Applause Magazine Feb. - Apr. 2013

Volume XXIV

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NUMber 6

THE CATCH ME IF YOU CAN TOUR COMPANY, PHOTO BY CAROL ROSEGG

February - april 2013

catch me if you can ALSO PLAYING…

a weekend with pablo picasso • mark twain tonight!

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All proceeds benefit the life-changing work of Jewish Family Service.

Photo: Newspixs

Tickets at www.jewishfamilyservice.org/luncheon

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A WEEKEND WITH MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! PABLO PICASSO Actor Hal Holbrook claims it

Would you have the guts to impersonate Pablo Picasso on stage? Herbert Siguenza does.

He also has the guts to deliver an actual painting.

by Mark Bly

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CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

This clever and vivid musical is based on the youthful misdeeds of a man who was only too grateful to be caught.

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Photo courtesy of University of Denver

Chairman’s LETTER

with betrayal, soaring emotions, dashed hopes, and with their individual notions of ideal love. It is a story of choosing love, a story we can all relate to.

We are delighted that Denver audiences will be the first to experience this exhilarating piece of musical theatre history. It will be staged by Tony® Award-winning Daniel L. Ritchie director Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime), with Costume Design

by ESosa (Porgy & Bess, “Project Exciting things are happening Runway”) and Set Design by at The Denver Center in 2013.

Allen Moyer (Grey Gardens). We We started the year off with a have engaged an impressive cast tale of a boy and his horse, two of actors to bring this ambitious captivating world premieres, an project to life, including Stephaepic romance, and a fast-paced weekend of new play readings at nie Rothenberg (Broadway: How our eighth annual Colorado New to Succeed in Business Without Play Summit (see pp. 24-25). But Really Trying). Stephanie is eagerly anticipating her visit to there is more.

Denver where her brother is a Prepare to take off on an escasophomore at the University of pade with Catch Me If You Can Denver. and then spend some intimate It is because of the support of time on A Weekend with Pablo patrons like you that The Denver Picasso. You will walk away feelCenter is able to accomplish such ing as if you had a rare, personal glimpse into the life of one of the remarkable works on the stage.

Performances for Sense & Sengreatest artists of the 20th censibility The Musical are already tury, complete with the creation selling out.

Personally, that’s the of an actual painting on stage. one that I am specially looking One of the most thrilling projects we have in store for you forward to. We are grateful for this year is the world premiere of your patronage and hope you enSense & Sensibility The Musical. joy our upcoming productions. n Never before has this beloved Jane Austen novel been set to music on such a grand scale. We invite you to embark on a journey Daniel L. Ritchie Chairman & CEO of love taken by two sisters who are opposites in temperament but The Denver Center for the Performing Arts equals in passion. Both struggle

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was all unintended, but his sterling incarnation of that wry wit and truth-teller Mark Twain is nearing a 60-year watershed moment as undimmed and pugnacious as ever.

by Sylvie Drake

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THE SUMMIT REPORT

In its eighth year, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s annual Colorado New Play Summit hits a new peak of excitement.

by Sylvie Drake

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F ebrua ry - April 2013

Editor: Sylvie Drake Associate Editor: Suzanne Yoe Designers: Kim Conner, Brenda Elliott, Amanda Grutzmacher, Kyle Malone Applause is published eight times a year by The Denver Center for the Performing Arts in conjunction with The Publishing House. 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

For advertising information call The Publishing House 303.428.9529.

7380 Lowell Blvd., Westminster, CO 80030 Angie Flachman, Publisher

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts 1101 13th St., Denver, CO 80204

303.893.4000 www.denvercenter.org

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is a not-for-profit organization serving the public through the performing arts.

Board of TRUSTEES Daniel L. Ritchie, Chairman and CEO Donald R. Seawell, Chairman Emeritus Randy Weeks, President and Executive Director, Denver Center Attractions William Dean Singleton, Secretary/Treasurer W. Leo Kiely III, First Vice Chair Robert Slosky, Second Vice Chair Christian Anschutz Dr. Patricia Baca Joy S. Burns Isabelle Clark Navin Dimond Margot Gilbert Frank Thomas W. Honig Mary Pat Link Edward A. Mueller Robert C. Newman Richard M. Sapkin Martin Semple Jim Steinberg Peter Swinburn Ken Tuchman Lester L. Ward Dr. Reginald L. Washington Judi Wolf Sylvia Young _______________________ Carolyn Foster, Executive Assistant to Daniel L. Ritchie Kim Schouten, Executive Assistant to Daniel L. Ritchie EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS Dorothy V. Denny Mayor Michael Hancock Governor John Hickenlooper Kent Thompson

HonoRary Members Jeannie Fuller Glenn R. Jones M. Ann Padilla Cleo Parker Robinson Management Committee Randy Weeks, President and Executive Director, Denver Center Attractions Dorothy V. Denny, Executive Vice President Vicky Miles, CFO Kent Thompson, Producing Artistic Director, Denver Center Theatre Company Jennifer Nealson, CMO Clay Courter, Director, Facilities Management Emily Davidson, Director, Human Resources Sylvie Drake, Director, Publications John Ekeberg, Director, Programming and Operations, Denver Center Attractions Tam Dalrymple Frye, Director, Education Brianna Firestone, Director of Marketing, Denver Center Theatre Company Janet Flesch, Director of Marketing Jeff Hovorka, Director, Media and Marketing, Denver Center Attractions Ed Lapine, Director of Production, Denver Center Theatre Company Bruce Montgomery, Director, Information Systems

Jennifer Siemers, Director, Accounting Charles Varin, Managing Director, Denver Center Theatre Company Dawn Williams, Director, Venue Sales and Operations Suzanne Yoe, Director, Marketing Services AMERICAN NATIONAL THEATRE & ACADEMY BOARD Kent Thompson, Chairman and CEO Judi Wolf, President and COO Donald R. Seawell, Chairman Emeritus HELEN G. BONFILS FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES Lester L. Ward, President Martin Semple, Vice President Judi Wolf, Sec’y/Treasurer Donald R. Seawell, President Emeritus W. Leo Kiely III Daniel L. Ritchie William Dean Singleton Robert Slosky Jim Steinberg Dr. Reginald L. Washington

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COMING ATTRACTIONS

Catch Me If You Can Now – March 10 Buell Theatre

World Premiere Sense & Sensibility The Musical April 5 – May 26 Stage Theatre

The Doyle & Debbie Show March 2 – July 14 Garner Galleria Theatre

Sister Act Sep 24 – Oct 6 Buell Theatre

Blue Man Group April 12 – 21 Buell Theatre

Mark Twain Tonight!

March 16 Buell Theatre

Mary Poppins May 1 – 5 Buell Theatre

A Weekend with Pablo Picasso March 22 – April 28 Ricketson Theatre

Les Misérables May 22 – 26 Buell Theatre

Spamalot March 28 – 30 Buell Theatre

Priscilla Queen of the Desert Sep 3 – 15 Buell Theatre

Ballroom with a Twist June 8 – 9 Buell Theatre

Other Desert Cities March 29 – April 28 Space Theatre

Traces June 26 – July 14 Stage Theatre Peter and the Starcatcher Aug 15 – Sep 1 Ellie Caulkins Opera House

Cirque Dreams Holidaze Dec 10 – 22 Buell Theatre Evita Jan 15 – 26 Buell Theatre Million Dollar Quartet Feb 25 – March 9, 2014 Buell Theatre once May 6 – 18, 2014 Buell Theatre

All shows listed are on sale now

THE CONFERENCE

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n conjunction with the world premiere of Sense & Sensibility The Musical at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA), the Pikes Peak and Denver/Boulder regions of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) are hosting an “Austen at Altitude” conference and Regency Ball April 11-13.

Proceeds from the conference and tickets to the April 11–14 performances of the musical will benefit the nonprofit Colorado JASNA regions and the Chawton House Library (CHL) in Hampshire, England, located on the estate of Austen’s brother, Edward. Festivities include an optional opening gala reception April 11 and the Regency Ball in the Seawell Grand Ballroom April 12 as part of the Conference. (Instruction in English country dancing and chairs provided for novices and onlookers.)

April 13 conference events include: • Keynoter Claudia Johnson, Professor of English at Princeton and distinguished Austen scholar; • A roundtable discussion with the Sense & Sensibility The Musical creative team moderated by Professor Emeritus Joan Ray, University of Colorado, JASNA President (2000–2006), President of the North American Friends of CHL, and author of Jane Austen for Dummies;

303.893.4100

TTY: 303.893.9582 • denvercenter.org

• A post-luncheon talk on CHL by Sandy Lerner, founder of CISCO Systems and major Austen connoisseur, who rescued CHL from demolition in 1997;

Audio-description, ASL interpretation and Open Captioning available at select performances; check dates/times when ordering.

Performances at The Denver Center are made possible in part through the generous support of:

Denver Center Theatre Company 2012/13 Season Sponsors

Denver Center Attractions 2013/14 Season Sponsors

SCFD

• A closing session with the witty and knowledgeable Susan Greenfield, Professor of English at Fordham University, writer of “The Jane Austen Weekly” for the Huffington Post, and a Public Voices Fellow with the Op-Ed Project.

Tickets to the musical are included in the conference fee.

Denver Center Theatre Company & Denver Center Attractions Media Sponsors

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For more information or to order tickets, visit www.jasna.org/regions/events/co-apr.html www.jasnadenverboulder.org/regional_conf_2013.htm

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Costume Collection

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ACT NOW! denvercenter.org/ACT Denver Center Theatre Academy at the Denver Center Theatre Company

e was one of the most prolific artists of the 20th century and not only did he have a distinctive artistic spirit that would shape the world of art as we know it, but Picasso also had a very individual style when it came to fashion. In A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, the costumes are indeed what make the man.

Costume designer, Giulio Cesare Perrone, recreated the styles and clothing that Picasso actually wore in famous photographs taken by Douglas Duncan, circa 1957-1959. The clothes speak to the essence and vibrancy that was Picasso, which is essential for such an intimate production. He dressed in casual elegance and was almost always found in a striped sailor shirt, baggy linen shorts and sandals. Perhaps in today’s fashion world he might best be represented by the nautical designs of Ralph Lauren.

This idiosyncratic piece of theatre is the unique creation of performer/painter, Herbert Siguenza. Step into the world of Picasso and catch a glimpse of the life of one of the greatest artists of our time, now through April 28. n

Denver Center Theatre Academy is open to kids ages four and up. Acting lessons range from beginner to advanced…there’s something for everyone!

Photo by Brian Landis Folkins

Photos by Kyle Malone

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A weekend with Pablo Picasso

An evening with

SIGUENZA

When Herbert Siguenza performed his A Weekend With Pablo Picasso at Houston’s Alley Theatre last year, he had a few things to say to The Alley’s Mark Bly about why he paints and why he took on the perilous task of not only impersonating an iconic artist on stage, but also of creating an actual painting on stage.

Now that the show, painting and all, has come to Denver, APPLAUSE is happy to reprint that conversation.

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HERBERT

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Mark Bly: What inspired you to write

A Weekend With Pablo Picasso?

Herbert Siguenza: I was born with the mysterious gift of being able to draw.

Since I was a young boy, I would press crayons against paper and create imaginary worlds and characters. In fact, when I was in second grade, my teacher, Mrs. Sharp, would pull me out of the reading circle and have me draw on giant rolls of butcher paper instead.

She kept everything I drew.

Later that semester, we went on a field trip to downtown San Francisco to visit City Hall and the Board of Education building.

To my great surprise, there was an exhibit of all my work hanging in the halls! My fellow students were very impressed, and I was immensely proud as well.

That first exhibit made it clear to me that I would grow up to become an artist.

That same year, my mother took me to the dentist. While we waited in the reception area, I picked up a photo book by Douglas Duncan called The Private Life of Picasso.

The beautiful black and white photos showed a shirtless old man who painted and played like a child. He also had doves, several dogs and a goat. I turned and said to my mom,

“When I grow up I want to be that old man.”

“That’s Pablo Picasso,” she said. “Es loco” [“You’re crazy”]. My dear mother did not discourage me; I knew better. The old man Columbus was not crazy but rather unconventional and free, which inspired me profoundly to later live my own life in that manner. I eventually went to the California College of Arts in Oakland were I got a BFA in printmaking and taught for two years. I also worked for ten years at La Raza Silkscreen Center producing posters for cultural and political events.

All these experiences have contributed to my personal and artistic growth. I see this play as a result of everything I have ever learned in regard to the visual and theatrical arts. It is a perfect and natural marriage for me. A play that I was born to perform starting now. It is a culmination of everything I’ve known since I was a curious child. And yes, I still don’t read very well. Thank you, Mrs. Sharp!

MB:

Would you talk about your process as an actor and playwright in creating the play? Where does the painter-artist Herbert Siguenza figure into this stage equation?

Photos by Kyle Malone

A weekend with Pablo Picasso

My character of Picasso is not an imitation of Picasso because that would be false or impossible.

My character of Picasso is me as a rich, old man who paints and lives in southern France.

—Herbert Siguenza

HS:

I don’t have a formal education in theatre but rather, as I said, a degree in art. To a certain extent that has been very liberating, because I never overthink or analyze what I do. I simply act on a real instinctive level, free from academic philosophies. I just do. My character of Picasso is not an imitation of Picasso because that would be false or impossible.

My character of Picasso is me as a rich, old man who paints and lives in southern France. It’s simple and direct.

After 30 years of performing comedy and drama on stage, I feel ready to take on the challenge of portraying an icon. I could never have portrayed him ten years ago, you know? I wasn’t ready to take on such a giant character. He is Falstaff or Big Papa from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Now on the script, I took all the quotes Picasso said during his lifetime and constructed an imaginary weekend in 1957 in his studio, Le Californie. I wanted to recreate the sights and sounds of the pictures I saw in Duncan’s wonderful photographs.

My only goal as a playwright was for the audience to experience and feel like they are spending an intimate weekend with a master, a genius but also a Spanish man in exile.

Picasso said that viewing art is a kind of voyeurism. I think viewing theatre is even more voyeuristic, because we are seeing people in their most private moments. In my play I want no separation between performer and audience. The audience is a participant and the reason for the play.

There are only a few moments where the audience “is not there” and watches Picasso at his most private and most vulnerable. As a painter I am also vulnerable,

I paint and create in front of the audience.

No safety net, no gimmicks—just magic and truth in action. Like my acting, I just do it without thinking. I think Picasso would be proud of me.

MB:

Picasso’s relationship with 20th century political movements was complex and you explore that struggle in your play. Can you characterize that epic “tug and pull” between art and politics that manifested itself in Picasso’s work?

HS:

Picasso’s long-time friend Jaime Sabartes said that, “Picasso is the most apolitical person I know.” I think to a certain degree it was true. Even though Picasso was a member of the French Communist Party and contributed to many leftist causes, he wasn’t politically or physically involved. He was sort of a Communist from afar. As long as he could paint what he wanted in freedom, he was content being in the Party for idealistic reasons.

He was an artist first and foremost and an activist second. I have struggled with that “tug and pull” in my own life as a Chicano/Latino actor-activist. At one point you have to decide what you were meant to do in this life, you know? Are you an artist or a politician?

Picasso remained free and true to his style, he never succumbed to the pressures of the party to paint in a social realist manner. I believe theatre that is didactic and pounds you over the head is the worst kind of theatre and does not accomplish what it wants to do in the first place: make people think. If art does the thinking for

you, what’s the use? That’s why Guernica is so amazingly powerful and eternal.

It’s politically charged but aesthetically transcendental.

During the Cold War, Picasso did not fan the fire of nuclear destruction but rather was a global peace campaigner and contributed art and financial donations to many peace organizations and social causes. In fact, the iconography of the Peace Movement—the doves, flowers, children that are used today—was first created by Picasso in the late ’50s.

Picasso was a Humanist who just happened to be a Communist. We are lucky because Guernica, the peace dove, the hands holding flowers were created as if a child had drawn them, and that is why it has lasted so long because it connects with our inner child full of joy, happiness and hope. n This interview originally appeared in the Alley Theatre’s program for A Weekend With Pablo Picasso. Reprinted with permission.

March 22 – April 28 • Ricketson Theatre Producing Partners: Margot & Allan Frank, Judi & Robert Newman Signed & Audio Described • April 21, 1:30pm

Tickets: 303.893.4100 Toll-free: 800.641.1222 • TTY: 303.893.9582 Groups (10+): 303.446.4829 • denvercenter.org 303.893.4100

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ART PARTNERS

Frank and Allan & Margot wman Ne b Bo & di Ju

PAINTING A PORTR AIT OF SUPPORT Producing Partners and Community Collaborations help expand the experience of A Weekend With Pablo Picasso 12

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ore than ten years ago Margot and Allan Frank and their good friends Bob and Judi Newman became the Denver Center Theatre Company’s (DCTC) first “Producing Partners.” Appropriately, the play was Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize-winner Dinner with Friends, and the foursome has continued to underwrite a production every season since. This year, the Franks and the Newmans join forces to support Herbert Siguenza’s A Weekend with Pablo Picasso.

Why help support a DCTC production?

“We appreciate the value of the performing arts,” says Margot. “Great theatre expands the mind, exposes audiences to a different world and encourages critical thinking. We hope we set an example for others to become Producing Partners.”

Bob adds, “We have been very fortunate in our lives.

Supporting a play is simply one way we can give back to the community in which we have prospered.”

A Weekend with Pablo Picasso lends itself well to community collaborations. The University of Denver’s Theatre Department is hosting a series of classes on Mondays throughout the month of March entitled “I Was a Painter and Became Picasso: His Art, His Women, His Politics.” The Access Gallery, one of many inside Denver’s Arts District on Santa Fe, will open an exhibit on March 15 that features artists inspired by and displaying their interpretations of Picasso’s work including a mural of “their” Guernica. A special matinee of Siguenza’s Picasso specifically for area students, including a talkback with the actor/painter, takes place on April 4.

Picasso once said, “Art is a lie that makes us understand the truth.” The Newmans and the Franks hope this unusual production, and the satellite events taking place simultaneously, help people of all ages and walks of life develop their own thoughts about one of the 20th century’s artistic giants. n

To learn more about the different levels of giving to become a Producing Partner, please contact David Zupancic, Associate Director of Development, at 303.446.4811 or davidz@dcpa.org.

World Premiere

The most important romantic choice you’ll make this season.

Repressed passion? Soaring emotions? Should you listen to your head or your heart? See what Jane Austen’s Dashwood sisters do in the original romantic comedy. A performance 200 years in the making, Sense & Sensibility The Musical combines Jane Austen’s trademark wit, unforgettable songs, and the irresistible allure of romance, gossip and high society. Staged by Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime) and costumed by ESosa (Porgy & Bess, “Project Runway”), this year’s most talked about fresh, new musical premieres right here in Denver.

Tickets are selling fast. Go ahead…choose love.

SenseAndSensibility-Musical.com

April 5 - May 26 Stage Theatre 303.893.4100

Anschutz

Groups (10+): 303.446.4829 TTY: 303.893.9582

SHOW SPONSORS:

PRODUCING PARTNERS:

| Joy S. burns | Daniel L. Ritchie | June Travis

Sense & Sensibility the musical Book and Lyrics by Jeffrey Haddow | Music by Neal Hampton Based on the novel by Jane Austen Directed and Choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge SEASON SPONSORS:

catch me if you can

The words “Catch me if you can” were never spoken by Frank Abagnale Jr., a super con on the lam for five years. Yet no one was more relieved than Frank Abagnale, Jr. to finally be caught.

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Frank W. Abagnale, Jr. is an expert on fraud, scams, deception and beating the system. Between the ages of 16 and 21, he forged and cashed $2.5 million worth of bad checks in the United States and in 26 other countries, while successfully passing himself off as an airline pilot for Pan Am, a doctor, a college professor and a lawyer. He was ultimately caught and served time in French, Swedish and American prisons.

Abagnale’s adventures were immortalized (and somewhat fictionalized) in Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Catch Me If You Can, with Leonardo DiCaprio starring as the young con man and Tom Hanks as the FBI agent who pursued him.

The movie, based on a ghost-written autobiography, inspired the 2011 Broadway musical of the same name.

It’s easy to understand why great storytellers were attracted to this period in Abagnale’s life. His capers were colorful,

THE CATCH ME IF YOU CAN TOUR COMPANY, PHOTOS BY CAROL ROSEGG

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improbable, glamorous, ingenious, exciting. With each chase, each con, there was also the element of suspense: Would he get away with it? How would he get away with it? It’s a tale that begged to be told. bagnale’s life on the lam may be the most entertaining part of his story, but it’s not the best or the most remarkable. What Abagnale has done since leaving behind his life of crime is both mind-boggling and inspiring. He has used his knowledge as a counterfeiter and scam artist to stop criminals and protect law-abiding citizens, initially by working with the FBI— part of his parole agreement—and then by developing a host of fraud prevention programs that are used by more than 14,000 financial institutions, corporations and law enforcement agencies.

“Those are the amazing things to me about my life,” he says, “not what I did so many years ago.”

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THE CATCH ME IF YOU CAN TOUR COMPANY, PHOTOS BY CAROL ROSEGG

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“I made some mistakes in my life and I have to live with them.

I know people are fascinated by what I did between the ages of 16 and 21. But what amazes me is where my life went when I came out of prison.”

—Frank Abagnale He was eventually caught and sentenced to 12 years in jail, but was paroled after four on condition that he would use his expertise teaching and working undercover for the FBI. “I didn’t come out of prison saying, ‘I’m a changed person, I will never do this again,’ ” he says. “The truth is, this was a way to get my freedom. I didn’t know whether I would go straight.”

It was during one of his undercover assignments that Abagnale met Kelly, the woman who would become his wife. he was working on her master’s degree, writing a paper and doing an internship at this institution where I was undercover,” he says. “I met her under this phony name and started dating her. On my last day, I took her to the park and said, ‘I would really like to continue to see you, but I have to explain that I’m not this person, this is not what I do for a living. I work for the government and I’ve been here on assignment.’

“I broke protocol, which you’re never supposed to do. But she listened and she literally changed my life. She believed in me, had faith in me, married me against the wishes of her parents, who eventually came to love me. She saw something in me that other people probably never saw.

She gave me three beautiful children. I am who I am and where I am because of the love of a woman and the respect three sons have for their father.”

With Kelly, Abagnale’s real redemption began. When his obligation to the FBI was completed, he was asked to

“S

remain on and chose not to.

“There were things I wanted to do that I’d be restricted from doing, like writing books and educating people about crime,” he says. “I also had a lot of technology ideas I wanted to develop, but I knew that if I did them while working for the government, the technology would become government property.”

So he became a contract employee, working as a consultant and teaching at the FBI Academy—where one of his students was his oldest son, now an FBI agent. Abagnale works with the FBI to this day and became lifelong friends with the agent who had relentlessly pursued him, Joseph Shea (known as Carl Hanratty in the movie and the musical).

Shea died in 2005. bagnale lives with his past every day. And although three presidents offered to pardon him, he turned them down.

“I respectfully declined,” he says, “because I truly believe that a piece of paper cannot excuse my actions. I don’t think it works that way. I made some mistakes in my life and I have to live with them. I know people are fascinated by what I did between the ages of 16 and 21. But what amazes me is where my life went when I came out of prison. I try to do the right thing, and I hope that in the end I’ll be judged for that.”

He now has his own security consulting firm and is considered a leading authority in the field. He is a dynamic, sought-after lecturer and a self-made millionaire—legitimate this time. Just as surprising, he serves on the advisory board of Wild Wings International, the philanthropic organization of former Pan Am flight attendants.

“Who would have dreamed that?,” he says. “Only in America could something like this happen.” n

catch me if you can

He didn’t set out to be a con artist when he ran away from home to New York City following his parents’ divorce.

“It started out as survival,” he says. “I was 16 and tried to get jobs working in a store, like a delivery boy, and I realized they weren’t going to pay me anything.

I knew I looked older, and I thought that if I lied about my age, if people thought I was ten years older, they’d pay me more.”

Abagnale began to figure out ways— none legal—to make great sums of money, more than he ever dreamed.

“I’ve always said that the two reasons for my success were that I was very creative and very observant,” he says. “I saw things that no one paid attention to.

I was able to look at things and figure out ways around them. I think I got away with a lot because I was an adolescent; I had no fear of being caught… I wasn’t thinking about the consequences.”

But he didn’t have half the fun as the stage and screen Abagnale. t’s a very lonely life,” he says.

“Everyone you meet thinks you’re somebody else. I couldn’t confide in anybody. I was this teenage boy out on his own, and I cried myself to sleep many nights. Everyone I associated with thought I was their peer, but they were ten years older than I. So I was constantly having to act like an adult.

“Also, I was being chased, and I knew I had to stay one step ahead. At one point it became a game between me and the FBI agent as to who was going to outsmart whom. But you grow up and mature and you realize you don’t want to live the rest of your life like that. I always knew I’d get caught. I didn’t have it in me to give myself up, but I knew it was a matter of time—and there’s great relief when you’re caught because it’s over.”

Abagnale was 21 years old and living in France when the French police found and imprisoned him for six months under horrific conditions. He then spent six months in a Swedish jail and was subsequently deported to the US. Before American authorities could take him into custody he ran away again, escaping through the service area of the plane— not by disemboweling a plane’s toilet, as in the movie.

“I was desperate, but not that desperate,” he quips. He was desperate because he was terrified. “I thought I might go to prison for 20 years or the rest of my life.

I had no idea if American prisons were like French prisons.”

A

This story was drawn from press materials for this production.

Feb 26 – March 10 • Buell Theatre Sponsored by The Westin Denver Downtown and HealthONE Signed & Audio Described • March 10, 2pm

Tickets: 303.893.4100 Toll-free: 800.641.1222 • TTY: 303.893.9582 Groups (10+): 303.446.4829 • denvercenter.org 303.893.4100

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ART PARTNERS

Wells Fargo Advisors Proudly working together for a better Colorado

T

eam members in the Rocky Mountain Market of Wells Fargo Advisors don’t hesitate to roll up their sleeves and contribute to the communities in which they work and live. In the past year, volunteers have helped to build a new house for the metro Denver Habitat for Humanity, lent a hand during the Concerts for Kids Community Day, and jumped into action during the devastating wildfires around Colorado Springs, among many other initiatives.

In 2012, Wells Fargo invested $78.9 million in 28,000 nonprofit organizations. In addition, team members contributed more than $60 million through the annual Community Support and United Way campaigns and logged more than 232,000 volunteer hours. The numbers represent the many people who are better off because Wells Fargo Advisors is here—and the company is proud to help make a difference for those in need. n

Members of Wells Fargo Advisors Colorado Springs office participated in the Light the Night walk to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Wells Fargo Advisors’ Managing Director – Market Manager Marc Beshany presented a check for $10,000 to the Food Bank of the Rockies last year. This year, with corporate support, the contribution to the food bank will exceed $25,000.

A proud sponsor of the 2012/13 Denver Center Theatre Company Season Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, Member SIPC, is a registered broker-dealer and a separate non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. 0113-04847

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Wells Fargo Advisors Rocky Mountain Market team members roll up their sleeves for the metro Denver Habitat for Humanity build.

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Women with hattitude

Save the Date!

Act Eight

Women with Hattitude W e d n e s d a y , M a y 1 , 2 01 3 Show us your Hattitude and join more than 500 women (and a few gentlemen) for The Denver Center’s annual luncheon benefiting the Women’s Voices Fund Activities.

Tickets $50 per person (or Top Hat tickets of $100 per person provide an additional $50 donation to the Women’s Voices Fund).

reservations or to join our committee:

Photos by Vicki Kerr

303.446.4815 • denvercenter.org/hattitude

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APPLAUSE

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Season

winner!® 5 Tony AwArds

feb 26 – mar 10, 2013 Buell Theatre

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sep 24 – oct 6, 2013 Buell Theatre

apr 5 – may 26, 2013 stage Theatre

jan 15 – 26, 2014

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ellie caulkins opera house

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2012

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Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon

photos l to r: Cody Slaughter in The National Tour of Million Dollar Quartet, Photo by Jeremy Daniel; Ashley Brown and Gavin Lee in Mary poppins ©Disney/CML, Photo by Joan Marcus; © BMP; THE CATCH ME IF YOU CAN TOUR COMPANY, PHOTO BY CAROL ROSEGG; Jacob L. Smith and Brittany Woodrow in spamalot, Photo by Scott Suchman 2011; Original broadway cast of priscilla Queen of the desert, © Joan Marcus; the london cast of War Horse, © Brinkhoff/Mögenburg 2011.

Present

and

the shows

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WinneR! aWaRd audience

May 22 – 26, 2013 Buell Theatre

June 8 & 9, 2013 Buell Theatre

June 26 – July 14, 2013 Stage Theatre

dec 10 – 22, 2013 buell Theatre

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A P P L A US E

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Mark Twain Tonight!

HAL HOLBROOK

TONIGHT!

b y S y lv i e D r a k e

For nearly 60 years, he’s usurped Mark Twain’s persona as his mantle and Twain’s perspicacity as his rapier. Both still apply.

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Did you know…. that actor Hal Holbrook was a member of the first Lincoln Center Repertory Company (1963), did a whole lot of regional theatre, film and TV, won numerous Emmys, including one for his role as host and narrator of Portrait of America, a five-year cable TV project that garnered the 1984 Peabody?

Of course not.

You and the world inevitably think of Hal Holbrook primarily as Mark Twain, thanks to his irrepressible solo performance in Mark Twain Tonight!, a now legendary characterization of the 19th century humorist and writer that grew out of a post-World War II honors project at Ohio’s Denison University.

That should give you some idea of how long Holbrook’s been spreading Twain’s gospel to an ever-renewing public eager to listen.

To hear Holbrook tell it, this was all an accident. Born in Cleveland in 1925 where his first role in the theatre was in The Man Who Came to Dinner at Cleveland’s Cain Park Theatre, he grew up in Massachusetts. He and his two sisters were reared there by their grandparents (and assorted boarding schools) after their mother, a dancer in vaudeville and musical comedy, disappeared when her children were little, and their father did a similar vanishing act soon after. y the time Holbrook left Denison, he was married and he and his first wife, Ruby Johnson, had developed a two-person show consisting of characters from Shakespeare to (yes) Mark Twain. They took it on the road, touring the 8am school assembly circuit in a freezing Southwest, doing 307 shows in 30 weeks, and racking up 30,000 miles on their station wagon, with costumes that often had to be defrosted before they could be worn.

The Twain characterization might have perished right there, but Holbrook was cast in a soap opera in New York and became sufficiently bored with it that he began to expand his repertoire of Twain material in sheer self-defense.

When TV’s Ed Sullivan saw the polished oneman piece in a small New York theatre and offered Holbrook national exposure on his hugely popular variety show, there was no turning back.

The down side of that success was that young Hal was being offered mostly old-man roles. The up side, though he didn’t know it at the time, was that Mark Twain Tonight! would become the singular, solo creation that he’s played all over the country (including Broadway, where it earned him a 1966 Tony® Award) that would keep rewarding him—artistically, emotionally, financially—for the rest of his life. It is a lasting achievement without equal.

This turn of events threatened, but was not allowed to impede a much richer and fuller career. On stage he tackled everything—from comedy to drama, musicals to Chekhov, Miller

B

Mark Twain Tonight!

“You could start the American Dream with Abraham Lincoln as the epitome of the great American Story. You go from Lincoln to Twain and the disintegration that he began to write about in The Gilded Age and other late works, and you know he was beginning to see the erosion of the purity of our values.”

—Hal Holbrook to Shakespeare, careening from Hotspur and Shylock to the vaulting King Lear, without flinching at the sheer magnitude and range of his undertakings. was introduced to acting that way, playing everything” he told this writer in 1996, when he came through Denver in the title role of Death of a Salesman. (His most recent film achievement is playing Francis Preston Blair in Spielberg’s Lincoln.)

“I dove into the theatre to get behind disguises,” he confessed. “As a kid, I’d scare the neighborhood as the Hunchback of Notre Dame. If I’d learned just to play myself I might have become some kind of movie star, but I thwarted that by taking on roles that allowed me to get at the heart of a character.

“In the theatre, when you deal with the literature, you learn to inhabit those amazing characters.”

Yet the most amazing of those characters remains his portrayal of the pugnacious, cigar-chomping Mark Twain, a wit and writer Holbrook deeply admires and with whom he is on very intimate terms after almost 60 years of being him on stage. Not only does he find Twain’s perceptions brilliant, but also extremely modern. He has taken Twain’s writings—paragraphs, lines and sentences—to create an ever-changing, revolving-door script. By changing the words he chooses to say from one performance to the next, Holbrook enlivens the event and keeps it fresh. hen we met on a wintry Los Angeles afternoon in his home library recently, Holbrook was fired up. On cue, eyes, energy and indignation blazing, he expounded not only on the astonishing career he has made out of playing one of America’s greatest citizen-philosophers (a journey now chronicled in his 2011 autobiography, Harold, the Boy

“I

W

Who Became Mark Twain), but also on his boundless admiration for what he sees as Twain’s prophetic vision of this country’s often rogue and difficult trajectory and uncertain future.

“He was the first tremendously successful author in this country,” he said.

“In the 1870s, after the Civil War, his career took off, he came east, and the country took off. The Industrial Revolution began, fed by Mr. Lincoln saying go ahead, put down the transcontinental railroad. Mark Twain, still in his thirties, became the confidant of Andrew Carnegie, of Mr. Vanderbilt—he sailed on his yacht—of young John Rockefeller, of every single one of these people: [Jay] Gould, J.P. Morgan.

“In those days, no TV, so they all belonged to clubs, the Players Club, the Lotus Club. They all knew each other, had lunches, made fun of each other, had fun with each other. Twain watched them, looked at them, went home and wrote about them. He saw the great turn that had happened in this country, from an agrarian to an industrialized nation, which became, in a period of 30 or 40 years, an industrial giant. am putting in a new piece of material,” he announced with unconcealed fanfare. “This is a quote: ‘We can’t get out of it now. No mistake. We are the kind of world power that a prairie-dog village is, and our government must stand sentinel on top of our little world-power mound and, with lifted nose, solemn face and curved paws, look out over the vast prairie. And if we see anything that doesn’t look right, because we’re a world power and our civilization is wonderful in many spectacular ways…’ ” The rest of this quote throws down a gauntlet to an America Twain presciently saw as having lost its way. “ ‘It’s a civilization,’ ” the quote sums up, that

“I

“ ‘has destroyed the simplicity and repose of life, its poetry, its soft romantic dreams and visions, and replaced them with a money fever, shorted ideals, vulgar ambitions and a sleep that does not refresh.’ ” No wonder Holbrook stands in awe. ou could start the American Dream with Abraham Lincoln as the epitome of the Great American Story,” he said. “You go from Lincoln to Twain and the disintegration that he began to write about in The Gilded Age and other late works, and you know he was beginning to see the erosion of the purity of our values.

“If you think that Mark Twain was just becoming a road exercise for me, think again,” he added. “It’s the only way that I am able to get rid of my anger and frustration. I can get out there and say something that means something to me and, I believe, to the American public that may not even understand the magnitude of what is going on. It’s become my sword. We all need to think a little bit about what we are doing to ourselves, to our children and especially to our country.”

The words will be Twain’s. The passion? All Holbrook. n

“Y

March 16 only Buell Theatre Tickets: 303.893.4100 Toll-free: 800.641.1222 • TTY: 303.893.9582 Groups (10+): 303.446.4829 • denvercenter.org 303.893.4100

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ART PARTNERS

ROBERT MONDAVI WINE Passion and Excellence Great wines are the result of soil, climate, vineyard management and winemaking philosophy

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hen Robert Mondavi founded the iconic winery in 1966, his vision was to create fine Napa Valley wines that would stand in the company of the great wines of the world. He later went on to found Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi with the mission of bringing the joy of wine to every American table. Never one to be satisfied with the status quo, he relentlessly explored other growing regions in California leading to the creation of Robert Mondavi Private Selection, which brings elegance to the everyday table.

With a firm conviction that great wines are the result of soil, climate, vineyard management and winemaking philosophy, the winery continues to pursue Robert Mondavi’s goal of excellence with many of the same convictions held by The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA): passion and innovative spirit, moving forward with technology, and programs that break barriers and open new frontiers.

Denver Center patrons attending VIP Evenings (see page 30) and Directors Society dinners are enjoying Mondavi’s vision as they raise a glass of wine in celebration of the Robert Mondavi/DCPA partnership.

This year would have been Robert Mondavi’s 100th birthday (another similarity as DCPA Founder Donald Seawell recently celebrated his 100th birthday). We invite you to celebrate with us, raise a glass of Woodbridge, Robert Mondavi Private select or Robert Mondavi Napa wine.

Cheers to all! n

SHAKESPEARE for a new generation

I M PAC T CRE TIVIT Y A

B

Impact Creativity is an urgent call to action to save theatre education programs in 19 of our largest cities. Impact Creativity brings together theatres, arts education experts and individuals to help over 500,000 children and youth, most of them disadvantaged, succeed through the arts by sustaining the theatre arts education programs threatened by today’s fiscal climate. Impact Creativity is an unprecedented, nationwide consortium of theatres, companies and individuals striving together to enrich our society. www.impactcreativity.org

Building the next generation of theatre audiences is an important part of The Denver Center’s mission.

We are pleased to report that the Denver Center Theatre Company received its fifth National Endowment for the Arts Shakespeare In American Communities: Shakespeare for a New Generation grant to support a significant educational component of this season’s Romeo & Juliet. A dollar-fordollar matching grant, NEA funding is combined with a mix of donations from the corporate, foundation and private sectors to make this program possible.

Nine high schools in the metro area have been selected to participate: Gateway, Hinkley, Lincoln, Denver Center for International Studies Montbello, North, Options Littleton, Overland, Vista PEAK Preparatory, and West Leadership Academy. This year, two rural schools will participate as well: Wiggins and Bennett High Schools.

More than 1,000 students and teachers are involved in this project which includes intensive teacher training, a series of pre- and post-play workshops for students to help them connect more significantly with the play, in-depth on-line study guides and, of course, tickets to attend special Student matinees in the Stage Theatre. n

($10,000 or more) Christopher Campbell/ Palace Production Center The Ralph and Luci Schey Foundation John Thomopoulos James S. Turley Wells Fargo

Photos by Kyle Malone

($200,000 or more) The James S. and Lynne P. Turley Ernst & Young Fund for Impact Creativity Clear Channel Outdoor CMT/ABC ($50,000 or more) AOL

Participating high school teachers gathered at The Denver Center last fall to gain tips from artists for teaching Romeo & Juliet in the classroom.

($5,000 or more) Christ Economos Mariska Hargitay Ogilvy & Mather ($1,000 or more) Nick Adamo Mitchell Auslander Steven Bunson Paula Dominick Ryan Dudley Bruce R. Ewing Steve & Donna Gartner Peter Hermann Jonathan Maurer and Gretchen Shugart Florence Miller Memorial Fund Theodore Nixon Lisa Orberg Carol Ostrow Isabelle Winkles

ART PARTNERS

S h a k e sp e a r e I n Am e r i c a n C o mm u n i t i e s :

Special thanks to the following donors who helped us achieve our matching requirement for our National Endowment for the Arts grant:

The Anschutz Foundation Willis Ashby & Karen Burch Denver Post Community Alan & Katie Fox Margot & Allan Frank Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Gary National Corporate Theatre Fund The Ponzio Family Walter S. Rosenberry, III Charitable Trust June Travis U.S. Bank Xcel Energy Foundation 303.893.4100

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2013

High Notes At The colorado new play summit

T

he mood at the Denver Center Theatre Company’s Colorado New Play Summit on February 8-10 reflected the weather that greeted it: bracing, often sunny, always exhilarating. Now in its eighth year, this annual event has become a highlight of the season and a magnet for its dedicated audiences that come from all over the map and seem to get bigger, more varied and more exuberant every year.

On offer were two full productions of plays that were read at last year’s Summit—Lauren Feldman’s Grace, or The Art of Climbing, in which a young woman works her way out of depression by finding release as she learns to rock climb, and Michael Mitnick’s Ed, Downloaded, a wild experiment in multimedia that posits the future possibility of downloading the contents of the brain of a dying man. Is it, the play asks, really such a good idea after all?

These productions were joined by this year’s readings of five highly imaginative new plays in all spaces of the Helen G. Bonfils Complex. In addition, a giddy, no-holds-barred late-night Playwrights’ Slam, at which playwrights are invited to read from new works in an intimate and relaxed atmosphere, joyously reaffirmed the unstoppable energy of the entire weekend.

The five plays read at podiums included Laura Eason’s The Vast In-Between, which examined a marriage in mid-life crisis with intelligence, subtlety, humor and some open questions; the risible self-importance of a small town arts council made for crackling one-liners in The Most Deserving, a comedy by Catherine Trieschmann; Marcus Gardley transported Homer’s Odyssey to the streets of Harlem and other environs in a slang satire, titled simply black odyssey and sporting both muscle and poetry; Matthew Lopez took us on the hilarious yet tender journey of an out-of-work performer and about-to-be Dad who finds the most improbable (and uproarious) solution to his desperate need of a job in The Legend of Georgia McBride, while Karen Zacarías dug into one of the country’s hottest political topics in her adaptation of Just Like Us, a book by Colorado’s First Lady Helen Thorpe. Thorpe and Zacarías lay bare the painfully complex ramifications of immigration, legal and illegal, without blinking or oversimplification, as they examined the lives of four Latina Denver high school students—two legal, two not— trying to carve a path to a viable future.

The more than 650 guests who came from far and near were a fired up crowd that included industry types and theatre professionals, DCTC subscribers, trustees, playwrights, directors, foundation reps, agents, members of the national press and other dedicated followers of the Summit, many of whom are making this an annual pilgrimage from other cities and states.

The place was humming, the networking mile-high, the houses full and the excitement as inspired and stimulating as ever. n —Sylvie Drake

APPLAUSE

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Photos by Suzanne Blandón & Kyle Malone

Colorado new play summit 24

Hitting All The colorado new play summit

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Sponsor: Women’s Voices Fund Producing Partners: Joy Burns, Leo & Susan Kiely, Daniel L. Ritchie Special thanks to the Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for continued support of New Play Development at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts

(l-r) Dena M ar and Mercede tinez, Yunuen Pardo s Perez in Ju st Like Us.

Playwright Laura Eason reading at the Playwrights’ Slam.

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next up

Looking ahead…

BEST MUSICAL 2005 TONY AWARD

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Toll-free: 800.641.1222 TTY: 303.893.9582 Groups: 303.446.4829

denvercenter.org

Spamalot March 28 – 30, Buell Theatre Winner of the 2005 Tony® Award for Best Musical, this zany musical comedy sensation “lovingly ripped off” from the film Monty Python and The Holy Grail, returns to spread laughter and cheer throughout the kingdom. King Arthur and his clunky Knights of the Round Table embark once more on their quest for the elusive Grail, this time making a little mile-high side-trip to the fair city of Denver. n

SPAM is a registered trademark of Hormel Foods, LLC, used with permission here.

Other Desert Cities March 29 – April 28, Space Theatre Holidays can often be a pressure cooker for families, and that is the case for the Wyeths of Other Desert Cities. This hyper-articulate family is filled with vivid characters equally as capable of bringing joy to one another as they are of inflicting pain. Their Christmas reaches a pinnacle of sorts when daughter Brooke shares her soon-tobe-published manuscript—a memoir that exposes a tragic family secret, reopening wounds that have never quite healed. Written by Jon Robin Baitz, this play had its premiere at New York’s Lincoln Center in January of 2011. It was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and received five Tony® nominations, including Best Play. n

Sense & Sensibility The Musical April 5 – May 26, Stage Theatre Directed by Tony® Award-winner Marcia Milgrom Dodge (Ragtime), this is a soaring and much anticipated world premiere musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel. The book and lyrics by Jeffrey Haddow and music by Neal Hampton will transport us into the tempestuous world of the Dashwood sisters. Different in temperament, but determined to find happiness in spite of their impoverished circumstances, Elinor and Marianne struggle with betrayal, difficult emotions and conflicting notions of ideal love. Yet each triumphs romantically by remaining true to who she is. Romance is in the air—and it’s contagious! n

Blue Man Group April 12 – 21, Buell Theatre Back by popular demand, the Blue Men will thrill Buell Theatre audiences with their unique high-octane theatrical shenanigans. Escape the ordinary and surround yourself with an explosion of comedy, music and technology. If you’ve never seen Blue Man Group, don’t miss this opportunity to become acquainted. If you’re already a fan, here’s your chance to enjoy it all over again. n

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APPLAUSE

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Epicurean C ulin a r y

G rou p

ART PARTNERS

Combining the best of the old with a passion for the new

A While ECG is loved for its award-winning food, it is the dedication of the staff that is truly the organization’s secret ingredient.

guest at a recent theatre event contacted Epicurean Culinary Group (ECG) to thank our chefs for a particularly spectacular dessert she had enjoyed at The Denver Center (DCPA). Her generous praise was followed by a request for the recipe which, in true Epicurean form, was immediately acquiesced. A perfect example that while ECG is loved for its award-winning food, it is the dedication of the staff that is truly the organization’s secret ingredient.

“We feel so fortunate to have a team of such committed, talented people.” says Larry DiPasquale, Founder and CEO of ECG. “From culinary to sales to administration, we have been lucky to work with several individuals for more than 20 years. However, the best part about working in tandem with our true-blue colleagues is their eagerness not only to share their expertise with the newbies, but their willingness to consider positive changes. The young, enthusiastic chefs are just as important and as respected as those who have been in the mix for the long haul,” says DiPasquale with a smile.

“We really get the best of both worlds. We are open to new ways of doing things, happy to be trendsetters in the industry—and we find that with the new, young, passionate talent that comes knocking at our doors.

But we also have been in business for over 30 years and have learned a lot along the way. By combining the expertise of experience and the eagerness of youth, we are able to capture that magic that causes a guest to phone the kitchen with a message of gratitude in the early morning hours.

Those are the things that make our days—and our long nights—worth it.”

Epicurean Culinary Group and the DCPA are yet another instance of blending innovation with tradition. When Epicurean was asked to act as exclusive caterer at the pre-eminent Seawell Grand Ballroom, both organizations brought their best to the table, resulting in more events and, therefore, more dollars to support Denver’s arts and culture, something that both ECG and the DCPA feel is vital to a thriving community. n

A proud supporter of The Denver Center for the Performing Arts 303.893.4100

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