When Lisa Orzolek first began working as the second scenic assistant at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in 1992, the Theatre Company was producing The Grapes of Wrath based on John Steinbeck’s novel about the Joads of Oklahoma, forced to migrate west by a convergence of Depression Era economics and environmentally wrought disaster. […]
Impact of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s New Play Development In its inaugural season, the DCPA’s Theatre Company offered a five-play season including its first-ever world premiere, Passing Game by Steve Tesich. By season five, the Company’s commitment to new play development was formalized with a festival of public readings lasting 15 seasons. In 2005/06, […]
POST- CIVIL WAR In 1865 Texas, chaos prevailed. The Civil War ended on April 9 of that year, but the news spread sporadically and in much of the state, enslaved Black people didn’t learn they were free until June 19, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger proclaimed it upon landing in Galveston. Although Black people were […]
To create the 1865 Texas of Terence Anthony’s Godspeed, the design team had several challenges to confront. The first was how to create the journey at the heart of the play when the theatre was in the round. “It was actually quite a big challenge in terms of the conceptual shift that everybody had to make, since the […]
Playwright Terence Anthony spoke with the DCPA when his play, Godspeed, was featured in the 2024 Colorado New Play Summit. Now, it comes to the stage in a fully produced world premiere running January 30-February 22, 2026 in the Kilstrom Theatre. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. View the original interview on […]
By Chris Coleman, Denver Center Theatre Company Artistic Director Whether it’s Hamilton or Hamlet, every play started as a new work. Someone was excited by a story and brought together a group of collaborators to carve out a path toward opening night. It’s always a risky venture. Ask anyone in our industry and you’ll find that […]
Enrich your experience at the Denver Center Theatre Company’s world premiere production, Cowboys and East Indians, by Nina McConigley and Matthew Spangler. Share these pre- and post-show discussion questions with your group and enjoy the show. Pre-Show Questions How does the place or culture we grew up in inform the way we see […]
Staging the world premiere of Cowboys and East Indians required not only American and Western wear, but a great number of saris and other traditional Indian garments. Most saris sold in Colorado are for formal occasions, such as weddings, so Costume Design Associate Meghan Anderson Doyle looked to India, ordering saris and other traditional garments […]
The main character and narrator, Lucky, is the daughter of immigrants from India who first moved to Toronto before settling in Casper, Wyoming, a town in which they found no connections to their culture of origin. Even today, Casper’s Indian community is just 0.073 percent of the city’s population. As of 2023, only 2 percent […]
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