Since Jamie Horton joined Denver Center Theatre Company in 1983, he has performed in nearly 75 plays there. After 23 years, he leaves as the senior member of the acting company to assume a professorship at Dartmouth that began Friday. On the eve of his departure, while preparing for the opening of “cowboyily,” which he is directing for the Creede Repertory Theatre, Horton gave an exclusive exit interview to The Denver Post:
Q: What’s your outlook going into this new challenge?
JH: Very excited indeed. Put that together with a healthy dose of sadness about leaving, and you have my emotional state pretty well tagged. That goes for my family as well. It’s an ideal gig for me at this juncture. This job is going to encourage me to continue my professional career, so the brand-new horizon is incredibly exciting to me.
Q: What will you be teaching?
JH: Directing and acting. The first show I will be directing is “Arms and the Man.”
Q: What does it mean for you to be returning to Hanover, N.H.?
JH: A wonderful circle is being completed for me because this was the place where I did my first semiprofessional gig in 1972 at the age of 17, and now I will be directing on that very same stage. I went to Hanover High School, which is the same place my son Oliver will be going.
Q: What do you think you are going to miss the most?
JH: My artistic family, and what is for my wife Nancy and me truly home. That part of it is tough. We have very deep roots here. This is the longest-standing home we have ever had. Both my kids were born in Denver. That’s home.
Q: What’s the one role you’ll be happy to be remembered for?
JH: It’s really difficult for me to narrow down to one. Frank in “Spokesong” (1983-84), because that was my first with the Denver Center Theatre Company. Sweeney in “World of Mirth” (1986-87). Phillip in “Orphans” (1986-87). Norman in “The Dresser,” because it was with Anthony Church (1995-96). Oscar Wilde in “Gross Indecency” (1999-2000). Dalton Trumbo in “Trumbo: Red White and Blacklisted” for Curious (2004).
Q: As you leave it behind, for now, how do you assess the state of the American regional theater and its future?
JH: The trend is toward not having regular companies, and since that has been the cornerstone of my experience at the DCTC, that is something that concerns me a good deal. It also concerns me that times are leaner and budgets are leaner. But I know, given the love there is for it, and the belief there is in it, there are solutions out there for places like the DCTC. I think the future can be quite bright.
Q: Artistic director Kent Thompson is doing exactly what he said he would do: He did not make a clean sweep when he arrived. He featured many inherited DCTC veterans in his first season while blending in a healthy dose of new faces. It looks like there will be more of that this coming season. So while we’ll see some of your friends in occasional leading roles, we certainly won’t see them in multiple leading roles again. What’s your take on this gradual transition away from the DCTC of old?
JH: It is too early to tell. I would be less than honest if I didn’t say that with regard to the people I have grown close to, some of that makes me sad. On the other hand, change is inevitable with a new artistic director, and Kent needs to be given the time to see where all of that is going to land. It may be that you see Kathy Brady come back in a more substantial way in a couple of seasons. One just doesn’t know. As you said yourself, this is what he said he’d do, and in actual fact, this transition is totally his prerogative, and I think he’s handled it really well. Let’s give the guy some time and see what happens.
Q: Have you made any plans to be back in Denver yet?
JH: I am coming back to do several readings for Stories on Stage, and a reading for the Tattered Cover. It’s my fondest hope that my relationship with the DCTC will be ongoing.
Q: But if the academic year runs parallel to the DCTC season, how is that possible?
JH: Dartmouth is on a quarter system. I will be off one quarter per year, and not necessarily the summer quarter. So there is some significant flexibility.
Q: You have branched out in recent years, acting for Curious and directing for Creede Rep. How do you assess the overall quality of theater in Colorado?
JH: I have done two or three projects for Curious now, which I have enjoyed immensely. And I look around and see a lot of other theater companies that are growing and doing exciting seasons. I think it’s a very promising time right now.
Q: Talk about your final local directing project for now, “cowboyily.” It’s written by one DCTC pal, Steven Cole Hughes, and stars another, Mike Hartman.
JH: I love working at Creede. It’s a great spot. I admire Maurice LaMee and what his company does here. To work on this play of Steve’s is a joy, and I am really thrilled to be working with Mike. The play, I think, is a very, very good piece. It’s about two unlikely friends and how they cross paths, and what they absorb from one another and learn from one another. It is about things that are fairly significant in our country right now. The country is so divided right now, and this play deals with some of the issues that separate the so-called blue voters and the red voters. Steve says there is a little bit of both these characters in him. I think it’s intriguing right now to take a look at the things that separate us, and the things that have a chance of pulling us back together. It’s not an obviously political play by any means; it’s about these two individuals. But its themes are large.
Q: Any final words?
JH: Oh, wow. That is an emotionally charged thing. I guess I would say a profound and colossal thanks to (former artistic director) Donovan Marley, to Kent, to everybody in the theatrical community – and to the community as a whole. I don’t want this to sound final, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say how wonderful a place it has been to live and to grow, and for that I am profoundly grateful. And I hope like hell I will be back.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“cowboyily”
COMEDY-DRAMA | Creede Repertory Theatre, 124 N. Main St., Creede | Written by Steven Cole Hughes | Directed by Jamie Horton | Starring Hughes and Mike Hartman | THROUGH SEPT. 23 | 8 p.m. today, dates then vary | 90 minutes with no intermission | $18-$25 | 719-658-2540, 866-658-2540, creederep.org
