David Byrne spent much of the 1980s burnin’ down the house. Over the past four years, more than 200 people have played some part in building up the house that the Talking Heads frontman grew up in — or some freaky theatrical variation of it that lingers in his mind’s eye.
Byrne’s head-tripping “Theater of the Mind” is the largest immersive undertaking ever attempted in Denver. By the time it closes on Jan. 22, more than 40,000 people will have taken the 75-minute stroll through the far recesses of Byrne’s mind. That’s a staggering number considering audiences only go through 16 at a time. That’s 2,700 shows performed by 14 actors who each essentially play “David” in this solo play.
Jenna Moll Reyes, graduate of Denver School of the Arts, is one of 12 actors who alternately play The Guide in 'Theater of the Mind' at the York Street Yards.
The 15,000-square-foot creative mansion that has been built into a vacant warehouse in Denver’s York Street Yards is a triumph of artistry, ingenuity, endurance, science, patience, flexibility and teamwork. “Theater of the Mind” is the greatest physical undertaking by the Denver Center since it made theater history in 2000 by staging the 10-hour epic “Tantalus,” which is still considered to be the largest single traditional play undertaking in the world.
And just as that partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company placed Denver squarely at the heart of the global theater stage, “Theater of the Mind,” produced by Off-Center (the Denver Center’s more adventurous programming wing) is garnering glowing coverage from major media outlets around the globe.
Actor Annie Barbour transitions audiences into one of 12 specially designed rooms that make up the world of 'Theater of the Mind.'
I asked Off-Center founder and curator Charlie Miller to help me summarize the challenge that was asked and answered by the heroic team of Denver Center artisans and collaborators from around the globe, and it’s just too big to sum up. Suffice it to say: “The past four years have been a marathon,” Miller said, “that felt like a sprint.”
The race began with Byrne and Mala Gaonkar, who conceived of the idea for this interactive deep-dive into the science of the human brain. Once Byrne and the Denver Center chose each other, the full force of the DCPA Theatre Company’s artistic staff was activated, working cloely with scientists, dreamers, laborers, contractors and more. Their challenge was to build 12 distinct, intricately designed rooms that take the audience from a funeral to the inside of a human skull to a trippy disco to the house that “David” grew up in — including his yard, attic (experienced in virtual reality) and, most mind-blowing, his quintessential 1960s American kitchen built to look as it would through the eyes (and perspective) of a young boy living there. So the chairs are massive and the kitchen table has legs up to your shoulders, topped by an oversized TV dinner box and Campbell’s soup cans that infuse you with nostalgia and intentional confusion.
What Scenic Designer Neil Patel and lead Denver Center associate Lisa Orzolek have created and built, essentially, are 12 separate theater sets under one roof, each constructed with a wondrous attention to detail. And all for an audience that lives in each space for just 5 to 12 minutes each. More than $1 million in additional fundraising and investment was required to pull it off.
How big is this world, really? If you have ever attended a play in the Denver Center’s former Space Theatre (now called the Kilstrom), consider this: You could put five of those 380-seat Kilstrom theaters inside this former marijuana grow house on 38th Avenue between York and Steele streets.
How the empty warehouse looked before DCPA designers turned it into 'Theater of the Mind.'
And the playing area is just the half of it. Remember, all of this was just an empty warehouse except for a few problematic, load-bearing columns. Crews also built a box office, art gallery, retail store, dressing rooms and storage space. Then there is the invisible infrastructure that you might take for granted, like HVAC, fire sprinklers, power distribution and soundproofing. Not to mention the miles upon miles of unseen cables.
Contractors, engineers, architects and creative consultants were brought in to deal with layers upon layers of unexpected complexities and safety challenges. Like, did you know there are fire department rules for how many feet a person can be from an exit door in any building at any given time? Or that there is a maximum number of doors a person can have to go through before reaching an exit?
The project stretched every Denver Center department to the creative brink. We are talking 12 I.T. brainiacs, four painters, 15 costume builders and wardrobe attendants, 10 scenic builders, three lighting designers, three sound experts and on and on. Among the unsung heroes are the 21 stage managers and their assistants who keep up to four simultaneous productions moving in seamless, 15-minute intervals.
“Theater of the Mind” is a particular triumph for the five-person properties crew — those are the people who essentially build or acquire anything not nailed down on a set. Their handiwork — and the joy they put into it — are evident everywhere. Their challenge was magnified because anything you need one of, you actually need (at least) 16 of, because there are 16 audience members playing along. “Everything is times 16,” Miller said.
David Byrne and Director Andrew Scoville, second from right, met with the Denver Center-based creative team in 2020, days before the pandemic shutdown. The original production was supposed to open in August 2020.
But the greatest challenges yield the greatest rewards, and the reward here, Miller said, is times 16.
“Artists want to be challenged or inspired in a meaningful way. That is the power of art,” he said. “The power of this piece is to give 40,000 people the opportunity to unlock the power of what’s possible in their minds. And then, being able to support the work of one of the great creative minds of our time in David Byrne? That’s what it’s all about.”
Many of the artists who worked on “Theater of the Mind” also worked on “Tantalus” 20 years ago, “and they still talk about that experience with great pride,” said Miller.
“And I think 20 years from now, people are going to be talking with the same kind of pride about having worked on ‘Theater of the Mind.’”
'Theater of the Mind' culminates with a scene in an attic where audience members sit back in comfy chairs and take in a climactic scene that plays out in virtual reality.
Note: The True West Awards, now in their 22nd year, began as the Denver Post Ovation Awards in 2001. Denver Gazette Senior Arts Journalist John Moore celebrates the Colorado theater community by revisiting 30 of the best stories from the past year without categories or nominations.