A beloved but dormant Denver theatrical institution will come back to life in September with last week’s sale of the charming Victorian Theatre in northwest Denver.
Wade Wood, a regular director and actor at the Victorian in the 1990s, purchased the 75-seat theater, which is carved out of the basement of a home built in 1911 at 4201 Hooker St.
The Victorian has been shuttered for more than four years. Wade bought the property whole from Mary Lynn Green, owner since 1993, for $375,000.
“The Victorian is an important part of Denver theater history, and I hated to see it close,” said Wood. “No one is ever going to get rich running the theater there, but I’ll be happy if we can make it self-sustaining.”
Before the purchase, Green renewed the Victorian’s zoning variance, which allowed it to operate as a theater in a residence. Wood also is pursuing licenses for alcohol and light-food service.
Wood has been working with city inspectors and says the property needs only superficial upgrades such as paint and new carpeting. Otherwise it is ready to reopen.
He plans to keep things light.
“There are a lot of great companies here now, such as Curious, doing top-notch heavy dramas,” Wood said. “That’s wonderful, but I am primarily interested in entertaining an audiences with lighter fare – comedies and farces. It might not be socially redeeming, but hopefully people will laugh and have fun.”
Wood likely will announce one opening show rather than a full season so a hit might be able to run for several months.
Wood is a local veteran, having acted with the Civic, Aurora Fox, Oriental and other companies. Lately he has been a regular at Golden’s Miners Alley Playhouse, where he directed “Run for Your Wife,” closing today.
He plans to cross-promote with his friends there, and said MAP artistic director Rick Bernstein will likely direct at the Victorian later this year.
Gash to direct “Crowns”
Kent Gash, associate artistic director of Atlanta’s Alliance Theater and a 1978 graduate of Denver’s George Washington High, will make a triumphant return to his native city as the director of Regina Taylor’s “Crowns” for the Denver Center Theatre Company, opening May 18, 2006.
Gash was a member of new DCTC artistic director Kent
Thompson’s first Alabama Shakespeare Festival acting company in 1989 and later became assistant artistic director.
“Kent was very kind to tell me that he really wanted me to come home, and it’s thrilling for me to do so under these circumstances – working again with Kent and directing a play that I love so much,” he said. “And it will make my mom so happy.”
Gash performed at the Bonfils and Shwayder theaters as a teenager before earning an acting BFA at Carnegie-Mellon and a directing MFA from UCLA. He has a “long history of knowing and working with and loving Regina,” starting when she approached him backstage at L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse in 1998 to complement his direction of Debbie Allen in “Harriet’s Return.”
Taylor later directed the first production of “Crowns” at Gash’s Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, where she made Gash promise to direct the play himself one day. “Crowns” was inspired by a picture book of black women posing in their Sunday church hats.
” ‘Crowns’ is such a celebration of the traditions of African-American women in terms of how they uplift one another and, by extension, the entire human community,” Gash said.
It was a huge week for Gash. He won his second Elliot Norton Award from notoriously hard-to-please Boston critics for directing Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” as a co-production with Trinity Rep’s Oskar Eustis, who now heads New York’s Public Theatre.
Gash also is mentioned in Martin Moran’s new book “The Tricky Part,” detailing Moran’s four-year sexual relationship with an older man beginning at age 12. Gash was Moran’s hero and mentor at G.W., and in the book, Moran says of Gash: “I was convinced he’d been belting out high notes and tapping out time steps since the womb.”
“I’m honored to be in it,” Gash said. “When he read me that passage, I cried. He’s a wonderful man, and what he’s done with his life experiences has been so healing for so many people.”
More comings and goings
Anthony Powell has lost his title as DCTC associate artistic director to Bruce K. Sevy, who actually had preceded Powell in the job. And next season, Sevy will direct the DCTC’s “A Christmas Carol,” a title he had helmed each year for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. So now that Sevy is out, who has ASF hired to direct its “Carol”? Yes – it’s Powell. …
Even though Powell is no longer a DCTC staff member, he will direct next year’s “After Ashley” here. Previously he was named director of Curious’ “Frozen,” so “unemployment” seems to be suiting him just fine, for now. …
Senior DCTC actor Jamie Horton is a guest professor at Dartmouth this summer and will direct a production of “Heidi Chronicles” there. …
No announcements yet, but expect Horton, John Hutton and the most veteran DCTC actors to return next year. Those who seem the safest? “Anyone over 40,” a source said.
Briefly …
Boulder High alum Jamie Wollrab, star of last year’s “Nocturne” at the Dairy Center, has landed in the new off-Broadway play “Kickers,” opening Thursday.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
