After 30 Years, The Color Purple Still Stirs Audiences

One of the most quoted sentences from Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple is “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” Walker grew up in Eatonton, Georgia in the 1940s, the youngest of eight children in a sharecropping family. It is […]

First Look: The Color Purple

A Pulitzer Prize. A National Book Award. 11 Academy Award Nominations. Four Golden Globe Nominations. Three Tony Awards. Few stories have had the cultural significance and lasting power of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Beloved by audiences worldwide, The Color Purple traces one woman’s fraught journey towards freedom and self-love. It is a triumphant, uplifting […]

DCPA Theatre Company Announces 2023/24 Season

DCPA Theatre Company Artistic Director Chris Coleman is proud to announce the 2023/24 season for the producing regional theatre arm of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). The new Theatre Company season kicks off performances on September 1 and will feature seven mainstage productions including Stephen Sondheim’s classic A Little Night Music, Lynn […]

Hitchcock Trivia

As the culmination to its 2022/23 season, the DCPA Theatre Company is remounting the classic whodunnit, The 39 Steps. This parody of John Buchan’s novel (and the subsequent 1935 film adaptation directed by Alfred Hitchcock) is brought to life by a cast of four playing more than 50 characters. Prepare for the hysterics with this […]

Hear from the Playwrights: 2023 Colorado New Play Summit

As one of the few spaces for new play development in the West, the Colorado New Play Summit serves as a beacon to both aspiring and established playwrights as they develop new work. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) has been committed to supporting new work since its inception in 1979. In the […]

Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock Received the 2023 Spotlight Award at Saturday Night Alive

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ annual gala, Saturday Night Alive, was held last Saturday, March 11, 2023. During the evening’s celebration, the Daniel L. Ritchie Spotlight Award was presented to Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock. This award is given annually to an individual or organization who has made significant contributions to the DCPA. […]

Building Community Around The Color Purple

When you endeavor to build community, it’s important to enlist the support of people who are at its heart. People like Jameka B. Lewis, Senior Librarian at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library. In building community and welcoming individuals to experience the DCPA Theatre Company’s production of The Color Purple, the organization’s Education and Community […]

Illuminating the Invisible: Lighting Design for The Color Purple

The DCPA Theatre Company’s production of The Color Purple is a homecoming of sorts for Lighting Designer Peter Maradudin. “The last production I lit at DCPA was in 2004 (too long ago, if you ask me…),” said Maradudin. “It was The Misanthrope, directed by Nagle Jackson. “Prior to that, I lit numerous productions in the […]

Discussion Questions to Complement The Color Purple

Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, was published in 1982 and subsequently adapted into a film in 1985 starring Oprah Winfrey before becoming a Broadway musical in 2005. Now widely produced by regional theatres across the country, DCPA Theatre Company audiences will experience this moving story March 31-May 7 in the Wolf Theatre. […]

Celebrating Women in Theatre: Women’s History Month

Theatre has come a long way from its origins in Ancient Greece. Women have pushed forward to break barriers and create lasting change in the theatre industry – though there is still more work to be done, especially for women from marginalized communities. In honor of Women’s History Month, we would like to celebrate some […]