When embarking on the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 45^th season, the DCPA wanted to invite audiences to experience theatre up close. So Artistic Director Chris Coleman and Director of Literary Programs Leean Kim Torske spoke with the Marketing Team about how each production may feel. Here, in their own words, are what excites them most about the 2024/25 season.

HAMLET
Sep 13-Oct 6 • Wolf Theatre

CHRIS COLEMAN: It’s an action-adventure story.

Hamlet is the heir to the throne, which has just been usurped by his father’s brother. If he was a different human, then the play would be very focused on “I must get my throne back.” Instead, it’s about the personal betrayal of his mother and the loss of his father. He doesn’t even mention regaining the throne until Act 5. But the ghost of his father tells him that he was murdered and that “you have to avenge my murder.”

Of course, that’s what the hero does, but if a ghost came to me and said, “you have to avenge your father’s murder by killing your uncle and completely toppling the political structure of your country,” I don’t know if I would have the cojones to do it.

LEEAN KIM TORSKE: Audiences relate to Hamlet.

Even children understand the core story of Hamlet because it’s the basis of The Lion King and they absolutely love that show. Ancient texts, fairy tales, and myths – those are things that speak to the core of the human experience. The idea that you might struggle to rise to your life’s purpose is something that even younger audiences can relate to. But the way it’s told in Hamlet, it’s explored with more complexity and through extreme circumstances within the context of the play.

I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER
Sep 27-Nov 3 • Kilstrom Theatre

CHRIS COLEMAN: It’s robust.

It’s got a lot of spirit, but it’s also really layered. There’s a lot of emotional nuance to it, which you don’t always experience in a coming of age story. It doesn’t pull punches. Even though it’s a young adult story, it’s an adult version of that story.

We open on the funeral of Júlia’s sister who was “the perfect Mexican daughter” and the story is about her discovering maybe that that wasn’t the case and trying to figure out: how do I know who am I, who do I want to be?  How can I be my authentic self?

LEEAN KIM TORSKE: It’s an American story.

This is a raw and unflinching look at girlhood, at the pressures young women face and the ways in which they learn about themselves. It trusts them with their own story. It deals with the death of Júlia’s beloved sister, the experience of being compared to her, failing expectations, desperately wanting a dream and not knowing if the world is going to deliver you into circumstances where achieving that goal seems possible.

It deals with difficult things that are extremely real to young people today. We typically don’t allow stories about young adults to contain these topics, and I think this one does in a way that’s empowering.

The Denver Center Theatre Company presents
The Olney Theatre Company production of
AVAAZ
Oct 4-Nov 17 • Singleton Theatre

CHRIS COLEMAN: It’s hilarious, like stand-up comedy.

It’s just a hoot. It’s actually a very inspiring story of a Jewish Iranian woman immigrating from Tehran, getting to America and realizing she’s not with the right husband and ditching him. She’s got a little baby and works her way through college to get her masters. The story is told by that son, playing his own mother.

It’s festive. The conceit of it happening at the Persian New Year is really fun and celebratory. It’s just a very different story than I have ever heard or experienced. It’s a little bit bawdy, but the audience eats it up.

LEEAN KIM TORSKE: The entire thing feels like a party.

It’s a play that deals with topics that are really serious, but the whole thing feels like a party. You are at a celebration of the Iranian New Year and everything on the table is symbolic. The hostess, Roya, takes you through each item and connects them to her life experiences and moments of struggle.

There’s something deeply theatrical about [the playwright] playing his mother. It is a love letter to his mom in a lot of ways, and a recognition of her life and her journey. It’s a beautiful celebration. It’s vulnerable, and that’s how the whole play feels to me.  

THE RESERVOIR
Jan 17-Mar 9 • Singleton Theatre

CHRIS COLEMAN: It’s really layered and surprising.

I like the intergenerational aspect of this story. I don’t know that I’ve seen another play where a very a young person who’s lost finds his way through his elderly grandparents. The tactics he deploys to try to engage his grandparents are hilarious like a visit to Jazzercise, which are so theatrical and delicious.

The grandparents all subvert our expectations of what a grandparent is supposed to sound like and the wisdom they’re supposed to offer. It just has a surprising emotional sophistication for me, especially for a play from somebody so early in his career.

LEEAN KIM TORSKE: It’s this beautiful juxtaposition of a drama with a laugh-out-loud comedy.

Chris is right about the story. This play explores topics that are familiar, but it still surprises you. You expect that a story about Alzheimer’s, a story about alcoholism, a story with a young gay central figure in a blended family of Christian and Jewish faiths in a multi-generational family drama would be super dark and serious, but there’s so much heart and humor. There are so many themes and entry points into the story, but they all come together so beautifully.

Part of the beauty of the play is that we aren’t allowed to wallow in the journey of this person’s recovery. Instead, it’s humorous and tragic and tender to watch him discover himself in a poetic, ridiculous, hilarious, theatrical way.

THE SUFFRAGETTE’S MURDER
Feb 7-Mar 9 • Kilstrom Theatre

CHRIS COLEMAN: The playwright has a real ear for rhythm and physical comedy.

I like plays by contemporary writers that set things in a different period. It feels like a surprise to me. The physical comedy is rare in a brand-new play. The Suffragette’s Murder starts as an out-and-out comedy that feels super fun and then engages the conversation around women’s rights later in the play.

I feel like it’s super fresh and also an interesting conversation.

LEEAN KIM TORSKE: Farce has the potential to touch on serious subjects and get away with it.

We love farce because it takes stock characters we’re familiar with and a degree of realism in a setting or situation, and then dials up the funny with sudden twists and turns. The characters have to leap into circumstances become more and more ridiculous, and suddenly it’s a knockdown, drag-out, no-holds barred comedy. We love the mess they get into and watching them try to fix everything. This play has everything we love about the genre, but by setting it in an unusual boarding house, with a particular set of characters, during the Suffrage Movement, it also opens the doors to ideas about women’s rights – all while making us laugh.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
Apr 11-May 18 • Wolf Theatre

CHRIS COLEMAN: A lot campy and super fun.

What’s interesting is that it’s a lot campy and super fun, but at its core, Little Shop of Horrors is  about how much you’re willing charge for your soul! What lifts this piece is the score. You listen to the score and it’s just like — holy cow — it’s great song after great song. Motown doo-wop, you know, late 50s, early 60s.

And then you’ve got this crazy plant from outer space that’s bloodthirsty and wants to eat the world. And Seymour, a somewhat innocent kid trying to find love and succumbing to the seduction of keeping this plant alive.

LEEAN KIM TORSKE: Everybody loves an underdog who becomes the hero.

It’s why we like comic books.  They were written by these nerdy dudes who wrote the superheroes that they wanted to be. And we all have that in us, right? They were Peter Parkers. They were Clark Kents.  That’s who they were. Seymour’s like that. He’s meek. He gets bossed around. He is not handsome. Sexy dentist man he is not.

Yet, he has to save the world from a giant flesh-eating plant — that’s one thing to see on screen and another growing on stage — and also save the girl from her bad boyfriend. And he somehow does it all with great Motown-inspired doo-wop and the campiness of sci-fi B films. So it’s fantastic.

THE HOT WING KING
Apr 25-May 25 • Kilstrom Theatre

CHRIS COLEMAN: What is a family — the people who gave birth to you or the people who show up for you?

I’m all about the cooking and the food, the competition, the ambition to try to win the contest and the lengths to which they push the creativity to win.

Ultimately it becomes a play about what is a family. I think some preconceptions are kind of exploded through the course of the play. I think if my journey reading it is anything like the journey our audiences will have watching it, they may be surprised by where their own allegiance lands.

LEEAN KIM TORSKE: It celebrates Black gay culture.

It asks: what is Black masculinity? It explores how we define family. It illustrates the strength and beauty of relationships and of the family you choose.

And the characters are just fun and funny. The banter is so great and cheeky. It may be a little scandalous for some people at first, but the story will suck them in.

To learn more about the 2024/25 Denver Center Theatre Company season, visit denvercenter.org.