The most significant transition of power in the nearly three-decade history of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts sailed nearly under the radar last week.
Daniel L. Ritchie quietly assumed the chairmanship from founder Donald R. Seawell, who remains as “chairman emeritus.”
President Randy Weeks said the transition has been both smooth and a bit unsettling. “It’s a test, because none of us knows what it’s like to have any other chairman,” he said.
Ritchie’s three immediate goals are hardly modest. The first? “Putting Denver at the top of the heap of the theatrical world,” he said. “That may sound outlandish, but I don’t think it is.”
Second is to boost fundraising, which Ritchie said will take time and patience. “But there are a lot of people interested in getting involved, and getting involved in a major way,” he said.
Third is to address the critical parking shortage around the Denver Performing Arts Complex. “That open block catty-corner to us across 14th Street will be filled one of these days,” he said. “With only 700 parking spots and 10,000 seats in the complex, we have a problem we have to solve now. It’s absolutely imperative.”
Ritchie also plans to reach out to other local theaters and performing groups such as the Colorado Ballet, Colorado Symphony Orchestra and Opera Colorado. “I want to see how we can help one another,” he said. “In some ways we are competitors, but mostly we help one another – or we should, anyway.”
Ritchie expects Seawell to remain active in the role of “senior statesman and advisor,” and Weeks said Seawell has left a marvelous foundation.
“This is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning,” said Weeks, paraphrasing Winston Churchill. “The future is all ahead of us.”
Blizzard impact
The holiday snowstorms of ’06 hit every operating theater, none more severely than the Denver and Arvada centers.
The Denver Center lost 10 performances, including three of the national touring production of “All Shook Up,” plus sold-out houses of “A Christmas Carol,” “Season’s Greetings” and “How I Lost My Denverginity.” Some patrons were shifted to later performances, but opportunities were limited as all four shows were in their final week.
Weeks said a final accounting will show losses running into six figures. Considering “All Shook Up” was averaging 1,800 tickets sold, total lost seats for all shows will approach 7,000.
The Arvada Center canceled six performances of its hit musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Performing arts director Kathy Kuehn said that represents 718 tickets and about $25,000 in losses. She said 81 percent of affected patrons took a credit for a future show rather than a refund, but that’s in effect lost revenue on future shows.
“It’s staggering,” she said.
Broadway babies …
DCTC alumna Morgan Hallett stars in the Broadway revival of Irishman Brian Friel’s “Translations,” opening Jan. 25 …
Denver’s Deidra Brooks is making her Broadway debut in “The Color Purple” as an understudy to five roles. Brooks primarily performed with church groups here, while earning a degree to practice radiology from PIMA Medical College in Westminster. “I was the minister of music for the Unity Church of God in Christ for five years until my husband began to pastor just six months ago,” she said.
Briefly …
The new Crossroads Theatre has been further delayed by weather, construction and permit difficulties, but Kurt Lewis hopes to open March 15 with “Bold Girls,” written by Rona Munro and directed by Anthony Powell …
Western State College will host the 2007 Rocky Mountain Theatre Association’s annual Festivention from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3 in Gunnison. Keynote speaker is acclaimed playwright Lee Blessing, and one area of emphasis is on the burgeoning field of entertainment engineering (970-943-2025) …
No peeking: With the closing of Second City’s “Denverginity,” guess who has Colorado’s longest-running show? It’s Playwright’s “The Big Bang,” extended through Jan. 27 …
Truth: I had a major soft spot for the “Denverginity” cast, who would have loved staying on in Denver beyond the show’s Dec. 31 closing. But don’t shed a tear for Amber Ruffin: She’s heading to the big leagues: Second City’s mainstage Chicago show …
And finally: Congratulations to El Centro Su Teatro’s John Kuebler, whose “The Night Stubbin Watts Jumped the Hedge” is a finalist in the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s contemporary short-play competition.
It is being given a staged reading tonight by the Kentucky theater company’s apprentice actors.
This week’s theater openings
TUE-JAN. 14|National touring production of “Hairspray” (at the Buell Theatre)
THU-FEB. 4|PHAMALy’s “Our Town” (at the Aurora Fox)
FRI-FEB. 17|Victorian Playhouse’s “Twelfth Night”
FRI-FEB. 11|Town Hall Arts Center’s “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”|LITTLETON
FRI-JAN. 28|Fine Arts Center’s “The Last Night of Ballyhoo”|COLORADO SPRINGS
FRI-MARCH 3|Miners Alley Playhouse’s “Deathtrap”|GOLDEN
FRI-FEB. 3|Spotlight’s “Arsenic and Old Lace” (at the E-Project)|LAKEWOOD
FRI-MARCH 18|Union Colony Dinner Theatre’s “The Taffetas”|GREELEY
SAT-FEB. 24|Curious’ “Aphrodisiac”
This week’s theater closings
TODAY|Cabaret Dinner Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol”|GRAND JUNCTION
JAN. 14|Country Dinner Playhouse’s “Phantom”|GREENWOOD VILLAGE
