Founded in 1972 and dedicated to excellence in the arts, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, an award-winning multi-media production facility, a national training school for actors, and the site of a voice clinic and research facility.... show more

Founded in 1972 and dedicated to excellence in the arts, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, an award-winning multi-media production facility, a national training school for actors, and the site of a voice clinic and research facility.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts and the Denver Performing Arts Complex - the facility in which The Denver Center presents world-class theatre - were the vision of Donald R. Seawell. Finding himself at 14th and Curtis streets in downtown Denver one day, looking at the old Auditorium Theatre and the surrounding four blocks, Seawell had an idea for a first-class arts complex.

Ground was broken in December 1974. By 1978 the 2,700-seat Boettcher Concert Hall - the nation's first in-the-round concert hall - was completed, along with an eight-story, 1,700-space parking garage. By 1979 the Auditorium Theatre had been renovated, two cabaret spaces had been added and the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex opened with its four theatres: The Stage, Space, Source (now Jones) and Ricketson. The 2,830-seat Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre was completed in 1991 and the Donald R. Seawell Grand Ballroom was added in 1998.

The DCPA is currently the largest tenant of the Arts Complex and encompasses Denver Center Theatre Company, Denver Center Attractions, the Education Department, Denver Center Media and the National Center for Voice & Speech.
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