Thoughts on how theatres can up their game for patrons, plus DCPA Theatre Company’s Chris Coleman on the upcoming Colorado New Play Summit

In this episode of the OnStage Colorado Podcast, hosts Alex Miller and Toni Tresca draw on many years of attending live theatre to serve up a batch of suggestions for improving the patron experience. From informing theatregoers fully about the show itself to being mindful of what concessions are being served, we dig into lots of ideas on how to make the full journey a good one.

Chris Coleman head shot

Chris Coleman

Later in the podcast, Alex catches up with DCPA Theatre Company Artistic Director Chris Coleman for a preview of this year’s Colorado New Play Summit. The annual event showcases new works from four playwrights, and Chris goes over the scripts, the authors and the event itself.

And as always we go over our Top 10 Colorado Headliners — upcoming shows that caught our eye. In no particular order, here’s this week’s list:

Listen to the podcast

Transcript

Alex Miller (00:01.199)

Hey, hey, hello and welcome to the OnStage Colorado podcast. I’m Alex Miller.

Toni Tresca (00:05.974)

And I’m Tony Tresca.

Alex Miller (00:07.485)

Yeah, we’re recording on President’s Day, February 17th. So you’re hearing it on the 18th or after. So lots of theater on stage in Colorado right now. And in this episode, we’re going to focus on the theater experience and ideas for how it could be improved. Since, know, theaters are always trying to figure out how they can, you know, get more people into their shows and gain more revenue and things like that. We’ve come in at it as, you know, a couple people see a lot of theater.

Toni Tresca (00:33.41)

Yeah, so we’re gonna assume that you’ve already got the kick-ass show, but we’re gonna focus on just how you can make the overall experience better for patrons. I mean, you can improve it even 10 % or so. I mean, it can really make a difference.

Alex Miller (00:44.323)

Yeah. Yeah. So we’ll get to that shortly. And then later in the show, we’ll have an interview I did with Chris Coleman, the artistic director at the DCPA theater company.

Toni Tresca (00:55.82)

Yeah, I’m really looking forward to hearing that conversation. You guys are digging into the new play summit, if I understand correct. Can you talk a little bit more about your conversation?

Alex Miller (01:01.861)

Yeah, absolutely.

Alex Miller (01:06.353)

Yeah, so it was great to catch up with Chris. We focused on the upcoming Colorado New Play Summit, which this year is March 1st and 2nd at the Denver Center. So this is the annual event where four new plays are given readings, so they’re not done yet. And they get audience feedback and things like that. So we kind of just did a simple run down this year’s offerings. Who are the playwrights? What are the plays? What are the scripts? And Chris talked through them and why they…

What made them interesting to them is they were picking from probably hundreds, if not thousands, of scripts.

Toni Tresca (01:39.246)

Cool. Yeah, that’s cool to think about it from kind of the admin side of you’re reading all these different scripts. So how do you put together the final four that will ultimately participate in the public summit? That’s cool. I’m looking forward to hearing that. Did you guys dive in at all to the rest of the theater company season? Did you talk little shop of horrors at all, Alex?

Alex Miller (01:49.798)

Yeah.

Alex Miller (02:01.251)

No, you know, we didn’t. really focused on New Place Summit. but yeah, maybe maybe we’ll catch up with if not him and someone else to talk about more of upcoming shows.

Toni Tresca (02:13.058)

Yeah, so we are going to get into our main topic in just a second, but just wanted to quickly say thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Onstage Colorado podcast. We are the official podcast of OnstageColorado.com and the only podcast dedicated to covering live performance around the state weekly. So thank you for tuning in and supporting what we do here.

Alex Miller (02:36.785)

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, we will talk about what we saw. So I had the weekend off. I was out of commission for some non-serious health reasons. So I was, I did not, I wasn’t out on any shows. But Tony, you were out there. What’d catch?

Toni Tresca (02:52.622)

So I went over to DU to catch the college theater programs production of the Moors. So this is kind of a Gothic dark romance, I suppose is the best way to describe it. It’s a kind of a riffing on the Bronte sisters, their family relationship and the stories that they create, which has been a very popular thematic.

Alex Miller (03:13.851)

Yeah, those brates.

Toni Tresca (03:15.922)

Yeah, we’ve been seeing them a lot on Colorado stages recently, most recently earlier this year with the Jane Eyre by Grapefruit Lab, which we’ll talk about a little bit more in our newsbag section.

Alex Miller (03:23.687)

Yeah, and then.

Right, yeah, and also the gin and gothic show from, my god.

Toni Tresca (03:36.654)

last fall. Yeah, I don’t I’m blanking on the name as well, but the immersive piece that they did at the Ellie Cochkins that was all around the Brontes. Yeah, it’s really in the zeitgeist. And this is play that’s been written. was was written a little bit before this current Bronte moment, I suppose we’re having. But it was it’s directed by Ann Penner, is a Colorado actress as well as professor over at DU. And was very, very well done. It kind of

Alex Miller (03:43.836)

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (04:03.214)

It’s very unexpected and the story is quite surprising. It’s very violent, very weird and off-kilter. But the act, the performances from the student actors that were in the show were very, very well done. There’s a, there’s a, even the smaller performances in the subplot, there’s this weird romance between a dog and a bird that’s happening. So again, like it is very, very strange in kind of that fashion. You’ve seen it? Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Alex Miller (04:26.011)

Yeah, it’s a great play. love it. Yeah, Springs Ensemble Theater Company did it a while ago. It was a perfect play for them. But yeah, just real quick, was Band of Tufts we were talking about with the Brunt, the other, the June Gothic thing. So just to give them a shout out, that was a great show. can’t wait to see what they have next, but they usually have a few years between their shows because they’re so ambitious.

Toni Tresca (04:35.053)

Mm-hmm.

Toni Tresca (04:49.006)

True. But yeah, so then you’re very well aware of the strangeness of the show. The Arvada Center has done it a couple years ago. And it was actually interesting. Brian Malgrave, who is their resident scenic designer for the Arvada Center, he designed it when it was in that production. And then now he’s back over here at DU and he did the set design for this production as well. Two mores.

Alex Miller (05:09.006)

wow. What an honor for those kids to have Brian Mulgrave come and do their set.

Toni Tresca (05:14.86)

And it’s a fantastic set, I mean, as would be expected. The set is kind of a deconstructed building that’s literally coming apart at the seams and falling apart the further up it gets, which is just a literal perfect manifestation of the way that the show plays out.

Alex Miller (05:30.343)

Great. All right. Well, how about in the news? Anything going on that we should talk about?

Toni Tresca (05:38.636)

Yeah, a couple things. last week we discussed Two-cent Lion Theatre Company’s world premiere of The Tragedy of Medusa on the podcast and we shared our mixed review of the production and people had some feedback for us, Alex.

Alex Miller (05:52.935)

They did, yeah. It was one of the most commented reviews we’ve had, mostly telling us that we’re stupid men that don’t know what we’re talking about along those lines.

Toni Tresca (06:02.55)

Yeah, more or less, yeah, we received 15 comments on the post and then one on our Spotify feed as well from a variety of people who shared that we missed, and I quote, the mark on understanding complex trauma, misogyny, and the very real challenges faced by women and femme presenting people to be believed in our culture.

Alex Miller (06:20.957)

Yeah, and you know, it really, think they sort of, a lot of them missed the mark. And like, course we love getting comments, whether they’re positive or negative, and especially negative, just because they’re, it’s interesting to see how people, you know, disagree with us and that’s fine. But most of, I think most of what our criticisms were had to do with the structure of the play, not so much that, deeper messages. It just didn’t all add up in our view, but that’s a, you know, read our review.

Toni Tresca (06:48.322)

Yeah, I agree. I actually was very glad to see so many comments on it. It’s awesome to see that so many people are going out to attend theater productions and they’re feeling very strong, passionate feelings about it. And it’s cool to hear that people disagree. We’re not monoliths in our opinion. We are just two dudes who shared our opinion. And so it’s totally cool and it’s awesome actually to hear that other people had a different, more positive experience with the show, but.

Alex Miller (07:06.266)

Ha ha.

Toni Tresca (07:15.042)

Yeah, as you said, I think the bulk of our criticisms didn’t actually come down to the inclusion of the sexual assault or the rape element in the piece, but more of how it was kind of felt shoehorned into it in the final moments. And then rather than really unpacking those elements, kind of just had the character and massive spoiler alert, she commits assisted suicide and then just dies and the show ends. And so you’re just kind of left with like, okay, do we…

So that is this your, this is the solution? This is the good version of this? I’m not, I was really left underwhelmed by kind of how, how it was just kind of tacked on at the end. And I do, I guess the only regret I have with the review itself is that we had originally discussed that a little bit more substantially in the review, the kind of final third act of it. But we ended up cutting that because we didn’t want to spoil it for people who might be attending the show. But I kind of actually wish we had kept that part in there because

I think that the themes are really worth exploring. Women and femme presenting people are absolutely not always believed when they come forward about the violence that’s committed and perpetuated against them. But I just don’t think this was the story to do those themes justice, if I’m being totally honest. It just was a little bit underdeveloped.

Alex Miller (08:21.661)

Mm-hmm.

Alex Miller (08:29.211)

Yeah. So yeah, so if you want to read some of those comments and see whether you agree with them or not.

the review itself on our site. We also had some, I guess mostly fan mail.

Toni Tresca (08:42.144)

Yeah, we received a note from listener Peter Vansky. Please excuse me. Vanechek, I was like, I’m not confident in that pronunciation that I just blew through. My sincere apologies, Peter, because I do really appreciate you reaching out. He wanted to just let us know that he appreciated the podcast. He’s a longtime Denver Theater Company subscriber, so he sees a lot of different theater. And he said he particularly appreciates

Alex Miller (08:45.949)

think it’s Vanaček, I’m gonna guess.

Hahaha

Toni Tresca (09:06.926)

spotlighting the smaller venues in the Denver metro area. He says the calendars and reviews are super helpful and helps me check out smaller theater companies who I love to support. One small suggestion, he says, and I quote, not all of us are left leaning Democrats and moderates, independents, libertarians and Republicans are also people who enjoy the theater as much as you both do. Can’t we all just get along? Smiley face, keep up the good work, Peter.

Alex Miller (09:31.133)

Yeah, and like I when I replied to him I said, look, yeah, we don’t usually talk about politics on the show. But right now, the arts are under attack by politicians in the Trump administration and beyond. So we feel it’s our duty really for everybody to speak out. Whatever part of the world that you are that is near and dear to you is being attacked. Everybody needs to speak out about all of it.

Toni Tresca (09:56.664)

Yeah, and I replied something very similar. I really did appreciate Peter reaching out. is absolutely important for us to consider that people of a variety of political persuasions are listening to this podcast. so appreciate you letting us know that maybe some of our commentary didn’t articulate the roundness of the political moment. But I ultimately do agree very much with Alex and particularly in the conversations about larger funding cuts that are happening. I think it is absolutely critical that we

to talk about them honestly and openly. And we’re gonna try to do that with at least a little bias is absolutely possible on this podcast and keep it focused on the art, because that’s what the show is all about.

Alex Miller (10:36.443)

That’s right. And then you had a friend, John Moore, did a piece in the Denver Gazette that you wanted to touch on. What was it about?

Toni Tresca (10:45.496)

So was about this topic that we were just talking about. So my apologies, Peter, we are gonna talk a little bit more about politics, but I hope you’ll stay with us. I think that this is an important conversation about funding that really gets to the heart of this issue. John Moore over in the Gazette published another piece in his kind of ongoing series about the terrifying state of the arts in America. And it was entitled, The Arts, An Entitlement or an Engine. It was originally published on February 16th and…

Alex Miller (10:51.281)

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (11:13.294)

That was a pretty interesting read. Did you get a chance to check this piece out, Alex?

Alex Miller (11:17.019)

I did, yeah, and I thought it was nicely done. I thought he did a great job of picking out two theater company productions and assigning actual numbers and just kind of illustrating it that way. But he also talked about sort of the transactional nature of a lot of these opinions, especially from the right where he says, they tend to see art through the same intractable economic lens as a public good, perhaps, but one not.

One that should they choose not to partake in, they should not be made to help pay for it with their tax dollars, black, white, no colors, other colors in between. So the assumption that there is no greater good from the existence of art unless they directly participate in it, which would be like me complaining that about $2,000 of my annual property taxes go directly to public schools, even though I have no kid in their schools, but I happily pay those property taxes because I want our public schools to succeed and graduate capable, competent people into our workforce. And you know,

And the whole thing is, you know, that the typical play or a lot of things, they’re not going to survive by ticket sales. need more.

Toni Tresca (12:18.478)

Yeah, that’s kind of the crutch of Moore’s argument, is that Americans are facing an unprecedented question about what they’re willing and not willing to subsidize with their tax dollars. I think with that in mind, Moore explores the value of art relative to its cost. And the analysis focused on two shows, which I’ve actually seen both of them. It was Grapefruit Labs, Jane Eyre, and the Catamount’s Ghost Quartet, which were both very slickly produced shows, excellent pieces.

and they sold every available seat for every performance for both of those, runs of those shows, but they did not cover the total cost of mounting those productions.

Alex Miller (12:55.899)

Yeah, which is not shocking to hear as nonprofits. That’s just not how the model works. It takes a mix of ticket sales, grants from local, state, and federal sources, as well as individual donations to mount shows.

Toni Tresca (13:08.002)

Yeah, and the problem is not necessarily that donations aren’t there. Sure, some theater companies and arts organizations are seeing that their donors are drying up, but that’s not across the board. For comparison, over in the opera world, I was talking with the outgoing general and artistic director, Greg Carpenter, last week, and he shared with me that the production costs for staging full productions have increased by about 40%, while the annual donations are only increasing by about three to four percent.

And the math on that just doesn’t math without adding that additional infusion of grant support from federal, local, and state sources to subsidize the process of creating art.

Alex Miller (13:47.793)

Yeah. Yeah. And it really is important to raise the issue that nonprofits are struggling. And now it’s just getting worse with some of these terrible decisions. know, a civilized society supports the arts at full stop. so how do artists keep creating if those funds start going away? It’s a sad world without arts and culture where everyone is just watching reruns of Friends on their couch and bitching about the lack of local options. I even the old Soviet Union supported the arts. So where are we going in the U.S. where everything is just purely transactional?

Toni Tresca (14:18.946)

Yeah, I think there’s a lot of value in what Moore does by highlighting these two specific organizations models. And then he contrasted it pretty nicely, I think, with the Denver Center’s model that they subsidized their programming, yes, through these auxiliary revenue sources that we’ve mentioned already. But most specifically, they make up a lot of their shortfalls by bringing in touring Broadway productions that they kind of…

They literally subsidize every other department that the Denver Center does. Not a single other division is profitable, but they don’t need to be. That’s by design, that’s their model. And so I thought that was an interesting point of comparison, but I also kind of wish maybe the piece had gone a little bit deeper, talking a little bit about what’s gonna happen now, I specifically because those two organizations that he chose to highlight are not full-time producing organizations, they do…

couple shows a year and Grapefruit Lab is more of they produce shows whenever they have a show that they really want to stage slash they have the resources to go get that up. I think that the piece’s depth is a little bit limited. I would have been curious to hear how other organizations with full-time staff and year-round seasons are kind of thinking about this issue as well.

Alex Miller (15:28.413)

Yeah, yeah, like you mentioned, like the Firehouse Theater Company is a great example of a theater company that puts out great stuff, you know, has the benefit of a, I think a pretty low cost space there at the John Han, but, you know, how do they, how do they make it all work? And then there’s the, you know, the rural folks, there’s, you know, this, there’s Denver and Boulder companies that are in liberal environments. And that’s intriguing, but it’s also,

Toni Tresca (15:35.0)

Absolutely.

Alex Miller (15:53.925)

wondering whether companies outside the metro area are more of risk at losing funding for shows that, you know, are accused of God forbid having DEI elements, which most people had never even heard about. was kind of like black. was, what was the thing, the boogie man a couple of years ago was racial, what was it called again?

Toni Tresca (16:03.249)

my gosh.

Toni Tresca (16:13.423)

critical race theory or BLM. There’s yeah.

Alex Miller (16:15.111)

Critical race theory, yeah. That nobody had ever heard of, yeah. And all of a it was like the most important thing in the world. And now it’s DEI. It’s it’s unbelievable. It really reminds me of McCarthyism and the way they’re going after these things and sort of making them the root of all evil. So, you and you wonder about like, you know, a little town that’s kind of on the red side and they’ve got a theater and they want to do, you know, something with characters of drag or whatever it is that makes them upset.

or even talking about, you know, the history of racism or oppression of native peoples and things like that. It’s like, you know, where does the, I guess, managing the money get intruded upon by, you know, ideology and things like that?

Toni Tresca (17:04.792)

Yeah, and I think that these are really important conversations to have out in the open. And I think some specific solutions that are important to talk about as well as encouraging people, if this is an issue that really matters to you, you need to be reaching out to your local, state, and federal representatives to make sure that they keep grant funding amounts at a stable or even increase the amount that they’re able to offer folks.

That means getting on the phone with people. You may have an unpleasant conversation with them, but then at least you know that your voice is getting heard. They have to take that into consideration. And additionally, think organizations can also explore some other innovative revenue streams, like continuing to partner with corporate sponsors, crowdfunding, and continuing to invest in educational outreach programs that will generate some income to just kind of round out the whole full nonprofit model.

Alex Miller (17:59.035)

Right, yeah. Or even, you know, a lot of colleges and universities have great performing spaces that sit empty a good part of the year. That could be, you know, some opportunities there for partnerships where, you know, some of the theater professionals in the private sector can provide some, you know, or teaching, you know, in exchange for some of those, you know, whatever it is, the prop shop, the stage.

But you know, let’s not forget the role of the audiences. If people truly value the arts, they’ll show it by attending performances, donating when possible, and advocating for policies that support the arts. without active community involvement, the arts will continue to struggle. So yeah. So one final note, I would just say that OnStage Colorado was created to help fill the holes left by the reduction in arts coverage in newspapers. So I say this is our direct action and I encourage anyone

Toni Tresca (18:40.642)

Yeah, I think that’s true.

Alex Miller (18:53.693)

who’s also in the communications business or anything that’s like somewhat theater adjacent, like maybe you’re a construction, you have a construction company, you can help with sets or to help their local arts organizations however they can. If you’re a graphic designer, you’re marketing, advertising, ticket sales aren’t everything, but every empty seat is a missed opportunity and lost revenue. So any help to fill them is a big plus, which sort of leads onto our main topic of making the theater experience better.

Toni Tresca (19:22.538)

incredible segue alex

Alex Miller (19:23.549)

So, yeah, many of our listeners are theater folks, so this one’s for you. And we come to it both as media and communications people with lots of experience, as well as avid theater goers who see tons of shows. So we wanted to summarize all this and make it available. Let me just back up there. So we’ll summarize this and make it available for anyone who’d like to follow any of this sage advice. But for now, we’re just gonna talk through some of our thoughts.

So before the show, go ahead.

Toni Tresca (19:57.388)

And these are not going to be thoughts focused kind of on the marketing or community building aspects. We’re going to save our thoughts on those two elements for increasing audiences for a later podcast episode. These are specifically on the actual experience of being in a theater. What is it like as a theater goer when you walk into a venue to attend a show? What are those pre-show elements? What about that’s happening before curtain goes up during the show and as they’re leaving the theater?

Alex Miller (20:25.627)

Exactly. Yeah, and we’re going to talk about some of the pain points that we see. the first thing is like, the first thing people want to know about your show is what is it about? And that’s the main thing people are looking for. So the more completely you can answer the question beforehand, the more interested they might be in the show. Or conversely, if they’re really not interested, then you won’t have an unhappy person sitting there watching a show they can’t stand.

Toni Tresca (20:51.426)

And what do we mean by that? I think that it is important in a synopsis to indicate the kind of genre or the tone of the piece so that people can be made aware of if that’s something that they’re interested in. There are oftentimes genres that just certain people will not see for any reason. So if your show has a horror or a psychological thriller element to it, you should definitely make that clear so that people who are not interested in having that experience don’t come to your theater and then walk away being like,

I hate that, I’m never going back into that place, because they advertised Misery as a light, romantic, unconventional romantic comedy that explores people with big personalities. I guess that’s technically how you could describe Misery. Is it the most accurate and most helpful for an audience? I might say no.

Alex Miller (21:25.01)

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Alex Miller (21:30.492)

Right.

Alex Miller (21:34.556)

Uh-huh. Yeah, no, it’s really important. It’s amazing to me because I enter a lot of calendar items on our site for shows. And a lot of times, if it’s a show I’m not familiar with, like, I don’t even know if this is a comedy or a drama or a dramedy. I can usually tell if it’s a musical, but sometimes…

people just forget to include that information. It’s like, look, not everybody knows what every play is about, even though you think it’s like, you know, a part of the canon that everybody should know about. It’s like, well, you’ve got young people, you got people that maybe they’re new to theater, whatever, you got to tell them what it is.

Toni Tresca (22:07.832)

I’ll never forget a conversation that I was having with an editor and I said something about, you know, this is one of Sondheim’s work. And they’re like, who? And I was like, Steven Sondheim, the musical theater composer? And they’re like, I’m gonna just stop you right there. I don’t know who you’re talking about.

Alex Miller (22:17.469)

Ha ha ha!

Toni Tresca (22:25.23)

And I don’t think a majority of mainstream people know what he’s talking about. And my bubble burst. In my mind, I’m like, everybody knows who Stephen Sondheim is. He’s written all these amazing musicals, Assassins, Into the Woods, Company, Follies, West Side Story. And they’re like, I’ve heard of West Side Story, but I didn’t know he was associated with it. And so I think it’s just reframing. Not everybody is in the theater world. And ideally, your audience is not only theater people.

Alex Miller (22:42.301)

Right.

Alex Miller (22:52.677)

Exactly, and the person that knows everything about theater is paying the exact same price as the person that just, know, his last thing he saw was at the tractor pulls or something, you know. It’s money’s money and you want to get them in there and tell them what it is. So the other thing that I really like to see is when I go on the website, I’d like to see the cast and the creative team at some theaters are really good at this on their website. Some of them just really don’t, you a lot of them it’s like, know, God for God’s sake, put the PDF of your playbill up there. It’s easy thing to do.

Toni Tresca (23:03.383)

Exactly.

Alex Miller (23:22.025)

and only handful of companies that do that. Photos and buyers are great, but short video buyers are even better. And everybody’s got a video camera in their hand with their cell phones. also there’s all kinds of little, just short little videos, just get on your socials and things like that to familiarize people with the cast and the crew.

Toni Tresca (23:42.554)

And speaking a little bit of those kind of promotional photos and videos, a general note for how to distribute those photos, get them out into circulation. Don’t sit on them and don’t wait to be asked by media outlets for images. Be proactive in that, send that out. Stories for, speaking on the other side of the news environment, stories can’t move forward and we can’t publish until we have images.

that are up to snuff. we don’t have high quality images in our hand by the time we want to run a story or we’re interested in publishing something, a story can die right then and there and never see the light of day. So be proactive in that and make sure you include all relevant information. So we’re talking about who’s in the picture, what is going on, and then who took the photo.

Alex Miller (24:29.787)

Yeah, we’ll talk about this more when we talk about marketing, but I tell you, it’s one of my biggest frustrations is the photo thing because a lot of theaters pay for them and you have to practically beg to get them and then they come across, there’s no IDs, there’s no credit, but they send you a link to like thousand photos without doing any selects that they would like to see. yeah, kind of a pet peeve of mine, but we’ll talk about that later. But another one is if you’ve got a dramaturg involved in any way, they should absolutely be.

part of contributing something to your website and socials about the background of this show. And they’re great at that. They would love it. Old drum turns want to be, they want to be taken out of the shadows a little bit to show what they know. And then don’t forget basic information. Is there an intermission? What’s available at the bar? Is there a bar? Is there snacks? One of the things I love at Miner’s Alley, and as far as I know, they are the only theater doing this. They post a sign.

at the entrance to the auditorium about what the run times for the show, what each act is going to run and what the intermission is. And it’s a really great example of trying to answer that basic question. Because a lot of times I’ll sit down and I’m like, have no idea if there’s an intermission. I kind of like to know that.

Toni Tresca (25:44.238)

or how long it’s gonna be till intermission or the distribution of time or whether or not you’ll be able to get something at the bar at the intermission or buy a water or something, Miners Alley posts all that information on that sign and it’s very helpful, very clear, particularly for people who have never been into your space before.

Alex Miller (25:46.673)

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (26:02.082)

We’re obviously coming at this from an angle of we go to these theaters a lot. go to a lot of different theaters, we repeat. We’re not really necessarily the people that we’re talking about who this will be helpful, really, really helpful for. We’re talking about the person who just is coming to your theater for the first time and they don’t wanna have to guess. They don’t wanna feel like they’re left out of the experience. So these tips, think, posting that sign to just let them know what exactly they’re into when they sit down for the show, I think that’s one way to make them feel like they’re a bit

Alex Miller (26:02.192)

And it’s.

Toni Tresca (26:31.5)

more part of the process. They’re in on the theater community.

Alex Miller (26:35.505)

Yeah, and it’s also a great example of something that’s easy and cheap, if not free. I mean, you’re printing out a couple of pieces of paper, What about refreshments?

Toni Tresca (26:43.15)

Absolutely.

Toni Tresca (26:47.822)

Yeah, so I think that refreshments are absolutely, they’re a critical part of making, as we talked about, the nonprofit model is not easy and it requires a diverse amount of revenue streams in order to make that bottom line and concessions are absolutely a part of that. I don’t deny the reality of it, but I think if possible, you should focus on getting, stocking your refreshment area with snacks and beverages that don’t make a lot of noise because you do have, you do want to consider the larger

Alex Miller (27:14.066)

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (27:16.61)

theatrical live experience that you are in. And so if you have candy and noisy bags or popcorn in like crinkle plastic bags or worse, kind of like, there’s popcorn sleeves that are super crunkily and make a, and make a noise if you even move it, move it a little bit.

Alex Miller (27:31.066)

Ha ha ha.

Toni Tresca (27:34.53)

Those are things that are going to detract from the experience. what can you do? I’ve seen some places they’ll open the bag for you and they’ll put it in a separate container, like a little bowl that doesn’t make as much noise with the snack. It’s much easier to pick it up. Encourage your patrons to open any of the… If you can’t avoid the bags for whatever reason, I understand, maybe you don’t want to another element to the process. Encourage your patrons to open stuff before the show starts. Just make that a part of your pre-show speech, which…

we’ll get to a little bit more in a second. Make that a part of the process. When you tell people to turn off their phones, ask them to open up any snacks or open any beverages that they may have at that time because the last thing you want to hear is when Hamlet’s giving a soliloquy a nice click from a Coke can or something, opening up.

Alex Miller (28:17.678)

Ha ha ha.

God, John Moore, in one of his, he did a story about theater etiquette. One of them was like, the worst people are the ones that are opening up something like it’s a bomb squad, trying to defuse a bomb. They’re doing it very slowly. And if you’re the person next to them, you’re just kind of watching them and listening and being like, for God’s sakes. Yeah.

Toni Tresca (28:39.31)

You’re like, rip that bandaid off, just do it. Open the damn thing.

Alex Miller (28:45.127)

So another thing is just like, you know, don’t gouge, but don’t avoid the possibility of making a few bucks, you know? And I think that, I think theaters miss the opportunity to, know, maybe they take the cheapest thing they can get from the distributor and it’s often like the bigger breweries. like, I sell beers and spirits from your local breweries and distilleries, you know, because people appreciate that and they won’t mind paying an extra couple bucks for it.

Toni Tresca (29:07.394)

Vintage Theater and Littleton’s Town Hall Art Center are great about doing that. They’ve got relationships with the local breweries in their area, and they make sure that their bars are always stocked with stuff from the local regions. And that seems to be a big hit with their patrons. Because if people recognize it, they’re a lot more likely to buy.

Alex Miller (29:28.251)

Yeah, did you say town hall? Okay, because that’s one of the ones that I kind of would push back on that because they only sell the sort of faux craft beer that Coors makes. And it’s not the greatest. It’s like the I can’t remember what they call it. But

Toni Tresca (29:30.348)

I did. I did say town hall.

Toni Tresca (29:43.64)

They’ve changed recently in the last year. Their options at the bar, they put a lot of time into, I believe it was their patron service manager kind of completely revamped the bar experience and negotiate a lot more of those local partnerships. So I’d recommend going back and giving their bar another shot. They’ve got some different options there now for you.

Alex Miller (29:45.714)

Have they?

Alex Miller (30:01.946)

Okay.

Okay, I always like to shout out Miners Alley too. They’ve got, so the New Terrain, the brewery in Broomfield is one of their locals and man, they make some really nice IPAs and stuff. have those on tap. So speaking of taps, so bathrooms is another thing. Make sure they’re clean. Some theaters have terrible restroom situations and I know it’s sometimes it can seem like impossible to change and maybe in some cases they are, but man, if there’s anything you can do, even if you…

Toni Tresca (30:07.831)

That’s another good one.

Alex Miller (30:32.487)

do a specific fundraiser to like, please help us fix our bathrooms. It’s important. And I would say, this has become a thing, but think twice about the multi-gender restrooms. And this could be, maybe we’ll talk about this another day, but I’ve met some, I’ve talked to some women, including my wife, who are like, uh-uh, I’m not going in there with guys.

Toni Tresca (30:53.932)

Yeah, I’ve definitely had conversations like that. I feel I’ve had the most conversations about that at Vintage Theater space because Vintage Theater kind of just, they converted what was a traditional kind of men and women’s restroom into, they just took the signs off and now you can kind of go wherever. One still has a space with a urinal in it. And so it still does feel pretty gendered and kind of not a true articulation of the kind of all gender bathrooms like exist over at Miner’s Alley or Wonder Bounds.

Alex Miller (31:01.019)

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (31:23.704)

theater spaces, and I feel those work a little bit better because it’s just one big hallway, all the doors totally lock from the inside, you cannot get in, you don’t see anybody when you’re in there, and the walls go to the ceiling. It’s exactly what I was just about to say. think it feels a little bit more thought out in those spaces, and I think it works a little bit better. I have not heard complaints about that. That doesn’t mean that they don’t exist, but I have not heard people complain in the same way in the Miners Alley or Wonder Bound space that

Alex Miller (31:23.858)

Mm-hmm.

Alex Miller (31:30.813)

Yeah.

And the walls go to the ceiling. Yeah.

Toni Tresca (31:53.356)

I have heard comments about avert vintage.

Alex Miller (31:58.205)

All right, well, let’s switch to at the show. So you’ve gotten to the theater and you’re sitting down and what do you want to touch on there?

Toni Tresca (32:06.84)

So I would say as a general note, and we’ve talked about this before, limit those curtain speeches. Nobody gives a shit about your sponsors. I’m sorry. Honestly, probably your sponsors don’t even care that much about hearing you just rattle off their name in a cattle call with a whole bunch of other different groups indistinctly and indiscriminately. And they’re probably not there anyway. So limit those curtain speeches. I would say.

Alex Miller (32:10.406)

You

Alex Miller (32:14.161)

You

Alex Miller (32:26.097)

Yeah, they’re probably not there anyway.

Toni Tresca (32:33.826)

Also start, do your best to start on time. I feel this has been a growing trend since the pandemic in that theaters are a lot more willing to hold houses for a lot longer than they used to be. We’re talking starting 15, 20 minutes past the posted start time. And that, if you’re that late, it leaves a bad impression in the audience member’s mouth, particularly those who are not.

Alex Miller (32:40.988)

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (32:57.966)

common theatergoers. want, they see it advertised to start at a certain time, and by golly, they want to see it start at that time.

Alex Miller (33:04.925)

Yeah, think about it this way, you’re punishing 98 % of the audience in favor of who they’re on time and to accommodate the 2 % that weren’t.

Toni Tresca (33:15.65)

And I don’t think it’s the end of the world if you hold house for like five minutes or something, if you’ve really got like, or if there’s an extenuating weather circumstance, use your brain. Obviously, if like it’s snowy out on the roads and like half your house isn’t there, that’s a little bit of a different story. But if you’re house to wait on like two people, because not every single person on the list who you have has shown up yet, I think that’s a losing battle because oftentimes those people don’t show up anyway. There’s quite a few. I’ve talked, this conversation over and over again.

Alex Miller (33:19.036)

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (33:44.622)

with theater producers is that there’s, in this, since the pandemic, there’s a lot more no shows. It’s about 10 % often of houses that just don’t end up, they buy a ticket, they say they’re gonna come, but then they just don’t show.

Alex Miller (33:51.58)

Yeah.

Alex Miller (33:58.04)

Mm-hmm. Weird.

Alex Miller (34:02.749)

What about, so we love to talk about trigger warnings. We talked about doing a whole episode on it, but it’s probably maybe too much. I think spending time on a curtain speech talking about trigger warnings or spending a whole lot is, you know, I think if you had an age recommendation on the ticket page or something like that, you probably got it covered. And if anybody has like a particular sensitivity that they’re concerned about, they’re gonna ask anyway, wouldn’t you think?

Toni Tresca (34:24.876)

I would think so. think Curious Theater does a pretty good job with this and that they do post those age recommendations that you mentioned. And then they say additional information about the content is available upon request. I think that’s the way to do it. Be open and transparent about that. If there is any sensitive material in there about that, you can even include allude to that in the plot description itself. And then also indicate that via the age recommendation. Who would the show be appropriate for? And then…

mention that you have additional information available. I particularly, in the curtain speech, if you’re thinking about how do I start on time and how do I not have a really long curtain speech that drags on, cutting those sponsors and the trigger warnings I think are a good easy quick way to kind of tighten those up.

Alex Miller (35:02.759)

You

Alex Miller (35:13.585)

I would also say never have the director do the curtain speech or any part of it. Let their work speak for itself.

Toni Tresca (35:20.758)

Yeah, I couldn’t, I could not agree more. I couldn’t agree more. And then, moving, changing topics just slightly, talking a little bit about accessibility and inclusivity in the theater. We mentioned we can all fall into the trap of being so familiar with the place that we forget that someone there can, for the first time, can get a little bit lost. So, or maybe don’t feel as comfortable in that space. So.

Here are a few of those things to think about. I think seating considerations. Ensure that your seating options accommodate those with mobility challenges and avoid cramping in extra rows that make access more difficult in a space.

Alex Miller (35:58.279)

Yeah, and if you do need to add audio and visual aids, can offer captioning or ASL interpreted performances for deaf and hard of hearing patrons, and just make that known that on whatever, March 7th, we’re gonna have that show for those folks, and provide audio description options for visually impaired guests as well.

Toni Tresca (36:19.48)

Same with the sensory-friendly performances with adjusted lighting and sound effects for those neurodivergent audience members. I think that those are really important parts of making the theater experience a little bit more accessible for a wider variety of people who maybe feel like theater is not necessarily for them. But if you are going to do these efforts and you’re really gonna put in the time, make sure you advertise them. Don’t just assume that people will find that information.

Make it very well known, share that information on your social media, share it with groups in the community to whom that this information would be relevant. Really make sure that you’re gonna put in the time to make sure to make your experience more accessible. Share the word about that, make sure people know.

Alex Miller (37:01.211)

Yeah. And moving from that also is clear signage in the theater. So make sure that first time visitors can find restrooms, concessions, exits, accessibility seating, things like that. I remember when I first started going to like, you know, shows at the Denver Center at the Buell. I mean, it’s overwhelming when you first walk in there. It’s such a big space. There’s so much going on. And, you know, now I can walk in there and not meet ushers or anything like that. you know, just remember there’s always somebody there for the first time.

So, you know, also, you know, there’s a lot you can do in your lobby, like providing a couple of comfortable seating areas. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but also some pre-show content displays that maybe, you know, especially if it’s any kind of historic aspect to the play. And this is again, where if you do have a dramaturg or anybody like that can, can add that, but to give something people to look at, you know, and, and a place to sit while they’re waiting for, you know, something, something else.

Toni Tresca (37:51.49)

and make sure that you’ve got a of a bag or a coat check kind of place. It doesn’t have to be anything super fancy, but if people are stuck holding large bags or winter coats, that can make your theater space more cramped than it needs to be.

Alex Miller (38:05.885)

Yeah. And just, just in case you ever sitting behind our friend, Moore in a theater in the winter time, if you really want to piss him off, just make your coat kind of flop over the side of the seat. So it’s encroaching into his leg room. And yeah, you already calm about it. Yeah. All right. Well, it’s true. A of people don’t realize, you know, they’re, they’re, you know,

Toni Tresca (38:19.48)

Mm-hmm.

Toni Tresca (38:23.982)

Yeah, more you can intrude on John Moore’s space, the better. I kid, of course.

Alex Miller (38:35.345)

big puffer coat that can convert into a three man tent is not really would have been better off to be in the coat check. So what about after the show, Tony?

Toni Tresca (38:42.05)

that’s- well i would say after the show, if you are considering doing a talkback, don’t do it. i- it’s- i- they’re- often they feel more painful and drawn out than they need to be. most of the time after a show, i think, as we- as we said with the pre-show speech, just let the work speak for itself.

Alex Miller (38:50.81)

You

Toni Tresca (39:05.516)

You don’t need to have an overly didactic conversation in which you explain the themes of the show for people as if they weren’t paying attention to the 90 minute to two plus hour show that you just presented. I think unless you are Betty Hart and you are an expert facilitator and you can really manage people who are coming at you with all kinds of questions, I would really just recommend not doing it. They’re rarely effective.

Alex Miller (39:21.531)

Ha ha ha ha.

Alex Miller (39:31.569)

Yeah, yeah, I think it’s something you could argue back and forth depending on what the topic is. And some people, I think some people do enjoy them and stick around for them, but definitely think about if it’s worth the time. Usually actors wanna get the hell out of there after the show. So what about, I’ve kind of wondered about like sometimes theaters will have the cast pop out into the lobby in costume before they even get to the dressing room to say hello to people on the way out. Do you think that’s a good practice or not?

I like it myself. think it’s kind of fun to see them.

Toni Tresca (40:04.696)

I actually do too. I think if you were going to do a kind of post-show engagement with folks, make the artists available to them in the lobby afterwards so that they can have those kind of more one-on-one intimate conversations with folks. think that that, particularly if you’re doing a musical or kind of a broad comedy, I think that that’s a really effective way to engage the audience and make them a part of the experience. They get to take photos.

of in their costumes, which they’re much more likely to distribute on social media than they are if they just take a picture of the program or the set or something. I know a lot of people distribute those, I see Candlelight, for instance, is great at doing this. They almost always have folks coming out into the lobby afterwards, and I see so many photos on social media of people with the… I remember when Cats was up there at Candlelight. All the cats all over social media all the time.

Alex Miller (40:34.683)

Yeah.

Alex Miller (40:56.269)

huh. Yeah. Have some kind of backdrop if you can swing it. I think it’s probably more appropriate for musicals or comedies, especially kids shows. you know, if you’ve got the little mermaid or something, mean for sure, you know, get her out there and taking pictures with the kids cause they get a kick out of it. You know, and some people, you know, they may feel, I don’t know if intimidated is the right word, but just like they may not feel like they want to approach an actor they just saw playing somebody else on stage and they can just walk past if they to, but some might want to engage.

Toni Tresca (41:23.758)

Absolutely.

And then the following day, so when folks are, they’re at home, they’ve just seen your show, I would really recommend sending a survey email pretty quickly after, probably the next day or the day after. Vintage Theater is great about doing this, as is the Denver Center. To just kind of ask people what they thought of the show, good, bad, them for, give them the opportunity to comment on the experience itself. And then I would really dedicate it.

Dedicate at least one day a week to really reading those. Read all of them and take them seriously. If a patron, a customer of yours has taken the time to comment on the experience and given you some insight into what they thought and how it affected them, you should be taking that seriously. Good, bad, or ugly. Because they are, those are the people who showed up for your show and so you want to know what they thought.

Alex Miller (42:12.861)

Yeah, and then if you did make changes based on any of those comments or suggestions, make sure you publicize that so people know when they do fill out the survey, it’s not for nothing. Because these days you get a survey for everything. It’s like, bought a paper towels the other day, I got a survey. Like, how was your paper towel buying experience? It’s like, I don’t care. But it’s ridiculous. It’s gotten a little carried away. But for this, it’s really, it’s very subjective and people definitely have opinions about it and it’s worth hearing about.

So yeah, send that out. And also if you have any, you know, reviews that have come in from the scarce reviewers that are left, especially if they’re positive. But as we’ve said, even if they’re not totally positive, you can always cherry pick some of the good stuff and put that out there and use that stuff. we’ll dive into that kind of stuff and more when we do our marketing and community building as a episode as crucial aspects of making your theater work.

Toni Tresca (43:06.253)

Totally. But now we are going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. And when we return, we will share our top 10 Colorado headliners, as well as Alex’s interview with artistic director of the Denver Center, Chris Coleman.

Alex Miller (43:22.371)

All right, we are back and ready to hit this week’s Colorado Headliner. So these are some of the upcoming shows that we think you should know about in no particular order. But Tony, what have you got to start this week?

Toni Tresca (43:33.048)

So last week on the show, we talked about how we love one act play experiences and we were frustrated that more theaters weren’t doing them. So this week I come back with an example of another theater out there who is doing this evening of one acts. It’s the Butte Theater in Cripple Creek. They’re doing love stories to one act romantic comedies. They’re doing the proposal of Farse by Anton Chekhov and the Welsh Honeymoon by Jeanette Marks.

in rep back to back in those in those kind of settings there. The run started on Valentine’s Day and it goes through the 23rd. So only one more weekend left to check out these shows, but sounded like a fun pairing.

Alex Miller (44:14.257)

Yeah, yeah, I love those shorties. My first one is, it’s a particular, it’s just one night at the Newman Center, they’re at DU in Denver, it’s called a Lepatine Libre, which is a Montreal, it means the free skate, it’s a contemporary dance on ice troupe from Montreal that transforms athleticism into a means of artistic expression. And so it sounds really interesting, amazing choreographic and theatrical potential of glide.

So yeah, this is, I’m curious to see how they do an ice sheet there at the Newman Center. I’m not sure if they’re doing it outside or what they are, but it’s also indicative of the kind of interesting stuff that the Newman Center has going on all the time. it’s, you know, there’s a lot of fairly esoteric stuff that may not be up your alley, but sometimes you look at it and you’re like, wow, that sounds really interesting. So, so, Lepstein-Lieb Newman Center on February 22nd.

Toni Tresca (45:10.018)

very cool. Pun intended.

Alex Miller (45:12.316)

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (45:14.03)

Alright, I need to take a break really quick. I have to run to the restroom. So I’m gonna run. I will be right back.

Alex Miller (45:18.237)

Alright.

All right.

Toni Tresca (46:52.398)

doki doki.

Alex Miller (46:55.101)

Good luck.

All right, was it my turn or yours? Okay, go ahead.

Toni Tresca (47:00.108)

My turn.

My next headliner is in the Boulder area. It is the world premiere of Chasing Breadcrumbs presented by the local theater company up there. This is going to be at the Dairy Center, February 20th through March 9th. And this is a play written by Michelle Tyreen Johnson that the company presented as part of its 2024 new play festival. I actually saw the reading of it. It’s very, very funny. It follows a black playwright named Serena who has been commissioned to write a play.

by a well-heeled group of white women with questionable intentions. Throughout the course of this play, Serena navigates a minefield of privilege, creative compromises, and rewritten history. And yeah, I would say that’s a very apt summary. It goes in some very wild and unexpected directions that is kind of perfect for an off-kilter absurdist comedy. This is being directed by a friend of the podcast, Betty Hart, who is also the co-artistic director for Local.

I’m looking forward to checking this one out. I’ll be there on its opening night on the 22nd, because those are two previews. February 20th and 21st are the preview evenings. Will I see you out there, Alex? Heck yeah.

Alex Miller (48:10.395)

I will be there. Yeah, I’m looking forward to that one. Sounds fun. My next one, a little more serious, it’s In Her Bones at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, February 13th through March 2nd. So this is up now. It’s got a Colorado theme to it. So Blizzard forces a first year student from UC Berkeley to wait out a storm at a rural highway gas station in Southern Colorado. And she’s forced to confront a pest that’s both fleeting and that

that she is both fleeing and seeking out. So she shares memories with the store owner to pass the time and another world creeps in of shadows, forgotten prayers and secrets hiding in plain sight. So that sounds pretty intriguing. And I know April took a correspondent in the Springs will be at that one. So we’ll have a review of that on the site.

Toni Tresca (48:58.478)

great. My next headliner is a one night only song cycle that’s taking place at the Bug Theater on February 21st called It’s My Head. So this piece explores themes of mental health, intervoices, craziness, and split personality. It’s being done by Wild Beautiful Orchestra, which is a group of classically trained musicians based out of Denver and the Boulder area. And they’re going to be doing

10 songs by 10 different artists that explore themes of craziness. Sounds like a pretty cool show. They’re going be featuring music by Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, Smashing Pumpkins, Baruch Asalt, Stephen Wilson, and more. So should be a pretty good mix of music at the very least.

Alex Miller (49:44.689)

Yeah, that sounds fun. All right, my next one is going down south a little bit further from the Springs in Pueblo. Steel City Theater is doing The Play That Goes Wrong. So this is a familiar title around here. A lot of theaters do it, but it’s just so much fun. I always get a chance to see these. I’ll usually get out to it. So February 21st through March 9th. So it’s all about this. It’s the Cornley University Drama Society’s newest production, Murder at Haversham Manor. And it’s just kind of play where like.

shit’s falling off the walls and actors are coming out at the wrong time or not at all and tripping over things including their lines, all these accidents, prone, thespian. So it’s a lot of fun. And also if you dig that one, I think they have a couple of other iterations. I think they have a one act play that goes wrong, but they also have some stuff that they did for, that you can find I think on Netflix where they’re actually filming them. So that gave them a lot more leeway for special effects and some of them are just fantastic. You want to check those out.

Toni Tresca (50:43.746)

Yeah, the films ones are really fun and they’ve done a couple of them like they did the Peter Pan goes wrong to the like a Christmasy version. So they’re riffing on this theme that it’s very funny and I agree with you. Seeing how they what they execute on like a television budget. it’s very fun.

Alex Miller (50:49.82)

Uh-huh.

Alex Miller (51:01.445)

Yeah, this one where the room is just literally sideways, that’s just unbelievable.

Toni Tresca (51:05.399)

Yes.

Toni Tresca (51:09.486)

Totally different direction. My next headliner is a serious brooding opera. It’s one of the most famous opera productions of all time, La Boheme. It’s being done at the Ellie Calkins Opera House in Denver from February 22nd through March 2nd by Opera Colorado. And this story is, it’s the story that Rent, the musical, is actually based off of. So it follows a group of artists who live in the bohemian lifestyle.

full of complicated relationships and nights at the cafe on a starving artist’s budget. Through the tumultuous relationships between Mimi and Rodolfo and Marcelo and Moussetto, Puccini’s best-known opera encourages you to fully appreciate the fragility of love and life.

Alex Miller (51:53.821)

Yeah, think La Boheme is kind of a, you know, gateway drug for opera. think it’s a little more accessible than a lot of operas. And I don’t think I’ve seen it, but I haven’t seen that many opera. What about you, Tony? You much of an opera guy?

Toni Tresca (52:08.442)

I dabble in opera. I can’t say I’ve seen a ton of them. I saw a really great production by Central City Opera of Romeo and Juliet a couple of years ago that stuck with me. I’ve seen Madame Butterfly before. I’ve seen La Triviata. I’ve seen La Boheme before. Although I think I’m gonna check out Opera Colorado’s version of this because as I mentioned earlier in the podcast, I was talking with Greg Carpenter who is the general and artistic director over there and he

Alex Miller (52:10.011)

Ha

Alex Miller (52:26.865)

Mm-hmm.

Toni Tresca (52:37.87)

He told me that their riff on La Boeme is they’re setting it in the 1930s. So it’s a kind of a little bit of a twist on it. They’re updating it from it’s more classic setting. I think it’s originally in the 17th, 18th century around there. So they’re updating the time period. It’s gonna feel a little bit more modern in that regard. So yeah, I’m curious to see this opera in a slightly new way.

Alex Miller (52:44.55)

Okay.

Alex Miller (53:03.815)

Cool. All right, well, I’m going to continue my journey south all the way to Durango to Fort Lewis College, which is doing the servant of two masters, February 21st through March 1st. this is the Commedia dell’arte, the original version of One Man, Two Governors, which was an adaptation we saw a couple of years ago at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival that we both loved.

So this one is schemes, quarrels, romance, physical comedy, awkward encounter, mistaken identity, hot pursuits, and a little light jello balancing, whatever that is. So it sounds like an awful lot of fun. down there at the Fort Lewis College, they have a really robust theater program down there. So if you’re in the Southern Colorado area, it’ll be February 21st through March 1st.

Toni Tresca (53:49.326)

Cool. I’m gonna end us on a one night only sketch show. It’s called Mean Girls, Live, Laugh, Lovecraft at Chaos Bloom Theater in Denver on February 23rd. It’s hosted by Freida Slaves and is produced by Agenda Theater, which is a troupe dedicated to staging a bold LGBTQ plus narratives. And it’s gonna feature a pretty cool lineup. It’s got Burlesque by Mr. Valdez, Drag by the aforementioned Freida Slaves,

performance by an artist called Weird Al Spankovich, who does kind of performance art stuff, a clown work by Skeleton Key, and then some sketches by, as they call it, your favorite group of Queerdos from Agenda. That’s what they say in the marketing materials. I’ve been to a couple of these mean girls, excuse me, mean ghouls shows that Agenda Theater has, yeah, mean ghouls.

Alex Miller (54:23.463)

Hahaha

Alex Miller (54:34.801)

Ha ha.

Alex Miller (54:43.303)

Mean ghouls, okay.

Toni Tresca (54:46.558)

that Agenda Theater has done in the past. They’re always a really kind of raucous, loosely sketched together night of fun. So, would definitely recommend getting out to Chaos Bloom to check out the latest iteration of Mean Ghouls if you’re free on the 23rd.

Alex Miller (55:00.999)

Yeah, yeah. Well, and after that, you can go see Mean Girls, the touring Broadway production of the musical will be at the Beale Theater, February 25th through March 2nd. But that wasn’t one of my headliners. The other one I wanted to mention was Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, The Rock Experience. I mean, with a title like that, how can you not go see this? It’s at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, February 28th.

Toni Tresca (55:23.246)

Truly.

Alex Miller (55:25.991)

through March 30th. And so it’s definitely a kids show, but I think it’s also, when they say it’s pretty fun to go to for anybody, any age. So it’s a rock and roll parable with messages based on a children’s book by Mo Willems. So Wilbur and all his fellow naked mole rats in the tunnel have always been naked and they’re wondering what other possibilities are out there. Wilbur discovers a love for clothing and style. And when word of his new passion turns the tunnel upside down, he proves to everyone.

There’s no need to be just like everyone else. So some familiar themes there of fitting in and breaking out, things like that, but sounds like in a really fun, fun way. So that one is at the Fine Arts Center.

Toni Tresca (56:08.416)

Those are our headliners for this week. What are you going to be seeing around the state? If you’ve got a show that you’re excited to check out, feel free to hit us up on social media or shoot us an email at info at OnStageColorado.gmail.com and we will share information about that next week on the show. But sit tight because right now we’re going to throw it over to Alex’s interview with Chris Coleman to get the skinny on this year’s Colorado New Play Summit.

Interview with Chris Coleman, Artistic Director at the DCPA Theater Company

ALEX MILLER: so we are here with Chris Coleman, the artistic director at the DCPA Theater Company. Chris thanks so much for being here today.

CHRIS COLEMAN: Absolutely my pleasure.

ALEX: So tons going on. But the one thing I wanted to talk about related to the Denver Center is the Colorado New Play Summit, which is coming up March 1st and second, and it looks like another cool lineup this year, and I just wanted to ask you for those who aren’t familiar. Can you just give a quick rundown of what the New Play Summit is?

CHRIS: Yeah. You know, I think I traced back that the Denver Center’s first effort at doing a new play gathering of some sort was 1985. It was called something else for a long time. I can’t remember prima facie, maybe. And then I think 18 years ago my predecessor, Kent Thompson, he wanted our new play efforts to be organized in a way that could attract folks from outside of Denver as well as inside Denver.

And so come, you know, put the whole package in a weekend and draw people to it. So he decided we’d call it the Colorado New Play Summit, and it is basically the two world premieres. So you can come in for a weekend and see the two world premieres that we’ve got on stage productions, full productions. And then four workshops, stage readings of new plays. And the playwright of the workshop gets a director, a dramaturg, and a cast, and they get a week to rehearse, and then we show it in front of an audience and then we gather audience feedback, which can be really really helpful sometimes.

ALEX: Right, you know. I remember there used to be these little green pieces of paper that they would hand out. Is it done electronically now? I can’t remember.

CHRIS: Yeah, it’s all through a QR code. And there’s some very good reason for that, Alex, and forgetting it, I can’t remember if it’s because it’s so hard to read people’s handwriting, or I can’t remember, or if it’s just speed of gathering.

ALEX: Yeah, a lot of times I mean, you get this little golf pencil or something like that. And then you don’t have like a surface to write on. So yeah, I’m sure there were a lot of things that were indecipherable. So a little bit about – for again, for people who may not be familiar, and not a lot of people get out to readings. What is that experience like? And I will just say, from my own experience that these are extremely well cast. They’re really well produced readings, and you might see them and think, wow! How could they ever improve on this cast? You know. I hope they come back. If it’s done live. So it’s not just off the cuff, by any means. There’s a lot of production that goes into it right?

CHRIS: Yeah. And it’s so interesting that you say that because I definitely have had people who came for the first time, who are like, I’m thinking of reading like I’m going to be bored or like somebody’s just going to be reading the play to me. And it’s remarkable if you’ve got the right actors. It’s remarkable how resonant something can be in that format.

Sometimes people say I preferred that to the actual production. Because I think it’s because your imagination is filling in so many of the blanks. So it can be very powerful in that setting. And it’s definitely – I know a lot of people here in town get excited about it because you get to be on in on the ground floor, and you see something like Lauren Gunderson’s “The Book of Will,” and you see the reading. And you think, “Oh, that’s really wonderful. I hope they do it,” and then we do it, and then it gets 50 productions around the country. And you get to say, “Hey, I was there when it was first heard by a public audience.” So I think that’s part of the fun of it.

ALEX: Right. Yeah. So just as a reminder, the two shows up right now at the Denver Center are “The Reservoir” by Jake Brash, Denver playwright who we heard two years ago at the 2023 summit, as well as Sandy Rustin’s new play, “The Suffragettes Murder,” which was also 2023 as well, I think.

CHRIS: You remember what year? Because I’m like, I don’t – don’t ask me.

ALEX: Yeah. Well, I know it was fairly recently. It’s pretty rare that it would be the next year, right? But those are both fantastic plays that I think everybody was really impressed by the readings, and I haven’t seen Sandy’s play yet, but Jake’s is great, so can you talk a little bit about the process. How many plays does the – who reads all these? These, you know, submissions to winnow it down to four plays. And what does that look like?

CHRIS: Well, we, you know, if you go on our website right now, it tells you that we don’t accept any unsolicited submissions from writers, but that does not seem to deter anybody. So we still just get an inordinate amount of plays come our way, and sometimes they come from agents. Sometimes they come just directly from the writer, or some a lot of times they come, like “The Reservoir” came to us through a director that we had worked with – Shelly Butler brought it to us.

So tons and tons of plays. And we have a director of literary programs, Leanne Kimtorsky. We have a literary assistant, and then we have some freelance readers who all they do is read scripts and create a report on them. And these scripts, when they come to us they go into one of two pathways. One is either for the season, if they’ve already been produced, or for the summit.

Those are kind of the two ways that we look at a script, and so Leanne is kind of the first gatekeeper. She looks at all of these reports from readers, and then she reads stuff herself, and if something has generated a fair amount of excitement she will read it, and she’ll ask for a second read, and then she creates a list of I think we start with 15 possibilities that she brings to the rest of the artistic team, and then we read them all and narrow them.

The lens through which I’m looking – well, a couple of lenses – one would we produce it? Because there are a lot of interesting scripts that we could spend some time and give some resources to developing. But that’s an investment. And so for me, I really want to think any of these we could say yes to if we end up being excited about what shows up in the summit.

And then we look at the budget. There are definitely projects that come in that are super exciting that are just a little too big for what we can accomplish right now. Whether that’s in terms of time that would be required, size of cast, or the number of out of town folks it might require, because of a special ethnicity. And then the other things I’m always looking at is – you know, we’ve done a lot of work by Latino authors because of how big that population is here in Denver. And so we’re always looking for opportunities to continue that relationship.

Yeah, and if there’s something like – this audience likes smart plays, it likes plays that have a historical connection. So if something comes along that is kind of in that vein I’m like, let me pay a little bit more attention to that.

ALEX: Okay? So that would kind of include “The Suffragettes Murder,” which is kind of an alt take on a particular period in history, but it definitely does have that historical aspect.

CHRIS: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

ALEX: So definitely, you want plays that would potentially be made into a full production. And you also, you know, like any theater choosing shows you want to choose plays that are challenging artistically, but also will hopefully be commercially successful as well. So you think it’s something that might be a hit.

CHRIS: Well, it is – you know, what does that mean? You know what I know is like, this audience – we have given audiences a very robust diet of plays with strong story, strong narrative, through the course of our history. So I probably, if something came to me that I thought was brilliant, but was really nonlinear or really visual in the way that it was telling its story, I’m like, hmm! We don’t really have a precedent for that. We could try. Whereas there are some companies, you know, in the country that might like American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., who that might feel more confident choosing something a little further outside the box. So that’s definitely something I think about.

ALEX: And what about Western themes? Do you kind of lean towards those a little bit as well?

CHRIS: Well, I love it. I love, you know, we call ourselves part of the regional theater movement or part of the Resident theater movement, if you will, and I love things that tie us directly to this part of the country. And so you saw that in “Rattlesnake Kate.” There’s a long history, you know, with this company, with “Quilters” or “Laramie Project,” or you know – I can’t think of the name – the three plays that were about life on the plains, early life on the plains. That’s definitely been part of our history.

And Jake’s play, “The Reservoir” is a very different take on that, you know, with a very personal Colorado connection. But it’s so fresh in a way that it’s telling that story. It is a Western story, but it doesn’t – you don’t think of it in that regard. And then there’s something like “Cowboys and East Indians” which we read last year, which is a very particular and new Western story. So I love things that have a particular connection to this region – that gets me excited, and I know it gets our audiences interested.

ALEX: Yeah, for sure. That just reminded me – “Cowboys and East Indians” that was a really interesting script. I don’t know where that one’s gone, either here or anywhere else. But yeah, that would be a fun one to see produced. Well, let’s switch and talk about this year’s playwrights. So there’s only four of them, so we can go through and talk a little bit about the playwrights and these scripts. So the first one is “Bog Friends” by Jose Sebastian Alberti. So what can you say about that one?

CHRIS: He goes by Sebastian and Sebastian is pretty young in his career. I believe he just finished, or is just finishing his Master’s degree at University of California, San Diego. You know, it’s quite an interesting script, that is – you know, it’s a little more out there than some of the stuff that we’ve done. It definitely plays with time in a way that I think, is quite interesting and is both speaking to the present and the long ago past and I think is quite fresh and interesting. So he’s – I’m very curious to see what he’s like to work with in the room.

ALEX: And so, “Bog Friends,” what does that refer to?

CHRIS: Well, it’s a takeoff on boyfriends, but it is – the central characters are two anthropologists in a museum in Ireland who are doing research on this ancient bog and what they learn about the people – I think it’s 5,000 years prior – from what they can learn from what’s been left in this particular place. So it has a couple of meanings.

ALEX: Great. All right. Well, the next one is a script by Carrie Perloff, called “If God Were Blue.”

CHRIS: Carrie is – she was the longtime artistic director at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and she’s a wonderful director and also playwright. And I had not – I knew her as a director and a fellow artistic director, but I didn’t really know her plays, and she sent this to me maybe 6, 7 months ago.

You know, and I’m thinking, you know, I’m obligated to read it because she’s someone that I know. So I’m reading it, just out of obligation. But very quickly I get pulled into it because it’s about an actual competition that was set between a painter in the Renaissance – Bastiano, who collaborated with Michelangelo – and they were competing against Raphael to create a new painting for a church altar in Norbond, France.

And the cardinal kind of set them against each other. And it’s a very – it is inspired by the history, but it is a very kind of irreverent look at it. But it’s quite interesting, because the stakes of what it meant to paint something in that period – I think it’s 1516 – were supremely high, and it’s very funny and fresh. And I keep saying fresh. But it is – it feels different to me. So I think that’s – and it definitely has that historical kind of thing that I think our audiences will respond to.

ALEX: Right. That sounds really interesting. So this next one has the most interesting title. I would say it’s “How to Conquer America: A Mostly True History of Yogurt” by David Myers. What’s this one all about?

CHRIS: Well, and David Myers, you know he had a wonderful production up at Local Theater last – and David, I’m not gonna remember the exact origin story, but I think that this thought came to him from – was he commissioned, or something from Dannon yogurt about the actual history of the company, and he just got so intrigued because it’s really about the invention of marketing and the people that in America and the people that kind of play pivotal roles in that.

So it also has a very strong Jewish theme, and the people who were creating Dannon yogurt and kind of the marketing campaign that put it on the map were coming out of a lot of trauma after World War II. So it is – it’s complex. The structure is complex and has multiple time periods. I’m seeing I’m seeing a theme here that I’m talking to you. But it’s very funny. This one is quite funny.

ALEX: Great. Well, yeah, he had his play, “237 Virginia Avenue” premiered at Local last year. It was a fantastic script. Really, really, a very innovative.

CHRIS: Well, and I think that is – that production – Leanne went to see that production was so struck by the sophistication of David’s voice as a writer that she’s like, what else have you got? You know, and I think that’s how that came to us.

ALEX: Yeah, that’s great. All right. Well, the fourth one is by Bianca Sams. It’s called “Rust on Bone.”

CHRIS: And this one is a thriller. It’s four people, and it is an African American Latina psychotherapist who is working with a woman, a client who has been through a lot of trauma, and she’s trying to help her out of it and her – the patient’s – I can’t remember if it’s her boyfriend or her husband shows up and is not happy about what’s happening, and it is pretty intense what unfolds. And the realities also dissolve some. So you think you’re in one reality, and then you realize, oh, oh, maybe I’m not quite in that reality.

So this one definitely feels like an action story – it definitely excavates the racial complexities of those relationships. But it’s also about how you find your way out of trauma and if you’re the person who is facilitating how you don’t get sucked in by it.

ALEX: Okay, what can you tell us about Bianca Sams, the playwright?

CHRIS: Very interesting writer who’s doing a lot of television these days as well as writing for the theater. And I think this is her first project that she’s done in Colorado.

ALEX: All right. Well, that’s a great rundown of the four shows, of course. So the New Play Summit – you can buy a pass, and you know, see all these readings. And also, you know, see the other two shows that are up from you know that we were just talking about from 2023, and there’s events, there’s all kinds of different things, dinners and stuff. Or you can just buy an individual ticket to go in and see one or two readings. So, however, you want to mix it up, and I would just say, it’s an awful lot of fun. It’s kind of like the Super Bowl of Theater for Colorado every year. So I really appreciate you taking the time to talk through it with us. Chris Coleman, artistic director at the Denver Center Theater Company, and we look forward to seeing you out at the New Play Summit on March 1st and second at the Denver Center.

CHRIS: Thank you so much, Alex. It’s a pleasure.

Toni Tresca (56:38.946)

That Chris Coleman, what a guy.

Alex Miller (56:41.341)

Yep, yep. He’s got a great job. tell you, I think if you’re an artistic director type being the head of the Denver Center Theater Company would be a pretty sweet gig.

Toni Tresca (56:51.5)

Yeah, definitely seems like a dream job and a dream for him too from talking with him. He’s been, he’s done this work around the country, but he really seems to love it here in Denver.

Alex Miller (57:00.721)

Yeah, I would say he really kind of turned the ship around when he came on a few years back and has done a great job with programming and stuff. So was great to catch up with him. So other stuff coming up on the website. we’ll have, like I said, we’ll have that in her bones review. I’ve got the suffragettes murder at the Denver Center that we’ll have a review of that from Tammy Matthews here up pretty soon. Clybourne Park.

at the Arvada Center. Alice Catalin will have a review of that. And then on Clover Road is at Springs Ensemble Theater Company and our reviewer Judith series will have something on that. And then I think you were going to do you’re going to check out Guys and Dolls at some point too, right?

Toni Tresca (57:44.418)

I am, yeah, over at Vintage Theater and I’ll have a review of that at some point.

Alex Miller (57:49.531)

Yep. And then yeah, we’ll do one on chasing breadcrumbs at local as well. So lots of stuff coming up on the site as well as our newsletter and podcasts and calendar and all kinds of stuff.

Toni Tresca (58:01.708)

And next week on the podcast, we are going to have an interview with some of the guys from D-Town. You’re talking with Nick Rigg and Jake Bell to talk about Denver’s number one over 30 boy band, as they describe it. Can you tease that conversation just a little bit more, Alex?

Alex Miller (58:01.958)

So.

Alex Miller (58:15.604)

Yeah. You know, I’m looking forward to it because it sounds like lot of fun. It’s a group of five theater actors who are taking their love of performance and boy band nostalgia to the people’s building. On March 6th, it’s a one-night-only concert experience and it’s made up of Randy Chalmers, Nick Rigg, Jake Bell, Alejandro Rolldown, and Marco Robinson.

It says they’ve been performing as special guests at other organizations events since Cabaret, so this will be their first full-length headlining show. So it’s an elevated cabaret that parodies the rise and fall of boy bands. So that sounds like an awful lot of fun and they call it, think, Making the Band Meets the Office. So looking forward to talking to those guys.

Toni Tresca (58:58.092)

Nice, that sounds like it’s gonna be a really sick conversation. So if you wanna stay up to date on what is going on in theaters, comedy venues, opera houses, and dance troupes all around the state, subscribe to the OnStage Colorado Newsletter, which comes out every Thursday. And if you like what we’re doing now on the podcast, please consider leaving a review about this wherever you are listening now, and be sure to share this podcast with other theater lovers in your life.

Alex Miller (59:01.693)

you

Alex Miller (59:27.215)

Yeah. All right. Well, thanks, Tony. Thanks so much for listening. I’m Alex Miller.

Toni Tresca (59:31.98)

And I’m Tony Treska and we’ll see you at the show.