Garden Fresh

After Elitch Gardens amusement park left its longtime location in northwest Denver in the mid-'90s, neighbors began to look with increasing concern upon the two structures that remained at West 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street. The domed Carousel Pavilion was fading quickly, and the venerable Elitch Theatre — a Victorian resort-style building assembled through an assortment of add-ons since 1890 — appeared as though a stiff breeze or even a pigeon sneeze could transform it into Denver's oldest wood heap. And a historic one at that: The circular theater has been a stage for the likes of Cecil B. DeMille, Grace Kelly, Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks and Ginger Rogers, to name a few.

Related Content

• Orange Is Your Color
  October 6, 2011
• Elitch Gardens fireworks show tonight will be a real blast
  August 11, 2011
• Elitch's Fright Fest offers up two types of fright, plus pets in Halloween costumes
  October 17, 2011
• Shhh! Elitch Gardens quiets its percussive fireworks
  June 30, 2011
• Letters: "If you want a quiet place to raise your kids, perhaps Highlands Ranch beckons"
  July 7, 2011

More About

• Center for American Theatre
• Elitch Gardens
• Sarah Bernhardt
• Rebecca Brown Adelman
• Kevin Causey

A few years back, members of the theatrical and preservationist community formed the Center for American Theatre and refurbished the Pavilion, turning it into an open-air amphitheater. The group has also been working on more than $14 million in grants for an intense overhaul of the theater structure, with hopes of staging performances in 2009. As construction crews pound away, the Center will present its first production — the aptly chosen The Pavilion, by Craig Wright — inside the Carousel Pavilion. It will star local performers Rebecca Brown Adelman and Kevin Causey, who also serves as the Center's executive director. The Pavilion runs Thursdays through Sundays at dusk through July 1. For more information, call 303-477-3006 or visit www.centerforamericantheatre.org.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: June 7. Continues through July 1