The Denver Center for the Performing Arts has closed its experimental-theater arm known as Off Center after 15 years, the nonprofit theater company said Tuesday, after the final performance of its show “Sweet & Lucky: Echo” on Sunday.
Off Center, founded in 2010 by Charlie Miller and Emily Tarquin, produced and hosted immersive and innovative shows such as the world premiere of “Theater of the Mind,” David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar’s high-tech funhouse, as well as the annual holiday installation Camp Christmas, MCA Denver’s Mixed Taste lecture series, and touring, branded shows such as Monopoly Lifesized: Travel Edition.
Off Center has been “a ‘test kitchen’ for immersive theater with a simple recipe — put the audience at the center of the story,” wrote Janice Sinden, president and CEO of Denver Center, in an .
“This difficult decision was made in response to a constellation of factors: budget challenges and economic uncertainty, unpredictable ticket buying trends, a limited pipeline of immersive content, and the lack of partners to share in the risk of producing new immersive work,” Sinden said.
Denver Center officials declined interview requests from The Denver Post, but this isn’t the first time that budget issues have come into play this year. The company laid off employees in early June — but declined to go into specifics, calling it a “workforce reduction” that included a combination of layoffs, reduction in hours, and the elimination of several open positions, according to Suzanne Yoe, director of communications.
Like many companies, it’s also gone broader in its programming since the pandemic to attract wider, more mainstream audiences who may have never seen a theater or Broadway production. Off Center, however, also chased younger audience members amid a graying of Denver Center’s subscribers, and shows such as “Theater of the Mind” gave it . It often staged more casual, self-guided shows far outside its downtown Denver perch, including at Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace.
That venue, where Camp Christmas first debuted, included triumphs such as Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s stunning, virtual-reality art exhibition “Carne y Arena,” which gave participants an up-close view of border-crossing immigrants, but also so-so tech exhibits like the VR-driven “Space Explorers.”
Off Center produced 70 unique productions and generated more than $80 million in economic impact over its 15-year run, according to the Denver Center. That translates to more than 635,000 audience members across shows such as “Sweet & Lucky,” Camp Christmas, and “Theater of the Mind,” which helped shape Denver’s “cultural identity and positioned our city as a national leader in immersive art,” Sinden added.
Denver Center often used Off Center to ride the late 2010s and early 2020s wave of enthusiasm for immersive experiences — in the vein of Meow Wolf, virtual reality and interactive theater — and played across a wide artistic field. Its Mixed Taste lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver blended serious academia with cocktails and quirky subjects, while its 2019 debut of Lonnie Hanzon’s Camp Christmas goosed the metro area’s holiday installations to up their games with more lights and kitschy spectacle.
“Although it may not always feel like it, theater has a leg up on the future,” Tarquin said in a 15-year appreciation article on Denver Center’s website, which was . “And in a world where AI will replace a lot of our communication tools, will replace some of our jobs, the thing it won’t replace is anything that is fostering a sense of connection, real connection.”
Note: Camp Christmas will return to the Stanley Marketplace this year, Nov. 14-Dec. 24; see s for more information.
