It was sure to be the feel-good story of the year: On March 7, after months of negotiations, Denver’s only black theater was notified that the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ board of trustees had approved its request to rent the underused Jones Theatre.
The award-winning little Shadow Theatre Company was moving less than a mile but a world away.
Leading the troupe’s triumphant drive to the big time would be Shadow artistic director Jeffrey Nickelson, a graduate of the DCPA’s own National Theatre Conservatory. This past Friday was to be opening night of Shadow’s “Waitin’ 2 End Hell,” a gritty drama directed by Charles Weldon and starring Harvy Blanks, two veterans of the Denver Center’s resident theater company who often get work there only during Black History Month.
And the arrangement would prove mutually beneficial if Shadow helped build crossover audiences for Kent Thompson, the new Denver Center Theatre Company artistic director whose top priority is diversifying his company, programming and patron base. “Waitin”‘ would end just eight days before Thompson’s highly anticipated “Crowns,” by black playwright Regina Taylor, opens in the Stage Theatre next door.
There was no apparent downside for anyone.
But less than 24 hours later, after a meeting between Thompson, DCPA president Randy Weeks and DCPA founder Donald R. Seawell, the offer was suddenly rescinded. Weeks says there was no offer to rescind, but Nickelson has an e-mail from Weeks dated March 7 that reads, “Good news. We have permission to move ahead from the board” – though it goes on to say, “There is an issue or two to discuss before we push the go button.”
Regardless, this feel-good story soon devolved into one of hurt feelings, charges of racism and lingering questions about what, if any, obligation Denver’s regional performing-arts center has to open its doors to the rest of its community.
“We need to truly look at what we are as an organization,” said Weeks. “In the end, are we a landlord or are we a theater company?”
The answer, from now on at least, is clearly the latter. “The policy we are going to is that we do not present a (play) that we do not produce,” Weeks said. “There is a perception that if any theatrical presentation is in one of our buildings, then we have produced it. And that is the concern.”
As elitist as that sounds, it does not explain why the local handicapped theater troupe PHAMALy, which has performed at the Denver Center annually since 1992, and Stories on Stage (since 2003) remain welcome. Weeks said those groups are grandfathered.
But something doesn’t fit. In November, Weeks entered into a long-term co-producing partnership with Second City. In January, the primarily black Cleo Parker Robinson Dance ensemble was told it could no longer rent the Space Theatre after six years.
Asks Nickelson: “Are the two (most) prominent African-American performing-arts organizations in the region being systematically excluded from the major performing-arts complex in the city at the very time the Denver Center Theatre Company claims to be committed to supporting women and people of color?”
Weeks offers an emphatic rebuttal, pointing out he also just turned down a request to move the runaway hit “Menopause the Musical” from the New Denver Civic Theatre. The race card rings hollow, too, when you consider that when times were flush, the DCPA gave Robinson a $200,000 annual cash stipend. The gift was suspended in 2004 because of budget woes Weeks says have become worse than ever.
All the more reason, one would think, to accept a cash infusion from Shadow.
“All I can say is that would not fall under the existing policy,” Weeks said. “We need to be able to program our own spaces to create our own revenue.”
Sadly, none of the explanations for the Shadow reversal completely holds water. So what if some might mistake a Shadow play for the DCTC when any cast would be made up largely of DCTC actors anyway? If quality really is the issue, consider that Shadow and PHAMALy put on two of the best shows in town last year.
The one remotely plausible explanation is also the most troubling: If quality is truly the concern here, is it possible the real issue is not whether the rental production might not be good enough – but whether it might be too good?
Back-to-back offerings of “Waitin’ 2 End Hell” and “Crowns” would have been the loudest announcement in DCPA history that it welcomes Denver’s black audiences year-round. But in truth, the black community is only 13 percent of Denver’s population, and its
theatergoing members constitute a fairly small base. Is it possible the DCPA doesn’t want to risk diluting its potential audience for “Crowns” by having it follow the Shadow production so soon?
“Oh, God no,” Weeks said. “Competition has nothing to do with any of this.”
Nickelson, of course, disagrees. “It’s all about competition,” he said.
Sadly, this incident never would have happened if the city had succeeded in building its still-planned $5 million studio theater as part of its Ellie Caulkins Opera House renovation. That space is still intended to provide a home for tiny community arts groups like Shadow.
Regardless, Nickelson is walking away from the place he once called home bruised but with a renewed sense of purpose. He does not want to be perceived as a victim, and he does not blame Weeks.
“I don’t want anyone at the Denver Center to get the idea that, ‘Oh, we’re sad because ‘massah’ didn’t let us in,”‘ Nickelson said. “We have a whole intelligent, educated community of African-Americans in this city, and the fact that we don’t have our own arts incubator for a black organization is our fault. It’s our responsibility.
“It’s time for us in 2006 to stop begging other communities for handouts. We don’t need that. What we need to do is to come together as a community and celebrate the power of the arts we have in this region.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
A complex situation
The Denver Performing Arts Complex was built by Donald Seawell in 1972 around the existing, city-owned Auditorium Theater, now the Ellie Caulkins Opera House:
City-owned: The Buell Theatre and Boettcher Concert Hall were built and are owned and operated by the city.
DCPA: The Denver Center for the Performing Arts consists of two presenting organizations – Denver Center Attractions (for national tours), and the Denver Center Theatre Company.
Bonfils: The Bonfils Theatre Complex – the Stage, Space, Ricketson and Jones theaters, and the Seawell Ballroom – are built on land owned by the city. Seawell returned them to the city in exchange for a $1-per-year lease through 2049. The DCPA controls the Bonfils Theatre Complex facilities and leases the Galleria Theatre; the city runs the others.
