Applause -- Laughs in Spanish, January 27-March 12, 2023

Kyle Malone

APPLAUSE

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SIGHTLINE

BY JANICE SINDEN

HHappy New Year! I am hopeful that 2023 will be a year filled with joy, respect, and bringing people together. That is what we do best at the Denver Center, and we are grateful you are here with us, whether this is your first time at the theatre or you have been joining us for many years. Welcome!

This issue of Applause opens with the Broadway engagement of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, originally published in 1960 and translated into more than 40 languages. This is a moving story that juxtaposes integrity against bigotry, guilt against innocence, and white against black. Despite the passage of more than 70 years since the book was written, it is all too clear there is still much work to be done to eradicate hatred in its many forms.

With the new year upon us, comes new opportunity. We, at the DCPA are reflecting, reassessing and planning for our future. We’ve set upon a new, ambitious five-year strategic plan that will take us to the eve of our 50th anniversary.

Just as important, we’ve refreshed our core values — those elements that are at the very center of who we are and what we do. Throughout, we have woven in our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. At the center of these values is belonging.       You belong here. You are part of our story and we ask you to share in our values, which also include collaboration, community, creativity, integrity and sustainability. We encourage you to bring your neighbor, a colleague, friend or acquaintance the next time you join us at the theatre. We believe in the transformative power of live theatre and look forward to seeing you here again soon.

Warm regards,

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.

VOLUME XXXIII • NUMBER 4 • JAN - MAR 2023

EDITOR: Suzanne Yoe

DESIGN DIRECTOR: Kyle Malone

DESIGNER THIS ISSUE: Brenda Elliott

CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS: Paul Koob, Lucas Kreitler

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Leo Adam Biga, Joel Brown, Linnea Covington, Emma Hunt, Kelundra Smith, Madison Stout

Applause is published seven 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

Angie Flachman, Publisher For advertising 303.428.9529 or sales@pub-house.com coloradoartspubs.com

LEARN MORE

FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF UPCOMING SHOWS:

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

Martin Semple, Immediate Past Chair

Ruth Krebs, Vice Chair

Robert C. Newman, Secretary/Treasurer

Dr. Patricia Baca

Brisa Carleton

Fred Churbuck

Navin Dimond

David Jacques Farahi

Kevin Kilstrom

Susan Fox Pinkowitz

Manny Rodriguez

Alan Salazar

Richard M. Sapkin

William Dean Singleton

Robert Slosky

June Travis

Ken Tuchman

Tina Walls

Dr. Reginald L. Washington

Judi Wolf

Sylvia Young

HONORARY TRUSTEES

Margot Gilbert Frank

Jeannie Fuller

Daniel L. Ritchie

Cleo Parker Robinson

HELEN G. BONFILS FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES

William Dean Singleton, President

Martin Semple

Vice President

Dr. Reginald Washington, Secretar y/Treasurer

Ruth Krebs

David Miller

Robert C. Newman

Hassan Salem

Robert Slosky

June Travis

Judi Wolf

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT

Janice Sinden, President & CEO

Jamie Clements, Vice President, Development

Chris Coleman, Artistic Director, Theatre Company

John Ekeberg, Executive Director, Broadway & Cabaret

Lydia Garcia, Executive Director, Equity & Organization Culture

Gretchen Hollrah, Chief Operating Officer

Laura Maresca, Vice President, Human Resources

Charlie Miller, Executive Director & Curator, Off-Center

Lisa Roebuck, Vice President, Information Technology

Charles Varin, Managing Director, Theatre Company

Allison Watrous, Executive Director, Education & Community Engagement

Jane Williams, Chief Financial Officer

A BLACK-TIE GALA BENEFITING DCPA THEATRE & EDUCATION PROGRAMS

MARCH 11, 2023

JOIN US for Denver’s most glamorous night of the year! Peer behind the curtain and get an insider’s look at the sophisticated stagecraft that brings your favorite DCPA productions to life. Get the best seats in the house for our Tony Award-winning Theatre Company’s production of Laughs in Spanish or Hotter

Than Egypt—the choice is yours—and discover how plays are made, from scratch, through post-show conversations and captivating exhibits with real props and costumes from past productions. Immerse yourself in the romance of theatre and make an impact on the arts in style.

BUY TICKETS

contact Megan Stewart: 303.446.4821 mstewart@dcpa.org

— OR — — OR —

DENVERCENTER.ORG/SNA

Giacomo Puccini

Richard

Claude Debussy

Antonín Dvořák

HOTTER THAN EGYPT PLAYWRIGHT EXPLORES THE PATHOS AND COMEDY INHERENT IN EVERY DAY LIFE

BY LEO ADAM BIGA

IIn Hotter Than Egypt, playwright Yussef El Guindi explores the tragic-funny misunderstandings of a culture clash rich in existential, social, political baggage.

While on holiday in Egypt, middle-aged Americans Paul and Jean find their marriage unraveling in the company of a young couple, Seif and Maha, who serve as their guides and conscience. Cut off from routine, conflicts and intrigues surface that cause everyone to confront harsh, yet humorous truths.

After a well-received 2020 Colorado New Play Summit staged reading, Egypt is back at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts with a fully staged production.

“I was blessed with a great cast and director. [DCPA Theatre Company Artistic Director] Chris Coleman shepherded the first workshop, so it’s gratifying to have it return for a full production under his direction,” said El Guindi.

Born into a family of notable creatives in Egypt, El Guindi studied in the United Kingdom and America, where he eventually settled. The award-winning playwright’s first passion was acting.

“I applied to six acting programs and one program for playwriting. All six acting schools rejected me, while Carnegie Mellon accepted me into their playwriting program. So, basically, I’ve been living Plan B. But I also never let go of my desire to become an actor.”

He worked in theaters in San Francisco, then got a job teaching playwriting and a dramatic literature class at Duke University. But he still pursued an acting career after landing in Seattle, where he resides.

He was in his late 30s when he finally gave up on acting and fully committed to playwriting. Seattle’s ACT Theatre became his creative home.

“Having a place receptive to my work and more than willing to consider it for production is vital. It prompts me to write the next play. And for that I am enormously grateful. Having ACT in my corner is a great boon. Such support is essential for me as a playwright.”

FRAMING THE ARAB-MUSLIM DIASPORA

His work interrogates the fraught Arab-Muslim experience in America.

“Part of the impetus in telling these stories is to counter the sometimes horrendous reductiveness of mainstream depictions of Arabs and Muslims,” he said. “Rather than some agenda-driven goal in writing these plays, it’s really just about presenting fully-formed Arab-Muslim characters in different kinds of stories — and not as plot points in flattened narratives about the region or cultures.

“Presenting them as regular folk in varied storylines becomes a radical act all by itself.”

His Back of the Throat (2005) deals with Arab-American fears in the post-9/11 environment.

As members of ignored or demonized populations push back on negative narratives by telling their own stories, he said, “these formerly marginalized groups very slowly and painfully become a tiny bit more integrated into the mainstream cultural life.”

MINING TRUTH THROUGH FARCE

His chosen form for sussing out truth: farce.

“I was very taken by farce very early on. The manic and merciless quality of the genre appealed to my youthful writer self wanting to get a rise out of the audience. There’s nothing like laughter to plug an audience into a moment, and the play as a whole, hopefully. It’s also very

Illustration by Kyle Malone

gratifying as a writer to hear that laughter. But farce is also very close to tragedy in its unrelenting propulsion towards inevitable ends. In both farce and tragedy we are pawns to forces greater than ourselves. We feel powerless, at times, in our attempt to be agents in our own destinies.”

The vagaries of leaving one culture for another make fertile ground for farce.

“You come to a new country and have to adjust to the way it operates, while also letting go of some of the protocols, manners and values of the country you were raised in. The larger the leap, the bigger the adjustment,” he said.

Returning this season — Talkbacks with the cast!

In the wash, misunderstandings occur. “A stranger in a strange land becomes a potential source of comedy as the character tries to figure out what’s what,” El Guindi said. Hotter Than Egypt ’s protagonists stumble about in the mess they make, negotiating new definitions of their relationships, power dynamics and selves.

“Everyone,” he said, “has a moment where they break things down and offer their opinion or analysis.” In Hotter Than Egypt :

● Paul chases a faux new beginning

● Jean demands liberation from a prescriptive life

● Seif doubles down on what matters to him

● Maha’s desperation turns to healthy ambition

What’s meant to be a vacation from reality turns into a crucible of open wounds and greener pastures.

“There is some truth to the feeling there is surely a better alternative ‘over there,’ whether a place or a person, if you could just make it happen. Shorn from old habits and rituals, we are a little lost on holidays, sometimes wonderfully so, and in that in-between place we are able to gain the kind of perspectives hard to come by in our regulated lives back home.

“The sin sometimes is to feel one is absolutely right and the other person is wrong or on much shakier ground than you.” As a cross-cultural wayfarer himself, El Guindi draws on personal experience for these crises of identity and longing. His milieu is his material.

PLAY IT AS IT LAYS

His advice to new playwrights is to “endure” in finding their own voice.

“Stay at it, practice your craft — which means finding ways to hearing your plays read by others. You’ll only learn in the doing. Make the needed adjustments with each reading-staging. Find like-minded theater practitioners and work with them. Don’t wait for the big theaters to legitimize you. Be a self-starter and make things happen for yourself.”

Playwriting groups are another way to connect. “It’s lovely having this community out there.”

ASL Interpreted and Audio Described performance: March 5 at 1:30pm

These free post-show discussions are held after select DCPA Theatre Company performances to extend, deepen and enrich your experience. Moderated by DCPA Education & Community Engagement, you’ll have the opportunity to stay after the play to delve into themes and connect with fellow audience members.

Join us after the evening performances on these dates:

LAUGHS IN SPANISH

Thu, Feb 23

Thu, Mar 2 HOTTER THAN EGYPT

Tue, Feb 28

Thu, Mar 9

THE COLOR PURPLE

Tue, Apr 11

Thu, Apr 13

Thu, Apr 20

Thu, Apr 27

THE 39 STEPS

Thu, May 18

Thu, Jun 8

Rather than some agenda-driven goal in writing these plays, it’s really just about presenting fully-formed Arab-Muslim characters in di erent kinds of stories.

— YUSSEF EL GUINDI, PLAYWRIGHT

BY MADISON STOUT

OOver the last few years, students from DCPA Education’s Adult program have emerged on professional stages across the area.

Ryan Omar Stack, Business Analyst-turned-Actor, is one such student seizing local opportunities, scoring himself roles in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience.

Stack moved to Denver in 2010 to pursue a career in business. After several years, he found himself hungering for a creative outlet and returned to acting. While searching for a place to continue to grow as an actor, he discovered the DCPA.

“It felt new,” Stack shared. “After so long, I was uncomfortable performing in front of people.” But the hesitancy quickly wore off. “The staff was so willing to provide feedback at any time,” Stack explained. “Having people to confer with and learning from people who’ve studied the art and applied it is incredibly helpful.”

Following his time studying with DCPA Education, Stack auditioned around town and became a resident actor at Benchmark Theatre. “I slowly transitioned from performing in front of students and small audiences in master classes to month-long performances in front of paying audiences.”

Following breakout roles in Benchmark’s productions of George Orwell’s 1984, Airness and Parfumerie, Stack joined DCPA Education’s Shakespeare in the Parking Lot sharing abridged performances of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth at high schools and community centers.

“Work gets work,” Stack explained. “As I continued to book more jobs, I gained more confidence and comfortability being in the room. Shakespeare in the Parking Lot gave me the tools needed to get into CSF.”

Now Stack is venturing into less traditional theatre experiences. Recently he worked with Deck Nine Games, providing voice-over and facial motion-capture for the video game Life is Strange: Remastered Collection, and this fall joined the cast of The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience

“I love doing jobs where I work with different creatives,” Stack said, “where we can all learn from each other.”

To learn more about DCPA Education, visit denvercenter.org/education

• Intro to advanced-level classes

• Taught by professionals in the field

• Spring/Summer Child & Teen classes now enrolling

• Spring Adult registration opens Jan 31

BROWSE CLASSES

DENVERCENTER.ORG/EDUCATION

Sponsored by

Ryan Omar Stack

Photo by McLeod9 Creative

no GUTS no story

Join Curious Theatre Company in exploring, “What does it mean to be an American today?” These three timely plays are featured in Curious’ 25th Anniversary Season, and you DON’T want to miss out! Subscriptions and single tickets are now available for purchase from our Box Office and online. Bold and audacious theatre. Curious Theatre Company.

3-show package available

Courageous z Belonging z Generational

Charged z Pertinent z Unexpected

MUSIC MAYHEM

The 2022/23 DCPA Theatre Company season culminates with a pair of treasured works by Alice Walker and Alfred Hitchcock.

THE COLOR PURPLE

“A glory to behold!”

The New York Times

Spotlight Sponsors: Sustainer Society and Singleton Family Foundation

Mar 31 – May 7

Wolf Theatre

THE 39 ST EPS

GET TICKETS

— The Denver Post

Premiere Sponsors:

Robert & Judi Newman and June Travis

Spotlight Sponsors:

Martin & Jo Semple and Sustainer Society

Show Sponsor: Acoya Cherry Creek

Apr 14 – Jun 18

Singleton Theatre

GET TICKETS

Illustrations by Kyle Malone

“A silly yet delightfully faithful spoof of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 spy thriller.”

HOW PLAYWRIGHT ALEXIS SCHEER’S LAUGHS IN

SPANISH

HELPED LAND HER A TURN ON BROADWAY

BY JOEL BROWN

SShe just landed a big job on Broadway, but no one should be surprised. Playwright Alexis Scheer has always been determined. As a Miami adolescent, she passed on having a bat mitzvah to take a role in a regional production of Fiddler on the Roof.

“I don’t remember exactly what I told my parents, but I made a really big case that ‘I don’t need the bat mitzvah. I need to do this musical!’” she says, laughing. “And they agreed! I think my dad was like, ‘Yeah, sure, whatever’ and my mother was really relieved that, ‘Oh, we don’t have to pay for a big bat mitzvah.’”

The comic polish on that anecdote shines through in Scheer’s Laughs in Spanish, having its world premiere production at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The play centers around Mariana, who arrives to open the doors of her gallery in Miami’s ubertrendy Wynwood neighborhood and discovers a catastrophe: She’s been robbed! The walls are empty. All of the art is gone. And tonight she’s hosting a big shindig for Art Basel Miami!

The well-made comedy opens the door for insights about codeswitching, Latina representation, and art-world hype. “I like to be subversive,” Scheer says, “in a subversive way.”

While she’s in Denver for rehearsals, Scheer will also be flying back and forth to New York, where she is writing additional book material for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Bad Cinderella, which begins previews Feb. 17 at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre after a West End run in 2021-22. Laughs in Spanish was the writing sample that helped get her the job, she says.

“My first reaction was total shock,” says Scheer. “Andrew Lloyd Webber is the entry point to theater for so many, including me. A regional theatre production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat that I saw in the second grade is what made me fall in love with theater. I sang ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ from Jesus

Illustration by Kyle Malone

The fact that they’re both comedies is something I’m really looking forward to, because things I learn in one room will help me in the other.

— ALEXIA SCHEER, PLAYWRIGHT

Christ Superstar to get into The Boston Conservatory (where she earned a degree in musical theater performance). I’ve just always been surrounded by his work. So it was totally surreal when I got the job.”

Bad Cinderella features an original story and book by Oscar-winning writer Emerald Fennell and lyrics by Tony winner David Zippel, directed by Laurence Connor. This Cinderella is a goth outcast in the otherwise perfect town of Belleville who learns that beauty is only skin-deep after getting a big makeover for the royal ball.

“Now we’re in the thick of it, so sometimes I forget the magnitude of it all,” she says. “But then I get these flashes of, like, starstruck-ness, I guess? Once I was sitting at his dining table with him, the lyricist, and director. The director and I were reading one of the scenes out loud, and Andrew starts singing the underscoring he’s going to put in, and I just stopped and thought to myself ‘Holy s**t, I’m sitting next to Andrew Lloyd Webber while he’s writing a musical.’”

Laughs in Spanish was written as Scheer’s thesis play for Boston University’s MFA playwriting program and professionally workshopped at BU’s Boston Playwrights’ Theatre in 2019.

When Scheer was a girl, her parents owned a small button business on 26th Street in pre-gentrification Wynwood, then a rough-andtumble neighborhood far from the glitz of Miami Beach. “I used to go all the time, especially in summer, and my parents called it button camp,” Scheer says. “Just walls and walls and shelves of every kind of button you could ever imagine. I would sit and snap buttons together. I used to have a bag and collect my favorite ones, mostly the glittery ones.”

In 2014, with the neighborhood changing dramatically and realestate values shooting up, they closed the button business and sold out to developers in 2014. “I was thinking a lot about this little warehouse I spent so much time in as a kid, and what its next life would be, and daydreaming about that space as a gallery space and who would occupy that – and I wrote this play.”

Mariana has Jewish and Colombian roots, like Scheer; aside from the missing artwork, her other big problem on this day is a visit from her mother, Estella, a fading Colombian movie star who makes the Kardashians look self-effacing. Not much more helpful are Mariana’s employee Carolina, a painter; Carolina’s boyfriend, a cop; and Mariana’s assistant, Jenny from LA.

Now based in Boston, Scheer is looking forward to Denver so she can make sure the play’s jokes are still on point. As a society we are in a different place than when she started writing, she says. “There’s one joke about the mom not understanding Twitter, and I don’t think you get through a Trump presidency without knowing about Twitter.”

During her Taglit-Birthright trip to Israel a few years ago, she finally got her bat mitzvah, a “quickie” in a Jerusalem basement synagogue. “It feels kinda legit. It was in Israel. That has to count for something!”

Now, she’ll be flying back and forth to sit beside Webber on Broadway.

“I will have the best of both worlds for a few weeks!” Scheer says. “The fact that they’re both comedies is something I’m really looking forward to, because things I learn in one room will help me in the other.” READ THE FULL STORY

COMING UP FROM BROADWAY

1776

Tony Award-winning Best Musical, 1776, is coming to Denver. Originally staged in 1969, the musical tells the story of the American Revolution, specifically the signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams is the central character as he attempts to persuade all delegates from the 13 colonies to vote for independence.

Peter Stone, who wrote the book for 1776, said, “You knew immediately that John Adams and the others were not going to be treated as gods or cardboard characters, chopping down cherry trees and flying kites with strings and keys on them. It had this very affectionate familiarity; it wasn’t reverential.”

But this revival isn’t your traditional historical drama. 1776 features a diverse cast that reflects multiple representations of race, gender, and ethnicity.

Directed by Jeffrey L. Page (Violet) and Diane Paulus (Waitress), co-produced by American Repertory Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company, 1776 is reinvigorated into a thrilling production that “pulsates with energy, snaps with attitude and enlivens history,” (Variety). You may never think about our country— who we are and why—the same way again.

You won’t want to miss this groundbreaking musical at the Buell Theatre on March 21 through April 2, 2023.

JAN

ASL Interpreted and Audio Described performance: Feb 12 at 1:30pm

The company of Roundabout Theatre Company’s 1776

Photo by Joan Marcus, 2022.

IT’S STILL A CRIME TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Richard Thomas, who plays Atticus, and Jacqueline Williams, who plays Calpurnia, discuss playing two of the most beloved characters from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

BY KELUNDRA SMITH

IIn Harper Lee’s celebrated novel To Kill a Mockingbird she wrote, “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

When the book was published in 1960, America was in a crisis of conscience. Teens held sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The birth control pill was made available to married women.

John F. Kennedy was elected president. The Civil Rights Movement, Cuban Missile Crisis and the War in Vietnam pushed many Americans to ask themselves if liberty and justice had reached everyone. The entire decade would be spent peeling back the layers of these major events.

Those same questions about liberty and justice hang in the air in the 21st century, which is what inspired Academy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin to adapt and update the novel for the Broadway stage in 2018.

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, a precocious, 6-year-old girl named Scout is living in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama with her big brother Jem and lawyer father Atticus Finch. Atticus has taken the case of a Black man, Tom Robinson, who has been falsely accused of assaulting a white woman. That summer, Scout’s reality is caught between the innocence of playing with her friend Dill and the reality of a changing world as embodied by their housekeeper, Calpurnia.

Parts of the novel are based on Lee’s lived experiences. She grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, where she died in 2016 at the age of 89. Her father was an attorney, Amasa Coleman Lee, who had taken on early civil rights cases. In one case in particular, he defended two Black men accused of murder, which he lost.

In 1960, Lee was a budding writer in New York City. She worked full-time for what is now British Airways and wrote for various literary magazines on the side. Her friend, novelist Truman Capote, recommended a literary agent for her to meet with, and after that meeting she quit her job at the airline and went to work on To Kill a Mockingbird

At the time the novel was published, it was met with mixed reviews. The Atlantic called it implausible. The Chicago Tribune lauded it as a revelation. The Mobile Press-Register praised the novel for speaking to the times but warned of backlash from the Deep South.

Two years later, the novel was adapted into an Academy Award-winning movie with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. A stage adaptation of the novel has been performed in Monroeville since the 1960s.

Equipped with a perspective on how America has and has not changed in the last 60 years, Sorkin wrote a play that delves into the characters in ways the novel did not at the time. The child characters speak with the awareness of a changing world, so the play really does feel like it’s being told in retrospect. Scout is very clearly the protagonist. He also looked for the flaws in the novel’s most beloved character, Atticus.

In an interview with Salon, Sorkin said, “Atticus believes there is goodness in everyone.

Melanie Moore (“Scout Finch”) and Richard Thomas (“Atticus Finch”).

Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

He excuses racism all over the place. One of the things Atticus keeps repeating is ‘I know these people.’ These are our friends and neighbors. Our family has lived here for generations. Sure, some of them are stuck in the old ways, but nobody is so far gone that that they’re gonna send an obviously innocent man to the electric chair. He’s wrong about that. I think that all of us, no matter where you are on the political and ideological spectrum have felt over the last few years ‘I thought I knew these guys.’ I had no idea that the person I was living next door to felt and thought things so different from what I did, so the play became relevant in that regard.”

For Emmy winner Richard Thomas (“The Waltons,” “Ozark” and “The Americans”), who plays Atticus, exploring the character’s evolution gives him more to work with onstage.

“Aaron Sorkin has done a lot of the work for me, because he’s taken Atticus off the pedestal,” Thomas said. “We should be grateful for people who try to do what’s right, but we can still be critical. We can interrogate his unassailable virtues, so he goes from being a man in a position of great comfort to discomfort. His loss of innocence is on a parallel course with the children’s throughout the play. Sorkin has created a teachable Atticus, not a man who’s dispensing wisdom, but he’s on a journey himself.”

Thomas, who grew up in New York says he first read To Kill a Mockingbird in middle school like many Americans. He says he recalls loving the book because the experience of childhood felt very real to him. But he also acknowledges something else.

“I could identify the good guys and bad guys, and what was unjust, frustrating and angry, but from a privileged perspective,” Thomas said. “It was before my own particular social awakening took place, so I was kind of an innocent reader of it.”

For Jacqueline Williams, who plays Calpurnia, she read her older brother’s copy of the novel in sixth grade. Williams grew up in Chicago, the daughter of parents who left the South during the Great Migration. She says the novel rang true to her because it reflected real experiences from her family.

“Those who know the book and film will not know Calpurnia in this way,” Williams said. “In that fleshing out, the relationship with the home, the kids, all of that is much clearer in this live version.”

The contrast in their first experiences with the novel is similar to the difference in their characters’ lived experiences in the play. Sorkin takes the African American characters out of the periphery and gives them a voice and point of view, so Atticus and Calpurnia’s conversations are more frank and morally charged than those in the novel. Calpurnia is clearly suppressed by the same system that Atticus is trying to defend Tom against. But, at the same time, Atticus and Cal must function as a unit. Their dynamic drifts into one of parents trying to figure out how to raise children, but the power structure is clearly that of employer and employee.

This is part of what makes To Kill a Mockingbird a necessary text for the times. Like the characters, people are still learning how not to step on each other’s freedom.

“We still need this story. We still have a lot of work to do,” said Williams. “For many decades, a lot of racism was much more in your face in the South, but not so much in the North…Now, it’s all over the country. These killings, shootings and injustices are not new.”

In many ways, Lee foretelling the Civil Rights Movement through a child’s eyes proved to be an effective measure for the movement itself. The Children’s Crusade took place in Birmingham in 1963. High school and college students led the Freedom Rides to register African Americans to vote in the Deep South. Watching police and military officers turn dogs and fire hoses on children turned the tide.

The same is true now. The Occupy Movement, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and the fight for climate consciousness are the unfinished business of the 1960s. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations, watching millions of young people protest the murders of unarmed Black people pushed many institutions to reexamine their policies and practices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“As I grew up, they went from being characters in a book to being the world I was living in, and that’s part of the awakening,” Thomas said. “I’m proud of being a part of youth in the 60s, because when the awakening happened we were really involved. I’m happy to say that’s happening again. I have a 26-year-old son who’s on the barricades and it’s still real, it’s still true, and it jumps off the page… It’s the American story for better and for worse.”

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

JAN 24 – FEB 5, 2023 • BUELL THEATRE

ASL Interpreted, Audio-Described & Open Captioned performance: Feb 5 at 2pm

We still need this story. We still have a lot of work to do.

— JACQUELINE WILLIAMS, ACTRESS

Jacqueline Williams (“Calpurnia”).

Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

Chris Coleman, Artistic Director

Charles Varin, Managing Director

LAUGHS IN SPANISH

BY ALEXIS SCHEER

With Danielle Alonzo, Maggie Bofill, Olivia Hebert, Stephanie Machado, Luis Vega Stage Managers: Wendy Blackburn Eastland, Michael G. Morales

SCENIC DESIGN BY Brian Sidney Bembridge

SOUND DESIGN BY T. Carlis Roberts

COSTUME DESIGN BY Raquel Barreto

LIGHTING DESIGN BY Christina Watanabe

VOICE AND DIALECT BY Cynthia Santos-DeCure

INTIMACY CHOREOGRAPHY BY Samantha Egle

DRAMATURGY BY Linnea Valdivia

present PRODUCING PARTNER

CASTING BY Bass/Valle Casting And Grady Soapes, CSA

DIRECTED BY LISA PORTES

WORLD PREMIERE

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT BY Matthew Campbell

Supported in part by DCPA’s Women’s Voices Fund. This play is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited.

THE SINGLETON THEATRE • JAN 27 – MAR 12, 2023

SEASON SPONSORS SPOTLIGHT SPONSORS

Ted Pinkowitz & Susan Fox Pinkowitz Mike Gosline & Don Werner

CAST

(In order of appearance)

Mariana Stephanie Machado

Juan Luis Vega

Carolina Danielle Alonzo

Estella Maggie Bofill

Jenny Olivia Hebert

SETTING

Wynwood. Miami, FL

LAUGHS IN SPANISH will be performed without an intermission.

Assistant Director Jean Carlo Yunen Aróstegui

Stage Manager Michael G. Morales

Assistant Stage Manager .............................................................................................................. Wendy Blackburn Eastland

The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers of the United States. The Assistant Director in this production is a 2022-2023 Drama League Stage Assistantship recipient.

WHO’S WHO

ACTING COMPANY

DANIELLE ALONZO (Carolina) is a writer, actor, and director. Afro-Latina who is Bronx raised and proud! If she is clapping her hands in your direction...RUN.

After a successful run of her one woman show, Danielle created her web series “Bronx‘ish.” Episodes include arguing with a Karen in the bike lane, to her Abuela accusing the home attendant of theft. Season two returned in 2022; snippets of the series continue to gross over 9 million views on TikTok and featured on ABC News and more. TV: “FBI” (CBS), “Seasoned” (Showtime), and “Fallout” (Amazon). ABC’s Diversity Showcase 2018.

MAGGIE BOFILL (Estella) is an actor and playwright.

Founding member of LAByrinth Theater Company, member of Ensemble Studio Theater, and WAW (WomanArtistWriters).

Wrote and featured in Cuban American Gothic (PBS short, Pata de Perros Productions). STAGE: Moises Kauffman new play workshop of Las Aventuras de Juan Blanchard; The Formula (world premiere) and The Tempest (Santa Cruz Shakespeare); Bai Pas (George St. Playhouse); The Sound Inside (Theater Works Hartford); A Doll’s House Part Two (The Longwharf Theater); Mojada:

A Medea in Los Angeles (St. Louis Rep.). TV/Film: “High Town,” “The Path,” “Smash,” “Law & Order SVU.”

OLIVIA HEBERT (Jenny) (She/Her/ Hers). New York theater credits include: The Hard Problem (Lincoln Center Theater) and Boy Gets Violent (Ars Nova). Other recent credits include: Holiday (Arena Stage); The Importance of Being Earnest (Cape Playhouse); Rat Jaw (Stomping Ground); and Nothing Can Stop What is Coming (GreenHouse Theatre Project). She obtained her MFA from NYU where she performed roles in Henry V, An American Daughter, Thyestes, An Ideal Husband, The Big Knife, among others. Other training: BS, University of Evansville.

STEPHANIE

MACHADO (Mariana). Recent credits: Sabina (Portland Stage); The Gradient (Repertory Theater of St. Louis); Measure for Measure (Actors Theater/Fiasco Theater); All’s Well That Ends Well and Much Ado About Nothing (Play On Shakespeare Festival); An Enemy of the People, Indecent and Assassins (Yale Repertory Theatre); For A Brief Moment I was Something Else (Here Arts). TV: “Evil” (CBS). She is a recipient of the Olivier Thorndike Acting Award and the Greer Garson

Acting Award. She was nominated for Outstanding Leading Performer in a Comedy for her performance in The Gradient. MFA Yale School of Drama, BFA SMU. www.stephaniemachado.me

LUIS VEGA (Juan) (He/Him/His). New York Theater credits: The Gett (Rattlestick Theater); Hindsight (Fault Line Theatre); The Underlying Chris (Second Stage); Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic Theater Company); i thought i would die but i didn’t (New Georges/The Tank). Regional Theater credits: Animals Out of Paper (Chautauqua Theater); Change Agent (Arena Stage); The Humans (Broadway National Tour); Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown); The Underpants (Old Globe); Seize the King (La Jolla Playhouse); As You Like It (The Guthrie). Film/TV: “Blue Bloods” (CBS), “The Good Fight” (Paramount+), “Madam Secretary” (CBS), Another Earth (Fox Searchlight), Chinese Puzzle. Training: MFA, UCSD.

PLAYWRIGHT

ALEXIS SCHEER’s (She/Her/Hers) plays include Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theater/Second Stage: NYT Critics Pick, John Gassner Award; LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work; Kilroy’s List); Laughs in Spanish (Kennedy Center’s Harold & Mimi Steinberg Award); and Christina (Roe Green Award; O’Neill finalist). She is under commission by Second Stage, MTC,

and Miami New Drama. Television: “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” (HBO Max). Alexis is currently on the creative team of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella on Broadway and is developing a TV project with Salma Hayek’s Ventanarosa. BFA: The Boston Conservatory. MFA: Boston University. IG: @scheer_madness

DIRECTOR

LISA PORTES is an award-winning director of new and contemporary American plays and musicals. She is thrilled to return to the DCPA, where her credits include Quixote Nuevo and Native Gardens here. Her work has been seen regionally at Cal Shakes, Cincinnati Playhouse, Guthrie Theatre, Olney Theatre and South Coast Repertory Theatre; in Chicago at Goodman Theatre, Northlight, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Victory Gardens Theatre; and in New York she has developed and/ or directed new work for Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons, the Public, New York Theatre Workshop and the Flea. She is a co-founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons, a member of the Drama League Directors Circle, and serves on the boards of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC). In 2016 she was honored with the Zelda Fichandler Award for Directors. She heads the MFA Directing program at The Theatre School at DePaul University and lives in Chicago with her husband, playwright Carlos Murillo, and their two teenagers, Eva Rose and Carlos Alejandro. lisaportes.com.

CREATIVE TEAM

BASS/VALLE CASTING (Casting). New York: Broadway’s Gem of the Ocean. Off-Broadway: Radio Golf, Jitney. Public Theater’s: New Works Now, Minetta Lane, Women’s Project, La MaMa, Epic Theatre, Drama League, Jewish Repertory Theatre, Women in Film and Television. Regional: Hartford Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, Trinity Rep, Syracuse Stage, Huntington Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Dallas Theatre Co., Berkeley Rep, Playmaker’s Rep, Alliance Theatre, Virginia Stage, Geva, CenterStage, Long Wharf Theatre, Arizona Theatre Co. Film: Pushing Hands, Gravesend, First We Take Manhattan. Audition Coach at many of the nation’s top universities and actor training programs.

RAQUEL BARRETO (Costume Designer) (She/Her/Hers) is returning to DCPA after designing Native Gardens. Recent credits: A Christmas Carol (Alley Theatre); All’s Well That Ends Well (Chicago Shakespeare); The Gradient (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); and Julius Caesar (Theater for a New Audience). Her designs have also

been seen at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theater of Louisville, Portland Center Stage, The Folger Theater, Syracuse Stage, Geffen Playhouse, Cornerstone Theater Co, Latino Theater Co, the LA Philharmonic, and others. A native of Brazil, Raquel is a professor at UT Austin. Member, USA 829.

BRIAN SIDNEY BEMBRIDGE (Scenic Designer). Off-Broadway: The Public Theater, Second Stage, Jean Cocteau Repertory, and Theatre at St. Clements. International: Theatre Royal Stratford East, Town Hall Theatre, and Illawarra Performing Arts Centre Sydney, Regional: The Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Second City, Lookingglass Theatre Company, ACT Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alliance Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, A.C.T., Children’s Theatre Company, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Ravinia Festival, Opera Omaha, Virginia Opera, Juneau Lyric Opera, Asolo, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Madison Repertory theatres. Awards: seven Jeff Awards, three Garland Awards, two LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, LA Weekly Awards, Gregory Awards, and Ovation Award.

MATTHEW CAMPBELL (Production Manager) (He/Him/His) 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, Book of Will, Rattlesnake Kate, and The Chinese Lady.

SAMANTHA EGLE (Intimacy Choreographer) (She/Her/Hers) is a fight director, intimacy choreographer, and educator. Her work has been seen on the stages of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Opera Colorado, Arvada Center, Asolo Repertory, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Aurora Fox, Denver Children’s Theatre, Athena Project Festival, Lagoon Theme Park, New York Fringe Festival, Mizel Center, University of Denver, University of Northern Colorado, and other educational institutions. She was a Resident Artist as an Intimacy Director at Arena Stage. She is the founder of Humble Warrior Movement Arts. She is a Certified Teacher and

Regional Representative with the Society of American Fight Directors.

T. CARLIS ROBERTS (Sound Designer) (He/Him/His) is an artist and scholar who engages sound as a tool for liberation. His professional work has straddled theatre, film, television, and music. As a composer and sound designer, T has worked at theaters including Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth, San Jose Repertory Theater, California Shakespeare Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As a songwriter and performer, T appeared on the Grammy-nominated album “The Love” by Alphabet Rockers, wrote music for the Starz series Vida, and toured the country in A Queer Story of the Boy Band, a theatrical concert he co-created with QT/POC boy band The Singing Bois. tcarlisroberts.com

CYNTHIA SANTOS-DECURE (Voice and Dialect Coach) (She/Her/Ella) is certified in Knight-Thompson Speechwork® and Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Some credits include: Cymbeline (NY Classical); Quixote Nuevo (DCPA/Round House); Today is My Birthday, El Huracan (Yale Rep); I Come from Arizona (Children’s Theatre of Minneapolis); In the Heights (Phoenix Theater/Chance Theater); Scenes with Cranes and Shelter (Center for New Performance/CalArts); The Long Road Today (South Coast Rep). TV: “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix), The Affair (Showtime). Co-edited books: Scenes for Latinx Actors and Latinx Actor Training (2023). Member SAG/AFTRA, AEA. She is an Associate Professor of Acting at Yale School of Drama.

GRADY SOAPES (Casting) (He/Him/ His) is the Director of Casting and Artistic Producer with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Selected casting credits include Rattlesnake Kate, Goodnight Moon, Indecent, A Doll’s House and A Doll’s House, Part 2 in repertory, Oklahoma!, Last Night and the Night Before, The Who’s Tommy, The Wild Party, A Christmas Carol, This Is Modern Art. Grady also works as a Casting Director for Sylvia Gregory Casting where he has cast commercials for Subaru, Fruit of the Loom and has been an associate on several TV, film and video game projects. Choreography credits include Goodnight Moon, Anna Karenina, As You Like It, Drag Machine, Lord of the Butterflies, DragON (Denver Center); Comedy of Errors (Colorado Shakespeare Festival); The Liar (Arvada Center); The Music Man (Perry-Mansfield) as well as Artist in Residence at Colorado State University in 2010. Grady is the producer of the Colorado New Play Summit and former producer of the Colorado New Play Festival.

LINNEA VALDIVIA (Dramaturg) (She/ They) is an arts writer, dramaturg, and scholar whose work explores historic performances of minoritized genders and sexualities with a special focus on new work development and Latinx stories. Linnea is most interested in writing and supporting stories that re-imagine popular cultural narratives, challenge American folklore and explore histories that have undergone relentless historical erasure. As a producer and dramaturg, Linnea has worked with About Face Theatre, the Lark, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre, National Queer Theater, and Island Shakespeare Festival among others.

CHRISTINA WATANABE (Lighting Designer) (She/Her/Hers) is an award-winning lighting designer and educator for theatre, dance, music, and events. Regional: Dallas Theatre Center, Theatre Aspen, The Rep St. Louis, TheatreWorks Hartford, Pioneer Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Rep, Virginia Stage Company, OKC Rep, Charlottesville Opera, Palm Beach Dramaworks, White Heron Theatre Company, Florida Rep, Bristol Valley Theatre. Select NYC: Lincoln Center, The Public, WP Theatre, INTAR, EST, Primary Stages, Cherry Lane, 59E59, HERE, New Ohio, Theatre Row, Bushwick Starr. TV: “Colin Quinn”

(co-design). USITT Gateway Mentor. Knights of Illumination winner. MFA: NYU. Member USA 829. www.StarryEyedLighting.com.

STAGE MANAGEMENT

WENDY BLACKBURN EASTLAND (Assistant Stage Manager). (She/ Her/Hers). Tours: Hamilton (Angelica Tour). Regional: Sweat (People’s Light); A Doll’s House, Part 2, Every Brilliant Thing, and Cabaret (Arden Theatre Company); Real Women Have Curves, Frankenstein, Hairspray, Bella: An American Tall Tale, Public Works Dallas (Dallas Theater Center); Native Gardens (Trinity Rep).

MICHAEL G. MORALES (Stage Manager) (He/Him/His). Michael is the Production Stage Manager for the DCPA Theatre Company. National

Tours: Hamilton, The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins, Rock of Ages (first national tour), Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago and Movin’

Out. Pre-Broadway: Wonderland and Miss Abigail’s Guide. At the DCPA: Much Ado About Nothing, Quixote

Nuevo, Wild Fire, You Lost Me,

Indecent, Sweat, The Constant Wife,

The Who’s Tommy, A Christmas Carol

Other Regional: My Fair Lady (The Asolo); West Side Story (The Fulton).

THEATRE COMPANY LEADERSHIP TEAM

CHRIS COLEMAN (Artistic Director) is passionate about the connection between stories and community. He joined the DCPA Theatre Company as Artistic Director in November of 2017 and has directed 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 100 lb. English blockhead yellow lab and 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.

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 Theater of the Mind, 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: Carl Jackson, Jr., Brent Rolfson, Richie Tienda, Bryan Tripptree, Victoria Turnage

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 innovative immersive plays. In its 2019/20 season, the DCPA engaged with more than 672,000 visitors, generating a $131 million economic impact in ticket sales alone.

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

#LaughsinSpanish

Playwright: Alexis Scheer

@scheer_madness

Director: Lisa Portes

Scenic Designer: Brian Sidney Bembridge

@bsbyt

Costume Designer: Raquel Barreto

@barretoraquel

Lighting Designer: Christina Watanabe

@starryeyedlighting

Sound Designer: T. Carlis Roberts

@bamtamerson

Photos and the video and/or audio recording during any part of the performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited

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 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.

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.

ASUKA SASAKI & JONNATHAN RAMIREZ BY RACHEL NEVILLE

FEBRUARY 3 – 12, 2023

presented by LYNNETTE MORRISON

MARCH 10 – 19, 2023

presented by MidFirst Bank

JENNIFER GRACE BY RACHEL NEVILLE

At the Ellie Caulkins Opera House with live music featuring the Colorado Ballet Orchestra

Supported by:

Join the DCPA’s Best of Broadway Society to experience Broadway as it was meant to be seen. Treat yourself to pre-show cocktails and dinner at Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House, front-and-center orchestra seats, and private intermission amenities in the Wolf Room for every show of the season. As a member, you’ll also have access to DCPA subscriber benefits, including concierge ticketing services and pre-sale access to additional experiences.

Individual memberships start at $6,250, which includes a generous donation in support of DCPA's arts and education programming.

LIVE EVENTS, LAVISH EXPERIENCES

DCPA Event Services

At the Denver Center, our Event Services team is staffed by theatrically trained professionals wielding concert-quality A/V equipment. The result is an experience for your guests that rivals the production quality of a Broadway spectacular!

If ambiance and professionalism are important to you, look to the Denver Center for your next big event. From planning and logistics to lighting design and catering, we’re able to pull off showstopping affairs that other rental venues can’t even fathom. Everything is done in-house by our event professionals and preferred partners, all working in concert to make your fundraiser, gala, all-team meeting, or whatever else you have planned, shine brighter than ever.

photo credit: Denver International Airport

The only limit is your imagination. Get in touch with us today!

act of kindness,

matter

small,

wasted.”

PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA BROADWAY

WHAT TO LISTEN TO WHEN HEALING

BY LINNEA COVINGTON

PPut on the soundtrack to your favorite musical to feel the difference a song makes. Does the music elevate the mood, get you going, or relax you? There’s so much power when it comes to music, so it’s not surprising this art form is used to help in the healing process.

That’s where music therapy comes in. For Angela Wibben, a board certified music therapist with UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, she knows a piano concerto or rock ballad isn’t a cure for illness or injury, but it can help. Especially when incorporating Broadway hits.

“People naturally pair movement with music, like working out, dancing, tapping our feet,” said Wibben.

“In the hospital, we provide assessments, design music interventions, and create treatment plans to support patients and families with things like pain management, anxiety reduction, emotional and self-expression,” said Wibben. “We are providing avenues for coping with their illness and hospitalization, or to address rehabilitation needs.”

According to Wibben, to treat a patient, they use music experiences and musical tools to help the clients work through different aspects of care, physical, emotional, social functioning or cognitive therapy.

“People of all backgrounds, ages, and cultures can respond to music, and to music therapy,” said Wibben. “Sessions may include things like relaxing to music, discussing lyrics, improvising, playing instruments or singing, creating musical keepsakes, or writing songs.”

Best part, she said, you don’t have to be able to play a musical instrument or sing well in order to benefit.

“Music therapy research tells us that the most effective music in therapy is music that is familiar, and not too complex or too simple, which, as you can imagine, varies dramatically for everyone,” added Wibben.

DCPA curates playlists exclusively for UCHealth patients and one of the recent ones includes songs from the upcoming 2023 season: “River Deep, Mountain High” from TINA — The Tina Turner Musical, “All I Really Want” from the Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill, and “Defying Gravity” from Wicked

“I believe music, and music listening, can be an excellent exercise for gaining deeper personal understanding and self-awareness of creative, emotional, self-expressive, and/or rehabilitative outlets for most anyone,” said Wibben. “One of the incredible things about music is that it’s one of the universal cultural features of all human societies and it’s an integral part of the human experience.”

No matter if you’re sick or injured or not.

Sessions may include things like relaxing to music, discussing lyrics, improvising, playing instruments or singing, creating musical keepsakes, or writing songs.

— ANGELA WIBBEN, BOARD CERTIFIED MUSIC THERAPIST WITH UCHEALTH

(Photos - Clockwise) Jennafer Newberry as Glinda and Lissa deGuzman as Elphaba in the National Tour of WICKED. Photo by Joan Marcus. / Naomi Rodgers as ‘Tina Turner’ in the North American touring production of TINA – THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL. Photo by Matthew Murphy. / Lauren Chanel and the company of the North American Tour of JAGGED LITTLE PILL. Photo by Matthew Murphy, Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, 2022.

PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA EDUCATION’S MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL PLAYWRITING PROGRAM

TTransamerica offers solutions that help people achieve financial security throughout their lives, whether it’s saving and investing for the future or protecting themselves and their loved ones.

The people of Transamerica bring expertise, creativity and heart to everything they do—and to the communities where they live and work.

The company’s charitable giving and volunteerism in Denver includes a wide range of causes, with particular focus on youth and families. This reflects a belief that supporting and educating young people helps set them on the path for the kind of future they want.

Contributing to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is consistent with Transamerica’s desire to underwrite programs that foster creativity in the areas of music and performing arts for youth and the underserved.

Transamerica looks forward to continuing to support programs such as the DCPA’s Middle and High School Playwriting Competition. The company is pleased to play a role in advancing literacy, creativity, writing and communication for these talented young individuals.

“Live theater is a powerful experience— one that can inspire, transform, and bring people together. Transamerica is proud to support DCPA and the next generation of gifted young playwrights. We believe Denver’s diverse artistic community is a big part of what makes our city so special.”

— RON WOOD, HEAD OF PEOPLE SOLUTIONS AT TRANSAMERICA

(L-R): Transamerica employees help distribute food to veterans in need with Soldier’s Angel. | Transamerica employees help build homes for families in need with Habitat for Humanity. | Transamerica employees help prepare “Bags of Fun” for children fighting long-term or life-threatening conditions.

UUnion Pacific Railroad, through its Community Ties Giving Program, is proud to support DCPA Off-Center’s Camp Christmas Community Access program, ensuring equitable access to underserved populations in the Center’s surrounding communities.  Union Pacific proudly supports organizations that improve the quality of life where its employees live and work. Investing in high quality, nonprofit programs positions communities for future growth and prosperity.

Union Pacific is proud to support the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and its commitment to embed diversity, equity and inclusion into its organization and programs. Camp Christmas brings together the local community in a secular celebration to remind everyone that joining together as a community is important during the holiday season and year-round. This program meets the community’s need for an affordable, family-friendly program that showcases differences and unites us through immersive storytelling.

PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA OFF-CENTER’S CAMP CHRISTMAS

Union Pacific is proud to support the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and its commitment to embed diversity, equity and inclusion into its organization and programs.

THANK YOU

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following donors of $250 or more for activities July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022.

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Gretchen Hollrah COO

Lydia Garcia Executive Director, Equity & Organization Culture

Seán Kroll Equity & Organization Culture Coordinator

Donna Hendricks President & CEO Executive Assistant

Julie Schumaker Manager, Board Relations & COO Executive Assistant

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

Kara Erickson-Stiemke Coordinator

Daniel Escobar Manager, Corporate Partnerships

Amanda Gomez Manager, Annual Fund

Kaylie Groff Manager, Grants & Reports

Marc Ravenhill Associate Director, Donor Relations

Megan Stewart Manager, Events

Erin Walker Senior Director

EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Allison Watrous Executive Director

Stuart Barr Technical Director

Claudia Carson Teaching Artist & Manager, Playwriting & Bobby G

Leslie Channell Director, Business Operations

Emily Doherty Teaching Artist & Manager, Theatre for Young Audiences Programming

Patrick Elkins-Zeglarski Director, Education & Curriculum Management

Emma Kimball Assistant Registrar

Jesús Quintana Martínez Director, Community Engagement

Timothy McCracken Head of Acting

David Saphier Teaching Artist & Manager, In-School Programming

Rachel Ducat Executive Assistant & Business Manager

Rya Dyes Registrar & On Site Class Manager

Charlotte Talbert Librarian

Rachel Taylor Teaching Artist & Manager, Literary Engagement & Resiliency

Justin Walvoord Teaching Artist & Manager, Shakespeare in the Parking Lot

Samuel Wood Teaching Artist & District Liaison

FACILITIES

Glen Lucero Director

Dwight Barela, Mark Dill, John Howard, Zak Merten, John Ramos Engineers

Calum Abeywickrema, Brian Adams, Jodi Benavides, David Bright, Cody Bryant, Benjamin Koenig, Gabe McNally-Nakamura, Shayne Thullen Security Specialists

Judy Briggs Front Desk

Quentin Crump Manager, Security & Guest Relations

Merry Davis Financial Manager

Jane Deegan Administrator

Michael Kimbrough Manager, Engineering

Brian McClain Manager, Custodial

Casey Meschievitz Manager, Environmental Health & Safety

Jerad Ayala, Steven Bilbao, Abraham Cervantes, Lindsey Cervantes, Carmen Molina, Judith Primero Molina, Juan Loya Molina Custodians

EVENT SERVICES

Tom Duffin Event Technology Manager

Samantha Egle, Cody Gocio Senior Sales & Event Managers

Stori Heleen-O’Foley Lighting, Team Lead

Shane Hotle Audio Engineer

David Mandlowitz, Benjamin Peitzer Video Engineer

Tara Miller Event Sales & Operations Director

Brook Nichols Event Technical Director

Viktoria Padilla Lighting

Phil Rohrbach, Alex Skaar Event Managers

Brooke Wyatt Event Logistics Manager

MARKETING, SALES & PATRON SERVICES

Marketing

Giorgio Ausenda Media Producer

Heidi Bosk Associate Director, Press & Promotions, Broadway & Cabaret

Erin Bunyard Senior Digital Strategist

Sofia Contreras Graphic Designer

Emmy Cook Coordinator, Broadway & Cabaret

Brenda Elliott, Paul Koob Senior Graphic Designers

TJ Forlenza Copywriter

Michael Garcia Manager, Web Content

Claire Graves Director, Produced Programs

Brittany Gutierrez Manager, Communications

Jeff Hovorka Director, Sales & Marketing, Broadway & Cabaret

Emma Hunt Coordinator, Communications & PR

Emily Kent Director, Insights & Strategy

Lucas Kreitler Junior Graphic Designer

Linda Lang Project Manager

Michael Ryan Leuthner Director, Digital Marketing

Emily Lozow Assoc. Director, Sales & Marketing, Broadway & Cabaret

Kyle Malone Director, Design

Katie Mount Manager, Email Marketing

Whitney Testa Executive Assistant, Marketing & Broadway

Kong Vang Social Media Coordinator

Julie Whelan Associate, Produced Programs

Mikayla Woods Coordinator, Produced Programs

Suzanne Yoe Director, Content & Communications

Ticketing & Audience Services

Jennifer Lopez Director

Christina Adamoli*, D.J. Dennis*,

Edmund Gurule*, Chris Leech*, Elias Lopez*, Hayley Solano*, Sam Stump* Counter/Show Leads

Kirsten Anderson*, Scott Lix*,

Liz Sieroslawski*,

Greg Swan* Subscription Agents

Quinn Chermak, Wisline Cledgett*,

Tamika Cox, Mekenzie Dalton, Elliot Davis*, Jen Gray*, Natalie Jaramillo*, Phi Johnson-Grimes*, Noah Jungferman*,

Lane Randall*, Phil Serosky, Holly Stigen*,

Andrew Sullivan*, Robert Warner,

Joeseph Williams Ticket Agents

Jon Collins Manager, Subscription

Katie Davis Coordinator, VIP Ticketing

Billy Dutton Associate Director, Operations

Danielle Freeman Manager, Customer Service

Roger Haak Manager, VIP Ticketing

Claire Hayes, Ella Mann Managers, Box Office

Katie Spanos Associate Director, Subscriber Services

Group Sales

Jessica Bergin Associate Director

Brad Steinmeyer Coordinator

Maddie Young Education & Group Sales Associate

Theatre Services

Evan Gendreau Associate Director

Elliot Shields Manager

Bryan Faciane, Kaylyn Kriaski, Leilani Lynch, Aaron McMullen, Stacy Norwood, Valerie Schaefer Assistant Managers

Nora Caley, Teresa Gould, Robin Lander, Myrisa Martin, Barbara Pooler, Wendy Quintana, Elizabeth Schreffler House Managers

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE

Jane Williams CFO

Sara Brandenburg Director, Accounting Services

Michaele Davidson Treasury Accountant

Jennifer Jeffrey Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Valerie Lingbloom General Ledger Accountant

Kristina Monge Accounts Payable Specialist

Jennifer Siemers Director, Accounting

HUMAN RESOURCES

Laura Maresca Vice President

Brian Carter, Lizette Collazos Directors

Kate Faust Coordinator

Paul Johnson Payroll Specialist

Monica Robles Supervisor, Mailroom

Kinsey Scholl Operations Specialist

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Lisa Roebuck Vice President For security purposes, the IT team has been omitted.

OPERATIONS

Vincent Bridgers Senior Analyst

Adam Busch Junior Analyst

Aaron Chavez Lead

Ruben Cruz Engineer

Simone Gordon Associate Director

Kyle Greufe Analyst

Brandon LeMarr Manager

Sarah Martinez Analyst

Jacob Parker Associate Director

Joseph Reecher Senior Engineer

Chris Robisch Analyst

Cordelia Taylor Coordinator

Allyssa Welker Administrator

OFF-CENTER

Charlie Miller Executive Director & Curator

THEATRE COMPANY Administration

Charles Varin Managing Director

Madysen Hunter Business Admin/ Assistant Company Manager

Ann Marshall General Manager

Evangeline Read Production COVID Safety Coordinator

Sabina Rivera Company Manager

Artistic

Chris Coleman Artistic Director

Melissa Cashion Artistic Producer

Grady Soapes Artistic Producer & Director of Casting

Leean Kim Torske Director of Literary Programming

Production

Jeff Gifford Director

Julie Brou Administrative Assistant/ Office Manager

Matthew Campbell Production Manager

Peggy Carey Associate Production Manager

Scenic Design

Lisa Orzolek Director

Kevin Nelson, Nicholas Renaud Assistants

Lighting Design

Charles MacLeod Director

Lily Bradford Assistant

Joseph Price+ Production Electrician

Sound Design

Alexander Billman Supervisor

Meagan Holdeman+, Timothy Schoeberl+, Dimitri Soto+ Technicians

Stage Management

Michael Morales Production Stage Manager

Martinique Barthel, Corin Davidson, Rachel Ducat, Wendy Blackburn Eastland, Anne Jude, Rick Mireles, Nick Nyquist, Malia Stoner, Christine Woods Stage Managers

Nia Pitts, Angie Salazar, Lorna Stephens Stage Management Apprentices

Anna Cordova, Avery Davis, Kaden Dolph, Katy Gentry, Harper Hadley, Sage Hughes, Alex Koszewski, Katie Liguori, Gabby Lintini, Jordan Rodriguez

Kelsea Sibold TOTM Experience Attendants

Scene Shop

Eric Moore Technical Director

Albert “Stub” Allison, Robert L. Orzolek, Josh Prues Associate Technical Directors

Jeremy Althoff, Tyler D. Clark, Amy Wynn Pastor,

Kyle Scoggins Scenic Technicians

Louis Fernandez III Lead Scenic Technician

Brian “Marco” Markiewicz Lead Carpenter

Prop Shop

Meghan Markiewicz Supervisor

Jamie Curl, Georgina Kayes, Ashley Lawler Artisans

Cat V Kerr Associate Props Supervisor

Andrew McGlothen Prop Carpenter

Paint Shop

Jana Mitchell Charge Scenic Artist

Kristin Hamer MacFarlane, Melanie Rentschler Scenic Artists

Costume Shop

Janet Macleod Director/Design Associate

Meghan Anderson Doyle Design Associate Stephanie Cooper, Ingrid Ludeke, Carolyn Plemitscher Draper

Costume Crafts

Kevin Copenhaver Director Chris Campbell Assistant

Wigs

Diana Ben-Kiki Supervisor

House Crew

Douglas Taylor+ Supervisor James Berman+, Forest Fowler+, William Loving+, Dave Mazzeno+, Kyle Moore+, Matt Wagner+ Stagehands

Calli Lavarnway+, Kelley “Reznik” Russell+ Assistants

Wardrobe

Heidi Echtenkamp Supervisor Robin Appleton^, Amber Krimbel^, David La Beaux^, Lauren LaCasse^, Lisa Parsons Wagner^, Kami Williams^ Dressers

Jerome Horng^, Marisa Sorce^ Wig Assistants

Ballet Through Mud with RZA and the Colorado Symphony FEB 17-18

Brahms Requiem with Peter Oundjian MAR 24-26

The Music of Selena MAR 31-APR 1

Voice and Violin with Joshua Bell and Larisa Martinez APR 14