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The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is an organization in Denver, Colorado which provides a showcase for live theatre, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, acting classes for the community and rental facilities. It was founded in 1972 and dedicated to excellence in the arts.
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is the largest tenant of the Denver Performing Arts Complex which is a four-block, 12-acre site containing ten performance spaces with over 10,000 seats. It is owned and partially operated by Arts and Venues Denver.
Both organizations were the vision of Donald Seawell. Finding himself at 14th and Curtis streets in downtown Denver one day and looking at the old Auditorium Theatre and the surrounding four blocks, Seawell had an idea for a first-class arts complex. Seawells original vision was much broader and included other entities which no longer are part of the Center.
Ground was broken in December 1974. By 1978 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 and Ricketson. The Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre was completed in 1991, the Seawell Grand Ballroom was added in 1998 and The Conservatory Theatre opened in 2002.
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