10 years of being Curious

Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, September 7, 2007

Don't blame Curious Theatre Company for going a little retro. Most theaters come and go on a wisp of wind. Curious has not only survived a decade, but also has established itself as a theater on the national scene.

In celebration of its anniversary, artistic director Chip Walton is restaging the company's first production, How I Learned to Drive, with the original cast. Here are 10 memorable moments from the first Curious decade:

1. In the beginning - Angels in America

It wasn't even a Curious show, but one by Hunger Artists. Still, the undertaking at Acoma Center brought together the artists who would form the company with the building where they made their home.

Dee Covington, now education and special events director, played Harper. Walton directed and Britta Erickson, the company's first managing director, co-produced. Davy Davis did the lights; Matt Morgan did sound.

"It's relatively rare and readily apparent when you meet people who you say, 'Hey, I want to create a body of work with you,' rather than, 'I want to do a show with you,' " Walton says.

2. A powerful advocate - How I Learned to Drive, Season One

It was a blow to the Curious schedule that gave the theater its biggest boost, in the form of Paula Vogel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

The theater had just formed and planned to open with Gross Indecency. Curious had been given the rights by Dramatists Play Service, but Denver Center Theatre Company requested the rights as well, and won them.

"At that point we were a fledgling company, and every one of those decisions was like a bomb being dropped on us," Walton says.

To make up for it, Dramatists' Robert Lewis Vaughan called Vogel and persuaded her to give Curious the rights to How I Learned to Drive. Four years later, Vogel was sitting onstage at opening night of The Mineola Twins.

She went on to contribute an original short work to Season Eight's The War Anthology and remains a company adviser.

3. Going pro - How I Learned to Drive, Season One

From its beginning, Curious has used at least one Equity artist in every play but Full Gallop, and in 2002, the company became an Equity Small Professional Theater.

The impact went far beyond the walls of Curious. By consistently using Equity actors and stage managers, Curious expanded the area's offerings for them, leading more actors to join the actor's union and more to stay in Denver.

That, in turn, encouraged other theaters to follow the company's lead, with Aurora Fox the most recent to take the plunge.

4. Wet - Cloud Tectonics, Season Four

José Rivera's magical realist romance involved massive storms and flows of water. Scenic designer Dan Guyette planned a wall of rain, constructed of two sheets of Plexiglas with water running between them.

"It was visually stunning," Walton says. "It was like a life-encompassing goal of the entire organization to make the damn thing work. I was running around to fish stores and aquariums trying to find caulk to keep the water in."

5. And Wetter - Take Me Out, Season Seven

The baseball-themed Take Me Out drew plenty of attention for its nude team shower scene and one particularly well-endowed cast member.

"I think it was memorable for many reasons," Walton says with a guffaw. "There was one member of the cast who shall remain unnamed who made other people feel . . . inferior."

To build the shower, the company had to run a garden hose from the second-floor bathroom. To assuage male vanity (and prevent "shrinkage"), the water's warmth was a constant source of debate.

6. Aftermath - Coyote on a Fence, Season Four

Four days after Sept. 11, 2001, Curious opened with a relatively new play about a death-row prisoner. Walton figured people wouldn't want to leave their homes, much less see a less-than-cheery drama. Instead, the house was packed, and the audience stayed to discuss the death penalty.

"It was cathartic for them to be someplace together and not talking about Sept. 11," Walton says. "It confirmed in me the power of art to grapple with our daily lives."

7. The Big Leagues - An Almost Holy Picture, Season Five

When Denver Center Theatre Company stalwart John Hutton signed up for Heather McDonald's one-man show, Walton felt a seismic shift in the company's fortunes.

"It totally opened the door for our organization at the Denver Center and also the actors at the Denver Center as a place for people to do work," Walton says.

Since then, Hutton has returned for Fiction, directed by Denver Center's Jamie Horton, who also starred in Trumbo at Curious. Nagle Jackson directed The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? Anthony Powell directed Bug, and this season he'll be acting in Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Powell has directed four McDonagh plays at Denver Center).

8. Holidays for Grown-ups - The Long Christmas Ride Home, Season Seven

Every December, theaters fill their seats and their coffers with the same familiar Christmas fare. Vogel's play (the theater does do work that isn't hers) was elliptical, sometimes dark and always overwhelmingly beautiful, with a Japanese design by Michael Duran and puppets by Cory Gilstrap representing the children of this modern family tale.

"That whole show, I don't know how we did it," Walton says. "The text is daunting; it mixes Western and Eastern. I knew we had Cory; we couldn't have done it without him."

9. Bloody Hell - Fuddy Meers, Season Four

The death penalty, homicidal teens, incest - Curious has made its name on some pretty heavy topics. But its most sublime production may have been the uproarious, absurd Fuddy Meers.

Walton and Christy Montour-Larson directed Ethelyn Friend as a woman with no short-term memory, Christopher Leo as a sinister man with a lisp, Erik Sandvold as a mild-mannered criminal and Kathryn Gray as a caring mother with aphasia.

Todd Webster played the furious son, who gets shot at the end of Act I. One night, he had left the cap off his fake blood and it dried up before he could apply it for Act II. He tossed it in the microwave offstage to liquefy it during intermission.

"I took the cap off and it exploded everywhere," he says.

In the Curious kitchen, you can still find speckles of fake blood.

10. ending Fences - Fences, Season Three

Denver's ethnically oriented theaters have often been pushed (or, just as often, chosen to stay) to the side. But when Curious and Shadow Theatre Company paired up for August Wilson's script, artistry soared.

As director, Walton drew one of Shadow founder Jeffrey Nickelson's finest performances, and both companies formed relationships that continue today.

It demonstrated that theater isn't black or white, just good or bad. This show was very good.