After the first table reading of Jamie Horton’s first play with the Denver Center Theatre Company in 1983, incoming artistic director Donovan Marley whispered to actor Robynn Rodriguez, “You build whole seasons around an actor like that.”
And he did – for the next two decades.
Since then, “Jamie has become the conscience of the DCTC,” Rodriguez said.
“And the face,” added DCTC alum Jamie Newcomb. That expressive, consternated, malleable, fabulous face. Over time, the face that has transformed itself from role to role and year to year with such apparent ease has become the most recognized face on any Denver Center stage.
As the DCTC undergoes its first leadership transition since 1984, Horton is the only actor to have survived and soliloquized his way through 100 plays, 23 seasons and three regimes. In a time of major upheaval, his is the granite, New England-bred face of stability.
“When Denver audiences go to see Jamie perform, there is a familiarity and a comfort there in that they know they will be taken care of, and they know the story will be well told,” said Newcomb, now a member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. “There is a reason some people like Tom Hanks or Johnny Depp. They feel connected to them in some way.
“The people of Denver feel connected to Jamie Horton. When he walks onstage, it’s like seeing an old friend.”
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“A Flea in Her Ear”
FARCE|Written by Georges Feydeau|Directed by Kent Thompson| Starring Jamie Horton, John Hutton, Kathleen M. Brady, Bill Christ| Stage Theatre, 14th and Curtis streets|THROUGH NOV. 5|6:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 1:30 p.m. Saturday matinee|$29-$45|303-893-4100, denvercenter.org, King Soopers stores or TicketsWest, 866-464-2626 |
Horton has appeared as everything from a man who believes bicycles will be man’s salvation in 1983’s “Spokesong,” to a comically villainous senator in April’s “The Madwoman.” His many momentous roles in between have included imprisoned homosexual author Oscar
Wilde (“Gross Indecency”) and a crushingly lonely fake math professor in the world premiere of “Bernice/Butterfly.”
From the first read-through of ‘Spokesong,’ I knew this was the guy who would raise the bar on any production he was going to be a part of,” Rodriguez said. “Can you even imagine how hollow life would be without seeing him on those stages?”
So when Kent Thompson took over as artistic director this year and announced he would introduce himself by directing Georges Feydeau’s comic bedroom farce “A Flea in Her Ear,” of course he turned to Horton for not one but two leading roles. For it is not just Horton’s longevity that has earned him the respect of audiences and peers alike. It is his charisma, confidence and comic timing. It’s the specificity, meticulousness, generosity and curiosity he brings not only to every performance, but every rehearsal.
“Jamie just has a remarkable work ethic, and boy does he have the lion’s share of business in this play,” Thompson said. “He’s a very funny and smart man, and he’s constantly trying to make it better.”
In many ways, Horton’s professional growth has mirrored the company’s. When he arrived, the Denver Center was on the edge of a downtown as dead as a doornail. Storefronts were abandoned, audiences of a dozen were not uncommon and the company’s relationship with the media “was distinctly unfriendly,” Horton recalled. “There definitely was a different feeling then, as opposed to the celebratory arts environment we have here now.”
Horton was a production worker, writer and actor in Los Angeles – unfortunately, in that order – when he got an offer from Dartmouth College pal Peter Hackett to spend a year at the DCTC. Hackett was an interim hire charged with keeping things nailed down for a year while Marley prepared his takeover.
Horton was conflicted. He had just written an episode for the hit NBC drama “St. Elsewhere” titled “The Blizzard.” He was making more money than he ever had – or ever would – in the theater. But L.A. is a place where you take the jobs that come your way. Horton had even worked as a script consultant for a “Porky’s” rip-off called “The Party Animal,” in which Denver’s Lucy Roucis plays a flatulent Italian countess. It is an experience he can laugh about – now.
“I knew something was not sitting quite right with me in my professional life, and it was that I wasn’t acting enough,” he said. “It’s hard to think of my life without the stage.”
He talked things over with his wife, Nancy, who shrugged and said, “I married an actor.” Their decision was finalized on a hike to the summit of California’s Mount Whitney. “A moment of clarity at high altitude,” Horton calls it. So he and his high school sweetheart – now wife of 28 years – came. They stayed because they felt immediately at home, they raised two kids and never really wanted to be anywhere else.
“I always knew this was where I wanted to stay as long as I was challenged in my work,” Horton said, “which I continue to be.” The rest, Rodriguez said, “is DCTC history.”
Horton remembers that first season as glorious. He was cast in “Spokesong,” “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “Arms and the Man.”
“My first impressions were that (original DCTC artistic director) Ed Call had gotten a pretty damn fine company together, and that I simply had to get my muscles back in shape in every way,” he said.
His company mates included Newcomb, Rodriguez, Caitlin O’Connell, Glenna Kelly, donnie l. betts and Julian Gamble, who starred this year in Broadway’s “Democracy.” Three months after Horton’s arrival he was joined by the legendary Archie Smith, already 68 and a Broadway veteran who would continue to inspire Horton even after his death last year at 86. “This was my first job in the regional theater,” said Horton, “but I liked to joke with Archie that I was the senior company member just because I beat him here by three months.”
For there to be a second season, Horton had to survive a day still called “Black Monday” – when Marley cleaned house to make room for 66 of his own former company’s members. Horton knew little of Marley other than “thinking he was a very large man, and that this was the big cheese you had to impress, or you wouldn’t be coming back.”
But 1984-85 was the start of a stunning collaboration, with Marley staging 245 productions, 75 of them world premieres, while building one of the most stable resident companies in the nation. It included such stardom-bound actors as Annette Bening and Robert Westenberg, plus others who would share their professional journeys with Horton every step of the way, including Kathleen M. Brady, John Hutton and Bill Christ – all of whom co-star in “A Flea in Her Ear.”
The high points, Horton said, are easy to pinpoint. “It’s the work,” he said. The low points are just as evident, the deaths of company members, including actor James Lawless, designer Andrew Yelusich and Smith. “This is a real family of people, and the loss of those friends was pretty significant,” he said.
Horton, 50, takes Smith’s legacy seriously but not singularly. “Archie would say it is all of our responsibilities to foster and encourage the growth of the young students here,” he said.
The tremor of 2005, Horton said, doesn’t compare with the tumult of 1984. Thompson has brought in only about 25 new faces, and Horton describes the atmosphere as optimistic.
“The one thing that is clear to me about all three artistic directors I have worked with is their shared vision,” he said. “Their commitment to new work, to the overall quality of the work and to the importance of the artistry.
“Kent has great dreams and visions for this place, and as we continue to develop, the challenges can be even greater. And we embrace those challenges, because why else bother to do the work?”
Horton can’t fathom a guess whether he’ll still be here when he’s 86. Other creative urges may one day call him away – perhaps directing, writing or teaching. With Marley’s support, he wrote a poignant 2002 screenplay called “A Rumor of Angels.” The movie starred Vanessa Redgrave and Ray Liotta.
“But I do know the stage will continue to be part of my life, no matter what,” he said. “It drives me, challenges me, rewards me. And it is so deep in my bones, I am sure it will always be there.
“It’s been one fascinating professional journey to be here over this long a period of time. No matter what happens next, this is home.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
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A Denver stage icon
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Boston, grew up overseas in England and Egypt, where his father was a professor at American University … Moved to New Hampshire in sixth grade … Graduated from Princeton …Spent 1975 working at Keystone, but otherwise lived in Los Angeles … Married Nancy in 1976; parents of Oliver, 16, and Jenna, 19 … Moved to Denver and joined Denver Center Theatre Company in 1983.
SOME FAVORITE ROLES
Lord Fancourt Babberley in eighth-grade “Charley’s Aunt”:
“That’s when I knew how much I loved the stage.”
Frank in DCTC’s “Spokesong” (1983-84):
“Because that was the first.”
Sweeney in DCTC’s “World of Mirth” (1986-87):
“I feel most alive when I can sense some new door opening inside of me.”
Phillip in DCTC’s “Orphans” (1986-87):
“Because it was with dear friends James Lawless and Jamie Newcomb, and directed by Frank Georgianna.”
Norman in DCTC’s “The Dresser” (1995-96)
“It was glorious because of Tony Church.”
Oscar Wilde in DCTC’s “Gross Indecency” (1999-2000):
“That was a powerful experience.”
Dalton Trumbo: in Curious’ “Trumbo: Red White and Blacklisted” (2004):
“That got very deep into my artistic and political bones.”
WRITING HIGHLIGHTS
“St. Elsewhere”: Co-wrote episode titled “The Blizzard,” aired January 1984 … “Top of the World”: 1993 film co-written by Brock Seawell, son of DCPA founder Donald Seawell … “A Rumor of Angels”: Acclaimed film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Ray Liotta, 2002.
DIRECTING HIGHLIGHTS
“Inna Beginning,” starring Paul Michael Valley, for DCTC, 2001 … “Pan & Boone” at Creede Repertory Theatre, 2003 … “Fiction,” starring John Hutton, opens May 13 at Curious Theatre Company.
AWARDS
Include 2003 William & Eva Fox Foundation grant to further his acting training in New York … 2004 Denver Post Ovation Award for best season by any Colorado actor.
DCTC’S MOST VETERAN ACTORS
(by starting year):
Jamie Horton: 1983
Harvy Blanks: 1985
Kathleen M. Brady: 1985
John Hutton: 1986
Leslie O’Carroll: 1987
