The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is an organization in Denver, Colorado which provides a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, acting classes for the community and rental facilities. It was founded in 1972. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is the largest tenant of the Denver Performing Arts Complex which is a four-block, site containing ten performance spaces with over 10,000 seats. It is owned and partially operated by Arts and Venues Denver. Both organizations were the vision of Donald Seawell. Finding himself at 14th and Curtis streets in downtown Denver one day and looking at the old Auditorium Theatre and the surrounding four blocks, Seawell had an idea for a first-class arts complex. Seawells original vision was much broader and included other entities which no longer are part of the Center. Ground was broken in December 1974. By 1978 Boettcher Concert Hall — the nation's first in-the-round concert hall — was completed, along with an eight-story, 1,700-space parking garage. By 1979 the Auditorium Theatre had been renovated, two cabaret spaces had been added and the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex opened with its four theatres: The Stage, Space, Source and Ricketson. The Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre was completed in 1991, the Seawell Grand Ballroom was added in 1998 and The Conservatory Theatre opened in 2002.
Entities of the DCPA
is currently the largest tenant of the Denver Performing Arts Complex. The Denver Center organizes, oversees, and presents work by the following entities:
The Denver Center Theatre Company was created in 1979 as the region's largest resident, professional theatre company. Under the leadership of Edward Payson Call, Donovan Marley and Kent Thompson, the Theatre Company has created an impressive body of classic and contemporary drama and world premieres. In acknowledgment of this work, the DCTC received the 1998 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Stage director Israel Hicks took on the challenge posed by Donovan Marley and directed August Wilson's entire 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle over a two-decade period starting in 1990.
Denver Center Attractions was created by Robert Garner, presenter of national touring companies since 1961, and joined the Center in 1979. When Garner retired in 1992, his hand-picked successor was Randy Weeks. Center Attractions presents Broadway touring shows and its impressive attendance record has made Denver a "pick" city. Disney selected Denver Center Attractions to host its pre-Broadway debut of The Little Mermaid, plus Disney's The Lion King, August: Osage County, Sunset Boulevard and the revival of Hello, Dolly starring Carol Channing among many others have chosen Denver to launch their national tours. DCA also produces cabaret including the original Denver-based comedy, , and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, which ran for more than four years making it Denver's longest-running musical.
The Denver Center’s Education Department was started in October 1984 when the DCPA and the joined together to establish the , a three-year graduate acting program. The NTC will be phased out by 2012. The Denver Center Theatre Academy was added in 1991 as a community school for children and adults in a professional setting.
is a facility with a maximum capacity of 1,029 people. This pentagonal shaped room with panoramic views of the mountains can accommodate a variety of functions and features its own catering kitchen, freight elevator, tables, chairs, portable dance floor, movable platform staging and a state-of-the-art lighting, audio, video and projection systems. is the exclusive caterer for the Ballroom.
Previous Entities which have since left the DCPA include Denver Center Media and Wilber James Gould Voice Center. Denver Center Media was a full-service video and film production studio, was established in 1983 and received numerous international awards and Emmys for television production, direction and sound design. DCM productions have been broadcast nationally on PBS, cable and overseas networks. Productions include Top of the World, Colcannon, The Moscow String Quartet: At Play in America, Coors Field: Home at Last, Pamoja: A Coming Together and Memory of a Large Christmas. The Gould Voice Center was founded in 1983 and headed, until his death in 1994, by the noted otolaryngologist Dr. Wilbur James Gould and afterwards by world known speech scientist Ingo R. Titze. It was the only such facility in the world that is part of a performing arts organization. While these entities, along with the other entities, were at the DCPA, the entire conglomerate was unique in the world.
