Jeffrey Nickelson, founder of Colorado’s only black theater company, resigned Saturday after 12 years as executive artistic director. He cited mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.
“I have taken Shadow Theatre as far as I can go,” said Nickelson, who turned the company over to his board of directors, headed by LaDawn Sullivan of the Denver Foundation.
“They are going to do amazing things with the company, and I am sure they are going to carry this amazing legacy into the future,” said Nickelson, 53. “I think the seed has been planted in a powerful way.”
Nickelson took a $500 donation from former Denver anchorwoman Reynelda Muse in 1997 and built Shadow into an award-winning theater company that last year moved into its first permanent home, a $583,000 state-of-the-art small theater at 1468 Dayton St. in Aurora.
Shadow’s first year there was a critical success. “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” won the Denver Post Ovation Award as best drama of 2008.
For 12 years and 44 often groundbreaking productions, Shadow has filled a crucial niche in Denver’s cultural community, executing Nickelson’s mission to perform plays that “speak to the heart of the condition.”
But keeping Shadow alive has always been a struggle that has taken its toll on Nickelson, who was hospitalized for exhaustion in 2007.
Shadow’s most recent play, “Oscar and Felix,” a black version of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” starring Nickelson, was shuttered by slow ticket sales.
“I’m so tired, I’m stupid,” Nickelson said Saturday. “I’ve pushed the cart up the hill so long, the joy has left me. I need a break. It’s time to let some of the younger people have their chance.”