New Year, New Resolution: Support Local Theatre

Each new year brings a wave of new intentions and resolutions. However, many of them start with enthusiasm but often lose momentum. Instead of choosing a resolution to establish or eliminate bad habits, what if your New Year’s resolution for 2025 was rewarding…say to support more local theatre?

While the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is known for bringing Broadway’s best shows to Denver, creating world premiere plays, and offering immersive experiences that put you directly in the story, there are a ton of other theatre companies across the Denver metro area that abound with creativity.

Give 5 Productions (G5P) crafts powerful performing arts experiences that inspire reflection, foster change, and build connection. Led by Artistic Director and Founder Julia Tobey, the company is “laser-focused” on elevating theater and performing arts across Colorado.

Kicking off 2025, G5P is partnering with Parker Arts to present a fresh take on the timeless classic Mary Poppins. “With acclaimed actor and director Shannan Steele at the helm, our version of Disney’s hit Broadway musical is sure to surprise and delight theatregoers of all ages,” Tobey shared.

Mary Poppins
Jan 17 – Feb 9 • Parker Arts PACE Center
Tickets
One of the most popular Disney movies of all time is capturing hearts in a whole new way: as a practically perfect musical! Based on the books by P.L. Travers and the classic Walt Disney film, Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins delighted Broadway audiences for over 2,500 performances and received nominations for nine Olivier and seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.


Phamaly Theatre Company recently announced its 2025 season, featuring four shows performed at various venues across Denver. This season marks the company’s 36th year and is themed “Find Your Light.” It will kick off this spring with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (March 20, currently on sale) at Northglenn Arts, followed by a unique adaptation of Shakespeare’s Pericles in partnership with Flute Theatre Company from London, England. This summer, the company will return to the DCPA with a production of Pippin, and the season will conclude in the fall at the Aurora People’s Building with Dance Nation.

When talking with Artistic Director Ben Raanan about how these shows tie into the theme, he said, “As disabled folks, we are constantly pushed into the darkness and situations where we are forgotten. This season, we want to highlight every single person. This season’s stories deal with folks finding their light, their space in this world, and their community.”

Learn more about Phamaly’s 36th season and how to get tickets here.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Mar 20, 2025 • Northglenn Arts
Tickets
A motley crew of six adolescents takes the stage, but only one will earn the champion title in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee! This delightfully witty and heartfelt musical has captivated audiences since its Tony Award-winning premiere in 2005. As the six preteens compete for the title, they tackle tricky words and even trickier circumstances while sharing their often comical and uniquely touching personal stories.


Shifted Lens Theatre Company reimagines plays and musicals as chances for connection. As a relatively new company, Managing Artistic Director Lexie Lazear shared that their primary focus is on producing the work of local artists and lesser-known works that the community wants to support.

“At Shifted, we want to build a community around the idea that new work is exciting and special, and community theatre is essential,” Lexie explained. Shifted will produce three shows and one festival this season, beginning with Kid Detective later this month followed by Head Over Heels opening in May.

Kid Detective
Jan 11 – 26 • Roaming Gnome in Aurora
Tickets
Penny Pepper, a Kid Detective Extraordinaire, has solved mysteries from missing lunch money to finding lost pets. But when a serial killer targets all the other detectives in town, she is promoted to the police force. Can she maintain her junior-sized justice, or will the darkness of her new reality overwhelm her? At ten and a half, life is all downhill from here!

Head Over Heels
May 24 – June 8 • The Arts Hub in Lafayette
Tickets
A hilarious, exuberant celebration of love, Head Over Heels follows the escapades of a royal family on an outrageous journey to save their beloved kingdom from extinction — only to discover the key to their realm’s survival lies within each of their own hearts. Featuring the beloved music of The Gos-Gos!


Springboard Productions is proud to present its debut, Humble Boy, marking an exciting start for the new Lakewood theatre company. Inspired by Hamlet, this play by Charlotte Jones, explores family dynamics, loss, and personal identity.

Humble Boy is a great play to have as our inaugural production for Springboard Productions as it is, in essence, rooted in classical theater,” shared Artistic Director Joaquin Aviña. “It’s narrative, structure, and staging are all reminiscent of beloved and respected plays and authors.”

Humble Boy
Feb 13 – 22, 2025 • The Three Leaches Theater, 1560 Teller St., Lakewood
Tickets
All is not well in the Humble Hive. Felix Humble is a Cambridge astro-physicist in search of a unified field theory. Following the sudden death of his father, Felix returns to his middle England home and his difficult and demanding mother, where he soon realizes that his search for unity must include his own chaotic home life.


Theatreworks is a professional theatre company located at the Ent Center for the Arts on the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs campus. As the company prepares for its 50th season, to be revealed at the Season Sharing Party on April 14, 2025, Theatreworks is closing out its 2024/25 season with a vibrant collection of historically themed shows.

“This season celebrates history writ large, examining stories from the past that shed light on today, and Theatreworks’ history in the season before our 50th birthday, picking up on audience and artist excitements from previous seasons,” Caitlin Lowans, former Artistic Director, shared.

Heart Sellers
Jan 30 – Feb 16, 2025 •  Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N Nevada Ave, Colorado Springs
Tickets
This show builds on the success of Theatreworks’ 2023 production of Aubergine by Julia Cho. Beyond giving Colorado Springs’ Korean and Filipino communities the chance to see themselves reflected on stage, this story of two women forming a friendship across differences offers a powerful exploration of human connection.

Turn of the Screw
Mar 13 – Apr 6, 2025 •  Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N Nevada Ave, Colorado Springs
Tickets
In the intimate Osborne Studio Theater in the Ent Center for the Arts, this two-person ghost story, debated for over a century, will feature Annie Barbour (Measure for Measure, Taming of the Shrew) paired with the outstanding Jacob Dresch (DCPA’s Hamlet, Colorado Shakespeare Festival) up close.

Silent Sky
May 1 – 25, 2025 •  Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N Nevada Ave, Colorado Springs
Tickets
Audiences loved The Half-Life of Marie Curie when Theatreworks performed Lauren Gunderson’s play in 2023. Now, the company reunites stars Prentiss Benjamin and Leslie O’Carroll, alongside three other talented actors, to tell the story of Henrietta Leavitt and her colleagues at Harvard Observatory at the turn of the 20th century.

Flyin’ West
Jul 10 – 27, 2025 •  Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N Nevada Ave, Colorado Springs
Tickets
Pearl Cleage’s play follows three sisters in the real-life historical town of Nicodemus, Kansas, at the end of the 19th century. This show explores the lesser-known parts of American history and celebrates our connection to the American West! Cleage’s work also draws inspiration from the theater styles of her setting’s period — in this case, melodrama — a form that Pikes Peak audiences adore.

Learn more about Theatreworks and its upcoming season, and purchase tickets here.


Two Cent Lion is a Henry-winning theatre and film production company founded by three University of Denver alumni. Since June 2022, the company has showcased queer narratives by LGBTQ+ artists at events such as the Denver Fringe Festival. For its fourth season, the company returns to Aurora with three premieres themed around “Perseverance.”

According to Artistic Director Izzy Chern and Executive Director Kevin Douglas, “As we continue to create space for queer joy, this season brings an additional lens to showcase the strength and perseverance of our community.”

The Tragedy of Medusa
Feb 8 – 22, 2025 • The People’s Building, 9995 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora
Tickets
The Tragedy of Medusa uses Greek mythology to navigate the often-merciless reality of misogyny and violence queer women face. This thought-provoking regional premiere gives new insight into the classic story of Medusa, illustrating this long-misunderstood tragic hero’s love, heartbreak, pain, and power.

Hands Like Yours
May 3 – 11, 2025 • The People’s Building, 9995 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora
Tickets
Hands Like Yours is a nuanced exploration of queer discovery. Using real-life interviews with women who came out later in life, audiences will get an in-depth look at the harsh reality that often comes with truly loving yourself and living authentically. While self-discovery has brought our subjects great peace, these women recount the many hurdles that have upended their previously inauthentic lives and relationships.

The Legend of Anne Bonny
Aug 23 – Sep 6, 2025 • The People’s Building, 9995 E. Colfax Ave., Aurora
Tickets
The Legend of Anne Bonny is a queer pirate musical that interrogates the price of love, the end
of an age, and the twisted quest of a woman who grows from history to myth. Co-produced with Shifted Lens Theatre Company, this new musical is a tribute to dark oceanic folklore and queer women’s history.

Learn more about Two Cent Lion and get tickets here.

From reimagined classics to brand-new productions, these six theatre companies are producing shows that capture Denver’s rich diversity of storytelling. This year, make it your resolution to take a chance — because the best stories start when you do.