Su Teatro’s supporters are giving the nation’s third-oldest Chicano theater company one heck of a 50th birthday present. Thanks to a nudge from then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper back in 2009 and the unwavering patronage of thousands since, the company has paid off its mortgage on the building formerly known as the Denver Civic Theatre.
The Su Teatro Performing Arts Center, which consists of a 320-seat mainstage theater, a smaller studio theater and an art gallery at 721 Santa Fe Drive, is the anchor of the Santa Fe Arts District. And now it’s all theirs.
The public is invited to join Su Teatro for a ceremonial burning of the mortgage at 4 p.m. on Jan. 27. Having that yoke off its back will save the company $2,200 a month moving forward.
A toast celebrating Su Teatro’s purchase of the Denver Civic Theatre in 2010.
“This is a moment for us to reflect on all the many people who are responsible for this,” said Managing Director Mica Garcia de Benavidez, who paid special tribute to the late Frank Trujillo, the former board president who put down the initial $5,000 for land acquisition. Just before Trujillo went in for a 2010 cancer surgery he did not wake from, “he outlined all the steps we still had to take for closing — and he left us money in his will,” Garcia said. “That will resonate.”
Paying off the mortgage she said, “means that we’re not going to be pushed out by gentrification or the expansion of different visions for Denver. This building belongs to the community now, and it is here to stay.”
The nomadic company, born in 1971 out of protest from the displacement of Westside Denverites to make way for construction of the Auraria Campus, was paying just $50 a month at its home in the Elyria neighborhood when the Civic, opened in 1986 by legendary producer Henry Lowenstein until his retirement in 1995, fell into bankruptcy in 2009.
“This journey starts with Hickenlooper,” Garcia said of the now Colorado Senator and longtime supporter of Su Teatro. “It was his idea that we should be here.”
Hickenlooper had even pledged $400,000 to the cause all the way back in 2002 — but was beaten to the punch by a New York producer. Seven years later, with Hickenlooper as mayor, the city of Denver extended Su Teatro a bridge loan for $790,000. Su Teatro took occupancy in February 2010.
Su Teatro’s purchase of the Denver Civic Theatre was ticker-tape news in 2010.
A lot more happened along the way, but the final phase of fundraising to pay off the final $250,000 began in 2019. The place has been filled ever since with activity ranging from theater to film to poetry to classes.
“It was definitely a little scary at the beginning,” Garcia said. “Well, it was scary lots of times.”
But in the past 13 years, Producing Artistic Director Anthony Garcia (Mica’s dad) has tripled the annual operating budget to $1.3 million.
“We moved into the Civic because we felt it was a crucial jewel of this community, and we could not sit back and let it be destroyed for something else,” she said. “We put out the call, and our community answered again.”
The plan now, she said, is to just keep going.
Next up in this 50th anniversary season: “El Espiritu Natural,” written and directed by Anthony Garcia and Daniel Valdez, running March 9-26.
“We’re ready for 50 more years,” Mica Garcia said.
Four-time Emmy Aeward-winning choreographer Mandy Moore and Thunder River Theatre Artistic Director Missy Moore speak at a celebration of their mother, director Wendy Moore, on Monday in Carbondale. Mandy Moore left the next day to start work on choreographing the upcoming Taylor Swift concert tour.
Carbondale turns out for Wendy Moore
Sonya Meyer and Tony Award nominee Beth Malone sang ‘For Good’ from ‘Wicked’ at a celebration of director Wendy Moore on Monday in Carbondale.
An overflow crowd packed the Thunder River Theatre in Carbondale on Monday to celebrate the life of Wendy Moore, the second-most prolific female director in Colorado theater history who died Oct. 5 at age 75. A brief program included Tony Award nominee Beth Malone singing “For Good” from “Wicked” with Sonya Meyer; husband Bob Moore singing “David Wilcox’s “Farthest Shore”; and Lake Dillon Theatre’s Joshua Blanchard singing “Corner of the Sky” from “Pippin.” Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award winner Tom Paxton sent a videotaped message along with the Chad Mitchell Trio song “Come Along Home.”
“Wendy, you were so full of love,” Paxton said, “and by God, you were a lovable person.”
Moore’s daughters are Thunder River Artistic Director Missy Moore and four-time Emmy Award-winning choreographer Mandy Moore. She left Colorado the next day (Tuesday) for her latest and perhaps greatest assignment: Choreographing the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, which launches March 17 and visits Empower Field at Mile High on July 14-15.
Losses to community continue to mount
It’s been a period of great loss in the Colorado arts community. Philanthropist Isabelle Clark will be celebrated at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 24, in the Randy Weeks Conservatory Theatre in the Denver Center’s education building. It’s open to the public, but an advance RSVP is required to enter the building. This week, we remembered Colorado Springs arts champion Kathleen Fox Collins and University of Colorado associate professor of Violin Chas Wetherbee. Late Wednesday brought word that longtime Rocky Mountain News arts reporter Mary Voelz Chandler also has died. And Thursday morning, that costumer and performer Laura High has died of COVID.
Phamaly Theatre Company in Wisconsin
Regan Linton, who made her Broadway debut as an understudy in “Cost of Living” in October, will star in a new staging of Martyna Majok’s historic play (it features two leading characters with disabilities) at Renaissance Theatreworks from Jan. 20-Feb. 12 in Milwaukee, Wis. The director is Ben Raanan, who succeeded Linton as Artistic Director at Denver’s disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company. Longtime Phamaly actor Jamie Rizzo is also part of the cast.
New leader in Evergreen
Graham Anduri
Ovation West, a small mountain community theater that for 48 years was known as the Evergreen Chorale, has named Graham Anduri its new executive director. He was born in Fairplay and was most recently director of Voice Studies at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. Anduri essentially assumed the duties held by Managing Director Christine Emery and Artistic Director Christine Gaudreau, who will stay on as music director for the remainder of the season, including conducting the “Very Vivaldi” concert scheduled for April 21.
Ovation West was caught in the growing pains of its ongoing transition to semi-professional theater last summer when it canceled its planned production of “Ragtime” just two weeks before opening.
“Graham shares our goal of producing transformative music and musical theater for our community, and we are delighted to have a leader of his caliber at the helm,” the board said in a statement. For his part, Anduri said he is overjoyed for the opportunity and “I cannot wait to embark on this new journey.”
Briefly …
It’s been “really dope” serving as Colorado’s ninth Poet Laureate over the past four years, says Bobby LeFebre. But his term ends in June. Nominations for his replacement are being accepted through Feb. 1. The Poet Laureate position was created to promote an appreciation of poetry in Colorado, to honor outstanding Colorado poets, and to serve as an active advocate for poetry, literacy and literature throughout the state …
Denver Film is hosting “an incredibly rare opportunity” on Sunday when it welcomes Ukrainian director Maryna Er Gorbach for a screening of “Klondike” and a post-film discussion. The film tells the 2014 story of a Ukrainian family trapped at the epicenter of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 during the Russo-Ukrainian War. A portion of ticket sales will be donated to Ukrainians of Colorado.
And finally …
A few babies have been born to families who lost their homes in the Marshall wildfire a year ago. But surely the first to be conceived and delivered since the devastating fire is William Watt, son of Colorado stage actors Kelly Watt and Phil Rosenberg-Watt of Superior. William was born Dec. 24. “He’s our little elf,” said Kelly Watt, whose family is still at least two years away from having a new home.
