Janet Ferguson The Pillow Man…it gets under the skin, inside the head, and still takes up space there…will never forget it…

anastatiar @DenverCenter College prod Into the Woods, 1st show I’d ever seen. forgot I knew folks on stg & was lost in story. 2 sem later i chgd major

Beverley-Lynn Miller Ewers A play called The Ghetto that I saw in London approx. 20 yrs ago. It was about a ghetto in Warsaw, Poland during World War II. Disturbing but amazingly powerful.

ChrisBerghoff @DenverCenter DOUBT. truly amazing show

Paula Hillman My mom took me to see the Fantasticks at the Elitch Gardens theater when I was a kid- I see it is being produced again and is showing at the Jerry Orbach theater in New York–this shows my age, but how many remember Elitch’s theater?

Rebecca Mason Salomonsson The Denver Center’s productions of Black Elk Speaks and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.  Both of them were incredibly powerful and highly memorable.

Chris Arneson No piece of theatre has changed my life more than Spring Awakening…and I could never say it better than I put it here.

barbdignan @DenverCenter Are you serious? There is no way to select only one. Theatre has been a telescope through which I see the world.

Sheril Beech Slater The first time I went to the Buell Theater in college and saw Rent for the first time…. I have always been in love with the music and the story but seeing a big production of it really touched me.

Michelle Sarsfield I was living in NYC at the time and went to see Spring Awakening. Amazing stuff.

Leslie Shannon Perkins Les Miserables…it was the first professional play that I ever attended and Michael Ball played the part of Marius. I was mesmerized by the music and the emotion. I still feel the same way, after seeing it several more times and whenever I listen to the Complete Symphonic Les Mis on cd.

Jane Madison Movin’ Out – it changed my life.

Kyle Mangels Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd, Fiddler on the Roof, Phantom of the Opera, Avenue Q, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Spring Awakening, West Side Story, Urinetown, and Rent!!!

Kim Haller I have two. First, Cats at the Auditorium Theatre in Rochester, NY. It was the first Broadway show I ever saw and I have been a fan since. Second, Wicked. There is just something about the story that touches me every time I see it.

RachelHH2169 @DenverCenter Our Town and Death of a Saleman.

Tedd Langowski It started with seeing Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd to my all-time favorite Les Miserables, I try to see every musical play possible.

Debra Rudy The Phantom of the Opera it was my First Love and still my favorite.

Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt In the Heights. A play about your own life can be fascinating. The ordinary can be extraordinary. What a concept! Thanks, Lin-Manuel.

Frank Molina I have seen many, many, many, broadway shows over the years. I lived in NYC for 14 years and frequented Broadway a lot. There are two shows that have completely floored me and left me crying in my seat (doesn’t happen very often), the revival of Sunday in the Park with George (Awestriking) and Next to Normal (which is coming to Denver in January). Two amazing productions that tie as my best theatrical experiences.

Jack Passanante Jr. In 1972 I saw the film, The Fiddler on the Roof. I was in Navy basic training in San Diego. I sat through it twice and the experience convinced me to get a theatre degree when I completed my military service. I received my B.A. in Theatre in 1979.

Hunter Gause I would have to say Annie and The Lion King because they were the first shows I ever saw and they opened my eyes to the theater and then I was hooked.

Victoria Edington A play called The Passage that my theatre group performed this last February– based on Moby Dick and using all different medias including film, music, shadow puppets, chants, and even interactive lightning to heighten the experience. And because it was only the fourth time the play had ever been performed, it was invigorating to be able to start…

Karen Gullickson Stop the World, I Want to Get Off by Anthony Newley.

Mark Mulligan A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. There isn’t enough space to explain its profound impact. I still quote passages to this day in a variety of settings.

Thea DiBuono Hamlet by Shakespeare.

Sylvia Romo On an elementary school field trip, saw Yul Brynner (in what turned out to be his final tour) as The King in The King and I. I was dazzled and hooked forever.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Today we continue to explore our love of theatre with more stories from Denver Center employees about plays that changed their lives. Feel free to add comments with your stories about life changing plays as well!

DCPA Employees - May 2010

Name:

Chris Wiger

Position @ The Denver Center: Public Relations Manager, Denver Center Theatre Company

Life Changing Play: The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman

Why: No question. The play that changed my life was the Denver Center world premiere of The Laramie Project. Working so closely with Moisés Kaufman and the interviewer/actors who told the story of Matthew Shepard’s beating in Wyoming was something I will never forget.

Name: Wid Horner

Position @ The Denver Center: Phone Campaign Manager

Life Changing Play: The Post Opera

Why: My first memory and probably my fondest one is my family going to The Post Opera in Cheesman Park in the summers with a picnic on the lawn. This was a wonderful family time together and I was fascinated by all the sets, costumes, and lights. Also, going to Central City to see the operas in the summer was a huge inspiration. I even became a bell ringing usher for The Central City Opera one summer. All of this inspired me to eventually get a Master’s of Fine Arts in Technical Theatre and Design and go into theatre, now, for more than 30 years.

Name: Bob Orzolek

Position @ The Denver Center: Scene Shop Foreman, Denver Center Theatre Company

Life changing play: Time of Your Life by William Saroyan

Why: When I was a freshman in high school I saw my neighbor playing the role of the drunkard in William Saroyan’s Time of Your Life. Nick the bartender was about to throw the drunkard out of the bar for the third time when the drunkard stopped him by putting out his hand and revealing the money that he intended to use to pay for his drink. Nick went back behind the bar and the drunkard slammed the money down on the bar. One of the coins popped out of his hand and rolled onto the floor where it circle around a few time and came to a stop. The drunkard’s eyes never left the escaped coin; his head slowly wobbled back and forth and came to an abrupt stop just as the coin came to rest.

I was so impressed with this 15-year-old kid’s focus and ability stay in the moment. I thought that if my neighbor could do that I could do it too. I auditioned for the next high school play and was cast as William Roper in A Man for All Seasons along with Lucy Roucis, of PHAMALy, who played Alice. 35 years later I am still very excited to be working in theatre.

Name: Dawn Williams

Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal in RENT.

Position at The Denver Center:

Manager of Venue Sales and Marketing

Life Changing Play: Little Shop of Horrors and Rent

Why:

Little Shop of Horrors – off-Broadway in 1987 with my art class from Wheat Ridge High School — the fabric vines dropped from the ceiling and it was unbelievably cool! The performance was top notch and I knew I would be hooked on theatre from then on.

Rent — On Broadway with the original cast with my best girl friend in NYC — 1996 — what a powerful and alive performance. Molly Ringwald sat behind us and we left singing “525,600 Minutes” for the rest of the night and trip to New York.

Name: Amie Cavarra

Position @ The Denver Center: Marketing Department Volunteer

Life changing play: Living Out by Lisa Loomer

Why: Living Out still haunts me. I have two young children and probably too often make the mistake of putting work or self-centered obligations before them. While it is healthy to have some personal time, sometimes I get in too deep and I’m often haunted by this play. It reminds me that nothing should be more important than our kids and families. We need to make sacrifices both for work and against work, but always remember that our parenting role is the most important.

Name: Genevieve Miller

Position @ The Denver Center: Public Relations Manager, Denver Center Attractions

Life changing play: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Why: After my sophomore year in college, I had a grant to do an internship at an urban non-profit of my choosing. I was deciding between working for the Environmental Protection Agency or Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. When I went to meet the folks at CSC, it dawned on me for the first time that there was a whole world of theatre professionals out there who weren’t performers, stage managers or design artists. There were people who were dedicated to the business side of theatre, on selling the tickets and keeping the organization running. After my interview, they gave me tickets to see their production of Midsummer that night and another light bulb went off. I was watching the most accessible, invigorating Shakespeare I’d ever seen. I had no idea it could be done like this – simple costumes, tiny stage, but a whole world developed from the language of Shakespeare. I did not choose to work at the EPA that summer. And I’ve been an arts administrator ever since.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Summer is the perfect time to slow down, sit back and reflect on why we love theatre.  So, we went around to Denver Center employees and asked them what plays changed their lives.  We got some pretty awesome (and touching) responses!  Here they are:

Name: Sylvie Drake

Position @ The Denver Center: Director of Publications

Life changing play: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Why: A production of Hamlet starring John Gielgud totally changed my life. I couldn’t begin to tell you why, except that the transformative power of theatre hit me over the head and it hasn’t been quite the same since. From that moment on I wanted to work in the theatre. It’s all I’ve ever felt was really worth doing, along with maybe architecture, natural science and astronomy.

Name: Marti Steger

Position @ The Denver Center: Program Manager

Life changing play: God’s Country by Steven Dietz

Why: In 2005, the National Theatre Conservatory performed God’s Country by Steven Dietz as part of REP. In my mind, live theatre is supposed to make people stop and think. A viewer can experience a range of emotions: joy, sadness, confusion or anger. God’s Country did exactly that. Audiences left the show in hushed whispers, tears and sometimes open rage. The lobby was filled each night with patrons talking about the emotional roller coaster they had just been taken on. While I cannot say I liked the play, I love that nearly 6 years later I still get tears in my eyes thinking about the production and the powerful impact it had on everyone involved.

Name: Chris Ewing

Position @ The Denver Center: Production Stage Manager, Denver Center Theatre Company

Life changing play: Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas and Amahl and the Night Visitors (opera) by Gian Carlo Menotti

Why: I was an undeclared major first semester, freshman year at undergrad. I was on the football team. After practice one day, coach called us all together and said a Dr. Richard Clark, the chair of the Theatre Department, would like to speak to us. Dr. Clark was offering one half credit to anyone on the football team who would show up four times on a given Saturday or Sunday night at midnight to “strike” a show that semester. I had no idea what he was talking about. Some sort of labor dispute? Easy credit I thought. I signed up. I thought I should see what this theatre thing was all about. I went to see the college’s production of Under Milkwood on the first Saturday night I had signed up for. I was intrigued, but not enthralled. I stayed after the show and helped “strike” (tear down) the set, lights, sound etc. I had an absolute blast. We finished about four in the morning, ahead of schedule according to the staff. We used the next three hours “loading in” some of the technical requirements for Amahl and the Night Visitors. I was hooked. I later attended that opera and was not blown away but I already had the bug for the backstage aspects of entertainment production. Those two shows changed my life. The rest is history. Some of my favorite live plays/musicals I have worked on since (because I also did rock and roll, Ben Vereen’s act, Suzanne Sommer’s act and some TV and film production, ballet, dance concerts, comedians and corporate events among other things so I’ll stick to live plays/musicals) are Sweeny Todd, The Grapes of Wrath, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Love Janis, Lost Highway. Actually I could go on and on because all live productions change me in some way, mostly I hope, for the better. Nuf’ said.

DCPA Employees - May 2010

Name:

Kirk Petersen

Position @ The Denver Center: Director of Ticketing Services

Life changing play: Evita

Why: It was the first show that I listened to the soundtrack enough to memorize all the words (still know them today!) and through friends got hired on at Robert Garner Center Attractions to help sell tickets to its Denver engagement back in 1982.

Name: Mark Onderdonk

Position @ The Denver Center: Marketing Business Manager

Life changing play: The Who’s Tommy

Why: For me, it was definitely The Who’s Tommy.  Hearing that familiar rock music come to life on stage, combined with terrific choreography, lighting and costumes hit a real chord within me.  It opened by eyes to the artistic possibilities of the stage and the powerful message of performance art.  It also made me want to switch careers to the arts and work at the DCPA, and by the following year I was!

Name: Suzanne Blandon

Position @ The Denver Center:  Associate Director of PR and Publications

Life changing play: The Lion King

Why: Attending the theatre is generally so much more than just the play – it’s the entire experience. So when I brought my 6-year-old son to see The Lion King, the experience was second to none. Not only was the production terrific, but watching his reaction and engagement in the music, movement and story was mesmerizing. We both left the theatre changed and uplifted (ok, by 10:30pm he was just lifted and soon to be snoozing…). Certainly the most memorable theatrical experience of my life.

Name: Doug Langworthy

Position @ The Denver Center: Literary Manager, Denver Center Theatre Company

Life Changing Play: Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens, adopted for the stage by David Edgar

Why: Back in the 1980s I saw the second British touring production of Nicholas Nickelby and was mesmerized. The use of the large company, the imagination and theatricality, the buoyant sense of theatre as something vital and alive. I think this experience helped me firm up my decision to pursue a career in the theatre, as now I knew theatre could do anything.

Stay tuned for more stories from Denver Center employees coming soon!

Popularity: 4% [?]

By Cara Miale, Fourth Wall member

Harvey Fierstein stars in Fiddler on the Roof

“Who would it hurt if I were a rich man?” asks Tevye, beloved father in Fiddler on the Roof, just before he breaks into song. Which leads us at the Fourth Wall to ask, who would it hurt if we party on a Thursday?
 
To celebrate another great season of breakthrough theatre and Gen Y arts and culture lovers, the Fourth Wall and MACC XY Events will raise the roof—oh, yes—next Thursday, May 20 with an end-of-season show and celebration.
 
We’ll mingle at the Galleria Bar before we see the national Broadway tour of Fiddler on the Roof at the Ellie. Then it’s off to Tamayo for a roof top party, sponsored by MACC XY Events, where we’ll mix and mingle with members of the cast, enjoy some free food and drink (two of our favorite things), and dance it out to live music from Klezmer V’od.
 

Fourth Wall members at our "Mustaches and Miniskirts" event for Mama Hated Diesels

It’s been an exciting season for friends and members of the Fourth Wall. If you don’t know what I mean, allow me to clarify: we got wrapped up in a Ponzi scheme (Voysey Inheritance) and chased the American dream with our bellies full of soul food (A Raisin in the Sun). We had an absurd and ugly holiday season (Absurd Person Singular), then reacquainted ourselves with the Eastern plains of Colorado (Eventide). Tang reappeared in our lives—and in our martini glasses— (When Tang Met Laika) and the green eyed monster got the best of us (Othello). We even ate beef jerky for the first time in we don’t know how long (Mama Hated Diesels). Plus, we crashed the NTC prom, took backstage tours of the Arts Complex, attended readings at the Colorado New Play Summit and frequented other shows like Well and Mariela in the Desert.
 
So before the sun sets on the Fourth Wall’s second season, we hope to see you one more time to celebrate 2009/10 and look ahead to next season. Brush up on your Yiddish.  We’ll see you on the roof.

Popularity: 6% [?]

With only a few performance left of Mariela in the Desert, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2010 Season is coming to a close.  But, not without a last hurrah.  Check out these out takes from last week’s hilarious new “10 Minutes to Curtain” episode:

Popularity: 4% [?]

It’s Bird Day AND the first Tuesday of May, which means it’s time for a new episode of “10 Minutes to Curtain” !

This month, Charlie ends the “10 Minutes to Curtain” season on a high note with a rousing look ahead to next season’s productions. Join Artistic Director Kent Thompson, Associate Artistic Director Bruce Sevy, and members of The Denver Center’s acting company and staff for this not-to-be-missed musical finale.

Popularity: 4% [?]

By Douglas Langworthy, Literary Manager, Denver Center Theatre Company

Robert Sicular and Yetta Gottesman in Mariela in the Desert. Photo by Terry Shapiro.

Our production of Karen Zacarias’ play Mariela in the Desert should have been a fairly straightforward mounting of an existing script. Since the play had been produced four times previously at theatres all across the country, our director, Bruce Sevy, had assumed the script was locked in and ready to go…until he called Karen to tell her we were going to do Mariela—and Karen asked if she could do some rewriting.

And so instantly, the play became a “new” play again, and the playwright became an integral part of the rehearsal process. Karen has a quote she loves to share: “Plays are never finished, they’re just abandoned.” This was just one of those projects that she had set aside to work on other plays. But she never felt she’d gotten it quite right. So with the theatre’s blessing, she dove right back into a play she had begun some eight years earlier.

She admits that, like one of the characters in her play, she had started the play seeing things from the outside, and now it was time to see things from the inside. While the plot remained virtually intact, she made significant adjustments to the characters, making them more human, more complex, more able to love. She deleted the first scene and wove the essential information into the next one. The tone of the play became warmer and more accessible. Up through the first preview actors were having to absorb the latest changes. The excitement that goes along with developing a new play and having the playwright in the room is palpable as this fifth production of Mariela heads toward opening.

Is the play finished now? Did Zacarias get it right this time? She says “yes,” this is the version of the play that will live on in future productions and hopefully in published form. Time to finally abandon this one and start the next play and the next.

Popularity: 8% [?]

It’s Merle Haggard’s 73^rd Birthday AND the first Tuesday of April, which means it’s time for a new episode of “10 Minutes to Curtain”!

This month, go behind-the-scenes with playwright Karen Zacarías to learn about the “re-premiere” of Mariela in the Desert, learn from actor John Hutton about the challenges of playing Iago in Othello, find out what everyone backstage at Mama Hated Diesels is talking about, and get a preview of the Theatre Company’s 2010-2011 Season with Artistic Director Kent Thompson.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2010/11 Season was announced yesterday!  Artistic Director Kent Thompson summarizes the season in this video:

 

Here are the plays on the new season:

Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps
Adapted by Patrick Barlow
From the novel by John Buchan
From the movie of Alfred Hitchcock
Original concept by Nobby Dimon and Simon Corble
Sept 10-Nov 14 | Ricketson Theatre
    

Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits
By Caridad Svich
Based on the novel by Isabel Allende
Sept 17-Oct 23 | Space Theatre
View an interview with the playwright
Contains adult language and situations.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula
By Charles Morey
From the novel by Bram Stoker
Oct 1-30 | Stage Theatre
    

Reckless
By Craig Lucas
Nov 12-Dec 18 | Space Theatre

World Premiere
Map of Heaven
By Michele Lowe
Jan 14-Feb 26 | Ricketson Theatre
View an interview with the playwright
    

World Premiere
The Catch
By Ken Weitzman
Jan 21-Feb 26 | Space Theatre
View an interview with the playwright

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
Jan 28-Feb 26 | Stage Theatre
    

Limited Engagement!
Traces
Created by The 7 Fingers
March 11-May 15 | Stage Theatre

Winner! 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Ruined
By Lynn Nottage
March 18-April 30 | Ricketson Theatre
Contains adult language and situations.
    

Superior Donuts
By Tracy Letts
April 1-May 7 | Space Theatre

Popularity: 10% [?]

By Meghan Wolf, actress playing Desdemona in Othello, Denver Center Theatre Company

This week I have been exploring Desdemona’s innocence and purity, which appears as fairly extreme to our modern, feminist sensibilities. At the turn of the century, even more than when the play was written, women were exceedingly obedient, so all of my modern impulses to stand up for myself are not appropriate here. Instead, we are focusing on the intention of being loving toward Othello, through and despite his mistreatment of Desdemona. The thinking is that the more Desdemona loves Othello, the more devastating the disintegration of their love will be.

It is very counter-intuitive to literally turn the other cheek; I want to fight back! But I am enjoying investigating these unfamiliar choices and foreign states of mind. One of the reasons I became an actor was to fathom the endless variety with which individuals experience and interface with reality. To do so in a way very different from my own is a valuable learning experience.

The questions I’m asking now concern Desdemona’s relationship with her innocence and purity: “Does she feel and suppress the impulse to fight back? Is she aware of the cultural attractiveness of purity in women and if so, does she consciously (or sub-consciously) utilize it to please her husband?” My actor’s instincts tell me that any awareness of innocence would undermine it…but it’s an interesting question.

Part of my training taught me to marry my actor’s inner experience with what the character is going through moment to moment. For example: if a moment in the play makes the actor feel self-conscious, then in that moment, the character feels self-conscious too. If the character’s behavior or words in that same moment happen to convey a contradictory state (say, self-assured), then the actor can play that the character is trying to appear self-assured through the presenting feelings of self-consciousness. It may sound like a fractured cerebral process but it is actually pretty intuitive and, when it works, can produce a satisfying seamlessness between actor and character states.

On a technical note, I am working against a contraindicated physical reaction right now as well, specifically in the final scene of the play. When playing the recipient of death by smothering, the impulse is to stop breathing. But holding my breath throughout the choking would result in gasping for air once I am finally ‘dead’…which would kind of kill that illusion. Remembering to keep breathing while playing suffocation like is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach! I will have to practice this a lot.

Popularity: 12% [?]