Tucked among the many vintage books at the home on 4201 Hooker St. is an 1854 Shakespeare canon bound in sheepskin. And tucked clandestinely near the back of the tome is a handwritten missive from George S. Swartz, probably to a lady love.
But nearly a century later, his words read like an ethereal entreaty for his other great love, the slumbering theater he carved out of his own basement in 1911, to reawaken:
“Ah my lady, let me call you from the lethargy of sleep,” his letter reads. “Know you not of priceless jewel, which is worth your life to keep.”
After four years of sleep, this cherished piece of Colorado history comes back to life on Friday with the gentle period romance “Voice of the Prairie,” directed by Terry Dodd.
Like so many of his time, Swartz had moved to Colorado to recover from tuberculosis. He brought with him his treasured book, from which he had read his first word of Shakespeare when his father ordered him to sit down and read “Richard III.” Swartz would later become nationally recognized for having staged all 37 of Shake- speare’s works out of the basement theater he operated from 1911 1o 1937.
“That,” says Wade Wood, the new owner of the Victorian Theatre, “was the original home theater.”
When Swartz built his northwest Denver home in 1908, he had to dig far deeper than any other lot on the block. His grandly intimate Bungalow Theater was deep enough for an orchestra pit under the stage and wide enough to once hold 150 seats and even luxury boxes for politicos and local celebrities.
The name has changed through the years – from the Bungalow to 4201 Players to Actors Studio 29 to the
Gaslight to, in 1984, the Victorian. But in all, it has been home to more than 700 productions since 1911, making it the oldest community theater west of the Mississippi.
“There is not a more distinctive theater in Denver,” actor Kevin Hart said at a recent gathering of former Victorian players, “or probably in the country.”
Walking into the Vic is like walking into your neighbor’s living room. Like many northwest Denver homes, there is but one bathroom. The Vic tradition includes fighting for street parking, punch and cookies on the dining-room table, mingling with fellow theatergoers – and waiting in line for the facility.
“At the Vic, intermission ends when the toilet stops flushing,” said Wood’s wife, Lorraine.
Walk through the kitchen and down the stairs and you enter another world. The now 75-seat theater has a larger stage area, new carpeting, sound and lights. But anyone who has ever made the walk down the rabbit hole will immediately feel the ghosts of former owners Swartz, Paul Willett and Sterling Jenkins. Or perhaps even the crying nun Willett insisted always occupied the back row.
“They are absolutely all here,” said actor Terry Ann Watts, the Vic’s resident caretaker. “There is always a sense of someone else being around. Energy changes around the house.”
Watts says the ghosts are welcoming, and often come to her rescue. “If I need a hammer and I have just looked everywhere, I’ll say, ‘OK, you guys, where is it?”‘ said Watts. “I’ll take a breath and walk away for a few minutes, and when I come back, it will be there. Now you might say, ‘Get a grip,’ but it happens all the time.” The ghosts have even been known to help with the cleaning.
When Pam Clifton owned the Vic and lived there alone in 1991, she remembers when a repairman came to fix the furnace. “All of the sudden we could hear this ‘clink, clink, clink,’ on the piano from the stage area,” she said. “We both raised up and looked at each other and he said, ‘Are you the only one home?’ and I nodded, ‘Yeah.’ Then we hear this ‘clink, clink, clink’ again and he says … ‘Do you have a cat?’ And I laughed and said, ‘No.’ Both of us were totally freaked out because it can be so spooky down there.
“But then all of a sudden I realized something and shouted, ‘Oh wait a minute … I do have a cat!” And it was on the piano.
The Vic’s history is full of legends and lies, just like every great old theater. Its alumni include prominent local actors and directors such as Dodd, Joe Abramo, Jack Casperson, Elgin Kelley, Jeremy Cole, Denise Perry-Olson, Deb Persoff, Scott Gibson, Jim Hunt and the late Dale Stewart.
David Ogden Stiers (“M*A*S*H”) attended a Vic production of Dodd’s play “O Bury Me Not” in 1989 and was so impressed with his writing he later agreed to direct Dodd’s “Amateur Night at the Big Heart” in its world premiere at the Arvada Center in 1992.
When the theater went dark in 2001, it seemed for good. It was old and in need of modernization. Newer theaters were proliferating all over the metro area. But when Mary Lynn Green put the Vic on the market, Wade Wood could not resist. He is set to retire as an air traffic controller in 18 months. “So he must not have enough stress in his life,” said Lorraine.
When Wade came home and told his wife he wanted to buy the Vic, her face went pale. But she knew her husband’s heart was set. “Who needs a 401(k)?” she joked. “It’s like trying to fight the sun rising. You just have to go with it.”
The Woods bought the Vic for $375,000. Wade’s modest goal is only “to get the place to pay for itself.” If all goes well, he will be hosting plays and neighborhood haunted houses for years, until it’s time for him to join the ghosts of Swartz and Willett and the crying nun.
“I think the ghosts like what we are doing,” Wood said. “And when I go, I’m looking forward to joining them.”
In the meantime, he’s considering honoring Swartz with a Shakespeare production.
“I’d have to do ‘the Scottish play,”‘ he said. “And then maybe we could get George to come out and make a cameo.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
Victorian History
ADDRESS|4201 Hooker St.
BUILT|House 1908, theater 1911
1911-37|Bungalow Theatre, owned by George S. Swartz
1944-54|Mormon Church
1956-59|Actors Studio 29,Paul Willett
1959-64|Theatre Innovations,Taggart Deike
1964-84|Gaslight Theatre, Paul Willett
1985-91|Victorian Theatre, Sterling Jenkins
1991-93|Pam Clifton
1993-2001|Mary Lynn Green
2005-|Wade and Lorraine Wood
“Voice of the Prairie”
DRAMA|Victorian Theatre, 4201 Hooker St.|Written by John Olive|Directed by Terry Dodd|Starring Arthur Goodman, Katie Paxton and Harry Cruzan|THROUGH OCT. 16|7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sundays|$18-$20|303-433-4343
