Money may be tight these days, but Newman Center Presents is pressing ahead.
In its just-announced 2009-10 season, the University of Denver’s performing-arts series is not only maintaining the usual size and scope of its lineup, it is undertaking an ambitious new-music festival.
“We’ve been blessed by the support of the university for the mission that we’re on, and we’ve been careful, I hope, and thoughtful in what we’ve planned,” said executive director Stephen Seifert. “Certainly, we did not expand this season, as we had originally intended to do.”
Boosting the center’s optimism has been sellout appearances in recent months by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and Academy of Ancient Music. The latter event was so popular that the center even sold 14 tickets for standing-room only.
“What we’ve seen in the current season is that people still want to be entertained,” Seifert said. “They still want to have communal experiences in the performing arts, and we want, to the extent we’re able to do it, fulfill those needs for people.”
The breakdown of artistic genres in the lineup will remain essentially the same in 2009-10, with the principal focus staying on classical music, world music and dance.
“We’ve tried not to confuse people about what we’re trying to accomplish here,” Seifert said. “So, again, a multidisciplinary, multicultural mix and new works as part of what we’re doing and artists who’ve never been here before.”
The biggest surprise might be the inclusion of a bluegrass program on May 8, 2010, a musical form the series has not presented. It will combine two well-known figures in the field — mandolin player Bobby Osborne and banjo player JD Crowe — with a host of younger talents.
“We put on stage the best artists from all sorts of different traditions,” Seifert said, “and we don’t want to exclude great American performing- arts traditions, and these bluegrass artists are unbelievably good musicians.”
The other big change in 2009-10 will be renewed attention to theater, a genre the series had all but abandoned because of weak audience response.
Seifert is excited about the two nontraditional theatrical projects the Newman Center has on tap, especially “The Laramie Project, 10 Years Later . . . An Epilogue” on Oct. 12.
In October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten and tied to a fence in the outskirts of Laramie. The attack, which led to his death a few days later in a Fort Collins hospital, sparked a nationwide outcry.
Soon afterward, Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie, interviewed residents and created “The Laramie Project.” The play later became an HBO movie.
In 2008, the theater returned to Laramie for a follow-up. A member of the company will work with DU theater students on a reading of that play on the 11th anniversary of Shepard’s death.
Series subscriptions go on sale May 15, and single tickets will be available through Tickemaster beginning June 15.
For more information, call 303-871-7720 or go to visit .
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
2009-10 Newman Center Presents Season
Sept. 26, “Bolero Colorado,” Larry Keigwin + Company
Oct. 12, “The Laramie Project, 10 Years Later . . . An Epilogue,” Tectonic Theater Project
Oct. 20, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Nov. 14, Mariza
Nov. 17, “Kingdoms and Viceroys: Music of Spain and Its Dominions,” Rebel
Dec. 10, “All Is Calm,” Cantus
Jan. 15, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
Jan. 26, Pilobolus
Feb. 19 and 20, Mile High Voltage Festival
Feb. 24, Russian National Orchestra
March 16, Ladysmith Black Mambazo
March 25, Marcus Tardelli
April 10, “The Secret Life of Bees,” American Place Theatre
April 20, Martha Graham Dance Company
May 8, American Bluegrass Masters
