The presentation of The Reservoir by the Denver Center Theatre Company marks a full-circle return for a Colorado playwright who grew up at this theatre. Jake Brasch is coming home in multiple ways for the world premiere of The Reservoir, his deeply personal play about addiction, Alzheimer’s, and inter-generational connections, soon to be in production nationally.

This play is loosely based on his experience the year he moved home from New York to Denver during a time of need, and the support he got from surprising allies, notably his four distinctive grandparents.

After winning over audiences in a staged reading at the 2023 Colorado New Play Summit, The Reservoir was picked to be part of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2024/25 mainstage season.

In a remarkable first, the play will be launched in partnership with L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, tremendously expanding its potential exposure in successive stagings.

“Everybody has been unbelievably supportive and programmed this play for the right reasons,” Brasch said. With three institutions involved, “there were a lot of logistical hurdles production-wise, but for me it’s just been amazing.

“It’s hugely cool and kind of unprecedented and I feel so grateful.”

The play’s overlay of humor makes the tough subject matter easier to absorb. It’s a painfully relevant semi-autobiographical work that ends up being a love letter to family.

“Yes, it’s revealing, but about people finding joy in spite of hardship. That’s my family currency, humor is everything. If we’re laughing, we’re good.”

The tension between the difficult emotional moments and the laugh-out-loud humor keeps the tone crisp.

“As a play about difficult stuff, it fights really hard to remain a comedy,” he said. Ultimately, he figures, if people leave with questions, the play has done its job.

Denver audiences will appreciate the many local references in the show – from the Cherry Creek Reservoir to Colfax Ave. to the unnamed Tattered Cover bookstore. The landmarks pack extra meaning here, but that shouldn’t lessen the impact for viewers elsewhere. “The specific is universal,” Brasch said. “I can’t tell you how many people come up to me after hearing this play and say it reminds them of their family whose background is completely different.”

Brasch has been working on The Reservoir since 2020. The title refers both to the physical reservoir, where Josh, the protagonist, wakes up after a drunken blackout and to the scientific idea of “cognitive reserve,” which Brasch calls “the umbrella over the play.” All the tricks seniors are told to do – crossword puzzles, exercise, taking a different route home – to build brain power to stave off senility, those things do work for a while, he said.

“Oh, my grandma was so methodical about her calendar, curiosity, exercise…looking back, when she did slip, it was a shockingly quick slip. Six to eight months.”

As always, the theatre provides a place to grapple with big questions.

“Since I was an infant, my whole world was theatre,” Brasch said. He performed in the Denver Center’s A Christmas Carol at age 11, is a graduate of Denver School of the Arts, and a veteran of Curious Theatre’s acclaimed New Voices youth playwriting program.

In his online biography, Brasch identifies as “a queer, sober, Jewish clown from Colorado and a recent graduate from the playwriting program at The Juilliard School.” While he spent years working as a kids’ birthday party clown, he’s relieved to be retired from that avocation. (He’s never letting go of the great picture that advertised his services.)

He plans to stay active in theatre even as he teases the idea of venturing into TV or film.

“I think this [play] could be a great film; it would be very different.”

Unlike some playwrights who struggle with the shared creative energy required of a Hollywood writers’ room, Brasch claims he finds the idea of working collaboratively appealing. “Not to have to be the person with the answers,” he said.

Looking forward, this will be an exciting year as his play rolls out around the country. But Brasch has learned the hard way to embrace uncertainty as an essential element of living.

“Something recovery has taught me: whatever I think is going to happen, I’m usually wrong. That can be crushing. But ultimately what The Reservoir is about is that you should not be trying to figure everything out as you’re moving through it. You’re inevitably going to be wrong.”

It’s about going with the flow or stepping aside to understand what’s possible.

“When I was hitting the same wall over and over again, it was hard to imagine I’d ever break through it,” he said. “Turns out, I wasn’t supposed to break through; I was supposed to turn right.”

DETAILS
The Reservoir
Jan 17 – Mar 9 • Singleton Theatre
Tickets