DENVER - For the first time in 25 years, live performances are back on the stage of the Elitch Gardens Theatre.
The New Works Festival runs through Saturday at the the once thriving theatre in Denver's Tennyson neighborhood.
The octagonal, two-story building has been vacant since a powerful hail storm hit in the early 1990s. Rather than repair the damage, the owners at the time boarded up the building. It sat vacant except for the foxes and pigeons that made it their home.
Enough was enough for a small group of theatre and history buffs. The Historic Elitch Theatre Foundation started in 2002.
The restoration of the building is about halfway done. Volunteers have helped with the painting and grant money and donations have assisted with more significant projects.
This weekend's New Works Festival is all about getting people in the seats watching live performances. It's also about inspiring new playwrights.
The festival consists of play readings. The six plays were chosen from a group of 70 that were submitted earlier this year. Four of the plays are the works of local writers.
The audiences will choose their two favorites which will then go into workshop mode over the next year and performed at the theater next summer.
It will then be up to the audiences again to pick which play that will be funded for full production on the Elitch Gardens Theatre stage in the summer of 2017.
"This stage has been dormant for 25 years," former Elitch Gardens Theatre employee Shelley Chester said. "It's now taking its first breath. Watch what happens. This thing is going to be restored like back in the glory days."
Chester used to be an usher, paint scenery and help with the actors in the 1970s when this theatre was *the* place to go for summer stock.
She talks about her friendships with actors Mickey Rooney, John Raitt and John Ashton.
One of Chester's former co-workers also returned for the New Works Festival.
"To be 16 and 17 year old kids and to be here and see some of the most famous actors from television and the movies, it was amazing," Mark Mallo said. "Like with me, I was Ginger Roger's driver for two weeks. That was incredible"
"If you were an actor from 1890 to 1990 and you got a summer job working here, it was a big feather in your cap," David Nehls said.
Nehls is the vice president of the Historic Elitch Gardens Theatre Foundation.
Other actors who performed at the Elitch Gardens Theatre: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Vincent Price, Lana Turner, Patti Duke, Debbie Reynolds, William Shatner, Julie Newmar and Robert Redford.
Mary Elitch founded the theatre in 1891, after the death of her husband who built the adjoining amusement park. Mary Elitch not only loved theatre but also children and exotic animals (which would roam the park).
Elitch Gardens Theatre rose to fame quickly as the oldest summer stock theatre in America.
During this weekend's New Works Festival, the plays that are being read include:
- The Consul, The Tramp and America's Sweetheart
- The Mess of Us
- A Good Indian
- In the Closet
- Fifteen Men in a Smoke Filled Room
- Lady
The surrounding neighborhood has rallied behind the New Works Festival, even sponsoring some after parties following the nightly readings.
"Come on out," Chester said. "If you can't make it this weekend, they're doing an indoor film festival here in the fall to bring people in and show movies featuring the stars who once worked on this stage."
(© 2015 KUSA)
