Decades before Colorado’s best singers, dancers and actors graced the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in downtown Denver, workers pushed brooms across the stage to clean up elephant dung, rodeo sawdust, and blood spatters from boxing matches.
“They actually used this for circuses and even basketball games at one point,” said Rodger A. Hara as a group of a dozen people scrambled for seats at the edge of the Ellie’s wide stage.
Hara, an ambassador for Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ public tours, guides people of all ages into and behind the scenes of the city’s biggest performing arts houses. He delves into the histories of these spaces — as well as the modern magic used to create shows like “The Lion King,” “Hamilton,” and “Wicked.” And while it’s mostly look-but-don’t-touch, hardly anything’s off limits to explore.
It’s part of the DCPA’s twice-weekly public tour program, which draws theater lovers each week to downtown’s Denver Performing Arts Complex, 1400 Curtis St. Weekend dates are typically sold out in advance, and new tours are already being booked through June 2026.
The tours started in 2006 when Visit Denver, the city’s tourism arm, and Denver Arts & Venues, which owns and manages the complex, expressed interest in offering public tours. Then-intern Heidi Bosk took on the project and helped grow it, eventually leading to her job as associate director of press and promotions for DCPA’s Broadway and Cabaret division.
At about $15 a pop, the tours aren’t a huge source of income for the DCPA — certainly not compared to tickets for Broadway shows, which cost $50 to $150 (if you can get them).
But like all performing arts nonprofits, DCPA has been forced to cut costs and diversify its revenue amid post-pandemic upheaval and lean funding. In June, the company shaved $5 million in costs from its annual budget through layoffs, reduction in hours, and the elimination of several open positions, according to a statement. DCPA did not provide further details.
The behind-the-scenes tours, which have continued to grow in popularity, offer a cheap, easy route inside the innards of the complex. That includes the 2,200-seat Ellie, which was built in 1908 to host that year’s Democratic National Convention, but also the Broadway-favorite Buell Theatre, and each and every space inside the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex, where the Denver Center Theatre Company (DCTC) and others command the tidy, high-tech stages.
The Galleria, as the outdoor court between theaters is called, rises 80 feet over its two city blocks, DCPA said, and hugs the home stages of Opera Colorado, Colorado Symphony, and Colorado Ballet performances. While the symphony’s Boettcher Concert Hall is not part of the tour, everything else there is.
The complex’s biggest tenant, the DCPA, touts itself as the largest nonprofit theater producer in the U.S. That’s easy to believe as paid visitors wind their way through the maze of underground tunnels, stage bellies and rehearsal studios — places most of us would never see without a tour.
“All these theaters have a few things in common,” Hara said as patrons fell into line at the Wolf Theatre, where DCTC annually performs its special effects-laden “A Christmas Carol.” Hara pointed out the lighting fixtures, sound booths, side-stage pulleys and other nearly invisible features of stage production that every DCPA theater sports, regardless of size, he said. But they remain flexible for visiting tours because productions can vary widely.
Some Broadway shows, such as “The Lion King,” arrive in Denver with 35 semi-trucks of elaborate sets, rigging gear, hundreds of costumes, and other stage decorations. (One interesting fact: None of the DCPA theaters has its own permanent curtains, Hara said. Rather, they are provided by whatever theater company is producing a show there.)
Trap doors on each stage lead to 15 to 20-foot deep rooms that contain electric lifts and miles of cable, and visitors can get nose-to-nose with all of it. The stages support actors who wear everything from neon pink dresses and historic corsets to all sorts of other tailored frocks, suits, and skivvies. Stories-high ceilings cap paint-splattered, concrete floors in prop and furniture shops, with each new production requiring its own custom designs.
There are a few things with which visitors can’t directly interact, such as the infrared lighting that allows producers to see set changes in the dark between scenes, or the oxygen tanks that some performers breathe from before taking the stage to belt out solos. (That’s something that even touring actors won’t see in less elevated cities — which is all of them.)
Hara, a 20-year DCPA volunteer who began going to summer stock theater in junior high school at the old Elitch Gardens in north Denver, said he hopes that peeking backstage at DCPA’s five decades of artistry helps paint a fuller picture of the city.
“These venues’ history is the history of Denver,” Hara said. “And this tour goes deep on both.”
The all-ages DCPA behind-the-scenes tour runs at 10 a.m. each Monday and Saturday, and costs $14.16 per adult with fees. Find tickets and details for the tours at denvercenter.org.