performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited
We Fund Culture.
Kyle Lawrence, Katie
MAKE SHOWTIME A NIGHT ON THE TOWN!
DRINK, DINE AND DELIGHT IN THE CULTURAL HUB OF DENVER.
Consider joining one of the DCPA’s premium membership societies for an exclusive experience before and after the curtain rises.
BEST OF BROADWAY SOCIETY
For unforgettable evenings all Broadway season long, treat yourself to first-class dining and seats. Enjoy the best seats in the house, pre-show cocktails, dinner in Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House and private intermission in the fabulous Wolf Room.
Contact: Marc Ravenhill • mravenhill@dcpa.org • 303.572.4594
DIRECTORS SOCIETY
Want the premium subscription experience at all of Denver Center Theatre Company’s subscription shows for you or your clients? Enjoy our most exclusive seating, fine dining pre-show in the Seawell Ballroom, post-show parties with artists and creatives, behind-the-scenes discussions, and more.
Contact: Marc Ravenhill • mravenhill@dcpa.org • 303.572.4594
CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP
DCPA Corporate Member nights help you enhance client relationships, make new connections, motivate employees, and improve your bottom line. In addition to insider ticketing and pre-show cocktails and dining for eight of our most popular shows each season, your company will receive brand recognition and exclusive perks for your employees.
OCT 18 – DEC 22 A fun-filled musical based on Mo Willems’ beloved children’s books
Get ready for a fun-filled musical experience, leaping from the pages of Mo Willems’ award-winning, best-selling children’s books, that will leave you doing the “Flippy Floppy Floory” dance all night long! Gerald and Piggie take to the stage in a rollicking adventure brought to you by DCPA’s Theatre for Young Audiences program, which is tailored to Pre-K through 3rd grade audiences but welcomes all ages.
$20 CHILDREN* | $25 ADULTS*
Weekday Student Matinees available! Contact Group Sales at 303.446.4829 for more information.
Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!”
Book and Lyrics by Mo Willems
Music by Deborah Wicks La Puma
Based on the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems
Directed by Allison Watrous
THE MAKING OF SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKING LOT
TBY LINNEA COVINGTON
The idea for Shakespeare in the Parking Lot came from teachers who wanted to bring to life the Bard’s beautiful plays to help students truly understand why the works have been so important for centuries.
“It is meant as a dramatic text and meant to be performed rather than reading it like a novel,” said Allison Watrous, Executive Director of DCPA Education & Community Engagement.
In 2015 Watrous had a wild idea to start having performances in public spaces, namely, parking lots. After all, she said, creativity isn’t bound to brick-and-mortar locations.
“Now it happens everywhere, and we bring it to schools directly so more students can enjoy it this way,” she said, adding each performance is an abridged rendition of either Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Macbeth.
“I just wanted to say thank you again for this wonderful opportunity, the kids loved it and were talking about it all day,” a Denver Public School middle school teacher wrote to the DCPA.
“This was once again the experience of a lifetime for many of our kids and you have inspired a new kind of love for Shakespeare in your viewers.”
Directed by Watrous, the show travels to other venues too, from libraries to recreation centers to parks and more. Through the generosity of donors, the plays are provided free to the community. Plus, the funds provided the means to buy a prop truck, which gets pulled by a bigger truck to each location. The actors crawl all over it, popping inside, balancing on the roof, and using it as a dramatic backdrop.
The troupe is made up of eight players who do all the roles, often gender-bending the way the original actors in William Shakespeare’s day did. Between in-school and community performances, they often perform six days a week each fall and spring. But already the actors, some who have been a part of the event since the beginning, are ready for next season.
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot returns this fall with free performances every Saturday September 7 through October 12. For locations, visit denvercenter.org/community-events
IN THE COMMUNITY
Join us for FREE public performances of SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKING LOT
Abridged versions of some of the Bard’s most beloved plays performed in and around a pick up truck “set”
Performances take place throughout the community on Saturdays from Sep 7 – Oct 12.
LEARN MORE
Photo by McLeod9Creative
Photo by McLeod9 Creative
MAKE YOUR SEASON BRIGHTER HOLIDAY PARTIES AT DCPA
Throw a party to remember at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, complete with hassle-free event planning plus optional theatre entertainment! Pair your room rental with group tickets to any of the DCPA’s holiday productions for the ultimate show of appreciation for your clients or employees!
Working with our in-house Event Services team with its decades of theatrical experience, you can select from the spectacular Seawell Ballroom or intimate Directors Room plus your choice of:
• Eight caterers
• Customized bar package from Sodexo Live!
• Dramatic lighting design and Broadway-caliber sound
Ask about our holiday package when you book today denvercenter.org/venue-rentals/holiday
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot is a unique way to bring the arts into the community and allow more people to experience the health benefits that the arts can provide.
— MANNY RODRIGUEZ, UCHEALTH’S CHIEF MARKETING AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OFFICER
PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA BROADWAY
A SPOONFUL OF SHAKESPEARE TO CURE ALL AILS
BY LINNEA COVINGTON
J
Just as the great Bard had patrons to help produce what would become iconic plays at the Globe Theatre, so does the DCPA’s annual Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. One of the major supporters is UCHealth, which understands the importance of theater, art, and music for the human condition.
“UCHealth is pleased to partner with the DCPA,” said Manny Rodriguez, UCHealth’s Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer. “Shakespeare in the Parking Lot is a unique way to bring the arts into the community and allow more people to experience the health benefits that the arts can provide.”
The community is exactly who the program benefits. After all, the gist of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot is to bring theatre to schools and community centers. It does this thanks to donors who not only support the event, but helped pay for the prop truck that acts as a home, wall, destination, secluded alcove and more during the live performances.
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot typically runs for six weeks in early fall (this year it’s running September 7-October 12) and late spring (April through mid-May). It features eight actors playing all the roles. Each performance showcases an abridged version of either Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Macbeth. The actors gender bend and work so hard that, by the end of the six-week run, they have done more than 30 shows.
It’s a lot of effort to put on the shows, and production costs are steep. This is where UCHealth comes in. Its contribution largely helps cover the costs, making community performances entirely free and school engagements affordable. The later part allows students not only to enjoy the magic of Shakespeare through live performance, but also provides in-class workshops that take a dive deep into how the plays’ themes still resonate today.
“UCHealth is committed to sharing the health benefits of the arts with our youngest community members,” said Rodriguez. “By creating a fund to cover the cost of tickets, classes or workshops, we hope to inspire the next generation of artists and fans.”
Shakespeare in the Parking Lot began in 2015. Allison Watrous, Executive Director of DCPA Education & Community Engagement, not only directs the event, but also built the program too. The idea, she said, was to open up theatre to unconventional places and allow creativity to thrive outside the traditional stage. That, and she wanted to help teachers bring to life the vibrancy of the Bard’s great works, something that’s much better understood live than by reading quietly at home.
The best part is seeing these plays come alive for people in their very own neighborhood, which couldn’t happen without the generous support of loyal patrons of the arts.
PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA EDUCATION’S BOOK STARS
communities where we live and work, and, with funding from PNC
PPNC aims to strengthen and enrich the lives of our neighbors in the Foundation, we are pleased to once again support the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) in this season’s Book Stars program. Since 2004, PNC Grow Up Great, our $500 million, bilingual early childhood education initiative, has helped prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life by supporting programs, resources and experiences that plant the seeds for a lifetime of opportunities. DCPA Book Stars likewise supports early childhood educators to enhance early literacy in pre-K by working with Title I schools throughout metro Denver.
This innovative program encourages children to become characters and solve problems through creative play and theater-based learning, with teaching artists building relationships with students and teachers over time. By offering Book Stars to schools at no cost, in English and Spanish, we can increase accessibility and help eliminate achievement
schools throughout metro Denver. gaps before they start.
By focusing our support on high-quality early childhood education, we aim to positively impact school readiness, setting children on a path for success. We’re proud to help DCPA continue to grow this program and build more relationships with teachers, students, and
Thank you for your continued support for the arts, and enjoy the
“
families in our region. show!
PNC is firmly committed to early education in Colorado. Investing and advocating for high-quality early education is a logical extension of our commitment as a national main street bank to supporting our communities, and Book Stars is a unique and creative way to develop critical literacy skills in our youngest learners.
— RYAN BEISER, REGIONAL PRESIDENT FOR PNC BANK IN COLORADO “
The Aegon Transamerica Foundation is proud to support the DCPA and the brilliant programs and events it brings to life. From Broadway tours to immersive experiences to educational programs for kids, DCPA is an integral part of Denver’s thriving artistic community — and it’s a big part of what makes our city so special.
— MELISSA SMITH, CHAIR OF THE AEGON TRANSAMERICA FOUNDATION’S DENVER ADVISORY COMMITTEE
PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA EDUCATION’S HIGH SCHOOL/MIDDLE SCHOOL PLAYWRITING COMPETITION
TTransamerica employees are dedicated to helping people live their best lives, whether it’s saving and investing for the future or protecting themselves and their loved ones. They bring expertise, creativity and heart to everything they do — and to the communities where they live and work.
Transamerica’s private, nonprofit foundation is proud to do its part in helping to create a brighter and more secure future for people in our community by supporting programs that enhance their opportunities and capabilities while broadening social networks, interactions and aspirations. Through our charitable giving and employee volunteer efforts, we contribute to a wide range of worthy causes in Denver, including the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA).
We believe our longtime support of the DCPA — one of the nation’s largest nonprofit theatre organizations — helps to enliven our community and bring new perspectives that can enable Denverites see the world through another’s eyes.
The Aegon Transamerica Foundation looks forward to supporting another great year of DCPA programming. We are proud to play a role helping DCPA make theatre accessible to all.
Transamerica employees help serve meals at Denver Children’s Home.
Transamerica employees help prepare “Bags of Fun” for children fighting long-term or life-threatening conditions.
Transamerica employees help build homes for families in need with Habitat for Humanity.
THANK YOU
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following donors of $250+ between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
+ Includes in-kind support
* Deceased
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SPECIAL THANKS
DENVER LANGUAGE SCHOOL
PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA EDUCATION
DDenver Language School (DLS) is the only K-8 public school in Denver offering Spanish and Mandarin immersion. This distinctive characteristic not only sets the school apart, but also shows DLS’s commitment to providing students with a diverse and globallyoriented education.
Being the sole K-8 immersion public school in Spanish and Mandarin in Denver allows Denver Language School to offer students a truly immersive language experience from an early age. Research has consistently shown the cognitive and academic benefits of bilingualism, such as enhanced problem-solving skills, improved cognitive flexibility, and a deeper understanding of different cultures. Denver Language School’s emphasis on language immersion not only enriches the educational journey of its students, but also equips them with practical skills that are highly relevant in today’s modern society.
Beyond the academic benefits, the school’s focus on language immersion serves a larger societal purpose. In a world where understanding and appreciating different cultures is crucial, bilingual education fosters cultural empathy and open-mindedness. Students at Denver Language School not only become proficient in two languages, but also gain insights into the traditions, histories, and perspectives of the teaching staff who hail from a wide-array of Spanish and Mandarin speaking backgrounds.
The partnership between Denver Language School and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) adds another layer of enrichment to the educational experience. The performing arts play a vital role in fostering creativity, self-expression, and cultural awareness. By supporting DCPA, the school provides students with opportunities to engage in high-quality cultural experiences, including theatrical performances and artistic expressions that complement their language education.
Denver Language School’s status as the only K-8 public immersion school in Spanish and Mandarin in Denver holds significance in promoting bilingualism, cultural understanding, and global awareness. Like language, theatre opens your eyes to the world. Supporting the Denver Center for the Performing Arts further enriches the educational journey by exposing students to the world of performing arts and opening their eyes to new perspectives through the arts, aligning with the school’s holistic approach to preparing students for a diverse and interconnected world.
DCPA
Janice Sinden President & CEO
Donna Hendricks Executive Assistant, President & CEO
Julie Schumaker Manager, Board Relations
ACCOUNTING & FINANCE
Jane Williams CFAO
Sara Brandenburg Director, Accounting Services
Jennifer Je rey Director, Financial Planning & Analysis
Kristina Monge Associate Accountant
Annie Self Accountant III
Jennifer Siemers Director, Accounting
Audrey Smith Associate Manager, Accounting
BROADWAY & CABARET
John Ekeberg Executive Director
Administration
Ashley Brown Business Manager
Alicia Bruce General Manager
Lisa Prater Operations Manager
Garner Galleria Theatre
Abel Becerra Technical Director
Jason Begin+,
Anna Hookana+ Core Stagehands
DEVELOPMENT
Jamie Clements Vice President
Connor Carlin Associate Director, Major & Planned Gifts
Nora Caley, Amy Howard, Robin Lander, Myrisa Martin, Selin Ozcelik, Barbara Pooler, Wendy Quintana House Managers
Safety & Security
Quentin Crump Director
Timothy Allen, Jodi Benavides Lead Security O cers
Calum Abeywickrema, Mayte Armendariz, Samara Attridge, David Bright, Jaron Van Horne, Manuel Amaya-Loera, Isabella Samaniego, Marcus Sanders, Tori Witherspoon Security Specialists
Judy Briggs Front Desk
Administrative Assistant/ O ce Manager
Matthew Campbell Production Manager
Peggy Carey Associate Production Manager
Chris Thile with the Colorado Symphony
Disney in Concert: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with Simon Trpceski
