Denver Center for the Performing Arts

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The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is an organization in Denver, Colorado which provides a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, an award-winning multi-media production facility, a national training school for actors, and the site of a voice clinic and research facility. It was founded in 1972 and dedicated to excellence in the arts.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is the biggest tenant of the Denver Performing Arts Complex which is a four-block, 12-acre site containing ten performance spaces with over 10,000 seats. It is owned and partially operated by the City and County of Denver’s Theatres and Arenas Division.

Both organizations were the vision of Donald R. Seawell. Finding himself at 14th and Curtis streets in downtown Denver one day and looking at the old Auditorium Theatre and the surrounding four blocks, Seawell had an idea for a first-class arts complex.

Ground was broken in December 1974. By 1978 Boettcher Concert Hall — the nation's first in-the-round concert hall — was completed, along with an eight-story, 1,700-space parking garage. By 1979 the Auditorium Theatre had been renovated (and was completely renovated again in 2005, creating the state-of-the-art Ellie Caulkins Opera House inside of the historic Auditorium), two cabaret spaces had been added and the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex opened with its four theatres: The Stage, Space, Source (now Jones) and Ricketson. The Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre was completed in 1991 and the Donald R. Seawell Grand Ballroom was added in 1998.

[edit] Entities of the Performing Arts Center

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is currently the largest tenant of the Denver Performing Arts Complex. The DCPA organizes, oversees, and presents work by the following entities:

The Denver Center Theatre Company (DCTC) was created in 1979 as the region's largest resident, professional theatre company. Under the leadership of Edward Payson Call from 1979 to 1983 and Donovan Marley from 1984 to 2005, the Theatre Company has created an impressive body of classic and contemporary drama and world premieres. In acknowledgment of this work, the DCTC received the 1998 Tony Award® for Outstanding Regional Theatre. The Company celebrated its 25th season in 2003 and its compilation of work —266 productions, 77 of which were world premieres.

Denver Center Attractions (DCA) was created by Robert Garner, presenter of national touring companies since 1961, and joined the Center in 1979. When Garner retired in 1992, his hand-picked successor was DCA's present Executive Director, Randy Weeks. Center Attractions presents Broadway touring shows and its impressive attendance record has made Denver a "pick" city. The revival of Hello, Dolly starring Carol Channing, Sunset Boulevard and Disney’s The Lion King have chosen Denver as the first stop on their national tours. DCA also produces cabaret including I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, which ran for more than four years making it Denver's longest-running musical.

The Denver Center’s Education Department was started in October of 1984 when the DCPA and the American National Theatre and Academy joined together to establish the National Theatre Conservatory, a three-year graduate acting program. The Denver Center Theatre Academy was added in 1991 as a community school for children and adults in a professional setting.

Denver Center Media (DCM), the full-service video and film production studio, was established in 1983 and has since received numerous international awards and Emmys for television production, direction and sound design. DCM productions have been broadcast nationally on PBS, cable and overseas networks. Productions include Top of the World, Colcannon, The Moscow String Quartet: At Play in America, Coors Field: Home at Last, Pamoja: A Coming Together and Memory of a Large Christmas.

National Center for Voice & Speech (NCVS) was founded in 1983 and headed, until his death in 1994, by the noted otolaryngologist Dr. Wilbur James Gould. It is the only such facility in the world that is part of a performing arts organization. Originally designed to study the voice and speech patterns of stage performers, in 2003 the voice center joined with the University of Colorado Hospital to establish a voice practice available to all persons with vocal disorders. This collaboration enables the NCVS to evolve from primarily a research facility to one that includes a medical clinic.