That Colorado’s only black theater company was performing in the worst space in the state was sending out the wrong message.
It wasn’t so much that there was no backstage at Shadow Theatre’s old dump on East Colfax Avenue and Ogden Street, or that cast members had to change costumes on the fire escape — even if snow was falling on them.
It was that someone might mistakenly equate facilities with abilities.
“It was embarrassing for us to have such a highly capable body of work, and such a highly educated black community in Denver, and for us to be in a place like that,” said founder Jeffrey Nickelson, whose nadir came the day he discovered three homeless people in his theater — and they had defecated on his floor.
Nickelson was scrubbing the carpet right until his audience arrived that night, thinking, “Oh, my God, how long can I keep doing this?”
And he kept on doing it, for two more years.
“That was actually a blessing,” he said, “because when I would hate that place the most, I would ask myself, ‘If all you had was a garage, is that where you would perform?’ — and the answer was always, ‘Yes.’ That’s how I got through it.”
He’s more than gotten through it. With this week’s 5.5-mile move east to his brand-new, state-of-the-art theater in Aurora, Nickelson and his 11-year-old company have gone from the outhouse to the Taj Mahal.
Ecstatic, he said, is putting it mildly. The poor guy can’t even give a tour of his massive new digs at 1468 Dayton St. without tearing up. And why not? His new lobby, complete with granite bar, is bigger than his entire former theater. One of the pillars has a piece of the Berlin Wall ensconced within it as a symbol of tearing down barriers.
“Everything you are looking at here is impossible,” Nickelson said. “But God makes the impossible possible.”
Move backstage, and there’s a banquet room, rehearsal space, offices and, yes, actual dressing rooms for actors — with showers. There’s free parking for 250.
Then there’s the 191-seat theater itself, which opened Thursday with renowned jazz singer Rene Marie starring in “Dinah Was.” The stage is twice as big as the previous one. It has new seats, new lighting, sound, heat and ventilation systems.
Nickelson calls it “9,400 square feet of pure love.”
The message Shadow is now sending out, Nickelson said, “is that we are presenting something that can be embraced and instill pride, not only in the black community, but in the community at large.”
The new Shadow is fueling Aurora’s revitalized East End Arts Association, which now boasts 26 arts-related businesses near Colfax and Florence Street. Combined with the April 18 opening of the Aurora Fox’s new 75-seat studio theater two blocks to the east, the total number of seats for professional theater in the entire city of Aurora has more than doubled in the past week.
The 240-seat Fox has long been Aurora’s only live theater. Now there are four companies performing in three spaces within two blocks (including Next Stage, the new resident company in the Fox’s studio theater, and the Little Foxes children’s troupe).
Aurora now has an instant theater district that Next Stage founder Gene Kato points out is made up of complementary companies that fill distinct niches.
“All of that means energy,” said Aurora Fox producer Charlie Packard. “It means our street is alive on more nights of the year, and it’s much more alive on those nights.”
This all starts with Shadow’s decision to move east, and that all starts with property owner (and investor) Doug Adams wandering into Boulder’s Dinner Theatre’s landmark 2007 production of “Ragtime,” a collaboration with Shadow starring Nickelson.
“We saw Jeffrey’s performance, and we were amazed,” Adams said. “We said, ‘He has something that needs to be shared in the community.’ ”
Adams hadn’t seen anything yet — not until he visited Shadow’s real home on Ogden Street. It was the Ted Lange comedy, “Soul Survivor.”
” ‘Terrible’ doesn’t even begin to describe that theater,” said Adams. “This was someone who needed to have a bigger and better forum, and we were willing to invest in him to make that work.”
With Adams’ help, the city of Aurora extended to Shadow a fully forgivable $250,000 construction loan from urban-renewal funds — one reason Nickelson fondly calls Adams “one of the rainmakers.”
That kind of assistance, Nickelson said, takes the discussion of our only black theater company “beyond black.”
“Yes, I am a black man, but what we do is human,” he said. “The fact is, this has taken place because of good people, period. We really stepped into a major blessing. You can’t plan that.”
But Shadow is no charity case. It’s expected to bring 12,000 visitors into Aurora’s arts district each year. The city sees Shadow as a driving economic force that will help turn East Colfax into a destination, not a nervous drive- through.
“The hope is that if we keep growing like this,” Adams said, “There won’t be a need for pawnshops here anymore.”
One challenge Shadow and Next Stage face is convincing existing subscribers to move east with them. But as was true with Five Points before, Nickelson thinks negative connotations about East Colfax have become passe. Nearly 40 patrons already have ponied up $1,000 each to get their names on Shadow seats, so you know they’ll be making the drive.
Though Nickelson considered dozens of possibilities for a new Shadow, truth is, he knew he was moving to Aurora the first time he laid eyes on the vacant former health club.
“This is where my spiritual thing comes in,” he said. “Do you see these pillars? They are the same color as my old office. It’s purple, which is passion, which is royalty. I saw that, and I said, ‘This is crazy, but this is it. I know it.’ It was in my spirit.
“I brought (veteran Shadow actor) Vince Robinson over here, and he cried the minute he saw the building — and he’s not a crier.
“We all started out as the Denver Black Arts Company, and so you’re talking about 30 years of wanting to have a home and not having one.
“Well, now, we’re home.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
Shadow Theatre at a glance
1468 Dayton St., Aurora
Capacity: 191
Old capacity: 75
Cost: $500,000
Square feet: 9,400
Municipal loan: $250,000, fully forgivable, from city of Aurora. Company still needs to raise $150,000
Projected first-year attendance: 12,000
Currently playing: “Dinah Was”
Show info: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, 3 p.m. Sundays through May 24; Tickets $25; starring jazz star Rene Marie; directed by Jeffrey Nickelson
Contact: 720-857-8000,
Aurora Fox Studio Theatre at a glance
9900 E. Colfax Ave.
Capacity: 75
Cost: $35,000
Currently playing: “Falsettos” (see review, ticket info, page 13D)
Contact: 303-739-1970, or
Shadow Theatre’s seminal productions
“Innocent Thoughts,” 1997: The first production, by William Downs, explored relations between Jews and African-Americans.
“In Search of Eckstine,” 1997: Billy Eckstine tribute first directed by Israel Hicks, revived twice.
“In or Out! Doing Time?” 2001: Developed by at-risk youth when Colorado was the nation’s leading prison-builder. “We wanted to communicate to young people that prisons were being designed with them in mind to fail,” said Jeffrey Nickelson.
“Flying West,” 2001: This breakout production concerned frontier women and domestic violence. It raised money for the rape victims and explored the concept “that theater is healing,” Nickelson said.
“Fences,” 2001: Denver’s first collaboration between a black and white theater (Curious).
“Not Here,” 2001: Shadow crammed 27 cast members, including the Spirituals Choir, onto its postage-stamp of a stage to present Doug Kaback’s youth-oriented tale of race-based hatred.
“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” 2002: Mary Louise Lee starred in Shadow’s biggest hit.
“Macbeth,” 2003: With a $40,000 budget, this was Shadow’s largest undertaking. Performed at the Mizel Center.
“Top Dog/Underdog,” 2005: Landing the regional premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer-winner was Shadow’s greatest coup.
– Compiled by John Moore
