Even the drive to the mountain wonderland of Aspen can seem unreal. The haul up Independence Pass in summertime can require both your defroster and air conditioner. Around hairpin turns, clouds might actually hover below you.
When you arrive, it’s into a playground where the locals now bemoan “the billionaires are kicking out the millionaires.”
A night at Theatre Aspen is no less surreal. Outside a state-of-the-art theater plopped under a tent in the middle of a park, Broadway producers of both “Bombay Dreams” and “A Color Purple” mill separately. Both happen to own properties in this strange town, one where an initial $5 million plan for a new performing arts center drew nothing but ambivalence. A revised $50 million plan is drawing out checkbooks.
In Aspen, if it’s not done big, it’s not worth doing at all.
“It’s good to have dreams,” said smiling Theatre Aspen artistic director David McClendon. “And it’s really good to have billionaires who can pay for those dreams.”
That dream is for his company to anchor a synergistic arts venue in partnership with the local ballet, symphony and orchestra in a combined multidisciplinary venture.
In Colorado’s mountains, dreams vary only by degree, yet none are less grandiose than those held by prospectors who came here 150 years ago to pursue precious ores.
For the Creede Repertory Theatre, nestled 250 miles southwest of Denver in a remote patch of forest, the dreams are as lofty as its 9,000-foot elevation. But it has built those dreams for 41 years, growing into the largest employer in Mineral County by presenting up to 10 plays annually for audiences of up to 19,000. Not bad for a town where the 2000 census pegged the year-round population at 377.
That kind of success has buoyed artistic director Maurice LaMee to fashion seasons that are crowd-pleasing, innovative, button-pushing and professional.
This summer includes a rare staging of Stephen Sondheim’s operatic “Sweeney Todd,” one of the first area productions of the Tony-nominated play “Enchanted April,” the tap spectacle “Crazy for You” and the world premiere of the Old West tale “cowboyily.” In all, a fifth of LaMee’s more than 50 productions since 2000 have been world premieres.
That kind of diverse lineup draws not only audiences but some of the nation’s best talent. And Creede, like Aspen, has become a summer home for some of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s top artists. This year’s directing lineup includes Anthony Powell and Jamie Horton. “I believe this is our best year since I’ve been here,” said LaMee.
McClendon believes his $50 million Aspen dream will come true because in the Colorado mountains, magic doesn’t just happen on the stage. It happens under the nearby canopy, “where I’m sure there’s a billion dollars here just tonight,” McClendon said.
“From the beginning,” he added,” “this has been a place of magic.”
Magic whose wand carries unlimited credit.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
Aspen: New Yorker is ready for “Dinner”
Rick Stear, below, lives in New York, so the actor played it cool when he and his three “Dinner With Friends” castmates recently ran into Bill Clinton and Colin Powell leaving an Aspen restaurant. Neal David Seible “put his hand on his shoulder,” Stear said with a laugh. “I was the only one who didn’t actually touch the ex-president.”
But, OK, he admits, “I was the only one geeky enough to take pictures.”
Stear, a native of Allentown, Pa., who starred in “Lobby Hero” for the Denver Center Theatre Company in 2003, swears he would never gawk at a movie star. “I’m used to running into celebrities,” he said. “I am not used to seeing politicians.”
Stear joined David McClendon’s professional ensemble in Aspen last year, enticed in part by a brother who has lived there for six years. It works perfectly for his schedule to leave New York’s slow theater season – and unbearable humidity – behind. From one unreal paradise to another.
“Aspen is a small town, but it’s not a poor town,” Stear said. “And when you get all that money in one spot, that’s also what’s dangerous about it.”
Stear loves being with his brother, he loves to hike and raft, “and I love working for David because I know there are going to be good roles for me here. It’s a beautiful town, and hopefully the theater is just going to get bigger and better.”
In the meantime, none of his big-city pals has heard his Clinton tale. They’re hard to impress.
“But I did tell my mom,” he said.
Cripple Creek: A daughter gambles on tradition
When Wayne Mackin died on opening night of 2003, the Cripple Creek Players nearly died with him. Gambling had killed the company once, and with Mackin’s death, “Our hearts kind of fell out of it,” said his granddaughter, Stacy Mackin-McLeod, right.
The CCP began in 1946 presenting classic melodramas just as they were staged in the 1890s. But the Mackins sold their Imperial Hotel after the introduction of gambling in 1992, and the troupe folded four years later.
By 2000, the town had elegantly refurbished its Butte Opera House but had nothing to put in it. So Stacy’s parents, Bonnie and Steve Mackin, revived the Cripple Creek Players, with Stacy as house manager.
Wayne Mackin’s death, though, “really forced the city to decide what they wanted to do,” Mackin-
McLeod said. They wanted a year-round home for movies, community theater and those famous melodramas – and they hired Stacy to make it happen.
Ironically, the same gaming industry that was the death knell to so many longtime businesses had now flatlined. Gambling now so proliferated that it was no longer enough of a destination industry. Now it would take nongaming businesses like a playhouse to give gamblers and tourists more reasons to choose Cripple Creek.
Today the Cripple Creek Players draws up to 10,000 people per production, and the local casinos are some of their major sponsors – even providing some support for their primarily college-age casts who hail mostly from the University of Arizona.
“Carrying on my grandparents’ tradition is so important to me,” Mackin-McLeod said. “It’s my passion.”
Trinidad: The vision came first, then the money
Harriet Vaugeois admits to taking certain liberties when she directed the 20-year revival of “Hair” for her Los Angeles theater company in 1987. What she wasn’t expecting was to see writer James Rado in her opening-night audience. She had turned her cast into the children of the “Hair” generation.
“I bowed before him and said, ‘Everything you are about to see is my fault,”‘ she said. But not only did Rado approve of her changes, they incorporated some into subsequent revivals.
After their careers in the L.A. theater, Harriet and Fred Vaugeois, right, retired to Trinidad to, well, retire. That was 2000. Hasn’t happened yet. They started the Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre in ’02, and in ’05 they found a champion in Mark Danielson, a local business magnate and now their president.
“The town lost mining in the 1950s, and by 1990 the downtown was all but boarded up,” Danielson said. At one point, 40 percent of the dwindling population was on some kind of government aid.
Today the town of nearly 10,000 is thriving again, as is the SCRT, which has aspirations of becoming a major professional regional theater company for southern Colorado within 10 years. The principals know they have a long way to go. They still perform at the local college, and some of the actors are as green as green gets. But they believe the key to their success is a synergistic vision shared by the theater and business communities. “What we know to be true is that money follows vision,” Danielson said.
And just as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival gave Ashland its identity, Fred said, “we are going to be the jewel of southern Colorado one day. But whatever Harriet and I have given to it will have to be surpassed by those who follow.”
Creede: Broadway actor gets big chance
Five months ago, while Patrick Ryan Sullivan, below, was starring in the off-Broadway play “Bingo,” his understudy asked if there were one dream role he would jump at the chance to play – even if it meant not getting paid.
“I said, ‘Sweeney Todd,”‘ said Sullivan, who gets to play the demonic barber who shaved 160 people just a little too closely in a production in Creede, a tiny mining town nestled 250 miles southwest of Denver. And what do you know: He gets paid for it.
“I have been looking to play this part for eight years,” Sullivan said. “You don’t see it being done all that often, so I jumped at the chance to do it here.
“Whether it’s New York or here in Creede, it’s no different when you’re on the stage. It’s the role.”
Sullivan, who starred on Broadway as Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast” and played Julian in the 2003 national tour of “Crazy for You” that came through Denver, was in Aspen in April workshopping a new musical with New York aspirations called “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.” After that, he went to Connecticut to star in a Broadway-bound gospel musical called “St. Heaven,” written by Denver’s Keith Gordon.
Any worries about a New York star in Creede didn’t last long. “I have just been blown away by this place,” said Sullivan, an avid outdoorsman from North Carolina who is reveling in Creede’s four-wheeling, trout fishing and horseback riding.
Colorado’s summer theater in the mountains
You can head for the hills and find live theater by 15 companies ranging from the highest professional standards to spirited community groups. A quick glance, with brief assessment:
Backstage Theatre
Years: 30 | Where: Breckenridge, 81 miles west of Denver | Assessment: Rising community with Denver imports
-AUG. 27 | “The Foreigner”
-AUG. 20 | “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe”
SEPT. 1-3 | “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor …” (concert version)
121 S. Ridge St., 970-453-0199, back stagetheatre.org
Cabaret Dinner Theatre
Years: 8 | Where: Grand Junction, 250 miles west of Denver | Assessment: Draws 50,000-plus per year
-SEPT. 3 | “Fiddler on the Roof”
701 Main St., Grand Junction, CO 81501 877-255-0999, thecabaret.net
Creede Repertory Theatre
Years: 41 | Where: 256 miles southwest of Denver | Assessment: Highest professional standards
-SEPT. 2 | “Crazy for You”
-SEPT. 2 | “The Man Who Shot the Man Who Shot Jesse James”
-SEPT. 2 | “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
-SEPT. 30 | “Enchanted April”
AUG. 18-SEPT. 30 | “cowboyily”
SEPT. 8-30 | “Snake in the Grass”
124 N. Main St., 719-658-2540, 866-658-2540; creederep.org
Crested Butte Mtn. Theatre
Years: 34 | Where: 228 miles southwest of Denver | Assessment: Community
AUG. 17-SEPT. 2 | “Don’t Dress for Dinner”
403 Second St., 970-349-0366
Cripple Creek Players
Years: 55 | Where:115 miles south of Denver | Assessment: Classic melodramas, mostly by skilled college students
-SEPT. 3 | “My Partner”
Butte Opera House, 719-689-2513; 800-500-2513; cripplecreekplayers.com
Evergreen Players
Years: 56 | Where: 30 miles west of Denver | Assessment: Rising community
-Aug. 6 | “A Year With Frog and Toad”
27608 Fireweed Drive, 303-674-4934, www.evergreenplayers.orgIron Springs Chateau
Years: 40 | Where: Manitou Springs, 77 miles south of Denver | Assessment: Melodramas
-OCT. 14 | “The Shame of Maudie Jones, or, A Fate Worse Than Death”
444 Ruxton Ave., Manitou Springs, 719-685-5104
Lake Dillon Theatre Company
Years: 10 | Where: 68 miles west of Denver | Assessment: Small and occasionally super
-AUG. 17 | “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” (Thursdays only at the Pavilion in Keystone)
-AUG. 14 | “Once on this Island”
AUG. 18-20 | “Gypsy” (Dillon Amphitheatre)
176 Lake Dillon Drive, 970-513-9386, lakedillontheatre.org
Metro Playhouse
Years: 8 | Where: Grand Junction, 250 miles west of Denver | Assessment: Not reviewed
-SEPT. 3 | “Run for Your Wife”
124 North 25th St. Grand Junction; 970-255-0999
Rocky Mountain Rep
Years: 38 | Where: Grand Lake, 100 miles northwest of Denver | Assessment: Primarily highest-caliber college actors
-AUG. 18 | “Singin’ in the Rain”
-AUG. 17 | “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”
-AUG. 19 | “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
AUG. 25-SEPT. 23 | “Almost Heaven: The Songs of John Denver”
1025 Grand Ave., 970-627-3421; rockymountainrep.com
Southern Colorado Rep
Years: 6 | Where: Trinidad, 200 miles south of Denver | Assessment: Community, with a few imports and big aspirations
-AUG. 12 | “The 1940s Radio Hour”
-AUG. 17 | “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”
-AUG. 19 | “Rumors”
Massari Performing Arts Center, 719-846-4765, scrtheatre.com
Stagedoor Theatre
Years: 4 | Where: Aspen, 160 miles southwest of Denver | Assessment: Not reviewed
AUG. 11-26 | “They Came From Mars …”
Aspen Park Village, 25797 Conifer Road, 303-886-2819, stagedoortheatre.org
Theatre Aspen
Years: 23 | Where:Aspen, 160 miles southwest of Denver | Assessment: Highest professional standards
-AUG. 5 | “Love, Janis”
-AUG. 19 | “Dinner With Friends”
-SEPT. 2 | “The Adventures of Johnny Appleseed”
-SEPT. 2 | “Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time…”
400 Rio Grande Place, 970-925-9313, theatreaspen.org
Thunder River Theatre Co.
Years: 12 | Where: Carbondale, 170 miles west of Denver | Assessment: Not reviewed
AUG. 11-13 | “Desperate Affection”
67 Promenade, 970-963-8200, thunderrivertheatre.com
Westcliffe Players
Years: 13 | Where: 150 miles south of Denver | Assessment: Community, with University of Denver students
-TODAY | “The Foreigner”
SEPT. 1-2 | New Rocky Mountain Voices
119 Main St., 719-783-3004, jonestheater.com