DCPA’s inaugural resident artists ready to unveil projects about Colorado’s little-known Jewish history and an immersive crop-circle mystery

Following its successful Bite-Size project, which presented five short plays by local playwrights in one evening in a bookstore in The Highlands, the DCPA’s Off-Center has come up with another innovative way to engage local artists. Powered By Off-Center is a residency program that offers the local artistic community support from the DCPA to follow their dreams. Colorado artists of all disciplines were invited to propose the idea for some kind of live theatrical performance they wanted to develop. The only caveats were that the project must contain some type of narrative thread (though not necessarily linear or verbal) and must culminate in at least two live showings with an audience. The residency provided artists with pre-production support, access to DCPA equipment and stock scenery, props and costumes, one week of fully staffed tech time and up to $5,000 to make it all happen.

“We’re giving our local artistic community a new place to play and a platform to experiment, engage and excite us all,” said Charlie Miller, curator of Off-Center. “I was so inspired by all of the creative ideas we received and the quality of the proposals made it difficult to select just two.”

The two winning proposals were a project by Jessica Kahkoska that explores Crypto-Judaism in Southern Colorado, and an immersive theatre piece by Jennifer Faletto that will place the audience in the middle of an emergency meeting of a neighborhood association.

Kahkoska’s Untitled Crypto-Judaism Project, to be presented twice on Sunday, March 31, will explore ancient secrets of Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Her piece examines the connections between that gorgeous scenic area with clandestine Sephardic Jewish heritage and the 15^th-century exodus from the Spanish Inquisition. This new play with music takes a deep dive into the complicated legacy of Crypto-Judaism in the Southwest, illuminating, in the playwright’s words, “an unlikely alpine tale of secrecy, faith, and fear and exploring how culture is passed on when written records are too dangerous to keep.”

Kahkoska spent some of her awarded money on a research trip to the San Luis Valley where she spent three days exploring churches and cemeteries, visiting museums and archives, and strengthening her contacts in the community. “I’m looking for a sustainable, intentional foundation where we have started conversations with the right people early in the process, and that’s where the backing of the Denver Center is so valuable,” she said.

Charlie Miller on Between Us: An up-close and personal theatrical encounter

One invaluable connection she made was meeting the artist Anita Rodriguez, who several years back had an exhibition of her work entitled “Crypto-Judaism in New Mexico” that blended Catholic themes with Jewish iconography. Kahkoska found out that her family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s and still speak pristine Spanish from that period. She brought Rodriguez aboard as a paid collaborator in the project.

‘This immersive project was not bound to those kind of rules.’ – Jennifer Faletto

Conspiracy Theory G by local playwright Jennifer Faletto immerses the audience in an emergency meeting of the Sweet Harmony Neighborhood Association. Taking on the role of residents, 30 audience members will be asked to discuss the meaning of a crop circle that has materialized in a local park. As theories on how or why the crop circle appeared emerge, factions within the community begin to form. The audience becomes movers of the narrative and help to decide both the course of the meeting and even the fate of the neighborhood association. With each new outcome, the narrative proceeds to follow a “written, structured trajectory” according to the piece’s creator.

“I’m scripting it very tightly,” said Faletto. “We’ll have as much room to experiment as we need, but we won’t rely on that because that feels unsafe to me, both as a creator and an audience member. So it will be tightly scripted with moments where anything can happen. But those moments will lead into another scripted section that we have a plan for.”

Experimenting with this new form of playwriting meant Faletto had to abandon her traditional script-writing software program. “This immersive project was not bound to those kind of rules,” she said. “From the outset, I had to do it on a free-form page where anything could happen.” For example, her script makes extensive use of images – something she’d never included in a written version of any of her plays. In fact, the evening’s proceedings are driven by a power-point presentation that gets derailed by mysterious forces.

“We are thrilled to support these two projects, and to help Jessica and Jennifer experiment with new theatrical ideas, processes and forms to tell their exciting and unique stories,” Miller said.

To continue fostering the work of local playwrights, the Theatre Company also has established The Playwrights’ Group, for which Faletto was invited to be one of four inaugural participants. Each of them will receive a $2,500 stipend, twice-a-month review and discussion of a play in development and two table readings.

Douglas Langworthy is the DCPA Theatre Company’s Director of New Play Development.

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter

Untitled Crypto-Judaism Project

• Written by: Jessica Kahkoska
• When: Sunday, March 31
• Times: 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
• Where: Denver Center’s Newman Center for Theatre Education, 1101 13th St.
• At a glance: Colorado’s San Luis Valley is world-renowned for its beauty, but it holds the secrets of a clandestine Sephardic Jewish heritage and the 15^th-century Exodus from the Spanish Inquisition that brought it here. This new play with music sings the complicated legacy of Crypto-Judaism in the Southwest, illuminating an unlikely alpine tale of secrecy, faith, fear, and how we pass on culture when written records are too dangerous to keep. Driven by a community-engaged, Colorado-based research process, this piece will bring an untold history to light.

Conspiracy Theory G

• Written by: Jennifer Faletto
• When: April 12-14
• Times: 7 p.m. April 12-13 and 2 p.m. April 14
• Where: Denver Center’s Newman Center for Theatre Education, 1101 13th St.
• At a glance: You are invited to an emergency meeting of the Sweet Harmony Neighborhood Association. As a resident here, you will be asked to discuss the meaning of the “crop circle” that materialized in the local park this morning. As theories on how or why the crop circle came to Sweet Harmony Park emerge, factions within the community will form. Before the end of the night, someone will instigate a coup. Will you be a part of saving the neighborhood association or overthrowing it?
• Note: With just 30 tickets per showing, this immersive workshop experience is extremely limited.
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