"Most
wonderfully, magic again is being made on the
stage Swartz carved out of his basement 94 years ago...
Take the leap. As it is with young love or old love rekindled,
something wonderful awaits below."
John
Moore - The Denver Post 9/16/05
In
the late 1800s, George Swartz moved to Colorado to seek
treatment for his tubercular lungs. Swartz was a great
lover of Shakespeare and as part of his treatment regime
began to read aloud from the Bard's works. His family
would gather to hear him in the evenings and as time passed
so did growing circle of friends and curious neighbors.
When he began to build his new house on Hooker Street,
he designed a theater in the basement to accommodate his
growing audience.
Finished
in 1911, the Bungalow Theater included a miniature proscenium
with terraced seating and benches along the walls. There
was also an open orchestra pit that is now covered by the
stage apron. It is in many ways the original home theater!
With the help of his family and friends, Swartz was able
to stage all of Shakespeare's plays and local legend has
it that the Bungalow was the first theater west of the Mississippi
to have done so.
After
Swartz's death in 1937, the building was served as a meeting
space for various organizations. It housed the local Church
of Latter Days Saints congregation from 1944 -1954 and was
later used as meeting space by the Girl Scouts.
In
1956 the theater was once again reestablished with the arrival
of Paul Willet. Renamed the Gaslight in 1964, under Willet's
direction, the venue would gain national attention for its
regional premieres of Equus, Slow Dance on the Killing
Ground and Arthur Miller's The Price.
Willet
was the creative director until his death in 1984. During
the next two decades the theater was renamed the Denver
Victorian Playhouse and passed through various
hands. It was closed in 2000 and in May of 2005 was taken
over by Wade and Lorraine Wood. The present operators of
"The Vic" hope to carry on the tradition of providing
entertainment that began here 95 years ago!
|
