Jada Suzanne Dixon: North Star in Colorado theater community | John Moore

In the first few frantic days of the pandemic shutdown, Colorado Poet Laureate Bobby LeFebre predicted in verse that during that unsettling pause, tomorrow was being built today. “And together in this sudden strangeness,” he wrote, “radical imagination will run wild.”

Over the next two years, tomorrow was being built for both Denver’s Curious Theater and Denver native Jada Suzanne Dixon, who in May was selected to assume the artistic leadership of that essential Denver theater company following the retirement of founder Chip Walton.

When Dixon first heard those words – radical imagination – “I was like, ‘Man, does that resonate to the core of me.” Now, she says, “I am using that phrase as my North Star.”

Dixon is at the center of a sea-change in the Denver performing arts that became the biggest local story of 2022. A Denver Gazette study of every theater-presenting company in Colorado found that 23 women are currently serving as Artistic Directors of theater organizations they did not found – meaning they were specifically chosen for their jobs. And of those, 18 have been appointed since the downfall of sexual predator Harvey Weinstein began in October 2017. In a very direct way, this community is responding to the moment, and change is happening.  

What all that tells Kate Gipson, development director for Boulder’s Local Theater Company, “is that we’re on a really good path,” she said.

And at the front of that path is Dixon, whose ascendancy from award-winning actor and director to the artistic leader of Colorado’s premiere mid-sized professional theater company is significant for both practical and symbolic reasons. None bigger than the fact that “Jada earned and owns this position in every single way,” said Gipson.

Dixon has been preparing with intention for the possibility of a substantial leadership opportunity for years. When Walton decided to make Curious’ 25th season his last, Dixon was waiting in the wings as the company’s Artistic Producer, an experience that more fully rounded her management credentials. In August, Curious began a thoughtful, year-long leadership transition that is giving Dixon the best possible chance for long-term success. Curious has adopted a co-leadership model with Managing Director Jeannene Bragg handling the business end.

It was both a consequential and historic hire “because the success of Curious Theatre is important for the success of our community at large,” said longtime director and recently named Curious Artistic Producer Christy Montour-Larson.

But Dixon's promotion is not the only reason she was named today the True West Awards’ 2022 Colorado Theatre Person of the Year, following in the footsteps of both Walton (2005) and LeFebre (2019). In fact, a case could be made for Dixon solely on what she accomplished as an actor and director. She began the year co-starring in Curious Theatre’s MLK-inspired domestic drama “Fireflies.” She then directed “Stick Fly” for the Arvada Center (becoming the first Black female theater director in its 46-year history), “The Revolutionists” for the Little Theatre of the Rockies in Greeley, and “The Royale” for the Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado in Boulder.

That she directed or acted in four shows this year for four different Colorado companies makes it crystal clear she represents a new, united day in the Colorado theater community at large. Dixon has been a part of its past, she is a central figure in its present and she is now fully positioned to become a leading voice in its future.

“Community is the most important thing to me because I'm a native Coloradan raised by 3-0-3,” said Dixon, who has been performing in Denver since starring in the famed Bonfils Theatre’s “The Incredible Jungle Journey of Fenda Maria” at age 12. She graduated from Bishop Machebeuf High School and went on to earn her undergraduate degree from New York University and a graduate degree from Harvard. She returned to Colorado in 2003 to play a bone-chilling Lady Macbeth for Denver’s late Shadow Theatre Company, and she has worked all over the state since. In 2019, Miners Alley Playhouse gave Dixon her first directing assignment – ”Fairfield.” She has won previous True West Awards in 2016, ’17 and ‘21.

“When I think not only at the length but the width of my artistic life up to today, I've worked really hard to build a name for myself as an artist at multiple theaters in this community,” Dixon said. “All of those experiences fertilized me to be the artist that I am. I would not be leading Curious Theatre today if not for all those other experiences.”

And now that she is, her radical imagination is running wild. And what she is imagining could well change the temperament of the entire Colorado theater ecology.

“When I think, ‘How do I radically imagine the future?’” she said, “that's not only about serving Curious. It’s about serving our larger artistic community.”

Dixon already has taken steps to make Curious a more active partner in the local theater community. She’s rejoined Curious as a member of the Colorado Theatre Guild, a statewide advocacy group that Curious had broken from in protest seven years ago. “There is a perception of Curious maybe being a little exclusive, and I hate that,” Dixon said. “It is really important for me to break that down. We’re not going to be standing on the curb wagging our finger at other people.”

She’s also instituted an in-house program called “Curious Night Out.” The company she inherits includes an ensemble of about 25 staff members, actors and designers, most of whom work at other local companies as well. “So now, if one of our company members is working on a show, we're gathering together as a group and going to support them,” Dixon said. “There is fantastic theater happening in this artistic community, and it's important to me that we as an organization are seen as part of that community.”

Dixon has begun an ongoing dialogue with other area artistic leaders, confident that the quickest way to any solution is to tap into the shared knowledge of peers. “The first time I had a question, I sent out an email to other artistic leaders in town saying I needed some guidance,” she said. “I remember hoping that maybe one person would respond. But by the end of the first day, all of them had. And I thought, ‘Oh, that's what community is about. It’s not about competition. It’s about lifting each other up.”

And she’s about to take this idea of radical community into truly uncharted territory. She plans to channel the ongoing infusion of new female leaders in the Colorado artistic community into a female-focused think tank to explore bigger concepts and collaborations. What, she wonders, might banding together look like?

Curious, for example, does not have the funds to employ its own Human Resources staff member. Almost no one does. “But what if three or four theaters came together and we all collectively paid someone’s salary to serve all of our organizations in that capacity?” she said. “I'm interested in exploring all the ways we can support one another so that we can all continue to survive and thrive.”

Shared employees, shared box office, shared legal advice? Mind blown.

There is an urgency to Dixon’s agenda, one fueled by the existential crisis many arts organizations have been staring down since before the pandemic. Some companies are reporting in-person attendance is down as much as 50 percent from before the shutdown, but it’s not a new problem. The biggest threat to arts organizations is a longstanding menace: The couch.

“We’re all feeling the hit,” said Dixon. “I think people have gotten out of the habit of going to live theater, and they have gotten really comfortable working that remote. So the challenge is not only how to attract new audiences, which is a never-ending question, but how do we re-attract our audiences that were coming to us before the pandemic?”

The whole community is listening. And that, Gipson said, is really Dixon’s wheelhouse. “Jada has been facilitating difficult conversations around art for decades,” she said.

Montour-Larson, whose roots at Curious go back 20 years, sees Dixon’s ascendance in the greater context of the company’s storied history, which starts with Walton. “Chip has inspired many people over the years – and one of the most important people he inspired is Jada Suzanne Dixon,” she said.

As for what kind of programming to expect from Dixon, who is finalizing plans for her first season now, she said, “I'm super interested in the thing that scares me.” Curious has established itself as a social-justice theater company, and “I don't believe we will be straying from that at all,” said Dixon.

That said, while Dixon identifies as a Black female artist, “Curious is not an all-Black theater company,” she said, “so I don't want to program all Black shows. That's not who we are. And yet, we want to be at the forefront of lifting up new voices – and raising up BIPOC voices is something we're super excited about.”

Like many theaters, Curious easily could have fallen apart during the pandemic. “Running a theater is exceptionally difficult,” Montour-Larson said. “It takes a toll on you, and I am so grateful that Jada was willing to step up. She has rolled up her sleeves and is inspiring the rest of us at Curious to create the most impactful theater we can. And she is doing it with grace and kindness and leading by example.”

Dixon knows no other way to roll.

“This is a thing that ignites my soul,” she said.

Radical. Imagine that.

Jada Suzanne Dixon: 2022 at a glance

• Actor: Fireflies,' Curious Theatre Company
• Director: 'Stick Fly,' Arvada Center
• Director: The Revolutionists, Little Theatre opf teh Rockies, Greeley
• Director: 'The Royale,' Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado, Boulder

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 the best stories from the past year without categories or nominations.