Applause Magazine, Mar. 21, 2015 by The Publishing House

APPLAUSE

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VOLUME XXVI | NUMBER 5 | MAR – APR 2015

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MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain

STOMP

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ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…

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THE 12

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APPLAUSE M

VO LU M E X XV I | N U M B E R 5 | M A R – A P R 2 0 1 5

EDITOR: Suzanne Yoe CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Rob Silk ASSOCIATE EDITOR: John Moore DESIGNERS: Kim Conner, Brenda Elliott, Kyle Malone CONTRIBUTOR: Elizabeth Jewitt

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

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

and football legend Jim Brown before announcing his alignment with the Nation of Islam (and his eventual name change to Muhammad Ali). It’s a powerful spring line up of big personalities and worldchanging ideas. Looking ahead you’re in for some treats. Our Broadway highlights include the national tour launch of If/Then, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical, the 2014 Tony award-winner A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder and Beautiful — The Carole King Musical among many others. Our Theatre Company titles are nearly confirmed and are sure to match this season in quality, variety and appeal. Thank you for joining us today. I hope this season and next become part of your plans for enjoying our beautiful Colorado. Have fun.

DAN L. RITCHIE Chairman & CEO Denver Center for the Performing Arts

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES Daniel L. Ritchie, Chairman and CEO Donald R. Seawell, Chairman Emeritus William Dean Singleton, Secretary/Treasurer Robert Slosky, First Vice Chair Margot Gilbert Frank, Second Vice Chair Dr. Patricia Baca Joy S. Burns Isabelle Clark Navin Dimond L. Roger Hutson W. Leo Kiely III Mary Pat Link Trish Nagel Robert C. Newman Hassan Salem Richard M. Sapkin Martin Semple Jim Steinberg Ken Tuchman Tina Walls Lester L. Ward Dr. Reginald L. Washington Judi Wolf Sylvia Young _______________________

HONORARY MEMBERS Jeannie Fuller Glenn R. Jones M. Ann Padilla Cleo Parker Robinson

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Do you consider yourself a revolutionary? Probably not. Most of us aren’t and those who are might not see themselves that way. We’re all just people — until some of us manage to change the world. In our world premiere Theatre Company production of The 12, the followers of Jesus Christ wrestle with their roles as revolutionaries without a leader. Developed by Tony-winning playwright and lyricist Robert Schenkkan (All The Way) and award-winning composer Neil Berg, The 12 combines the music of revolution (rock and roll) with universal questions of identity and responsibility. Whatever your beliefs, you’ll see some of yourself in this never-been-told story of people trying to find their places in a radically new world. Join us for this dramatic end to our Theatre Company season. You can also keep the rock flame alive with the creative and percussive hit STOMP or meet a revolutionary humorist in Mark Twain Tonight! Speaking of revolution, our Theatre Company’s production of One Night in Miami…. imagines the night Cassius Clay spent with activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke

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.

Carolyn Foster, Executive Assistant to Daniel L. Ritchie Kim Schouten, Executive Assistant to Daniel L. Ritchie

HELEN G. BONFILS FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES Lester L. Ward, President Martin Semple, Vice President Judi Wolf, Sec’y/Treasurer Donald R. Seawell, President Emeritus W. Leo Kiely III Daniel L. Ritchie William Dean Singleton Robert Slosky Jim Steinberg Dr. Reginald L. Washington Minumum Width .75” Maximum Width 2”

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SENIOR MANAGEMENT STAFF Clay Courter, Vice President, Facilities & Event Services John Ekeberg, Executive Director, Broadway Vicky Miles, Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Nealson, Chief Marketing Officer Kent Thompson, Producing Artistic Director, Theatre Company Charles Varin, Managing Director, Theatre Company David Zupancic, Interim Director of Development

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STOMP

COMING UP FROM BROADWAY:

AS LOUD AS YOU CAN

MOTOWN THE MUSICAL

STOMP photo by Steve McNicholas 2012

STOMP is Baaaaaaack! Hooooooold on to your hubcaps! It’s been a while since you heard those clomping, clanging racket makers — racketeers? — right here in your own back yard. Yes, STOMP is back in Denver in all its explosive, syncopated glory with those incredible percussionists who treasure the old adage about one man’s trash… The troupe still doesn’t look at everyday objects the way the rest of the world does. In their hands, brooms, garbage cans, Zippo lighters (we’re not sure about Grouchos and Harpos) and the general detritus of the 21st century takes on a life of its own. STOMP, created and directed by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, is an exploration of the outer limits of rhythmic invention. It’s a Pipe (read drain pipe) and Drum (read anything) Corps for our age. And speaking of age, it has not withered STOMP’s clatter — or fun. STOMP, that concatenation of sound and skill, is back with its rhythms and drumbeats intact. The same goes for its nonstop movement of bodies, objects, sound — even abstract ideas. There’s no dialogue, speech or plot. But music? Absolutely. Uncommon music, created in nontraditional ways — with every day objects ranging from matchbooks to every household item you can imagine. You’re bombarded by a caterwauling noise that under any

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other circumstances you would choose to shut out. But not here. Here all is syncopated and choreographed with the precision of an army bugle corps (minus the bugles) and by the fertile imagination of buskers or street performers from the streets of Brighton — the spot where STOMP’s creators hail from and where they dream up versions of this utterly inventive, unexpected, whackedout show. So sit back, relax, tap your feet, clap your hands. There’s only fun to be had here — no political statements, no dialogue to misconstrue, nothing beyond the sheer, surprising sights and sounds of the moment, from the ringing of hollow pipes to clashing metal weaving its spell, and industrial strength dance routines involving a lot of supremely well coordinated bodies. Yep, better hold on fast to those hubcaps as you zip yourself downtown to swing along with STOMP!

STOMP MAR 10 – 15 BUELL THEATRE Tickets: 303.893.4100 denvercenter.org 800.641.1222 | TTY: 303.893.9582 Groups (10+): 303.446.4829

Motown the Musical (playing The Buell March 31 - April 19) tells the remarkable true story of Motown founder Berry Gordy, who launched the careers of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson and many more. With the Vietnam War looming and the country at a cultural turning point, Gordy pushed on toward something bigger than he ever dreamed of, changing the world forever. Motown tells the thrilling tale of the man who broke barriers and fought against the odds to define the sound of a generation — complete with the ups and downs of the personal relationships, the professional struggles, and — of course — the music that made history. This exhilarating show captures the essence of the visionary Founder and the artists who joined the label and who fought against prejudice and racism to bring America together — breaking barriers, making us stronger, and keeping us moving to the same beat. Featuring songs such as “My Girl,” “Stop! In The Name Of Love” and “I Want You Back,” experience the story behind the music in the record-breaking smash hit Motown the Musical.

Patrice Covington as Martha Reeves (center) & Cast. Motown the Musical First National Tour. Photo by Joan Marcus, 2014.

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GO ALL IN FOR YOUR BIG NIGHT OUT We’ve arranged hors d’oeuvres, pre-show cocktails, a threecourse catered dinner and, of course, prime orchestra seating. Make your evening complete by adding an overnight stay at the Westin Denver Downtown for a special VIP rate. We’ll do all the planning. You enjoy the spotlight. TO

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ccanales@dcpa.org or call 303.446.4815 denvercenter.org/vip

Impact Creativity is an urgent call to action to save theatre education programs in 19 of our largest cities. Impact Creativity brings together theatres, arts education experts and individuals to help over 500,000 children and youth, most of them disadvantaged, succeed through the arts by sustaining the theatre arts education programs threatened by today’s fiscal climate. For more information on how “theatre education changes lives,” please visit: impactcreativity.org ($100,000 or more) CMT/ABC ♦ The Hearst Foundations ($50,000 or more) AOL♦ Schloss Family Foundation ($25,000 or more) Wells Fargo ($10,000 or more) Steven and Joy Bunson Lisa Orberg Southwest Airlines♦ ($5,000 or more) Frank and Bonnie Orlowski Edison Peres*

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THE 12

A NEW ROCK MUSICAL FOR THE AGES

Illustration by Kyle Malone

BY JOHN MOORE

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They are perhaps the three most impactful days in the history of man, and remarkably little is known about them: the 72 hours between Jesus’ crucifixion and what Christians believe was his resurrection. It was the birth of what is now the world’s largest religion, with about 2.1 billion followers worldwide. The DCPA Theatre Company’s new rock musical The 12 imagines what those three days must have been like for his closest followers in the immediate, dangerous aftermath of the death of Jesus. “It’s useful to remember how young these people were,” Pulitzer Prizewinning writer Robert Schenkkan said of the disciples. “These are very bluecollar, gritty, uneducated men. Yet their passion and their ultimate commitment to this individual — and the ideas that he embodied — are so fierce that they all will ultimately give their lives for him. That’s a very powerful idea, and we take that responsibility very seriously.” But The 12 is not a narrative play. Set against the backdrop of composer and co-lyricist Neil Berg’s classic rock ’n’ roll score, it is a big, loud, crank-it-up-to-10 musical. “The culmination of this event in history was, of course, a world-changing revolution of the most potent kind,” said Berg. “Rock ’n’ roll is the anthem of revolution, so that entirely supports this kind of passionate musical expression in our show.” What The 12 is not, both men said, is a treatise on religion. It is not a polemic. It does not take a stand on the certainty of the resurrection — although, Berg teases, “Everyone will have their own very clear idea of what happens at the end.” The 12 is instead an imagined, human story, Berg said, based on a real historical event. It is set to original music inspired by Berg’s love of classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin and The Who. In addition to being a trained writer of musical theatre, Berg has a long history as a touring musician with groups like the still-active Joe D’Urso & Stone Caravan. He has opened for Bruce Springsteen and The Doors, and has played at Red Rocks and McNichols Sports Arena. The score he has produced for The 12, he said, is a perfect match for the angst, the tension and the drive of Schenkkan’s story. “It is going to be authentic rock ’n’ roll, I can tell you that,” Berg said. The 12 has been described as picking up where Jesus Christ Superstar leaves off, and chronologically speaking, Berg said, that is accurate. However, Berg goes on to say that his original musical score “is really an open love letter to classic rock ’n’ roll.”

“The culmination of this event in history was, of course, a world-changing revolution of the most potent kind. Rock ’n’ roll is the anthem of revolution, so that entirely supports this kind of passionate musical expression in our show.” — NEIL BERG The 12 will now join a genre of popular Biblical rock musicals of widely different tones, including Superstar, Godspell, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (coming to The Buell Theatre April 22 – 26) and Children of Eden. “I think The 12 is a different, great addition to that group,” Berg said. “Because the characters are all trapped in one room this story is intense from the beginning. You’re in it. And the music reflects that.” Schenkkan, who also wrote the 2014 Tony-winning best play All the Way, loves Superstar and Godspell, but those musicals are far more stylized than The 12, he said. “This is a more natural and thoughtful approach to the material,” he said. “Our approach is much less sensational. And, I think, more powerful because of it.” It was Schenkkan’s decision not to use Jesus’ name in The 12, and he did it for two reasons. First, like so many details in the Jesus story, we can’t be sure about this but it is unlikely in Jewish society at that time that his followers would have addressed him using his name as that would have been considered disrespectful. More likely he would have been called an honorific like, “teacher” or “Rabbi.” Second, it was done to remove a possible barrier between the story and its potential audience. “The phrase ‘Jesus the Lord’ is so loaded in terms of what it will later come to mean,” Schenkkan said. “By taking the name out of the equation, it puts the focus back on the immediacy of this very human story. “The tendency of the audience will be to look at this event with the weight of 2,000 years of bitterly contested doctrine, and everything that comes with that. We are trying to strip all of that away and say, ‘Wait a minute: What if you were one of these fishermen on the sea of Galilee, and this guy you might have heard something about comes up to you and says, ‘Follow me.’ And for reasons that are not clear even to you in that

moment, you do, because there is something about him that compels you. What does that mean? It is kind of unfathomable.” Berg adds, “When the head of this revolutionary group is suddenly killed, what makes these followers continue on?” Still, Schenkkan understands why potential audiences may feel some trepidation about what is for now a theatrical unknown. “Oftentimes, unfortunately, when writers have dealt with issues of faith, it’s hard not to feel that there is some condescension there. Some smugness. Some superiority,” Schenkkan said. “That’s unacceptable, quite honestly. I think it’s prejudice. “We have tried very seriously to get at this fundamental question of belief and commitment to something which cannot ultimately be proved in rational, scientific terms. And to me, that is a very exciting, dramatic proposition: How does one get there? We have all experienced a dark night of the soul. A time where everything we have believed in whether it is a religious expression or an idea or a cause has failed us. And we have to find a way to go forward. To recover our faith and our belief. That’s at the heart of what we are trying to do here. And it’s why I believe that all of our audience — including members of all various faith-based communities — will find this a story that is not only accessible and respectful, but also very compelling.” Read John Moore’s expanded interviews with Neil Berg and Robert Schenkkan on our DCPA NewsCenter at denvercenter.org/news-center.

THE 12 MAR 27 – APR 26 STAGE THEATRE ASL interpreted, Audio described & Open captioned performance: Apr 26, 1:30pm Tickets: 303.893.4100 | denvercenter.org 800.641.1222 | TTY: 303.893.9582 Groups (10+): 303.446.4829

Ace Young as Joseph and Diana DeGarmo as Narrator in “Jacob & Sons” in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Photo by Daniel A. Swalec.

COMING UP FROM BROADWAY:

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT Described as one of the most enduring musicals of all time, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (playing The Buell Theatre April 22 - 26) has gotten a facelift. The history of the show dates back to the first Broadway performance in 1982. The success of the show spurred the Broadway revival in 1993 and made its way into the homes and hearts of viewers with the movie version of Joseph starring Donny Osmond in 1999. The revamped show starring newlyweds and “American Idol” veterans Ace Young (Grease, Hair) and Diana DeGarmo (Hairspray, Hair) features the same upbeat, feel-good vibe Joseph fans know and love, but with a modern twist. Director, choreographer and Tony-winner Andy Blankenbuehler paces the story with high-energy choreography and highflying footwork with a hip-hop feel sure to have the audience dancing along. So put on your dance shoes and join us for one of musical theatre’s most enduring hits.

THANK YOU

On December 9, residents in Colorado joined together to support local nonprofits on Colorado Gives Day. Thanks to the generosity of these patrons and a matching gift from DaVita, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) received $61,000 in one day. As a not-for-profit organization, the DCPA relies on this financial support to produce and present plays on its stages, develop new work for the theatre and reach more than 68,000 students each year. We couldn’t do it without you. “Those donations help us provide matinee performances for students,” said Tiffany Grady, Associate Director of Development. “We recently had nearly 7,000 students attend our production of Lord of the Flies. Many of them were attending a live performance for the first time. “We are so proud to be able to make such a significant impact on our local community,” continued Grady. “We couldn’t do it without our generous donors.”

To learn more about how you can support the DCPA, please visit denvercenter.org/support-us or call 303.446.4802.

SOME THEATRE LOVERS WILL NEVER LEAVE. NAME A SEAT IN THE RICKETSON THEATRE WITH A DONATION TO OUR NEW PLAY FUND. Celebrate a life, a business or just your love of new theatre by naming a seat in the home of many of our Theatre Company world premieres: The Ricketson Theatre. Your $1,000 gift is 100% tax deductible and will directly support our New Play Fund, the Colorado New Play Summit and other efforts to move theatre arts forward and attract the next generation of theatre lovers. Monthly payment plans available.

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“ It’s gratifying to know our bank is enabling kids to share in the theatre experience. We thank the DCPA for providing these resources to schools and are honored to play a supporting role.”

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— BILL SULLIVAN, CSBT PRESIDENT AND CEO

A HISTORY OF PROVIDING FINANCIAL SERVICES TO DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION

Colorado State Bank and Trust (CSBT) is proud to support the Denver Center for Performing Arts (DCPA) by sponsoring the Saturday Night Alive Silent Auction. “We’re very pleased with this association, especially because the money raised benefits the DCPA Arts in Education programs,” said Bill Sullivan, CSBT President and CEO. “It’s gratifying to know our bank is enabling kids to share in the theatre experience. We thank the DCPA for providing these resources to schools and are honored to play a supporting role. “We appreciate the need for business and community institutions such as the DCPA to support each other,” said Sullivan. “Each provides something essential that enables our communities to thrive.” CSBT offers a wide variety of financial products and services that enable Coloradans to: • Purchase homes, buy automobiles, and manage other personal financial matters through face-to-face, online and mobile banking; • Obtain financing in order to start and grow businesses and lease and purchase equipment; • Monitor and move cash efficiently; • Access expertise and capital needed to acquire, develop or reposition commercial real estate;

Colorado State Bank and Trust leadership (from left): Andy Aye, SVP, Commercial; Mike Burns, SVP, Private Bank; Aaron Azari, EVP, Wealth Management. Seated: Bill Sullivan, President and CEO.

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• Benefit from a core competency of financial services available to all sectors of the regional energy industry. The Bank also offers comprehensive wealth management services providing individuals and organizations access to: • Trust administration and personal trust services making it possible to build, preserve and distribute wealth; • Retirement plan services including tailored solutions to meet the retirement needs of individuals and organizations; • Asset management and investment advisory services; • Deposit, credit, cash management and mortgage services designed for affluent customers. “Most banks offer similar products and services but each bank’s approach to the market is what makes the difference,” said Sullivan. “We’re a 100-year-old Denver bank owned by a 100-year old regional financial services company with a history of community commitment and financial stability. “This unique set of circumstances is what sets us apart and enables us to offer the best of both worlds: nationally competitive products, services and resources with an emphasis on local leadership, local decision-making and face-to-face customer relationships.”

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ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…

COMES OUT SWINGING BY JOHN MOORE

The morning after Cassius Clay shocked Sonny Liston — and the world — to win the world heavyweight boxing title in 1964, the brash 22-yearold announced he was changing his name to Muhammad Ali and pledging his allegiance to the Nation of Islam. To understand the resulting shock in today’s terms: Just imagine if LeBron James, the most popular basketball player in the world, announced he was going off to fight for Al-Qaeda. “It was that mind-bending, upending and sensational,” said Carl Cofield, director of the DCPA Theatre Company’s highly anticipated staging of Kemp Powers’ One Night in Miami…. The Nation of Islam was never a terrorist organization, but this was more a matter of public perception. The Nation was thought to be a hate group. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had declared it Public Enemy No. 1. The very name terrified Americans then, Cofield said, the way ISIS terrifies them today. “I think it is an apt comparison,” added Powers, the playwright. “The Nation of Islam never burned crosses or murdered anyone like the Ku Klux Klan. But it was in Hoover’s best interest to get the perception out there that these were the kind of people who would come for your kids.” Several weeks before the fight, which Sports Illustrated later named the fourth-greatest sports moment

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of the 20th century, the Miami Herald published an article quoting Cassius Clay Sr. saying his son had joined the Black Muslims four years earlier, back when he was 18. “Muslims tell my boys to hate white people; to hate women; to hate their mother,” Clay’s father told the newspaper. The ensuing uproar was so intense, fight promoters threatened to cancel the bout unless Clay publicly disavowed the Nation of Islam. He refused. The fight went on only after Malcolm X, Clay’s friend and incendiary spokesman, agreed to leave town (although he returned the night of the fight). Immediately after Clay dispatched Liston in a mere seven rounds, the new champ bypassed the post-fight celebration and instead retreated to a Miami hotel room with Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke. All that’s known of what happened next between four of the most iconic figures of the 1960s is that they only had vanilla ice cream to eat. “What we definitely know is that the next morning, Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali,” said Cofield, the play’s director. Powers, a longtime journalist and first-time playwright, wrote One Night in Miami… two years ago to imagine what might have transpired in that room — a fictional flight of fancy with a very real historical context. While One Night in Miami… is set five

decades ago to many African Americans, Powers said, “It feels a lot like 1964 right now. “One of the things that inspired me to write the play is that some of the issues the characters are dealing with are, sadly, still very much contemporary issues,” Powers said. “As I was writing it, I realized that all of the characters have modern contemporaries. So I do want people to see the modern parallel.” But Powers was not expecting One Night in Miami…, which had its premiere in Los Angeles last year, to become this timely: Trayvon Martin. Ferguson. Eric Garner. Retaliatory cop shootings. At the cineplex, Selma graphically laid bare the atrocities that surrounded the conspiracy to deny African Americans the right to vote in 1964. “The second week after the play opened in LA, the Trayvon MartinGeorge Zimmerman thing happened,” said Powers. When the play opened a few months ago in Baltimore, he added, “People assumed I wrote it in response to Ferguson. “I hate to say it, but as far as race in America goes, it seems as if there has been a bit of a regression. I just think there are harder lines between different groups right now.” One of the primary, and still red-hot issues in the play, he added, is the social responsibility of the black artist.

John Moore is DCPA’s Senior Arts Journalist.

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI… MAR 20 – APR 19 SPACE THEATRE ASL interpreted & Audio described performance: Apr 19, 1:30pm

FOUR FIGHTERS What do cultural icons Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Malcolm X have in common? “All four are very much fighters, in their ways, but they have different styles,” said playwright Kemp Powers:

Muhammad Ali

The Dancer Quick on his feet, he often wore down opponents rather than just knock them out.

Jim Brown

The Pugilist He punished opponents with straight-on power, often requiring multiple defenders to bring him down.

Sam Cooke

The Bobber He would be a more finessed, defensive fighter, surviving by bobbing and weaving.

Malcolm X

The Bruiser He dazzles you with rhetoric before delivering the blindsiding knockout you never saw coming.

Judi Wolf ’s

COSTUME COLUMN

Stuart Sanks’ alter persona, Shirley Delta Blow, is no stranger to the Denver drag scene, and her colorful, big and over-the-top costumes are just as unforgettable. Shirley will be featured in our upcoming cabaret production Drag Machine from March 12 – 29 in the Garner Galleria Theatre. “I have this gorgeous prom dress — a strapless gown with a leopard print in the colors of the rainbow,” said Shirley. “It’s such a fun dress. I usually top it off with a gigantic pink foam wig and my favorite heels. Colorful sparkly accessories like a peacock bracelet and big crystal necklace complete this look.” Shirley wore the same dress while performing in Club Denver as part of last year’s The Legend of Georgia McBride post-show experience. “I had to duck to fit through the doors,” she said. “Remember in drag, more is more!” Stuart’s friend and Theatre Company Costume Design Associate Meghan AndersonDoyle makes most of Shirley’s outfits. When the duo goes out looking for fashion accessories and fabrics, they keep their intentions to themselves. “When asked about what we were making, we respond, ‘Pillows.’ The ladies at Jo-Ann think I have lots and lots of pillows!” To read the complete interview with Shirly Delta Blow, visit denvercenter.org/news-center.

Illustrations by Kyle Malone

“Malcolm X thought Sam Cooke could have pushed the envelope to get people more fired up and agitated,” Powers said. “Malcolm X’s oratorical style was very much in-your-face and it propelled you to action; Sam’s style was more to let you discover the meaning of a song on your own, like an art piece.” Just as Powers finished One Night in Miami…, singer Harry Belafonte instigated a public sparring match with the rapper Jay-Z. Belafonte claimed current pop superstars “have turned their back on social responsibility.” He said that simply being a rich black man in the world is not enough. “When I saw that, I was like, ‘Oh my God, that is quite literally the whole question of social versus business responsibility, and which one determines black success,’ ” Powers said. “I knew this play was going to be contemporary. But I had no idea it was going to be this nail-on-the-head contemporary.”

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“ At United, we take our role as a community partner and corporate citizen seriously, and we are proud to support the DCPA.” — MICHELLE BADEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

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As the world’s leading airline, United does more than connect passengers through safe, convenient air travel; it forges strong relationships with the people and communities it serves. United is pleased to serve as the official airline for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) and proudly supports its remarkable contributions to the performing arts community in Denver and beyond. Together with the DCPA, United celebrates the energy that artists, performers and dancers bring to Denver and the global stage. “At United, we take our role as a community partner and corporate citizen seriously, and we are proud to support the DCPA. With more than 75 years of service to the Mile High City, we are also proud of our long-standing commitment to the Denver community that thousands of co-workers and customers call home,” said Michelle Baden, Managing Director of Corporate and Government Affairs. In addition to the DCPA, United is honored to support several Colorado organizations including the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Public Schools Foundation, Latin American Educational Foundation, and Starlight Children’s Foundation of Colorado. United co-workers also have donated more than 5,000 hours of service to various local partner initiatives, such as the Food Bank of the Rockies, and proceeds from its Pink Program have gone to the Denver Health Foundation Women’s Mobile Clinic to make cervical and breast cancer screens more readily available. We, at United, sponsored more than 400 children at a student matinee performance of Lord of the Flies to share the thrill of a live theatrical performance — and we love bringing smiles to hundreds of local children undergoing medical treatment through the annual holiday “Fantasy Flights” trip to the North Pole and teddy bear deliveries to Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children and Children’s Hospital Colorado.

present

INTERMISSION: Two? Or One MUSIC: A trombone player was engaged, but is unreliable and should not be expected. NO DOGS ALLOWED IN THE DRESS CIRCLE ********** Production Supervisor...................................................................................................... Richard Costabile Assistant to Mr. Holbrook.......................................................................................................... Joyce Cohen Exclusive Tour Direction...................................... The Booking Group: Meredith Blair, Mollie Mann, Brian Brooks, Rich Rundle and Klaus Komar The TV Special of HAL HOLBROOK in MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! is available on DVD. Call 1-800-458-5887. The entirety of Mr. Holbrook’s material is protected by copyright law and may not be transcribed or performed in any venue or context without the express permission of Mr. Holbrook. No audio or video transmitting or recording device of any kind shall be used in any manner to reproduce the artist’s performance. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The Mark Twain Project at Berkeley, which houses Mark Twain’s papers, is perhaps the most ambitious publishing enterprise in the annals of American literature, issuing scholarly editions of Mark Twain’s work which include a wealth of newly discovered material. If you would like to help the Mark Twain Project continue its exciting research and publication, please send a tax-deductible contribution made payable to The Mark Twain Project, c/o Mark Twain Papers & Project, University of California, The Bancroft Library – Room 475, Berkeley, California 94720-6000. Thank you.

— Hal Holbrook

MARK TWAIN TONIGHT!

AND SEASON SPONSOR

MARK TWAIN TONIGHT!

NOTE: While Mr. Twain’s selections will come from the complete list below, we have been unable to pin him down as to which of them he will do. He claims it would cripple his inspiration. However, he has generously conceded to a printed program for the benefit of those who are in distress and wish to fan themselves. SELECTION SOURCE

Advice to Youth............................................................................... Speeches

Compliments Collection......................................................Miscellaneous

Taming the Bicycle................................................................................Essays

Chaucer, Sailor, Tennessee Girl.........................................Miscellaneous

The Evolution of Man...................................................................Biography

Slow Train, Long Dog..........................................Following the Equator

Insanity: Elections, War and Petrified Opinions......Miscellaneous

Charity, Reform, Cats............................................................Miscellaneous

Huck and Jim.....................................................................Huckleberry Finn

My Cigar Habit?.......................................................................Miscellaneous

Shooting of Boggs..........................................................Huckleberry Finn

The Marienbad Cure.............................................................................Essays

Huck, Jim and ‘Lizbeth..................................................Huckleberry Finn

A Cyclopedia of Sin...............................................................Miscellaneous

Huck’s Conscience..........................................................Huckleberry Finn

Smoke Rings.............................................................................Miscellaneous

Lost in the Fog..................................................................Huckleberry Finn

A Moral Pauper......................................................Following the Equator

Lynching and China..............................................................................Essays

Hunting the Water Closet.............................. Mark Twain’s Notebook

A Helluva Heaven.................................................Letters from the Earth

Virginia City...................................................................................Roughing It

Slavery: A Holy Thing.......................................................Autobiography

Shoveling Sand............................................................................Roughing It

Man, That Poor Thing..................................................................Biography

The Ant................................................................................. A Tramp Abroad

Noah’s Ark...............................................................Letters from the Earth

The Great Landslide Case.......................................................Roughing It

Chief Love.............................................................. Mark Twain in Eruption

The Lord Will Provide........................................................Autobiography

The Creator’s Pet..................................................Letters from the Earth

The German Opera......................................................... A Tramp Abroad

The War Prayer..................................................... Europe and Elsewhere

A Genuine Mexican Plug.........................................................Roughing It

The Christian Bible.................................................................Miscellaneous

San Francisco...........................................................................Miscellaneous

Circumstances......................................................Mark Twain In Eruption

Crippling the Accordion................................................................Sketches

Our Civilization.....................................................................Autobiography

The Anarchist Story....................................................................... Speeches

A Ghost Story............................................................................ Short Stories

Baker’s Bluejay.................................................................. A Tramp Abroad

Sunrise on the River............................................Life On the Mississippi

The Sweet Bye and Bye................................Essays: The Invalid Story

The Get Rich Quick Disease..............................................Miscellaneous

His Grandfather’s Old Ram........................... Mark Twain’s Notebook

The Thin Skin....................................................... Mark Twain’s Notebook

Congress: The Grand Old Asylum.................................Miscellaneous

The Virgin Mary.......................................................Ladies Home Journal

The Press............................................................................................ Speeches

Praying for Gingerbread...................................................Autobiography

Down There in Washington...............................................Miscellaneous

Boyhood on the Farm.......................................................Autobiography

Running For President.........................................................Miscellaneous

Taking Along the Window Sash..............................Innocents Abroad

The Sandwich Islands...............................................................Roughing It

My Trained Presbyterian Conscience.........................Autobiography

The Italian GuideInnocents..............................................................Abroad

How I Stole My Name..........................................Life on the Mississippi

My Encounter With an Interviewer...........................................Sketches

Livy.............................................................................................Autobiography

Accident Insurance........................................................................ Speeches

How to Be Seventy........................................................................ Speeches

The Supreme Art..................................................Letters from the Earth

My Ancestor Satan.................................................................. Short Stories

White Suit.......................................................................................... Speeches

The Hartford Home..............................................................................Letters

Requesting a Hymn Book............................... Mark Twain in Eruption

Susy’s Prayer..........................................................................Autobiography

Money is God................................................................................. Notebooks

Halley’s Comet................................................................................Biography

Decay in the Art of Lying................................Essays & Miscellaneous

Mary Ann............................................................................................ Speeches

These selections are quotations directly from Mark Twain’s writings, edited together by Mr. Holbrook to create his performance.

When the calendar turned to 2014 it laid down a milestone for the longest running show in American Theatre history – the 60th year for Mark Twain Tonight! Clive Barnes of the New York Times reviewed Hal Holbrook’s third New York engagement in 1977: “Hilariously funny. We see him not as the precursor of Will Rogers or even H. L. Mencken, but clearly as a prototypal Lenny Bruce, so anti-establishment you wonder why they allowed him into his century.” Holbrook has shown us Mark Twain the social critic, whom George Bernard Shaw called “America’s Voltaire.” The show doesn’t stop evolving. Three new numbers have added another hour to its revolving repertoire of material: one on the Christian Bible, another from the feuding clans in Huckleberry Finn killing each other off, and another on the fate of the laboring class in America. “Mark Twain never stops surprising me,” says Holbrook. “He keeps firing me up and asking questions.” It was a fateful decision for Holbrook when he sat at his desk in a small $79 a month New York apartment in 1954 and began searching Twain’s writings for material that might work on the stage and feed his family. One key decision he made: Don’t update him. Portray Mark Twain as the aging character the world recognizes – a wild white head of hair, beetle brows and moustache, the white suit, and never break the illusion that it is Twain himself speaking in his own time. Let the audience update him. That has made the show more powerful because human behavior doesn’t change. Neither does its foolishness. That’s the joke.

Hal Holbrook was born in Cleveland in 1925. When he was two his mother disappeared, his father followed suit, and young Holbrook and his two sisters were raised by their grandfather in South Weymouth, Massachusetts where his people had settled in 1635. He was sent away at the age of seven to one of the finer New England schools, beaten regularly by a Dickensian headmaster, and at twelve was sent to Culver Military Academy where he learned selfdiscipline and discovered acting as an escape from rigid authority. He believes Culver saved his life. After three years in World War II, Holbrook completed his college education at Denison University in Ohio, where the Mark Twain characterization grew out of an honors project which gave him and his young wife an immediate job after graduation, playing scenes from Shakespeare to Twain on the school assembly circuit in the Southwest. His first solo appearance as Twain was at the Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania in 1954, a desperate alternative to selling hats or running elevators in New York to keep his young family alive. When a radio and television soap opera, The Brighter Day, rescued them, Holbrook still pursued the Twain character in a Greenwich Village nightclub. While doing the soap opera in the daytime, he developed his original two hours of material in the curve of a baby grand piano at night and Ed Sullivan caught his act. The New York stage debut three years later was such a stunning success, he quit the soap; the State Department sent him on a tour of Europe where he was the first American dramatic attraction after World War II to appear behind the Iron Curtain.

This total disguise of himself, which took as much as four hours when he was younger, has given Holbrook the benefit of another career as himself in motion pictures like Magnum Force, Wall Street, Creepshow, Water for Elephants, Lincoln and Into the Wild for which he received an Academy Award nomination. Television films and series earned him five Emmy Awards, a total of twelve nominations. With ninetyeight stage plays in New York and regional theatres around the country, he has said “I’ve been on the road most of my life.”

Then he pursued a new career as himself, playing Shakespeare, Abe Lincoln in Illinois Off-Broadway, and booking Twain in between. He joined the original Lincoln Center Repertory Company in New York and built a career as an actor in a variety of roles with no connection to Mark Twain – Man of LaMancha, King Lear, Shylock, Willy Loman onstage, and in 50-odd feature films. He has no set program in Mark Twain Tonight! It changes and evolves and he sometimes chooses the material he will do as the show goes along.

He is not a Hollywood actor or a New York actor. He’s as much an American actor as any in our theatre’s history because he has never stopped touring America coast to coast in 66 years since graduating college in Ohio and setting out for Texas on the school assembly circuit with Ruby Holbrook, his first wife. The solo Twain was originally created in a Greenwich Village nightclub, where Ed Sullivan saw him and first gave him national television exposure. Three years later an unheralded 34-year old actor debuted Mark Twain Tonight! just off Broadway to critics who had no idea what to expect. The New York Times: “There should have been posters up all over town to herald his arrival. Mr. Holbrook’s material is uproarious, his ability to hold an audience by acting is brilliant.” It was called “one of the treasures of the American Theatre” by Life Magazine. Seven years later he played New York again, won the Tony Award and Mark Twain Tonight! was seen on CBS Television before 30 million people.

Hal Holbrook sailed the 1980 singlehanded race to Hawaii and extensively in the South Pacific to New Zealand on his 40-foot sailboat, Yankee Tar. He has five children, lives in Los Angeles and sometimes in Tennessee at the home where his dear wife, Dixie Carter, grew up. She passed away in 2010.

MARK TWAIN TONIGHT!

HAL HOLBROOK

MARK TWAIN TONIGHT!

MARK TWAIN: BIOGRAPHY

DENVER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

(SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS) 1835 Born in Florida, Missouri (November 30).

DENVER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS BROADWAY TEAM

1839 Moved to Hannibal, Missouri. 1853 Left home to become itinerant printer. 1857 Became apprentice pilot on the Mississippi River. 1861 After two weeks in the Confederate Army, resigned commission and went to the Nevada territory with brother Orion. 1862 Prospected unsuccessfully, then joined Virginia City Enterprise as a reporter — first used pen name “Mark Twain”. 1864 Joined the San Francisco Morning Call. 1866 Visited Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), became lecturer, wrote travel letters to the Sacramento Union and the San Francisco Alta California. 1867 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County published. Joined excursion to Mediterranean. 1870 Married Olivia Langdon of Elmira, New York (February 2). Settled in Buffalo as editor of The Buffalo Express. 1871 Moved to Hartford, Connecticut. 1872 Susy Clemens born. Roughing It published. 1873 Collaborated with Charles Dudley Warner on The Gilded Age. 1874 Clara Clemens born. 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer published. 1878 Family lived in Europe. 1880 Jean Clemens born. A Tramp Abroad published. 1882 The Prince and the Pauper published. 1883 Life on the Mississippi published. 1884 Published U.S. Grant’s Personal Memoirs. Began investment in Paige Typesetter. 1885 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published. 1889 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court published. 1891 Family moved to Europe. 1894 The Tragedy of Pudd’n Head Wilson published. 1896 Lecture tour around the world. Susy Clemens died in Hartford (August 18). Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc published. 1900 Lived in New York.

Jennifer Nealson..............................Chief Marketing Officer Brianna Firestone...............................Director of Marketing, Theatre Company Rob Silk ........................................................... Creative Director Suzanne Yoe..........................Director of Creative Services and Cultural Affairs Jessica Bergin ........................................Box Office Manager Nathan Brunetti...............................................Digital Manager Katie Clow ................................................Box Office Manager Kim Conner.................................................... Graphic Designer FloraJane DiRienzo..............Business Relations Manager Anita Edwards.................................. Web Services Manager Brenda Elliott................................. Senior Graphic Designer Simone Gordon.............................................. Project Manager Hope Grandon..... PR & Events Manager, Theatre Company Emily Kent.......Marketing Associate, Theatre Company Jennifer Kemps......Business Relations Assistant Manager Laura Kirby................................................Box Office Manager Carol Krueger.............................Theatre Services Manager Dave Lenk............................................................... Videographer Jennifer Lopez.................... Director of Ticketing Services Kyle Malone.................................... Senior Graphic Designer John Moore........................................... Senior Arts Journalist Mark Onderdonk........................................Business Manager Kirk Petersen......Assoc. Director of Ticketing Services/ Patron Relations Christine Schempp...... Group Sales Business Associate Joe Schurwonn...................... Marketing Financial Analyst Jill Schwager......Student Matinee & Group Tours Associate David Smith...........................Assoc. Director of Ticketing/ Subscription Services

INFORMATION SERVICES

1904 Olivia Langdon Clemens died in Florence, Italy (June 5). 1907 Received LLD from Oxford University. 1908 Moved to “Stormfield”, the house he built in Redding, Connecticut. 1909 Jean Clemens died (December 24). 1910 Mark Twain died in Redding, Connecticut (April 21).

is part of the Denver Performing Arts Complex, owned and operated by the City and County of Denver, Arts and Venues.

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1897 Following the Equator published.

THE BUELL THEATRE

John Ekeberg..............................................Executive Director Jeff Hovorka ........................Director of Sales & Marketing Heidi Bosk.....................Senior PR & Promotions Manager Alicia Giersch...............................................Business Manager Emily Lozow.......................................Marketing Coordinator Claudia Carson...............................Administrative Assistant

DENVER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE FOLLOWING SUPPORT IN ITS 2014/15 BROADWAY SEASON

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For information call: 720.865.4220

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“Colorado’s Family Law Team”

2015 SUMMER SEASON June 19 – September 5

THE MUSIC MAN by Meredith Willson

PROOF

by David Auburn

A FLEA IN HER EAR by George Feydeau

Famous Performing Arts Center

Trinidad, Colorado Now offering Summer Theatre Camps for ages 8 -18

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Plays a Different Tune by Protecting You, Your Children, and Your Future

The Harris Law Firm 1125 17th Street, Suite 1820 | Denver, CO 80202

303.299.9484 www.harrisfamilylaw.com www.coloradodivorceinfo.com

WILL THE REAL GREAT AMERICAN NOVELIST PLEASE STEP FORWARD?

MARK TWAIN, SAMUEL CLEMENS OR HAL HOLBROOK? B Y S Y LV I E D R A K E

“If I’d learned just to play myself I might have become some kind of movie star, but I thwarted that by taking on roles that allowed me to get at the heart of a character.” — HAL HOLBROOK

denvercenter.org

In a career that spans more than 70 years and ranges from regional theatre to TV and film, the world inevitably thinks of Hal Holbrook primarily as Mark Twain. This recognition is all thanks to his irrepressible solo performance in Mark Twain Tonight!. To hear Holbrook tell it, this was all an accident. Born in Cleveland in 1925 where his first role in the theatre was in The Man Who Came to Dinner at Cleveland’s Cain Park Theatre, he grew up in Massachusetts and later graduated from Ohio’s Denison University. By the time Holbrook left Denison, he was married and he and his first wife, Ruby Johnson, had developed a two-person show consisting of characters from Shakespeare to (yes) Mark Twain. They took it on the road, touring the 8am school assembly circuit in a freezing Southwest, doing 307 shows in 30 weeks, and racking up 30,000 miles on their station wagon, with costumes that often had to be defrosted before they could be worn. The Twain characterization might have perished right there, but Holbrook was cast in a soap opera in New York and became sufficiently bored with it that he began to ex-

pand his repertoire of Twain material in sheer self-defense. When TV’s Ed Sullivan saw the polished one-man piece in a small New York theatre and offered Holbrook national exposure on his hugely popular variety show, there was no turning back. The down side of that success was that young Hal was being offered mostly old-man roles. The up side, though he didn’t know it at the time, was that Mark Twain Tonight! would become the singular, solo creation that he’s played all over the country (including Broadway, where it earned him a 1966 Tony® Award). This turn of events threatened, but was not allowed to impede a much richer and fuller career. On stage he tackled everything — from comedy to drama, musicals to Chekhov, Miller to Shakespeare, careening from Hotspur and Shylock to the vaulting King Lear, without flinching at the sheer magnitude and range of his undertakings. “I was introduced to acting that way, playing everything,” he told this writer in 1996, when he came through Denver in the title role of Death of a Salesman. “I dove into the theatre to get behind disguises,” he confessed.

“As a kid, I’d scare the neighborhood as the Hunchback of Notre Dame. If I’d learned just to play myself I might have become some kind of movie star, but I thwarted that by taking on roles that allowed me to get at the heart of a character.” Yet the most amazing of those characters remains his portrayal of the pugnacious, cigar-chomping Mark Twain, a wit and writer Holbrook deeply admires and with whom he is on very intimate terms after 60 years of being him on stage. Not only does he find Twain’s perceptions brilliant, but also extremely modern. When we met on a wintry Los Angeles afternoon in his home library, Holbrook was fired up. On cue, eyes, energy and indignation blazing, he expounded not only on the astonishing career he has made out of playing one of America’s greatest citizen-philosophers (a journey chronicled in his 2011 autobiography, Harold, the Boy Who Became Mark Twain), but also on his boundless admiration for what he sees as Twain’s prophetic vision of this country’s often rogue and difficult trajectory and uncertain future. “He was the first tremendously successful author in this country,” he said. “In the 1870s, after the Civil War, his career took off, he came east, and the country took off. The Industrial Revolution began, fed by Mr. Lincoln saying go ahead, put down the transcontinental railroad. Mark Twain, still in his thirties, became the confidant of Andrew Carnegie, of Mr. Vanderbilt — he sailed on his yacht — of young John Rockefeller: [Jay] Gould, J.P. Morgan. “In those days they all belonged to clubs — the Players Club, the Lotus Club. They all knew each other, had lunches, made fun of each other, had fun with each other. Twain watched them, looked at them, went home and wrote about them. He saw the great turn that had happened in this country, from an agrarian to an industrialized nation, which became, in a

period of 30 or 40 years, an industrial giant.” Yet Twain saw an America that lost its way. To quote from the show, “It’s a civilization that has destroyed the simplicity and repose of life, its poetry, its soft romantic dreams and visions, and replaced them with a money fever, shorted ideals, vulgar ambitions and a sleep that does not refresh.” No wonder Holbrook stands in awe. “You could start the American Dream with Abraham Lincoln as the epitome of the Great American Story,” he said. “You go from Lincoln to Twain and the disintegration that he began to write about in The Gilded Age and other late works, and you know he was beginning to see the erosion of the purity of our values. “If you think that Mark Twain was just becoming a road exercise for me, think again,” he added. “I can get out there and say something that means something to me and, I believe, to the American public that may not even understand the magnitude of what is going on. It’s become my sword. We all need to think a little bit about what we are doing to ourselves, to our children and especially to our country.” The words will be Twain’s. The passion? All Holbrook. Sylvie Drake most recently served as Director of Publications for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. She is a former theatre critic and columnist for the Los Angeles Times and a regular contributor to culturalweekly.com.

HAL HOLBROOK IN MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! MAR 21 | BUELL THEATRE Tickets: 303.893.4100 | denvercenter.org 800.641.1222 | TTY: 303.893.9582 Groups (10+): 303.446.4829

Gilgamesh Taggett as Oliver Warbucks and Issie Swickle as Annie in “I Don’t Need Anything But You” Photo by Joan Marcus.

COMING UP FROM BROADWAY:

ANNIE Think you’re an expert on the musical Annie? Brush up on your trivia before heading to The Buell Theatre April 29 – May 10 for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts presentation. 1. Little Orphan Annie originally appeared as a ____________ in the 1920s. a. Children’s Book b. Comic strip c. Radio ad 2. Finish the lyric: “It’s a _________ _________ life, for us!” a. pretty easy b. tough knock c. hard knock 3. Which of the following musicians recorded the song “Tomorrow”? a. Barbra Streisand b. Jack Topping c. Idina Menzel d. All of the above 4. How many Tony Awards did the original 1977 production of Annie win? a. 7 b. 4 c. 5 5. How many times has Annie been made into a movie? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 6. What is the name of the stray dog that Annie adopts? a. Sandy b. Max c. Rover 7. What US President is featured in the show (Hint: the show takes place in December 1933)? a. Harry S. Truman b. F.D.R. c. Woodrow Wilson 8. What does Annie wear that reminds her of her parents? a. a ring b. a locket c. her mother’s scarf

HAL HOLBROOK Answers: 1) Comic Strip, 2) hard knock, 3) all of the above, 4) 7, 5) 3, 6) Sandy, 7) F.D.R., 8) a locket

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DaVita believes in the importance of arts and culture in education and supports many Colorado organizations working to enrich those opportunities.

When DaVita teammates from across the country agreed on a mission “to be the provider, partner and employer of choice” more than 15 years ago, the company created a culture to support its patients, teammates and communities in innovative, creative and sustainable ways. Since then, DaVita HealthCare Partners has continued its journey “to become the greatest health care community the world has ever seen.” As a community first and a company second, DaVita HealthCare Partners created a vision for corporate social responsibility called the Trilogy of Care: Caring for Our Patients, Caring for Each Other and Caring for Our World. DaVita HealthCare Partners believes that if it creates a thriving, sustainable community for its teammates, they in turn will create a special clinical and caring community for patients and their families – and be inspired to help others. This trilogy is at the heart of the company’s industry-leading clinical outcomes, goodwill initiatives and environmental commitment. As part of its commitment to the arts and bolstering education in Colorado, DaVita HealthCare Partners helped create a unique arts collaboration called the Creative Classroom Collaborative between the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA), the Colorado Symphony and Youth on Record, facilitated by the Public Education and Business Coalition. This collaboration resulted in a pilot program at Denver’s Venture Prep High School where students were taught by teaching artists from the respective groups to use the arts as a tool for improving core curriculum skills. The pilot culminated in a live performance by the students who showcased their creativity in various ways. DaVita HealthCare Partners believes in the importance of arts and culture in our education system and supports many Colorado organizations that are working to enrich those opportunities in local schools. DaVita HealthCare Partners teammates also are committed to engaging their local community through volunteerism. Many teammates work together on community service projects – or Village Service Days – like serving in soup kitchens, cleaning up parks and working with underserved populations. Since 2006, DaVita HealthCare Partners teammates and their families and friends across the country have volunteered nearly 79,000 hours through more than 14,000 Village Service Days. DaVita HealthCare Partners is a proud sponsor of the DCPA and its commitment to sustaining the arts and educating the next generation of patrons in Colorado. DCPA’s dedication to helping students develop their own creative voice and gain the confidence to share that voice with the world is just one of the reasons why Colorado is such a great place to live and work.

LEFT: A DaVita teammate gives a new pair of shoes to a child at Greenlee Elementary in Denver as part of DaVita’s nationwide community service initiative “Shoes-a-palooza.” For the second year in a row, DaVita partnered with Shoes That Fit and provided nearly 11,500 pairs of new shoes to children in need across the country. RIGHT: DaVita teammates help harvest carrots at an urban garden maintained by Re:Vision.

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The Aurora Fox Theatre Company presents ... A father’s story. A son’s journey. An epic adventure. Region a

l Prem

iere

based on the Tim Burton film

music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa book by John August

Proud Partner of the Bringing Music to Life Instrument Drive

MARCH 16–28 Share the power of music with children. Donate an instrument at any of 15 locations across Colorado.

February 27 - March 22, 2015 P Regional

remiere

by Qui Nguyen

A high octane ode to fantasy role-playing games.

303-739-1970

April 24 - May 16, 2015

www.AuroraFox.org 9900 East Colfax Avenue $28/$31 - Adults $24 - Students/Seniors $14 - Kids under 12

“Dream the Impossible Dream” with a Brave Knight this Summer...

Tony Award Winning Musical by Leigh, Darion and Wasserman July 18 to August 9 Central City Opera House

La Traviata | Man of La Mancha | The Prodigal Son The Blind | Don Quixote and the Duchess

Tickets start at $25. Buy two shows for just $38! 303.292.6700 | CentralCityOpera.org

COMING SOON

IN THE

STOMP Now – Mar 15

SPOTLIGHT

Drag Machine Mar 12 – 29 Kick-Off Cabaret Mar 13 One Night in Miami... Mar 20 – Apr 19 Mark Twain Tonight! Mar 21

Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ biggest stars step into the spotlight — actors, designers, students and you.

The 12 Mar 27 – Apr 26 Motown The Musical Mar 31 – Apr 19 Perception Apr 10 – 25 Annaleigh Ashford — Lost in the Stars Apr 11 – 12 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Apr 22 – 26

Defending the Caveman Apr 22 – Jun 28 Annie Apr 29 – May 10

Cult Following May 8 Wicked Jun 3 – Jul 5 The Book of Mormon Aug 11 – Sep 13

Matilda The Musical Sep 9 – 20 If/Then Oct 13 – 25 Murder for Two Oct 27 – Feb 21, 2016 Disney’s The Lion King Nov 4 – 29

1. EDUCATION: Adult students prepared for their Winter Master Class performance of Macbeth. 2. EVENT SERVICES hosts fantastic mixers such as the Greater Denver Venue Network Luncheon and our own VIP Evenings. 3. THEATRE COMPANY’s Fourth Wall young professionals enjoyed happy hour before Appoggiatura. 4. BROADWAY: The Grinch made an appearance at the DCPA’s Holiday Box Office in Cherry Creek to read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. For complete photo coverage, visit the DCPA’s News Center at denvercenter.org/news-center.

A Christmas Story, The Musical Dec 16 – 27 Dirty Dancing — The Classic Story On Stage Jan 26 – 31, 2016 The Wizard of Oz Feb 7 – 13, 2016 A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder Feb 16 – 28, 2016 Riverdance — The 20th Anniversary World Tour Mar 8 – 13, 2016 Disney’s Newsies Mar 23 – Apr 9, 2016 once May 24 – 29, 2016 Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jun 7 – 12, 2016 The Sound of Music Jun 21 – 26, 2016 Beautiful — The Carole King Musical Jul 19 – 31, 2016

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Honor Those You Love With the Choice of Monarch Society “Thank you to each & everyone at Monarch Society for your help, support, kindness & compassion. We will be forever grateful” - P & D

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FEB 16 – 28, 2016

MAR 23 – APR 9, 2016

JUL 19 – 31, 2016

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BUELL THEATRE

Music and Lyrics by: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Produced by Special Arrangement with Dramatic Publishing - Woodstock, Illinois