Curious Theatre Company
Curious Theatre Company has cultivated a local and national reputation as a destination for artists and playwrights to foster and develop new work, and as a place where audiences are challenged. They are now entering the third decade of bringing thought-provoking theatre to Denver. Curious Theatre’s rich history showcases their commitment to playwrights with gutsy things to say. Curious is committed to supporting the creation, development, and continued life of new plays for the American theatre, and hold membership in the National New Play Network.
History
“No guts, no story” embodies the ethos of Curious Theatre Company. Established in 1997 by a vanguard Artistic Company that has since grown to 25 professional actors, designers, and directors, Curious brings the best new theatre to Denver. They produce thought-provoking plays designed to challenge ideas, stir emotions, and leave audiences thinking and talking for days. Curious has had the same Artistic Director, Chip Walton, since their founding. Chip and Dee Covington are both still with Curious after founding the company with others in 1997. In 2010, Curious Theatre Company was awarded the American Theatre Wing's National Theatre Company Grant.Facts
Over the last ten years, 75% of Curious plays have been written by playwrights of color, LGBTQ playwrights, or female playwrights. In their first twenty seasons, Curious was named Best Theatre/ Best Theatre Season by Westword eight times. Also, within the first twenty seasons, Curious produced 20 World Premieres, 12 NNPN Rolling World Premieres, 65 Regional Premieres, and 4 Denver Premieres. Of equal note, on only one occasion in their first 20 years did Curious ever produce a play previously produced locally in our community. Of the “25 Most Important Plays since Angels in America”, Curious has produced seven – the most of any theatre in Colorado.Productions
- Season 1: Burn This
- Season 2: How I Learned to Drive, Full Gallop, Praying for Rain
- Season 3: Art, Closer, Fences
- Season 4: Coyote on a Fence, Fuddy Meers, Cloud Tectonics
- Season 5: An Almost Holy Picture, The Mineola Twins, The Rest of the Night, Proof
- Season 6: Nickel and Dimed, Bright Ideas, Inventing Van Gogh, Yellowman)
- Season 7: Trumbo: Red, White & Blacklisted, The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, The Speer Project or Paris on the Platte and Take Me Out
- Season 8: The Dead Guy, Bug, Frozen, The War Anthology, fiction
- Season 9: I Am My Own Wife, Tempodyssey, Aphrodisiac, A House With No Walls, Mall-Mart: The Musical!
- Season 10: How I Learned To Drive, For Better, Heather Raffo's: 9 Parts of Desire, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Denver Project, End Days
- Season 11: Curse of the Starving Class, Speech & Debate, Rabbit Hole, Eurydice, 26 Miles
- Season 12: Yankee Tavern, Ameriville, Home By Dark, Opus, Up
- Season 13: Dead Man's Cell Phone, Astronomical Sunset, Circle Mirror Transformation, Homebody/Kabul, A Number
- Season 14: 9 Circles, Becky Shaw, Red, Collapse, Clybourne Park
- Season 15: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Time Stands Still, Maple and Vine, The Brothers Size, God of Carnage
- Season 16: After the Revolution, Rancho Mirage, The Whipping Man, Good People, Venus in Fur
- Season 17: All the Rage/The Tricky Part, Lucky Me, Charles Ives Take Me Home, In the Red and Brown Water, Detroit, The Brothers Size
- Season 18: White Guy On The Bus, Dust, Elliott a Soldier's Fugue, Sex With Strangers, Marcus, The Flick
- Season 19: The Luckiest People, Building The Wall, Constellations, The Happiest Song Plays Last, Hand To God, Water By The Spoonful
- Season 20: Your Best One, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide To Capitalism And Socialism With A Key To The Scriptures, Detroit '67, The Body Of An American, Appropriate
- Season 21: Sanctions, Skeleton Crew, Gloria, The Humans, The Cake
Awards
2008 Henry Awards
- Outstanding Actor in a Play: Gene Gillette, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
- Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play – Jason Henning, tempOdyssey
- Outstanding Lighting Design – Shannon McKinney, tempOdyssey
- Outstanding New Play – The War Anthology
- Outstanding Ensemble – The War Anthology
- Outstanding Performance by an Actor – William Hahn, Frozen
- Outstanding Performance by an Actress – Rhonda Lee Brown, Bug
- Outstanding Sound Design – Brian Freeland, Bug
- In the 2016-17 Season, Curious ceased participation in the Colorado Theatre Guild’s Henry Awards.
2009 Ovations Awards
- Best Year By a Company
- Best Drama – Eurydice
- Best Actress in a Dramatic Role – Rachel Fowler, Rabbit Hole
- Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Role – Jim Hunt, Eurydice
- Best Lighting – Shannon McKinney, Eurydice
- Best Year By a Company
- Best Comedy – The Lieutenant of Inishmore
- Best Year By an Actress – Karen Slack, 9 Parts of Desire
- Best Director – Chip Walton, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
- Best Actress in a dramatic role – Rhonda Lee Brown, End Days
- Best Actor in a comedic role – Gene Gillette, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
- Best Supporting Actor – Marcus Waterman, End Days
- Best Lighting – Jacob Welch, 9 Parts of Desire
- Theatre Person of the Year – Bonnie Metzgar, Associate Artistic Director
- Best Year by an Actor – William Hahn, Frozen
- Best Actor in a comedic role – Jason Henning, tempOdyssey
- Best Actress in a dramatic role – Dee Covington, The War Anthology
- Best Solo Performance – Erik Sandvold, I Am My Own Wife
- Theatre Person of the Year – Chip Walton, Artistic Director
- Best Actress in a dramatic role – Rhonda Lee Brown, Bug
- Best Actor in a comedic role – Erik Sandvold, Take Me Out
- Best Sound Design – Brian Freeland, Bug
- Best Year By a Company
- Best Solo Performance – Martin Moran, The Tricky Part
- Best Ensemble – The Long Christmas Ride Home
- Best Supporting Actress in a comedy – Ethelyn Friend, Bright Ideas
- Best Sound Design – Scott Anderson and Jesus Marquez, The Long Christmas Ride Home
- Best Year By a Company
- Best Comedy – The Mineola Twins
- Best Director – Chip Walton, The Mineola Twins
- Best Actress in a comedic role – Elizabeth Rainer, The Mineola Twins
- Best Supporting Actress – C. Kelly Leo, Proof
- Best Year By a Company
- Best Director – Chip Walton and Christy Montour Larson, Fuddy Meers
- Best Actor in a dramatic role – An Almost Holy Picture
- Best Actress in a comedic role – Ethelyn Friend, Fuddy Meers
- Best Scenic Design – Gan Guyette, Cloud Tectonic
- Best Year by an Actor – Gene Gillette, Coyote on a Fence
- Best Drama – Coyote on a Fence
- Best Actor in a dramatic role – Gene Gillette, Coyote on a Fence
2017 Best of Westword
- Best Theatre For Adults
- Reader's Choice-Best Theatre For Adults
- Best Theatre Parking
- Best Actor in a Drama – William Hahn, Opus
- Best Theatre Booster – Chip Walton, Artistic Director
- Best Actor in a Season – Tyee Tilghman, Denver Project, Eurydice
- Best Theater Production – Eurydice
- Best Theater Season
- Best Actor in a Black-Hearted Comedy – Gene Gillette, The Lieutenant of Inishmore
- Best Sympathetic Portrayal of a Pederast – Paul Borrillo, How I Learned to Drive
- Best News for Playwrights
- Best Direction of a Comedy – Jamie Horton, Fiction
- Best Actor in a Comedy – John Hutton, Fiction
- Best Actor in a Drama – Chris Reid, Bug
- Best Theater Season
- Best Season for a Director – Nagle Jackson, The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?
- Best Season for an Actress – Mare Trevathan, The Long Christmas Ride Home and The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?
- Best Season for an Actor – Jamie Horton, Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted
- Best Treatment of a Touch Subject – Yellowman
- Best Theater Season
- Best Season for an Actor – Brett Aune, Proof
- Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy – Ethelyn Friend, Bright Ideas
- Best Supporting Actress in a Drama – C.Kelly Leo, Proof
- Best Theater Promotion
- Best Magical Evening of Theater – Cloud Tectonics
- Best Theater Production – Coyote on a Fence
- Best Director – Chip Walton, Praying for Rain
- Best Great Leap Forward
- 2009 – Readers Choice – Top Theatre Company
- 2008 – Editors Choice – Top Theatre Company
- 2016 - Readers Choice - Top Theatre Company
- 2006 – Best Actress, Rhonda Lee Brown, Bug
- Professional Theatre of the Year Award 2006
- Best Production How I Learned to Drive 1999
- Best Director Chip Walton, How I Learned to Drive 1999
- Best Actor Paul Borillo, How I Learned to Drive 1999
- Best Lighting Design William Temple Davis, How I Learned to Drive 1999
- Best Lighting Design William Temple Davis, Praying for Rain 2000
- Best Production How I Learned to Drive 1999
- Best Actor Paul Borrillo, How I Learned to Drive 1999
- Best Director Chip Walton, How I Learned to Drive 1999
- Best Actress Deborah Persoff, Full Gallop 1999
- Best Scenic Design Matthew E. Morgan & Britta Erickson, Full Gallop 1999]
- an honor given to theatres with more than 50% of the season written by female or transgender playwrights – one of only 13 in the theatres in the country honored