Everyone dreams of an angel, especially arts groups, especially during a pandemic — a generous patron to ease the financial hardships of the coronavirus crisis. So far, the best angel stories come from the Colorado Symphony and Colorado Ballet. An anonymous donor gave the symphony a $2 million gift this month that will keep its […]
Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Posted inArts, Business, Coloradans, COVID, Culture, Music, News
Coronavirus killed 59,179 arts jobs in Colorado and crippled key economic and cultural engines. Can they be revived?
While it may not feel as urgent as an eviction notice or the fear of food scarcity, the devastation of the arts and culture scene due to the coronavirus pandemic portends long-term ripple effects. The arts in Colorado are a powerful economic driver as well as a defining aspect of our community and fuel for […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Silverman: Hamilton offers us the inspiration we need during the coronavirus
We’ve “seen the lights go out on Broadway” until at least 2021. Live theater is gone. Talk about your tragedies. I love a good play, especially a musical. Hamilton was scheduled to return to Denver’s Buell Theatre this summer. It would have sold out again. Alexander Hamilton epitomized the American dream. Our first Treasury Secretary, a […]
Posted inArts, Business, COVID, Culture, News
Colorado theater companies are clinging to life and worry coronavirus will mean shows cannot go on
Live from her living room on Saturday night, Denver actor-writer-composer Laura Jo Trexler will perform her original one-woman musical, “Play On! A Musical Romp with Shakespeare’s Women,” streaming in real time through the Aurora Fox’s website and Facebook page. “We’re trying to keep our art form alive and bring live theatre to the masses by […]
Posted inArts, Business, Coloradans, COVID, Culture
Colorado nonprofit coffers run dry during surge of demand sparked by coronavirus shutdown
Operators fielded seven times more calls than normal to a Colorado 2-1-1 hotline seeking food, rent, utility and child care assistance in the days after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ordered nonessential businesses to close and residents to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. With 127,393 Coloradans filing initial unemployment claims over a three-week period […]
Posted inArts, Business, Coloradans, Culture, Technology
The people’s projector: Denver’s D&F Tower converted to artists’ canvas by “Night Lights” installation
“Night Lights Denver,” a vibrant new feature of downtown’s night-life, is alternately playful, beautiful, weird and wonderful. It is undeniably eye-catching. And it’s free. The public art taking over one side of the D&F Tower, an experimental effort of the Denver Theatre District, is funded by outdoor advertising elsewhere in the 16-block district. It’s a […]
Posted inArts, Culture, News, Technology
David Byrne is building a neuroscience-powered hall of mirrors somewhere in Denver
Talking Heads’ frontman David Byrne has been interested in the intersection of art and science for years. When he’s not debuting a Broadway show, launching an online magazine or creating a show about Joan of Arc or Imelda Marcos, he’s exploring how neuroscience plays with our perceptions. “Theater of the Mind,” to have its world […]
Posted inArts, Culture
Colorado theater companies use drama and satire to confront racism without flinching
America is in the midst of a cultural reckoning. The unhealed scar that is the country’s history of slavery is taking the stage, literally, in drama and satire and challenging audiences in new ways. On Broadway, the provocative new “Slave Play” is expected to be the buzzed-about show of the Fall. Opening in October, the […]
Posted inArts, Culture
The very old (and very new) works drawing more young viewers to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
With persistent talk in theater circles about the need to attract younger, more diverse audiences, it is perhaps ironic that the first big play of Chris Coleman’s tenure as Denver Center Theatre Company artistic director is an adaptation of an 800-page 19th century Russian novel. How many millennials were turned off by the mere title: […]
Posted inArts, Culture
There’s a lot of buzz around “immersive” experiences in art, theater and entertainment. But is it art?
From escape rooms to Meow Wolf’s debut in Denver next year, from Natura Obscura, running through April at MOA in Englewood, to an upcoming food/performance mashup by The Catamounts and Savory Cuisines, and including two projects on tap for DCPA’s Off-Center, “immersive” is everywhere — including the commode. “Immersive is a buzzword that has now […]