Applause -- Cebollas, January 26-March 10, 2024

VOLUME XXXIV NUMBER 4 JAN – MAR 2024

WORLD PREMIERE

Illustration by Kyle Malone

CEBOLLAS

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SIGHTLINE

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BY JANICE SINDEN

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VO LU M E X X X I V • N U M B E R 4 • JA N - M A R 2 0 24

EDITOR: Suzanne Yoe DESIGN DIRECTOR: Kyle Malone DESIGNER: Brenda Elliott CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS: Paul Koob, Lucas Kreitler CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Crompton, Emma Holst, Genevieve Miller Holt, John Moore, Joanne Ostrow

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Hello and happy 2024! We are delighted to welcome you to our winter lineup with eight productions, the Colorado New Play Summit, and the culmination of our Middle and High School Playwriting competition.

First up from Broadway is the return of two beloved favorites of American musical theatre — Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s groundbreaking Jesus Christ Superstar and Bob Fosse’s choreographic masterpiece Chicago. These are followed by a new dance-theater piece Message In A Bottle from director/ choreographer Kate Prince set to the music of Sting, which portrays the humanity of refugees as they hope for a brighter future.

The Denver Center Theatre Company welcomes its peers from across the nation to the 18th Colorado New Play Summit at which four scripts will be read in a crucial playwright-audience exchange that influences the development of the play. This year features Cowboy and East Indians by Nina McConigley and Matthew Spangler, Ghost Variations by Vauhini Vara, Godspeed by Terence Anthony, and One-Shot by Andrew Rosendorf.

As part of the Summit, attendees will attend Cebollas by Leonard Madrid and Rubicon by Kirsten Potter, two plays that were read in 2022 and now receive their professional debut. We invite you to be among the first in the world to experience these new plays as they enter the American theatre canon.

At the same time, DCPA Education’s Middle and High School Playwriting competition awards top honors to three middle school 10-minute plays and three high school one-act plays. The one-act scripts are read in conjunction with the Colorado New Play Summit.

We invite you to attend the full Summit and add on a Broadway show to your winter activities.

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Janice Sinden Janice Sinden, President & CEO

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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.

IN THIS ISSUE Cebollas ..............................................................pg 10 Message In A Bottle..................................pg 12 Rubicon ...............................................................pg 14 Jesus Christ Superstar .......................... pg 19 Chicago ................................................................pg 21 4

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WO RL D P RE MIER E

The Righteous

LA TRAVIATA Giuseppe Verdi

DON GIOVANNI Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Gregory Spears Tracy K. Smith

WORLD PREMIERE

THE RIGHTEOUS Gregory Spears Tracy K. Smith

July 13, 17, 26, 30 August 7, 13

DER ROSENKAVALIER Richard Strauss

THE ELIXIR OF LOVE Gaetano Donizetti

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Explore the Season

For tickets and more information visit santafeopera.org or call 505-986-5900

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by Benedetto Cristofani

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BY S U Z A N N E YO E

If you’ve been to downtown Denver in mid-summer, you might have encountered creatures from a different planet…known locally as FAN EXPO but known nationally as Comic Con. That one weekend a year when sci-fi enthusiasts convene to embody their favorite character, meet celebrities and delve into all things comic-sci-fi-horror-anime-gaming.

Fast forward six months and you might stumble upon another convention — ThesCon — a slightly different opportunity for middle and high school students across the state to explore workshop offerings, meet actors and theatre professionals, engage with college programs, audition for main stage performances and scholarships and delve into all things theatre-drama-plays-musicals.

In December, the Colorado Thespians held the 59th ThesCon at the Colorado Convention Center. More than 5,500 students from Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico gathered for performances, workshops, panel discussions and competitions.

Unsurprisingly, DCPA Education played an integral part in the 2023 event. Continuing a long-standing partnership, the full team led 17 workshops ranging from the Choreography Styles of & Juliet to stage combat and improv to movement. Additionally, the Community Engagement team hosted five behind-thescenes tours of DCPA studios and production facilities while other teaching artists participated in adjudication of student performances.

New to the DCPA’s participation, was a performance of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot in the Bellco Theatre. The cast and crew offered an abridged version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of the Middle School Opening Ceremony. Also, as a special treat, the actresses playing the Queens in the national tour of SIX participated in six panel discussions with the star-struck teens.

Through their efforts, the Colorado Thespians lived up to their mission — to promote and strengthen theatre arts in education through theatrical experiences that provide creative enrichment for students and teachers.

Bravo!

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There’s still a robust lineup of plays awaiting you at the Denver Center Theatre Company.

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CEBOLLAS Illustration by Kyle Malone

WHEN A ROAD TRIP IS A FAMILY JOURNEY

BY JOANNE OSTROW

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This world premiere work by New Mexico playwright Leonard Madrid drew loud laughs from audiences at the 2022 New Play Summit. The tagline says it all: Three Sisters, four wheels, four hundred miles, and one dead body.

From a comedic premise, a heartwarming comedydrama emerges when three Latina sisters embark on an unexpected drive, Albuquerque to Denver. Their mission: to get the body of the youngest sister’s lover back to Denver before his wife finds out how and where he died.

Cue the family secrets, sibling grudges and endless highway. Are we there yet?

It’s pedal to the metal as well-drawn characters bicker and laugh all the way north on I-25. Landmarks scroll by — Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Huerfano, Colorado Springs, Castle Rock — along with family memories and secrets. The sisters’ distinct personalities enliven the proceedings, and sharp dialog keeps the play speeding along. While humor fuels the trip, serious issues test the relationships.

Director Jerry Ruiz said the play is “about healing the rift in their family.” Specifically, “the sisters must tell (youngest sister) Yolie the truth about her origins and help her move on.”

As the miles tick by, “there is the sense of a new beginning, a rebirth for the family,” through the fact of the baby that very pregnant Yolie is going to have.

“The more we’ve worked on it beyond the witty banter, there really is a lot of real human material in there that gives it the heft of a drama and also roots the humor in something very real and very emotionally understandable.

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“I’d call it a comedy-drama,” Ruiz said.

The story, while outrageous, is actually quite universal, concerning family, siblings and legacy.

“That’s the hook,” Ruiz said. “You don’t have to have driven a body across state lines to appreciate family dysfunction and the legacy of your parents and to grapple with the choice they made. I think we all can connect to that in some ways.”

The question at the outset is, are these women going to come back together and be in each other’s lives or will they be pulling in different directions?

The production aims to be immersive, to seemingly invite the audience along on the trip.

“We are going to have a car, or part of a car, onstage,” Ruiz said. Audiences will see the characters getting in and out of the shell or skeleton of the vehicle. Meanwhile Ruiz will use projections to create the sense of motion and travel.

Cebollas projections designer Alex Basco Koch and an assistant have made the actual drive, Albuquerque to Denver, with a video camera to capture the view from out of their car.

That road trip footage will be projected onto various surfaces on and around the set, with road signs and landscapes changing as the story progresses to create an immersive environment. The Singleton Theatre is “a great space for it,” Ruiz said, “very intimate, so we’ll feel very close to the actors and also get that sense of travel.”

The casting is “definitely all Latina, you want to have

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

that authenticity. The cultural representation is important,” Ruiz said.

Two of the actors return from the New Play Summit reading, the third is from New York.

The culture of New Mexico figures prominently in Cebollas.

“There are some terms in there that I didn’t even know, and I’m a fluent Spanish speaker,” Ruiz said. “They are so regional. Regional slang and Spanglish.”

A lobby display is planned to familiarize audiences with the unique culture and language of that area.

For instance, Ruiz said, “’ombers,’ is it Spanglish? I’d never encountered this word. Leonard said it’s like when you’re in trouble, it’s very contextual.”

BLAST OFF!

You don't have to have driven a body across state lines to appreciate family dysfunction and the legacy of your parents and to grapple with the choice they made. I think we can all connect to that in some ways.

— JERRY RUIZ, DIRECTOR

Or the expression “burque,” which Ruiz learned means Albuquerque.

“It’s like shortened Spanish slang. These are things even Spanish speakers might not be familiar with. We’ll try to give that context.”

Citing the Denver Center Theatre Company productions of Laughs in Spanish (2023), American Mariachi (2018), FADE (2016, which he directed) and others, Ruiz said the Denver Center “has a pretty good track record of producing Latina and Latino playwrights and other playwrights of color…. They feel that mission to represent different facets of the community.”

He credits the company with figuring out a sustainable model at a time when theater generally is struggling. “They are continuing to serve their established audience but also inviting new folks in, and then picking shows that are culturally specific but that can speak to a broader audience. It’s a balancing act.”

The fact that Cebollas rose through the process of the New Play Summit is a sign of that commitment to keeping the pipeline fresh and inviting in new playwright voices. Since it began 18 years ago, the Summit development process has introduced 68 new plays, more than half of which were picked up as full Theatre Company productions.

“To see a play go from being read for the first time at the [Summit] to a full production two years later, that’s actually a quick turnaround in the life cycle of plays in the American theater,” Ruiz said. More typically he has worked on plays for six or seven years before they were produced.

“To have that reading, to get people excited, then turn around and do it the very next year — that’s a wonderful opportunity.”

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THE MAKING OF

BY SARAH CROMPTON

M

Message In A Bottle takes as its theme the biggest, saddest subject facing the world today: the international refugee crisis that is separating families and causing suffering and unrest across the globe.

Yet its origins are in a small, personal — and happy — moment in the life of the choreographer Kate Prince. She was on her honeymoon in Greece, listening to Sting’s Message In A Bottle. She’d loved it since she was a child, and it had been one of the songs she’d chosen to play at her wedding. “I started wondering, as you do, what it would be like to use Sting’s music to create a dance story.”

She mentioned the idea to Alistair Spalding, Artistic Director and Chief Executive at Sadler’s Wells. The next thing she knew, she was in a hotel lobby with Eliza Lumley, Head of Theatre for Universal Music UK, trying to pitch the idea to Sting himself. “I was really nervous, in that way you can be when it’s a physical reaction and very much out of your control,” she says, with a broad smile. “For someone who’s a dancer, I was so physically awkward.

“And I didn’t like that I was nervous because he’s just a guy. But I think he had that impact because when I was a kid, I was so far away from even thinking that one day I might work with such a legend.

“But he was really lovely and he listened. He was just really open, and from that we got his permission to do a

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workshop, and I worked on it for two weeks and at the end of two weeks he came in with his manager and sat on a chair and fourteen dancers performed for him.”

The workshop was a revelation. “I was blown away by it,” Sting said later. “The response for me was very emotional not just because I was honoured that they were using my music to express something, but there was something happening at a deeper level beyond understanding. It was moving me in ways that I couldn’t quite interpret. I have had very little experience of dance so being moved was what led me to say yes, carry on. I was just intrigued by it.”

He also felt that in some ways, the exercise for him has been one of discovery. “This is my dream life exposed. I write songs in isolation. I don’t see any overriding themes, so watching people interpret the songs in a larger narrative, it’s therapy.” Excited by the entire prospect, he gave the go ahead, giving Prince carte blanche on story and on interpretation, while keeping control of approval over the music.

Meanwhile, she began working on the project. She doesn’t quite remember where the idea of making a narrative about refugees first came to her, but gradually it made itself impossible to ignore.

She had been in the audience in Edinburgh in 2013 when a North Korean refugee, Joseph Kim, gave a TED talk. “He

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

COMING UP FROM BROADWAY

made a massive impact on me and that story got me started.” She then watched other documentaries including Human Flow, Refugee and The White Helmets on Netflix, two Guardian documentaries — Escape from Syria: Rania’s Odyssey and We Walk Together — and more recently For Sama.

All this research forms the background to the fictional narrative she has created in Message In A Bottle, about a family torn apart by civil war, and about ideas of home. The two brothers and their sister each have a different story to tell “because no one story of any refugee or immigrant is the same,” Prince explains. “Every single person in it and every bit of information is extracted from the truth.

“When I make dance, it’s important to me that it’s about something and that we’ve got loads of story, background, research and layers.

The audience doesn’t have to receive everything we put in. There is no dialogue, no narration. I just want the bodies to respond to the music, because the music is brilliant.” Nevertheless, as the piece has developed, every dancer has in their mind a clear storyline they are trying to convey. “I want it to have a very clear narrative, but it’s not like musical theatre. There you don’t stop to express a single emotion in a piece of dance. That’s what we do here.”

— KATE PRINCE, DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER

In doing so, Prince is asserting the power of dance — and of hip hop dance in particular — to tell huge stories, and deal with important themes. She wants to use its language to draw attention to the central, often forgotten, message of the refugee crisis.

She also quotes Alonzo Westbrook, the writer and hip hop pioneer.

“He said ‘hip hop is the artistic response to oppression.’ If you look through history, whenever the worst thing has happened, it has brought the best art. Art is cathartic. It gives us release. I can show you a news film about refugees that’s really disturbing, and you might watch it for a while and then change the channel. But if you really engage with the story, through dance, it communicates to you in a different way. You absorb it as a work of art.”

Nevertheless, she believes that Message In A Bottle offers hope. “It’s there to uplift and inspire like all our work, because all our work is really about one thing: love. Everything comes back to love and the power of love and the healing power of love, forgiveness and acceptance. This is a piece about the strength human beings have to keep going, to find peace again in their lives, despite trauma. It’s about resilience.”

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

FEB 13 – 25 • BUELL THEATRE ASL Interpreted, Audio Described and Open Captioned performance: Feb 25 at 2pm

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Roman Banks as 'MJ' and the cast of the MJ First National Tour.

Photo by Matthew Murphy, MurphyMade.

I want it to have a very clear narrative, but it’s not like musical theatre. There you don’t stop to express a single emotion in a piece of dance. That’s what we do here.

MJ

Michael Jackson’s iconic music and signature moves are taking the Buell stage in 2024. The Tony Award-winning musical MJ offers an insider’s perspective of the artistry that catapulted Michael Jackson to international superstardom and legendary status. MJ was created

by Tony Award-winning Director/ Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and playwright Lynn Nottage.

The show takes audiences behind the scenes as Michael Jackson prepares for his 1992 Dangerous World Tour. As the team rehearses the setlist — packed with Jackson’s most famous tunes, including “Thriller,” “Smooth Criminal,” “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and “Bad” — audiences witness the genius of Jackson’s creative process and are transported to pivotal moments in his career.

The Washington Post called MJ “a riveting adrenaline rush of a show.”

WGN Radio said, “MJ is one of the best shows ever.” Don’t miss the biggest musical of the decade as it takes its first national tour. MJ stops in Denver April 10 - 28, 2024. Sing along, dance in your seat, and flashback to the live performance of one of pop music’s most celebrated musicians.

RUBICON: SEX, ESPIONAGE AND A WOMAN FINDING PURPOSE

Illustration by Kyle Malone

BY JOANNE OSTROW

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APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024

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Do you remember a sexy movie with Lauren Bacall as a glamorous society woman turned wartime spy named Betty, blazing through men and countries, from South America to Europe, seducing her way to crucial information for the Allies in WWII? No? That’s because there was no such movie — although perhaps there should have been.

Betty Pack was a real-life character sidelined by history, an affluent wife and mother who became an espionage agent, a sultry and successful woman, who was denigrated for using her sexuality to prevail.

Instead of a romantic, high-gloss movie that never was, witness Betty coming to life in Rubicon, a world premiere written by Kirsten Potter and directed by Chris Coleman, Artistic Director of the Denver Center Theatre Company.

At its core the play is about “the cost of purpose,” Coleman said.

“It’s about a woman who comes from immense privilege and doesn’t really have a sense of purpose at the outset. She was kind of wandering through her life….

She discovers both a sense of excitement and purpose when she fumbles her way into the world of espionage and realizes that she has a real gift for it.”

Not that the art of seduction was admired in a well-bred Minnesota daughter of a U.S. Marine Corps officer. She went on to be called “the ultimate honey trap,” as she worked for both British and American intelligence outfits.

It was not necessarily a compliment.

“I think she was ahead of her time, and the system she was working in didn’t know what to do with her,” Coleman said. “A woman with the kind of sexual autonomy that she had was outside the realm of understanding or acceptability of that world.

“In the play, it’s crushing.”

Betty’s comfort with her function as a Mata Hari, trading sex for secrets, was clearly outside the norm.

“It’s the heritage of our culture, isn’t it?” Coleman said.

“Who gets to use their sexuality however they want to, whose sexuality has to be tightly contained? That’s so old in our culture, even when it’s being commandeered and deployed for a greater good, it still makes people uncomfortable that a woman has that much control and is actually not apologetic about it.”

It shouldn’t spoil the action for audiences to know that the five cast members worked with an intimacy choreographer. Samatha Egle, who previously worked on Rattlesnake Kate, Hotter Than Egypt, A Little Night Music and Much Ado About Nothing, is “a really valued collaborator,” Coleman said.

She choreographs the sex scenes as one would a fight or a dance. “She will say ‘talk to me about this kiss, what’s the flavor? A two-count, a five-count?’ I really appreciate it. It takes any kind of awkwardness out of my hands.”

A celebration of this unsung hero is overdue. There are books about Betty but you are forgiven for never having heard of her. Neither had the director.

“I love forgotten history,” he said.

Betty was a force of nature. “She clearly was an adrenaline junkie. Situations most of us would feel terrified by and run from, she ran right

— CHRIS COLEMAN, DIRECTOR

ELIZABETH PACK

Elizabeth Pack was a World War II spy for the British and American governments. Here are five facts about this unsung heroine.

1 straight into. Even before she’d actually been recruited. You could justify it by saying she was going to help out her imprisoned lover, but it’s more than that. She just found it exciting.”

Coleman laughed at the idea of ’40s film star Bacall playing Betty in a glamorous black-and-white film version of the story. “The actress we cast sounds a little like Lauren Bacall…. It’s hard for the play not to be glamorous, given the period and settings. From a ball at the embassy in Santiago to meeting rooms in Madrid…’ It’s a fancy world.”

The famous Enigma machine — used by the Germans to encrypt and decrypt messages — provides a pivotal plot point for the play. A boundary-breaker but not a code-breaker herself, Betty managed to steal the Vichy Papers in an elaborate scheme that helped the Allied landing in North Africa in 1942.

“Getting the Naval codes from the Vichy French embassy was going to give the allies an advantage that could turn the tide of the war,” Coleman said.

For Betty, “it was all intuition, she definitely was interested in older powerful men, both romantically but also they were of interest to her as a human.”

Appraising the character, Coleman said he was reminded of Robert Caro’s biographies of Lyndon Johnson. Betty’s talent was “like LBJ’s uncanny ability to sense what an older powerful man needed from a mentee, that built entree for him and a power base for him that he utilized to great effect. Betty had a similar sense of how to endear herself to people in power, whether she slept with them or not, to get them to say ‘yes’ to her…”

And what of her personal Rubicon? Her point of no return? “I think it’s nice if it’s left as a question mark for the audience,” Coleman demurred.

The playwright always imagined the set for her play’s production as a puzzle box, Coleman said. “It feels like it’s filled with surprises that reveal themselves in ways you don’t expect.” Designer Tony Cisek came up with “a solution that feels sleek, elegant and surprising.”

The resulting set will be “beautiful but very simple,” Coleman promised, “with some magic tricks that let it transform very elegantly.”

Rather than fussy furniture, audiences will be transported via simple devices like a sound cue or a chandelier.

“It will be very cinematic,” Coleman said.

RUBICON

FEB 9 – MAR 10 • KILSTROM THEATRE ASL Interpreted and Audio Described performance: Feb 18 at 1:30pm Post-Show Discussions: Feb 27 & Mar 7

RUBICON

A woman with the kind of sexual autonomy that [Betty Pack] had was outside the realm of understanding or acceptability of that world.

FIVE FACTS ABOUT

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3

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Amy Elizabeth Pack also went

by Betty Pack, Betty Thorpe, Amy Brousse and Cynthia (her official codename). She was also referred to as the “Minnesota Mata Hari” and “the greatest unsung heroine of the war.”

She was born to a Marine Corps officer and a Senator’s daughter, placing her in the heart of the Washington political scene.

As a promiscuous teen, she got pregnant at age 19 by an unknown partner and later married British operative Arthur Pack 19 years her senior.

When they relocated to Spain at the onset of the Spanish Civil War, her activism began. She smuggled rebel Nationalists to safety, transported Red Cross supplies to Franco’s forces and coordinated the British embassy evacuation.

After moving to Poland, she enlisted as a British spy and befriended a colleague of the Polish foreign minister from whom she extracted information on the Enigma machine and Hitler’s plans to dismantle the former Czechoslovakia.

But her most dangerous and sensational escapade involved breaking into a Vichy French embassy and extracting naval codebooks.

See how she did it at Rubicon, playing February 9 – March 10 in the Kilstrom Theatre.

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present

CEBOLLAS BY

Leonard Madrid

With Zuleyma Guevara, Jamie Ann Romero, Xochitl Romero Stage Managers: Sage Hughes, Michael G. Morales

SCENIC DESIGN BY Raul Abrego

COSTUME DESIGN BY Raquel Barreto

LIGHTING DESIGN BY Carolina Ortiz Herrera

ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN BY Melanie Chen Cole

PROJECTION DESIGN BY Alex Basco Koch and John Erickson

DRAMATURGY BY Xiomara Cornejo

CASTING BY Grady Soapes, CSA and Bass/Valle Casting

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT BY Peggy Carey

DIRECTED BY

Jerry Ruiz Cebollas was developed at the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2022 Colorado New Play Summit.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment of the Arts.

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

THE SINGLETON THEATRE • JAN 26 – MAR 10, 2024

DENVER CENTER THEATRE COMPANY WORLD PREMIERE

SPOTLIGHT SPONSOR

SINGLETON

FAMILY FOUNDATION

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FAMILY FOUNDATION

IN-KIND SPONSOR

SEASON SPONSORS

CEBOLLAS

Chris Coleman, Artistic Director Charles Varin, Managing Director

CEBOLLAS

CAST

(In order of appearance) Celia.................................................................................................................................................................................Xochitl Romero Yolie.........................................................................................................................................................................Jamie Ann Romero Tere............................................................................................................................................................................. Zuleyma Guevara SETTING A house in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A house in Denver, Colorado, but mostly the road between the two.

CEBOLLAS will be performed without an intermission.

Stage Manager....................................................................................................................................................Michael G. Morales Assistant Stage Manager...........................................................................................................................................Sage Hughes Stage Management Apprentice.................................................................................................................................Rain Young Additional Song Composition and Guitar.....................................................................................................Michael Grieve Movement Consultant............................................................................................................................................Matt Zambrano 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.

WHO’S WHO ACTING COMPANY ZULEYMA GUEVARA (Tere).

Recent stage credits: Sancocho (WP Theater), Mercedes (Oye! Group). Previous credits: Somewhere (Geva Theater), Grand Horizons (Peoples Theater), Bruise and Thorn (Pipeline Theater), Water by the Spoonful (Kean Theater), La Paloma Prisoner and Hour of the Star (Columbia Stages), Seven Spots on the Sun (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), and La Ruta (Working Theater). TV/Film: “Sonia’s Choice,” “Legend of the 13 Suns,” “Gotham,” “FBI: Most Wanted”, “Law and Order,” “Limitless,” The Meal, Tumba Del Mar. JAMIE ANN ROMERO (Yolie) (She/Her).

Broadway: The Cottage. First National Tour: The Play That Goes Wrong. OffBroadway: Dracula (Classic Stage Company), Mary Page Marlowe (Second Stage Theater). DCPA: World Premiere of The Legend of Georgia McBride, Sunsets and Margaritas, Dracula, and others.

Select Regional: Vanya and Sonia

and Masha and Spike (Paper Mill Playhouse), The Winter’s Tale (Hartford Stage), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Old Globe), Emma (Playmakers Rep).

International: Noises Off (Maxim Gorky Theatre of Vladivostok, Russia.) TV: “The Punisher,” “New Amsterdam,” “House of Cards.”

Film: Viper Club, Sunday 1287.

Training: BA, UNoCo. @annjamie XOCHITL ROMERO (Celia). OffBroadway: To The Bone (Cherry Lane Theatre), Chimichangas and Zoloft (Atlantic Theatre), Very Pretty Girls (New World Stages). Regional: Cost of Living (Fountain Theatre, Ovation Award Winner), HisPanic Attack (The Second City), ROE (Fountain Theatre), Queens (La Jolla Playhouse), Blackbird (Hyde Park Theatre, B. Iden Payne Award Winner), Crabs in a Bucket (The Echo Theatre). TV/Film: “The Conners,” “Station 19,” “Temple Grandin,” “Friday Night Lights,” “The Mosquito Coast.” Upcoming projects include MAX’s “Are You Okay?” and Hulu’s “Ghosted.”

PLAYWRIGHT LEONARD MADRID. Credits include Cebollas at the Colorado New Play Summit in 2022, Las Arañas at Berkeley Rep in 2018, and Aurora

at the Ignitions Festival at Victory Gardens in 2011. Aurora, Perla de Luna, and Tecolotito received the Kennedy Center´s Latinidad Award.

Prima´s Guide to Funerals will have a world premiere at Creede Repertory Theatre in Summer of 2024.

DIRECTOR JERRY RUIZ (He/Him). OffBroadway: Fade (Primary Stages), Mala Hierba (Second Stage Theater), Basilica (Rattlestick Theater), Philip Goes Forth and Love Goes to Press (Mint Theater Company), Mariela in the Desert (Repertorio Español).

Regional: Fade (Denver Center Theatre Company, TheatreWorks Hartford), Twelfth Night (The Old Globe, Playmakers Repertory Company), The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Zach Theatre), Water by the Spoonful and The River Bride (Stages Houston), The Survivors (Alley Theatre All New), and Appropriate (Profile Theatre). M.F.A in Theatre from UC-San Diego.

CREATIVE TEAM RAUL ABREGO (Scenic Designer) (He/Him). DCPA: Debut. Raul has designed at The Juilliard Opera Center, The Manhattan School of Music, The Spoleto Opera Festival in Italy, Rattlestick, and Cherry Lane. Recent projects include: The Winter’s Tale (Folger Theatre), Espejos: Clean (Studio Theatre), Truckers (INTAR Theatre), Living and Breathing (Two River Theater), How to Melt Ice (Boundless Theater),

RAQUEL BARRETO (Costume Designer) (She/Her) is pleased to be back at the DCPA after designing Laughs in Spanish and Native Gardens. Recent credits include: A Christmas Carol (Alley Theatre) and Art (Guthrie Theater).

Oregon Shakespeare Festival (five seasons), Mark Taper Forum, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, St. Louis Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, California Shakespeare Theater, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Folger Theatre, Cornerstone Theater Company, Getty Villa, Latino Theater Company, The Magic Theatre, Campo Santo. Raquel is a professor at The University of Texas at Austin. raquelbarreto.com PEGGY CAREY (Production Manager) (She/Her) recently joined the DCPA team last year as an Associate Production Manager.

Before then, she worked at The Public Theater (New York, NY) as an Associate Production Manager where she managed readings, developments, and events, as well as hired stage management teams. Additionally, she helped to originate the Ithaca Fringe Festival as Production Director and has worked at Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and the Kitchen Theatre.

MELANIE CHEN COLE (Original Music Composer and Sound Designer) (She/Her). At the DCPA: A Christmas Carol (2022, 2023).

Regional theatre credits: Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Alley Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, Goodman Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Indiana Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Northern Stage, The Old Globe, PlayMakers Rep, South Coast Rep, Studio Theatre, and Utah Shakespeare Festival. Education: MFA in Theatre and Dance from UC San Diego. melaniesound.com, @melaniechencole.

XIOMARA CORNEJO, Ph.D. (she/her/ ella) is a Salvadoran American awardwinning dramaturg, playwright, designer and theatre director from Compton, California. Credits include Romero (Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre), every.single.one (Studio Four), Alma (Colorado New Play

Summit), and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (MOLAA). Her work has been recognized by the John F. Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and the National Partners of the American Theater. She’s an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Illinois Chicago. Xiomara’s scholarship centers on radical theatre, political puppetry, and circus. Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Missouri. xiomaracornejo.com JOHN ERICKSON (Projection Designer) is a Colorado native making his DCPA design debut. He holds a degree in Technical Theatre from CSU and a Master’s Degree in integrated media from UT Austin, where he currently resides. Select design credits include: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Zach Theatre) and Ready. Set. Play! (Virgin Voyages). Associate Design Credits include: Be More Chill (Broadway) and The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir (International Tour). He recently served as the Lead Animator for Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas One and All (National Tour).

ALEX BASCO KOCH (Projection Designer). At the DCPA: The Who’s Tommy. Broadway: Be More Chill (Drama Desk, Lortel, Outer Critics Circle nominated) and Irena’s Vow. Off-Broadway: Buyer & Cellar (North American tour, Menier Chocolate Factory, Barrow Street, Rattlestick), Fireflies (Atlantic, Lortel nominated), I Was Most Alive With You (Playwrights Horizons), The Liquid Plain (Signature, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), GOODBAR (The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival). Regional: Indecent (Guthrie), Approval Junkie and Tiger Style (Alliance, Huntington Theatre Company), Stax and Marley (Baltimore Center Stage), Invisible Man (Court Theatre, Chicago, Studio Theatre, Washington DC, Huntington). Concert: Mariah Carey, Phish, The Magnetic Fields. alexbascokoch.com CAROLINA ORTIZ HERRERA (Lighting Designer) (She/Her) is a Mexican-born and New York-based Lighting Designer for theater, opera, and dance. Broadway: Good Night, Oscar (Belasco and Goodman Theatre). Regional: American Mariachi (Alley Theatre and Arizona Theatre Company), Born with Teeth (Guthrie and Alley Theatre), Native Gardens (Dallas Theatre Center), Everything Rises (BAM and Royce Hall), Seven Guitars (Yale Repertory Theatre), Doubt: A Parable and 4000 Miles (Westport Country Playhouse), Macbeth (Merrimack Theatre Repertory), Yellowman (Billie Holiday Theatre, Audelco Awards Best

Lighting Design nominee), Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (Minneapolis Opera), and Florencia en el Amazonas (Shubert Theatre). Graduate of Yale School of Drama. carolinaeortiz.com 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.

GRADY SOAPES, CSA (Casting) (He/Him) is the Director of Casting and Artistic Producer with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Grady has cast over 40 DCPA productions including Rattlesnake Kate, Theater of the Mind, The Chinese Lady, The Who’s Tommy, and The Wild Party. Choreography credits include A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night, Goodnight Moon, Anna Karenina, As You Like It, Drag Machine, Lord of the Butterflies, DragON (Denver Center); Into the Woods, The Liar (Arvada Center); Comedy of Errors (Colorado Shakespeare Festival). Grady also works as a Casting Director for Sylvia Gregory Casting where he has cast multiple commercials, TV, film and video game projects.

STAGE MANAGEMENT SAGE HUGHES (Assistant Stage Manager) (She/Her) Previously at the DCPA: A Little Night Music, Theater of the Mind, Colorado New Play Summit, Choir Boy, Rattlesnake Kate, and A Christmas Carol. Other regional credits include UNDONE: The Lady M Project and Local Lab 12 (Local Theater Company), Kinky Boots, The Revolutionists, and The Phantom Tollbooth (Hangar Theatre Company), and Shoes for the Santo Niño (Santa Fe Opera). Production management credits: Sweeney Todd, Queens Girl in the World, Lost Girl, and The Sun Serpent (Hangar). Sage holds a BA in Theatre and English from the University of New Mexico.

MICHAEL G. MORALES (Stage Manager) (He/Him) 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

CEBOLLAS

Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Barrington Stage and Geva), and The Brobot Johnson Experience (Bushwick Starr).

Television: “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Assistant Art Director, Season 3 and 4), “Power Book II: Ghost” (Assistant Art Director). Film: Cruzando (Production Designer).

CEBOLLAS

Superstar, Chicago and Movin’ Out. Pre-Broadway: Wonderland and Miss Abigail’s Guide. At the DCPA: A Little Night Music, Laughs in Spanish, 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 A Little Night Music, Hotter Than Egypt, Much Ado About Nothing, Rattlesnake Kate, Twelfth Night, A Doll’s House, Anna Karenina, and Oklahoma!.

Previously, Chris served as Artistic Director for Portland Center Stage in Oregon for 18 years. Under his leadership, PCS renovated the city’s historic Armory into a new home, saw annual attendance nearly double, workshopped 52 new plays that went on to productions at over 100 theaters around the US and UK, and became a national leader in how theaters engage with their community.

In 1988, Chris founded Actor’s Express in Atlanta (in the basement of an old church), a company that continues to be a cultural force in the Southeast today. He has directed at major theaters across the country, including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Alliance Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Baltimore Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville,

ACT/Seattle, the Asolo, Pittsburgh Public, 59E59, and New York Theater Workshop. He and his husband, actor/writer Rodney Hicks, live in Reunion with their 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: Gabriel Crites, Lisa Ehrle, Michael James, Katarina Kosmopoulos, Phi Le, Loren Martin, Nikki Mayer

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 #Cebollas Playwright: Leonard Madrid @leonardpmadrid Director: Jerry Ruiz @jruizdirector Scenic Designer: Raul Abrego Costume Designer: Raquel Barreto @barretoraquel Lighting Designer: Carolina Ortiz Herrera @caelor27 Original Music Composer and Sound Designer: Melanie Chen Cole @melaniechencole Projection Designers: Alex Basco Koch @alexbascokoch and John Erickson Dramaturg: Xiomara Cornejo, Ph.D. Casting: Grady Soapes, CSA @grayzvander and Bass/Valle Casting Photos and the video and/or audio recording during any part of the performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is one of the largest non-profit theatre organizations in the nation, presenting Broadway tours and producing theatre, cabaret, musicals, and immersive productions.

In its 2022/23 season, the DCPA engaged with nearly 865,000 visitors, generating a $205.6 million economic impact.

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

LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH

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.

eceive r o t n Opt-i er support custom ssages e text m e DCPA! h from t ow the kn n i y a t S show! e h t y jo and en

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.

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.

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BRIGHT LIGHTS OF

BROADWAY Direct from Broadway to the Buell, these larger-than-life hits and intimate cabaret shows will fill your calendar in 2024.

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5 0 TH A N N I V E R S A R Y T O U R

JAN 3 – 28

JAN 23 – 28

JAN 30 – FEB 4

FEB 7 – MAR 31

FEB 13 – 25

MAR 5 – 10

GARNER GALLERIA THEATRE

GARNER GALLERIA THEATRE

MAR 14 – 17 BUELL THEATRE

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APR 10 – 28

MAY 3 – 5

JUN 12 – 30

JUN 19 – JUL 3

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©Disney

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JUL 24 – AUG 25 BUELL THEATRE

3 x 3.375

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18

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

Elvie Ellis and the company of the North American Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR IS REBORN

BY JOHN MOORE

F

From blasphemy to Broadway to banned to broadcast television, few pop-culture titles have generated the buzz Jesus Christ Superstar has generated.

When Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice dared to imagine the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ through a decidedly late 1960s rock ’n’ roll lens, it was received much like a revolution in world history.

“Superstar was written like a radio play, because that was the closest thing we had available to us,” Lloyd Webber told Rolling Stone magazine. “I think it works best when it’s closer to a rock concert.”

From the start, Superstar was slammed as blasphemous.

Imagine the audacity of a new rock musical that dared to tell the story of Christ’s downfall from the sympathetic perspective of his chief betrayer?

The writers couldn’t find a producer at first. “We were told it was the worst idea in history,” Lloyd Webber recalled. So he and Rice transformed their stage musical into a two-record concept album that was released in 1970.

Rice was inspired by the Bob Dylan anthem “With God On Our Side,” which features Judas in its penultimate verse. Rice was fascinated by the idea of Judas not as a craven back-stabber but rather a close friend struggling with the implications of Jesus’ growing popularity.

“From a very young age, I had wondered what I might have done in the situations in which Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot found themselves,” Rice wrote. “How were they to know Jesus would be accorded divine status by millions and that they would as a result be condemned down the ages?”

When the legendary concept album hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, a Broadway staging went from impossible to inevitable. American fans had begun staging unauthorized live performances in churches and theaters.

But what bowed on Broadway in 1971 was polarizing.

Webber himself called that first (of four) Broadway productions “brash and vulgar” — and he was not alone.

The show was banned in South Africa and protested by everyone from the American Jewish Committee to the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith to evangelist

Billy Graham. (Though Graham did acknowledge that “if the production causes young people to search their Bibles, to that extent it may be beneficial.”)

Ironically, Jesus Christ Superstar found favor with Catholic popes. Jewison, who directed the 1973 film, arranged a special screening for Pope Paul VI. Neeley quotes Paul VI as saying: “Mr. Jewison, not only do I appreciate your beautiful rock-opera film, I believe it will bring more people around the world to Christianity than anything ever has before.”

From its birth, Superstar reflected the rock roots that defined a generation. And as time has passed, it has proven to be a musical that demands to be re-interpreted again and again.

We were told it was the worst idea in history.

– ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER, COMPOSER

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

JAN 23 – 28 BUELL THEATRE

ASL Interpreted, Audio-Described and Open Captioned performance: Jan 27 at 2pm

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

19

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Get everything included in a premiere sponsorship, plus a guided tour of the DCPA costume, prop, or scene design workshop. You’ll also get two complimentary Directors Society memberships, private meet-and-greets with the creative team, and a private luncheon with the company’s Artistic Director.

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(TOP PHOTO) The cast of A Little Night Music. Photo by Amanda Tipton Photography.

(INSET PHOTO) Matt Zambrano and Brittany Mendoza-Peña in LITTLE RED. Photo by Amanda Tipton Photography.

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

Connor Sullivan in The Touring Production of CHICAGO. Credit Jeremy Daniel.

CHICAGO STILL HAS THAT

“RAZZLE DAZZLE”

T

B Y G E N E V I E V E M I L L E R H O LT

every gesture, every bit of lighting, every word and The 1975/76 Broadway season made history. Meryl moment were all woven together to create the story,” Streep earned her first Tony® nomination and Sondheim’s said Brown, who played the role of June.

Pacific Overtures premiered on Broadway. And two of Chicago opened on Broadway on June 3, 1975, to musical theatre’s most enduring musicals were created enthusiastic audience response. Fosse considered it a nearly simultaneously. compliment that some took In the preceding year, offense at his cynical take on the while visionary director and American justice system and the choreographer Michael Bennett cult of celebrity. “When people was developing A Chorus Line, walked out,” said Brown, “Bob got the equally visionary Bob Fosse tickled because he figured that in enlisted composer John Kander order to be offended, they must and lyricist Fred Ebb to create a have ‘got it.’” new piece too: the musical version But when the Tony Awards of a 1926 play about an infamous came around, the unconventional dame who’d killed her husband.

A Chorus Line won them all. In Fosse was an established his review of Chicago’s 1996 Broadway director and revival, New York Times critic choreographer at this point with Ben Brantley reflected that the a corps of loyal dancers. Denver — CANDY BROWN, 1975 production of Chicago had resident Candy Brown was one ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST been, “in a sense, the evil twin of of them. its rival musical, as acerbic and In January 1974, while Brown cold-hearted as the other was was dancing in Pippin, she and 18 sentimental and warm.” other dancers gathered to discuss the challenges of being But Chicago would eventually get its due. The 1996 a Broadway gypsy, which eventually became the basis revival was a resounding success, winning six Tonys of Bennett’s A Chorus Line. His project was an unknown and remains the longest-running American musical on quantity with only the glimmer of becoming something Broadway today. Still considered one of Fosse’s towering bigger, so some participants defected to more secure gigs, undertakings, Chicago returns to Denver and it’s still got Brown among them. She joined Fosse’s Chicago. that razzle dazzle.

“I felt a loyalty to Bob,” she said, “as Chicago would be my third project with him...not to mention the fact that no Genevieve Miller Holt is the Vice President for Broadway Across one knew if the Michael Bennett workshop would even be America in Cincinnati. a show.”

A year later, Brown arrived for the first day of rehearsal, yet just after lunch, the cast was told that Fosse had been hospitalized. “I went numb,” said Brown. “We all were in CHICAGO a state of disbelief.” Work stopped as Fosse suffered two JAN 30 – FEB 4 • BUELL THEATRE heart attacks and underwent bypass surgery.

ASL Interpreted, Audio-Described and Open Captioned Months later, the Chicago team reassembled and Fosse performance: Feb 3 at 2pm began to construct his iconic musical. “Every costume,

Every costume, every gesture, every bit of lighting, every word and moment were all woven together to create the story.

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

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PROUD SPONSOR OF MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

T [The arts] inform, inspire and uplift while bringing the community together.

The arts are a significant part of making Denver an amazing place to live and work. U.S. Bank believes in the power of play, which includes the arts, because it brings joy, encourages creativity, teaches problem-solving skills and builds emotional learning. That is why U.S. Bank is a long-time supporter of the magnificent programs and spectacular performances at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA).

The arts educate, promote understanding, broaden our perspectives and enable communities to share rich cultural experiences. Denver is fortunate to have a thriving arts community, which is home to some of the nation’s finest theatres, museums and artists.

“We’re proud to serve the DCPA because it provides a world-class venue offering the best in live entertainment, in addition to education for all ages through the art of theatre,” said Andy Aye, Market Leader for Colorado and New Mexico.

“We know the critical role that the arts play in our society.

They inform, inspire and uplift while bringing the community together.”

In 2022, U.S. Bank committed $64 million to nonprofit organizations through Community Possible, with an emphasis on community development diversity and inclusion, financial education and the environment. Additionally, its employees volunteered more than 311,000 hours, demonstrating that employee engagement is a major component of its community success.

“The DCPA brings us together to appreciate our diversity of thought, perspective and talent,” said Aye. “I am always amazed at how much we share in common when we all laugh or gasp during a key moment in a performance. It is a sense of participation and belonging that strengthens our community.

Supporting the DCPA is making an investment in ourselves, the arts and the place we call home.”

— ANDY AYE, COLORADO/NEW MEXICO MARKET LEADER

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APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

“One of the best musicals of the decade” - Time Out New York

Titanic, The Musical Story and Book by Peter Stone · Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston Presented by Eklund Opera and the Musical Theatre Program

March 15-17, 2024 · Macky Auditorium Robert Westenberg, stage director Tickets start at $17 at cupresents.org.

TITANIC is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Tams-Witmark LLC. www.concordtheatricals.com

Second Wind Fund pays for up to 12 sessions of therapy for Colorado youth at risk of suicide.

February 16 - March 31, 2024

For more information visit thesecondwindfund.org or scan the QR code

arvadacenter.org |

Underwritten by Diana and Mike Kinsey

| 720.898.7200

PROUD SPONSOR OF THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES AND SATURDAY NIGHT ALIVE

DAVITA: COMMUNITY FIRST

A

As a leading provider of kidney care services in the United States, DaVita is committed to making a lasting impact, starting with the care it provides and extending to the broader communities it serves.

Since first calling the Mile High City home in 2010, the company has remained dedicated to supporting causes that uplift the Denver community while fostering a culture that encourages teammates to get involved. As a company, DaVita invests in opportunities that advance leadership, sustain cultural institutions, and respond to the community’s most pressing needs.

DaVita is proud to support the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, a vibrant organization committed to increasing access to performing arts for all individuals. DCPA’s mission to serve, engage and inspire its community aligns with DaVita’s efforts to support healthy communities around the world, as well as in its own backyard of Colorado. DaVita is proud to play a role in DCPA’s Theatre for Young Audiences program, engaging more than 15,000 pre-K through 3rd grade students and educators from 128 schools across metro Denver.

Following are examples of other local community collaborations DaVita is proud to support: Funding 10 Denver Scholarship Foundation recipients as they pursue a pathway to healthcare related careers.

Preparing teen moms at Florence Crittenton Services for future livable wage opportunities through a summer exposure program that matches them with paid internships. The program provides them with flexibility of job choice over the summer while helping to ensure they are ready for medical internships and gain necessary professional skills.

DaVita is a proud premier supporter of Urban Peak’s annual fundraiser, Urban Nights. The nonprofit is the only organization in Denver that provides wrap-around support services for youth experiencing homelessness.

24

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

FEB 8TH - APR 7TH, 2024 SCAN OR CALL TO GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

(970) 744-3747

9/19/24 – 11/10/24

11/21/24 – 1/12/25

4/10/25 – 6/8/25

1/23/25 – 3/30/25

6/19/25 – 8/31/25

DCPA TEAM DCPA TEAM DCPA

Stori Heleen-O’Foley................Event Technical Katie Davis .....................Manager, VIP Ticketing Prop Shop Manager Billy Dutton...........................Associate Director, Meghan Markiewicz ...........................Supervisor Janice Sinden..........................President & CEO Operations Sara Pugh ........................Associate Supervisor Donna Hendricks...........Executive Assistant, Shane Hotle.................................Audio Engineer Danielle Freeman ...................................Manager, Bennet Goldberg, Georgina Kayes, President & CEO David Mandlowitz, Customer Service Ashley Lawler .............................................Artisans Julie Schumaker......................................Manager, Will Stowe, Ian Wells ...........Video Engineers Andrew McGlothen................Prop Carpenter Board Relations Tara Miller...........................................Event Sales & Claire Hayes, Ella Mann, Operations Director Rocco Williams ...........Managers, Box Office ACCOUNTING & FINANCE Brook Nichols ........Event Technical Director Chris Leech.......... VIP Ticketing Coordinator Scene Shop Eric Moore.............................. Technical Director Jane Williams...................................................CFAO Kate Olsen................Event Sales Coordinator Katie Spanos .......................Associate Director, Subscriber Services Albert “Stub” Allison, Robert L. Orzolek, Sara Brandenburg................................... Director, Benjamin Peitzer...........Event Technical Lead Josh Prues ....Associate Technical Directors Accounting Services Alex Taylor ..............................Lighting Designer Group Sales Jeremy Althoff, Tyler D. Clark, Michaele Davidson ....Accountant, Treasury Brooke Wyatt........Event Logistics Manager Jessica Bergin..................... Associate Director Amy Wynn Pastor, Blythe Kamin.............................................Manager, Kyle Scoggins .....................Scenic Technicians Jennifer Jeffrey....................Director, Financial Audience Development Planning & Analysis INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Louis Fernandez III.....Lead Scenic Technician Kristina Monge .......................................Specialist, Lisa Roebuck.................................Vice President Elias Lopez...........................................Coordinator Brian “Marco” Markiewicz ....Lead Carpenter Accounts Payable For security purposes, the IT team has been omitted. Maddie Young .......................................Associate, Education & Group Sales Scenic Design Jennifer Siemers ...........Director, Accounting Operations Lisa Orzolek .................................................Director Audrey Smith....................Associate Manager, Vincent Bridgers ........................Senior Analyst OFF-CENTER Kevin Nelson, Accounting Adam Busch................................. Junior Analyst Charlie Miller ...Executive Director & Curator Nicholas Renaud..................................Assistants Aaron Chavez ....................................................Lead BROADWAY & CABARET Courtney Ozaki............................ Line Producer Sound Design Ruben Cruz, Jordan Latouche.... Engineers John Ekeberg.........................Executive Director Alex Billman .......................................... Supervisor, Simone Gordon .................Associate Director PEOPLE & CULTURE Sound & Technology Administration Kyle Greufe, Sam Nolte, Laura Maresca ................................................ CPCO Lucas Swinehart..........Associate Supervisor, Ashley Brown.......................Business Manager Tara Perticone............................................Analysts Sound & Technology Alicia Bruce ............................. General Manager Brandon LeMarr ......................................Manager Equity & Organization Culture Meagan Holdeman+, Lisa Prater .........................Operations Manager Sarah Martinez ..............................Administrator Lydia Garcia .........................Executive Director Timothy Schoeberl+, Seán Kroll .............................................Coordinator Joseph Reecher ......................Senior Engineer Dimitri Soto+ .......................................Technicians Garner Galleria Theatre Cordelia Taylor ..................................Coordinator Human Resources Abel Becerra ............................Technical Director Stage Management Brian Carter.............. Senior Business Partner Michael Morales ..................................Production Jason Begin+, MARKETING & SALES Andrew Guilder ....HR & Recruiting Specialist Anna Hookana+ ...................Core Stagehands Stage Manager Angela Lakin....................................Vice President Paul Johnson..............................................Payroll & Corin Davidson, Harper Hadley, Whitney Testa..................Executive Assistant, DEVELOPMENT Compliance Manager Sage Hughes, Anne Jude, Marketing & Broadway Laurie Moore ........................... Business Partner Nick Nyquist, Malia Stoner, Jamie Clements .............................Vice President Monica Robles...............Supervisor, Mailroom Kristin Sutter.............................Stage Managers Connor Carlin......................Associate Director, Marketing Major & Planned Gifts Heidi Bosk ...........Associate Director, Press & Kinsey Scholl .................Operations Specialist Magdalena Tronina, Georgia Wood, Rain Young .....Apprentices Promotions, Broadway & Cabaret Caroline Eppers .......................................Manager, Wardrobe Corporate Partnerships Erin Bunyard.............Senior Digital Strategist THEATRE COMPANY Heidi Echtenkamp .............................Supervisor Kara Erickson-Stiemke.................Coordinator Sofia Contreras .....................Graphic Designer Administration Kaylie Groff........Manager, Grants & Reports Brenda Elliott, Charles Varin .......................Managing Director Robin Appleton^, Amber Krimbel^, Paul Koob..............Senior Graphic Designers Emily Kettlewell .................Associate Director, Madysen Hunter....................Business Admin/ Lauren LaCasse^, Lisa Parsons Wagner^, Annual Giving TJ Forlenza ............................................Copywriter Assistant Company Manager Nicole Watts^, Kami Williams^........Dressers Michael Garcia ..........Manager, Web Content Caitie Maxwell.... Senior Director, Major Gifts Alex Koszewski ................ Company Manager Wigs Claire Graves............................................... Director, Marc Ravenhill ....................Associate Director, Produced Programs Ann Marshall........................... General Manager Diana Ben-Kiki......................................Supervisor Donor Relations Abby Schmidt^, Brittany Gutierrez...................................Manager, Artistic Megan Stewart........................Manager, Events Communications Chris Coleman .......................... Artistic Director Marisa Sorce^ ..............................Wig Assistants Linda Horan...............................Project Manager Jessica Eckenrod.................Artistic Associate EDUCATION & VENUE OPERATIONS Jeff Hovorka .... Director, Sales & Marketing, Grady Soapes ....................Artistic Producer & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Glen Lucero....................................Vice President Broadway & Cabaret Casting Director Allison Watrous ................. Executive Director Emma Holst .......................................Coordinator, Leean Kim Torske.................................... Director, Merry Davis ..........................Financial Manager Stuart Barr ............................. Technical Director Communications & PR Literary Programs Jane Deegan ..................................Administrator Leslie Channell .......................................... Director, Emily Kent........Director, Insights & Strategy Costume Crafts Facilities Business Operations Lucas Kreitler .........Junior Graphic Designer Kevin Copenhaver....................................Director Jerad Ayala, Steven Bilbao, Lyndsay Corbett ...................Teaching Artist & Michael Ryan Leuthner ........................

Director, Chris Campbell.........................................Assistant Abraham Cervantes, Lindsey Cervantes, Manager, Playwriting & Bobby G Digital Marketing Carmen Molina, Judith Primero Molina, Elliot Davis ......................... Evening Registrar & Costume Shop Office Coordinator Emily Lozow .............Assoc. Director, Sales & Janet Macleod... Director/Design Associate Juan Loya Molina...............................Custodians Marketing, Broadway & Cabaret Dwight Barela, Mark Dill, John Howard, Rachel Ducat.................Executive Assistant & Meghan Anderson Doyle ....Design Associate Bryon Willingham ............................... Engineers Business Manager Kyle Malone................................Director, Design Stephanie Cooper, Michael Kimbrough....Manager, Engineering Rya Dyes .................................................Registrar & Dan McNulty.........................Marketing Analyst Amoreena Knabb, Ingrid Ludeke, On-Site Class Manager Todd Metcalf .................................Media Producer Carolyn Plemitscher ................................. Draper Brian McClain .....................Manager, Custodial Gavin Juckette ......Teaching Artist & Theatre Hannah Selwyn ....Manager, Email Marketing Patron Experience for Young Audiences Program Manager Brad Steinmeyer .............................Coordinator, House Crew Evan Gendreau .................. Associate Director Douglas Taylor+ ...................................Supervisor Broadway & Cabaret Jesús Quintana Martínez ....................... Director, Elliot Shields...............................................Manager Community Engagement Julie Whelan ...........................................Associate, James Berman+, Forest Fowler+, Kaylyn Kriaski, Leilani Lynch, Produced Programs William Loving+, Dave Mazzeno+, Timothy McCracken................Head of Acting Aaron McMullen, Stacy Norwood, Kyle Moore+, Matt Wagner+ ....Stagehands Mikayla Woods.................................Coordinator, Rick Mireles ...................................................Manager, Valerie Schaefer...............Assistant Managers Produced Programs Calli Lavarnway+, Community Engagement Nora Caley, Teresa Gould, David Saphier......Teaching Artist & Manager, Suzanne Yoe.......................Director, Content & Kelley Reznik+ .......................................Assistants Robin Lander, Myrisa Martin, Communications Lighting Design In-School Programming Selin Ozcelik, Barbara Pooler, Charlotte Talbert ......................................Librarian Ticketing & Audience Services Charles MacLeod......................................Director Wendy Quintana ..................House Managers Rachel Taylor .....Teaching Artist & Manager, Jennifer Lopez ...........................................Director Lily Bradford..............................................Assistant Safety & Security Literary Engagement & Resiliency Christina Adamoli*, D.J. Dennis*, Joseph Price+ .............Production Electrician Jodi Benavides, Justin Walvoord ....................Teaching Artist & Edmund Gurule*, Alison Orthel*, Bryan Faciane............Lead Security Officers Paint Shop Manager, Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Lane Randall*, Hayley Solano*, Calum Abeywickrema, Brian Adams, Samuel Wood.........................Teaching Artist & Sam Stump*...................Counter/Show Leads Jana Mitchell....................Charge Scenic Artist Mayte Armendariz, David Bright, Kristin Hamer MacFarlane, District Liaison Kirsten Anderson*, Scott Lix*, Tyler Edwards, Arden Jones, Melanie Rentschler .....................Scenic Artists Liz Sieroslawski*, Manuel Amaya Loera, EVENT SERVICES Greg Swan* ..................... Subscription Agents Production Gabe McNally-Nakamura, Saundra Bergman, Tamika Cox*, Mekenzie Dalton*, Jeff Gifford ...................................................Director Isabella Samaniego, Shayne Thullen, Phil Rohrbach ...........................Event Managers Zeah Edmonds*, John Fish, Jen Gray*, Julie Brou................Administrative Assistant/ Tori Witherspoon............Security Specialists Daniel Davidek, Noa Halpern, Natalie Jaramillo*, Office Manager Judy Briggs...........................................Front Desk Arias Goldanloo, Jacob Sorling, Phi Johnson-Grimes*, Noah Jungferman*, Matthew Campbell......Production Manager Quentin Crump..........................................Director Drake Watkins ..................... Event Technicians Holly Stigen*, Andrew Sullivan*, Peggy Carey................. Associate Production Samantha Egle, Cody Gocio ....Senior Sales Robert Warner*, * Member, I.A.T.S.E. Local B-7 Manager & Event Managers Joseph Williams*..........................Ticket Agents + Member, I.A.T.S.E. Local 7 ^ Member, I.A.T.S.E. Local 719 Jon Collins.....................Manager, Subscription Staff list current through December 21, 2023

APPLAUSEWORTHY EVENTS DCPA Event Services

Bring some theatricality to your next all-team meeting, annual gala, or corporate retreat and leave your guests starstruck! DCPA Event Services makes it easy, with everything from coat check to catering facilitated by our in-house professionals. Contact us today!

BOOK NOW

DENVERCENTER.ORG/VENUE-RENTALS

6 CORE VALUES. 1 DENVER CENTER.

4. CREATIVITY

AB IL

Y NIT

MU

M

Y

We cultivate open, responsive, affirming relationships and partnerships for a greater collective impact.

T RI EG

3. COMMUNITY

I NT

We produce our best possible work together by engaging people with diverse perspectives, lived experiences and talents around our shared goals.

C O

2. COLLABORATION

SUST AIN

We build a respectful and empathetic culture through our active commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility.

CO L

Y IT

TION RA BO LA

1. BELONGING

BELONGING

CREATIVITY

We embrace innovation and imagination in our daily work to advance our mission.

5. INTEGRITY

We act responsibly, with honesty, accountability and transparency.

6. SUSTAINABILITY

We prioritize the wellbeing of our team, our finances and the environment to ensure our thriving future.

Learn more about what drives the DCPA, and where we’re going, at denvercenter.org/plan

PROUD SPONSOR OF DCPA EDUCATION’S HIGH SCHOOL/MIDDLE SCHOOL PLAYWRITING COMPETITION

The Aegon Transamerica Foundation is proud to support the DCPA and the brilliant programs and events it brings to life.

From Broadway tours to immersive experiences to educational programs for kids, DCPA is an integral part of Denver’s thriving artistic community — and it’s a big part of what makes our city so special.

T

Transamerica employees are dedicated to helping people live their best lives, whether it’s saving and investing for the future or protecting themselves and their loved ones. They bring expertise, creativity and heart to everything they do — and to the communities where they live and work.

Transamerica’s private, nonprofit foundation is proud to do its part in helping to create a brighter and more secure future for people in our community by supporting programs that enhance their opportunities and capabilities while broadening social networks, interactions and aspirations. Through our charitable giving and employee volunteer efforts, we contribute to a wide range of worthy causes in Denver, including the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA).

We believe our longtime support of the DCPA — one of the nation’s largest nonprofit theatre organizations — helps to enliven our community and bring new perspectives that can enable Denverites see the world through another’s eyes.

The Aegon Transamerica Foundation looks forward to supporting another great year of DCPA programming.

We are proud to play a role helping DCPA make theatre accessible to all.

— MELISSA SMITH, CHAIR OF THE AEGON TRANSAMERICA FOUNDATION’S DENVER ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Transamerica employees help serve meals at Denver Children’s Home.

Transamerica employees help prepare “Bags of Fun” for children fighting long-term or life-threatening conditions.

Transamerica employees help build homes for families in need with Habitat for Humanity.

28

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

Attention to detail like no other.

Guaranteed.

CREMATIONS LIFE CELEBRATIONS CEMETERIES

FREE Planning Guide: DignityMemorial.com

Proud to support the performing arts in Denver.

8 LOCAL PROVIDERS TO SERVE YOU, INCLUDING:

Olinger

MORTUARIES & CEMETERIES

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Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary & Cemetery

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.

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U

Union 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.

APPLAUSE • JAN – MAR 2024 • 303.893.4100 • DENVERCENTER.ORG

Photo: From the Hip Photography

CELEBRATE THE COLORADO SYMPHONY’S CENTENNIAL WITH THESE CONCERTS AND MORE ALL SEASON LONG!

Mozart & Now with Peter Oundjian

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2

The Wizard of Oz in Concert

Stravinsky’s The Firebird with Christopher Dragon

JAN 26-28

FEB 9-11

MAR 2-3

MAR 8-10

COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG | 303.623.7876 VIEW ALL EVENTS USING THE QR CODE

( 3 03) 86 2 -3 90 0 | r igh t t i m e . c om