Richard Thieriot jokes when he calls his imminent MFA degree an acronym for “Masterful Furniture Arranger.”
That’s just what he’s doing at this moment: arranging furniture for an interview including classmate Ailish Riggs about their impending graduation from the Denver Center’s three-year National Theatre Conservatory. Masterfully.
The conservatory’s students are among Denver’s most talented — and sequestered — actors. Since 1984, the congressionally chartered program has turned out 225 grads who regularly find their way to TV, film and Broadway. But while in Denver, they are so deeply involved with their training, it’s as if they have joined the witness-protection program.
“It’s kind of an odd monkhood,” said Thieriot. “It’s eight people stuck inside a room all day, six days a weeks, for three years, and all you do is work on just getting into these characters’ minds. There’s something about that unbroken focus that appealed a great deal to me.”
But in the three years Kent Thompson has run the Denver Center Theatre Company, things have changed a bit. While conservatory students always have been used to fill stages with bodies — think furniture movers — Thompson has given them roles . . . with actual names. Thieriot and Riggs even played opposite each other as Donal and Reba, the black-turned-Irish unmarried servant lovers in “You Can’t Take It With You.”
“Kent actively wanted to more fully integrate conservatory students in with his resident company of actors,” said Riggs, who also played Miss Bingley in “Pride and Prejudice.” “I think we were the first class to really benefit from that.”
Thieriot has also become known outside the Denver Center, joining the Colorado Shakespeare Festival last summer and earning a Denver Post Ovation Award nomination for his portrayal of Mark Antony in “Julius Caesar.”
Each year, more than 450 apply for the conservatory’s eight available slots (that number expands to 10 with the class of 2010). They come from all kinds of backgrounds, and they leave with all kinds of career goals.
Thieriot, 28, grew up in San Francisco. After college, he attended the London Academy of Music, then kicked around in New York, where, he said, “Everything I did was bad, bad, bad.” He was taking a bathroom break from a class when he heard about the conservatory’s auditions. “I wasn’t planning to go to grad school,” he said. “This was the only place I auditioned for. When I got in, I figured it was synchronicity.”
Riggs, also of San Francisco, took an even more circuitous route to Denver. “When I graduated from high school, I moved to Ireland and lived there with my family for 10 years,” said Riggs, “so I didn’t decide to apply to grad school until I was 34.”
Though there is a large community of conservatory alumni living in Colorado, including Shadow Theatre founder Jeffrey Nickelson, Modern Muse co-founder Gabriella Cavallero and Creede Rep artistic director Maurice LaMee, most come back to raise families only after making their way around the theater world.
Riggs already has done that, so she’s staying put. Her goal is to teach voice and speech to adults, in part based on her desire to see vocal traditions, accents and dialects around the world honored.
The students receive full scholarships, including $26,100 per year in tuition plus a weekly stipend that grows to $280 by the third year; bringing the total value of the scholarship to about $111,000 for each student. There are more prestigious conservatories, “but I really did not want to end up with $100,000 of debt afterward — and then go into teaching,” Riggs said with a laugh. “It’s really incredible what they do for you here.”
As a class, the students go before the public only once. The culmination of their training is the performance of two diverse plays in repertory. The challenge stretches the eight actors mightily because they must tackle whatever demands the chosen plays require, whether they are appropriate for the roles or not.
It’s a chance to show them off — as they show them out the door.
This year’s plays are “Harvey” and “The Laramie Project,” which run through April 26 at the Denver Center’s Tramway Theatre.
Both have deep local roots. “Harvey,” the Pulitzer Prize- winning comedy about a man whose best friend is a 6-foot rabbit, was written in 1945 by Denver native Mary Chase. “The Laramie Project,” which was first performed by the Denver Center Theatre Company, marks the 10-year anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s murder.
“It’s daunting, because there’s got to be only one degree of separation here,” Thieriot said. “Everybody in Denver knows somebody who was involved somehow. It was only 10 years ago, it was only an hour and a half away, and the first production was right here. So this one is very close to us.”
And still sadly relevant, said Riggs, who cited the recent murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King by his 14-year-old classmate because he dressed in drag.
“He shot him in the head for that, and I thought, ‘Wow, things haven’t changed that much, and legislation still hasn’t been passed,’ ” Riggs said. “That’s why it’s important that this play be brought to the surface again.”
Once the plays close, it’s off to New York for Thieriot, and off to a classroom near you for Riggs. Thieriot says nothing in his life to date compares to his experience here. For Riggs, it’s been even more meaningful.
“It’s been an extraordinary journey, and for me it’s been as much a personal one as it has been an educational one,” she said. “The past three years I have discovered more about who I am and what’s important to me right now, which is even more valuable to me than the techniques or processes I’ve learned. I’m 37 next week, and I’ve gotten to a place where what’s important to me is a quality of life that I can have here, that I may not be able to have if I’m in New York or San Francisco. And that’s a real gift.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“The Laramie Project” and “Harvey”
Tramway Theatre, 1101 13th St. Directed by Jennifer McCray Rincon and Larry Hecht. Starring Zach Evenson, Michael J. Fulvio, Jennifer Le Blanc, Michael Mallard, Ailish Riggs, Danielle Slavick, Richard Thieriot and Robert Wells III. Through April 26. See below for specific times and dates. $16. 303-893-4100 or
“Harvey” remaining showtimes:
Wednesday, April 16, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 17, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 19, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 23, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, April 25, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 26, 1:30 p.m.
“The Laramie Project” remaining showtimes:
Tuesday, April 15, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, April 18, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 19, 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 22, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 24, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 26, 7:30 p.m.
Listen to interview excerpts
Running Lines with … Richard Thieriot and Ailish Riggs. On this week’s podcast, listen in on John Moore’s interview with the National Theatre Conservatory seniors featured in the story above. . Then click on the miniplayer’s triangular “play” button, and the podcast will begin playing without your having to download. Or, right-click on the “download MP3” option to save a copy to your own desktop. Run time: 16 minutes.
Alumni update
A sampling of updates on what selected National Theatre Conservatory alumni are up to now:
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John Behlmann (’06): Small role in Sam Mendes’ “Revolutionary Road,” starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet.
Liz Benjamin (’93): Producer on the Fox TV series “Bones”; her husband, Nathan Dean (a.k.a. Smith ’93) plays FBI Special Agent Charlie on the show.
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John Clinton Eisner (’93): Recently profiled in American Theatre Magazine for his work as producing director of New York’s Lark Play Development Center.
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Jason Henning (’02): Small role in Russell Crowe film, “3:10 to Yuma.”
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Steven Cole Hughes (’01): Actor/playwright currently appearing in Curious’ “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.” His play, “Billy Hell,” will get its world premiere staging by the Creede Repertory Theatre this August.
Joshua Landay (’05): Timon in the national touring production of “The Lion King.”
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January LaVoy (’02): Noelle Ortiz on the ABC soap, “One Life to Live.”
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Julia Pace Mitchell (’04): Roles in the Jessica Alba film “Meet Bill” and in the 2009 Notorious B.I.G project, “Notorious”
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Jeffrey Nickelson (’93): Founder of Shadow Theatre, which opens in its new Aurora home April 24 with “Dinah Was.”
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Brent Rose (’06): Small role in upcoming Robert DeNiro film, “What Just Happened?”
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Christopher Webb (’03): Just appeared as Louis in the first professional revival of “Angels In America” at Boston Theatre Works.
Compiled by John Moore
