Midwinter Arts Offerings Abound in Denver and Aurora!
February 15, 2018
Midwinter is a wonderful time to partake of the arts! With the Colorado New Plays Summit launching this weekend, you will have a chance to hear brand-new dramatic works before they are even produced! And the music offerings in Denver this weekend take on an international flair—from one of Ireland’s most popular traditional singers to Russian classical music at the symphony and ballet. Get out there and grab some culture!
TODAY/TONIGHT Thursday, February 15
IRISHMAN EMMET CAHILL LIVE IN DENVER
All the way from Ireland to Denver, and then on to Carnegie Hall! Before he makes his debut appearance at the world-famous venue in New York City, Emmet Cahill will delight Denver audiences with his repertoire of Irish classics and well-loved church hymns. The Emerald Isle’s most exciting young tenor is back on a nationwide tour of the United States after a hugely successful 2017 tour. With a number one album on Billboard’s World Music chart, Cahill has charmed fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Don’t miss this unforgettable evening of Irish music and storytelling!
Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 2626 E. 7th Avenue Pkwy., Denver
7:00-8:30 p.m.
Tickets: $30-$45
Phone: 303-322-7706
Thursday-Sunday, February 15-18
THE GREAT LEAP – A PLAY BY LAUREN YEE!
An alum of the Colorado New Play Summit, Lauren Yee is one of the most talented and funny young dramatists in theatre today. Her newest play, The Great Leap, is an unexpected pairing of collegiate basketball and a clash of cultures. When Manford Lum, a basketball star on the sidewalk courts in Chinatown in 1989 San Francisco, talks his way onto a college team, he soon finds himself on the way to Beijing to play in an international “friendship” game. Manford is faced with his own personal history in a China just emerging from the Cultural Revolution, while the two coaches — American and Chinese — also must grapple with international politics in the midst of the sport they love.
Ricketson Theatre/DCPA, 1400 Curtis St., Denver
Thurs.,6:30 p.m.; Fri./Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $10-$45
Phone: 800-641-1222
FINAL WEEKEND FOR LADY DAY AT THE VINTAGE THEATRE!
Legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday not only sang the blues, she lived them. Enter the recreated Emerson Bar and Grill where Lady Day gave one of her last performances, just four months before her death in 1959. Every note that Billie Holiday sang was drenched in the great tragedy of her life, and in this hauntingly beautiful tribute show, Mary Louise Lee brings the iconic singer back to life. As a co-production with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Garner Galleria Theatre, the show will be moving downtown soon, but according to the Aurora Sentinel, “Aurora shouldn’t wait for it to move to Denver. A show this good in city limits should be enjoyed as soon as possible.”
Vintage Theatre Productions, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora
Thurs./Fri./Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m.
Tickets: $38
Phone: 303-856-7830
LAST CHANCE TO SEE (AND HEAR) STOMP!
These are the final Denver performances of the show everyone has been talking about for the past two decades! If you haven’t seen this utterly unique spectacle of a show, go! If you have seen it, you know why it’s worth seeing again!
In a category of its own, the percussionist-based STOMP amazes and delights audiences of all ages! The eight-member troupe uses everything BUT conventional percussion instruments, including garbage cans, hubcaps, matchboxes, Zippo lighters, wooden poles, and brooms, to make beautiful music with magnificent rhythms. The result is a show that will reverberate in your senses and memory!
Buell Theatre/DPAC, 1350 Curtis St., Denver
Thurs.-Sun., 7:30 p.m.; Sat./Sun., 2:00 p.m.
Tickets: $25-$95
Phone: 303-893-4100
Friday, February 16
IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR VALENTINE’S DAY!
If you missed the chance to celebrate on Wednesday, bring your Valentine to this special show and have some fun! In a special tribute to Valentine’s Day, the Wendy Clark Band will play songs that could serve as a warning to some and a reminder to others. “Love songs” can also be “Love LOST” songs (aka “break-up songs”). Lyricist and singer Wendy Clark will include brief humorous stories that inspired each composition, which might help explain why some of the songs sound more sarcastic than she intended!
The Walnut Room, 3131 Walnut St., Denver
8:00 p.m.
Tickets: $10-$15
Phone: 239-244-9701
Friday-Sunday, February 16-18
ROMEO AND JULIET – THE BALLET
With a remnant of Valentine’s Day still in the air, Colorado Ballet presents the quintessential Shakespearean love story Romeo and Juliet. You will be swept away by this romantic ballet with exquisite choreography by Derek Deane, heartfelt acting and artistry by the dancers, and the renowned musical score by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, performed by the Colorado Ballet Orchestra.
Revel in the heavenly compositions that elevate the timeless story into an ode to youth, beauty and love. From the energetic crowd scenes to the famous balcony scene featuring the star-crossed lovers, Colorado Ballet brings the tale of Juliet and her Romeo to exhilarating life.
Ellie Caulkins Opera House/DPAC, 1385 Curtis St., Denver
Fri./Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sat./Sun., 2:00 p.m.
Tickets: $30-$90
Phone: 303-837-8888
ROWDY RUSSIAN MUSIC AT THE SYMPHONY!
As one of the more stirring compositions of the 20th century, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring supposedly created a riot when it debuted in Paris in 1913. Whether the music was just too primal for listeners to contain their ecstasy or the choreography had the power to bring everyone’s inner impulses out into the open, it was reported that a bald man’s head was actually drummed upon in the original frenzy!
No promises that such chaos will ensue at the Colorado Symphony’s performance this weekend, but the piece IS being paired with another passionate Russian—Rachmaninoff—so nothing’s off the table! Piano Concerto No. 2 will be performed by Kirill Gerstein, completing a program with a distinctly Russian flair!
Boettcher Concert Hall/DPAC, 1000 14th St. #15, Denver
Fri./Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 1:00 p.m.
Tickets: $20-$94
Phone: 303-623-7876
Saturday, February 17
AVIATION GROUND SCHOOL BEGINS
Learn how to become a pilot! Plan your own flight mission! Fly your planned mission on flight simulators! Fly an actual aircraft after attending the course! But only if you are in grades eight to 12!
If you know a high school student with a passion for flight, sign them up for this fantastic five-part workshop created to offer the basics of pilot training to young people. The first three courses will take place at Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, and the last two dates will be held at Centennial Airport in Englewood—in actual aircrafts! Inspire a love of flight in your high schooler today!
Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, 7711 E. Academy Blvd., Denver
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Registration: $25
Phone: 303-360-5360 x130
Saturday-Sunday, February 17-18
COLORADO NEW PLAY SUMMIT, STARRING…THE PLAYWRIGHTS!
Be the first to hear tomorrow’s bold new plays and experience the future of theatre! For over a decade, the Colorado New Play Summit has been bringing playwrights together with audiences for a chance to hear their new plays come to life. After a week of workshopping their fresh scripts with professional actors and directors, playwrights use Launch Weekend to get the initial feedback that only a live audience can provide.
This weekend, sit in on a reading of one of four amazing new works! Mama Metallica is a comedy about a young black playwright who has always been overshadowed by her dramatic mother. In The Couches, an alcoholic who has killed four people while driving drunk escapes to Mexico but can’t escape his own demons. Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue follows the lives of twin brothers with drastically different destinies—all because one is dark-skinned, while the other one passes for white. Celia, A Slave is an investigation of a story from 1855 of a 19-year-old slave who was hanged for killing her master, a notorious failure of justice in American history.
Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the process of bringing a play to life! You will have a greater appreciation of the playwrights’ craft and the power of theatre to inspire and illuminate.
Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex/DCPA, Speer Blvd. and Arapahoe St., Denver
Sat./Sun., 10:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.; Sun., 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $5-$36.80
Phone: 303-446-4841
OSCAR WILDE’S REAL-LIFE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS
The story of the life of the great writer Oscar Wilde is stranger than any fiction he could have ever invented. With themes about the devastating effects of prejudice and of the way in which artists can become lightning rods for cultural tensions is alarmingly relevant today. Gross Indecency takes place in 1895 and presents the real trials of Oscar Wilde who was charged with “committing acts of gross indecency.” Over the course of three separate trials, the play follows salacious accusations, countersuits of criminal libel, and Wilde’s impassioned defense of “the love that dare not speak its name.”
The John Hand Theater, 7653 E. 1st Place., Denver
Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2:00 p.m.
Tickets: $20-$23
Phone: 303-562-3232
Living in Southshore: Access to Culture
The master-planned community of Southshore is near all of the arts and culture that Denver and Aurora have to offer! And if you haven’t seen the master-planned community for yourself, stop by and tour the amazing model homes by Toll Brothers in Vista Point, Century Communities in The Hills, and Richmond American Homes at Lakeview. Ranch and two-story designs in the amenity-rich community are priced from the upper $300s to the $700s.