The Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Background Statement

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) was founded in 1972 as a not-for-profit organization, and is comprised of: the Tony award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company (DCTC), the largest resident professional theatre company between Chicago and the West Coast, producing a 10 to 12 play mainstage season which includes classic, contemporary and new work; Denver Center Attractions, which presents Broadway; and Denver Center Academy, home to our arts in education activities.

Denver Center Academy provides extensive Arts in Education programs which are unique, innovative and standards- based for over 50,000 school children each year. Current programs include Student Matinees, Dramatic Learning workshops and residencies, family productions, professional development for teachers, Shakespeare for a New Generation, and eShakespeare - an online classroom dedicated to Denver Public School teacher and student training for the annual DPS Shakespeare Festival.

Executive Director Statement

See statement from Chairman and CEO Daniel L. Ritchie

Board Chair/President Statement

Letter from Chairman and CEO Daniel L. Ritchie - August 2013

It was a very good year.… Reflecting on the past fiscal year I realize just how far we have come. I realize, too, that these are shared accomplishments, made possible by the efforts of many people, especially all of you.

• Thanks to our enthusiastic audiences and a great Denver Center
Attractions team, we were asked to open several Broadway tours in the 2014/15 season. We have chosen to launch Pippin.

• Sense & Sensibility The Musical played to sold out houses and was the highest grossing Denver Center Theatre Company production in our history.

• The Colorado New Play Summit readings were so good that four of the staged readings were selected for world premiere productions: The Most Deserving, Just Like Us, black odyssey and The Legend of Georgia McBride.

• The Whale, which had its world premiere at The Denver Center
in 2011, won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best New Play in New
York.

• It was the inaugural year of the Bobby G Awards, recognizing
Colorado high school musicals and the talented young people and
teachers who bring them to the stage. Awards night filled the
Seawell Ballroom.

• We added performances of The Giver to accommodate the ever-growing number of schools participating in the Student Matinee
Program. Watch for Jackie & Me, the story of baseball great
Jackie Robinson, to make these numbers soar this year.

With the support of our many patrons and donors, it's been an
exceptional season. We look forward with great anticipation to the new season and to building upon our accomplishments.
I am so pleased to know that we are all on this journey together.

Daniel L. Ritchie
Chairman & CEO
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Impact Statement

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is an exhilarating mix of Broadway shows, professional theatre, acting instruction, and dazzling venues. We annually serve more than 750,000 patrons from the Western region and beyond.

We envision the DCPA as an international center for theatre that includes:
1. presenting and creating invigorating and insightful productions of both classics and contemporary plays and musicals
2. creating new plays and musicals that define what it means to be an American in an increasingly complex world, and
3. educating and nurturing the next generation of artists and audiences for professional theatre.

Needs Statement

Contributions from individuals like you are critical to fulfilling the Denver Center for the Performing Art's mission. Ticket sales pay for only part of what it takes to produce Tony Award-winning theatre, bring in top Broadway touring shows and extend arts programming to more than 50,000 Colorado children each year.

"It's Kent Thompson's forward thinking that keeps the Denver Center relevant" - John Moore, Theatre Critic, The Denver Post

"The theatre touched my heart and inspired me" - Malia - 6th grade student who attended student matinee performance 2012

"What you get in Denver is a town that actually knows what going to the theatre is." - Thomas Schumacher, President, Disney Theatricals