Thursday December 7 From the cradle: The original site of one of Denver's oldest neighborhoods--the Auraria campus--will host a pair of separate but related events at nearby campus venues. In what is becoming a yearly tradition, The Miracle at Tepeyac--a modern folk drama by El Centro Su Teatro's Anthony Garcia--will be staged at St. Cajetan's Church at 7:30 p.m., beginning tonight and continuing through Sunday. Preceding nightly performances will be a participatory community candlelight procession, featuring musicians and singers, from Mariposa Street and Colfax Avenue to the church. Tickets are $15; for reservations call 543-8342 or 296-4010. Meanwhile, the Daily Grind Coffee House's weekly poetry series Toads in the Garden presents local poet/activist Anthony R. Vigil, who will give a hard-hitting, politicized performance, The Xicano Poetry Resistance, accompanied by guitarist Amaurante Montez and conguero Eduardo Jaramillo. Admission to Toads, which features an open reading at 7:30 p.m., followed by the guest reading at 8, is $2 ($1 with student ID); call 615-9795 for information. The Daily Grind is located in the Tivoli Student Union, 900 S. Auraria Pkwy.
I'm your puppet: There's nothing stodgy about this Beethoven. Beethoven 'N' Pierrot, a multi-disciplinary performance that writer/director Pavel Dobrusky says "takes place in Beethoven's mind," will enjoy a US West-sponsored world premiere run at the Space Theatre, 14th and Curtis in the Plex, beginning tonight at 8. The fascinating production, which incorporates music, dance, marionettes and theater, is the collaborative effort of Dobrusky and Per-Olav Sorenson, a Czech-Norwegian team that won the Denver Center Theatre Company kudos last year with a similar stage piece called Stories. Ticket prices range from $18 to $30, with shows daily through December 23. Call 893-4100 or 830-TIXS for showtimes and reservations.
Friday December 8 Out of the bag: One of Denver's best-kept secrets isn't really so much a secret anymore. Local resident jazz guitarist and onetime Kansan Jerry Hahn, en route next week to Seattle to record with Ginger Baker on the drummer's next CD, will gig this weekend at Vartan Jazz, 231 Fillmore St. Busy man. Let's hope he'll do some tunes, with help from bandmates Eric Gunnison, Dwight Killian and Randy Bowen, from his own album, Time Changes, a bright new effort on the Enja label getting national recognition from the critics. Hahn performs at 8 and 10 tonight and tomorrow; for ticket information call Vartan, 399-1111.
Saturday December 9 Lighting strikes: Some of Denver's most fanciful holiday lights come on this evening, during the joint public openings of the Denver Zoo's Wildlights and Blossoms of Light at the Denver Botanic Gardens, where the respective daytime displayers of fauna and flora try to outdo one another each year with fabulously orchestrated nighttime lights accompanied by general festivities. Beginning tonight from 6 to 9, the zoo (331-4110) and gardens (370-8187) will both feature roasted chestnuts, hot drinks and carolers amidst a blaze of lighted trees and animated displays of leaping froggies and the like through the end of the year. Admission to each venue is $4 ($2 children and seniors). Slightly more sophisticated but pleasantly blinding is Windows of Light, an experimental installation of changing, computer-driven light sculptures by J.D. Neafus, on view weekdays through January 1 at the Museum of Outdoor Arts' Madden Gallery in Harlequin Plaza, 7600 E. Orchard Rd., #160N. A reception and museum faculty sale will be held December 14 from 4 to 7. Also by Neafus, Architectural Painting in Light III--a colored light display--will be on view evenings at Greenwood Plaza Boulevard and South Fiddler's Green Circle, though the holiday season. Call 741-3609.
This time it's for real: Making a play for the civic limelight is--at last!--the fully reunited and restored Denver Central Library, 10 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy., celebrating its total completion today and tomorrow with all sorts of fun and games. Though parts of the new structure have been open and serving the public since last spring, this weekend marks the reopening of the newly expanded Children's Library, including a storytelling pavilion (that nifty copper appendage in back), a project area for workshops and a teen space, as well as the inception of public access to a full spectrum of everyday and special library collections, kept--if you can believe it--on over 240,000 linear feet of shelving. Yow. There will be free non-stop entertainment from 10 to 5:30 each day of the celebration, from the Kim Robards Dance Company to a fourteen-foot Corythosaurus--that's a duckbilled dinosaur, folks--on loan for the festivities from the Denver Museum of Natural History. Bring the family; for information call 640-6377.
Sunday December 10 Bells on their toes: On Donder! On Blitzen! On Reebok! On Nike! The call is out for you to run like a reindeer--at the annual benefit Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis, a 5K event taking place at 10 a.m. in Washington Park. The only catch is that you've got to run with jingle bells attached, which--once you get used to it--is actually kinda fun. And you get them gratis, included in the entry fee. Of course, should you choose to also wear reindeer antlers, Santa hats or other seasonal paraphernalia, all the better. It costs $18 for adults and $15 for children and seniors to enter (an additional $2 on race day); call 756-8622 or 1-800-475-6447.
Model A Ford: Even E-Town, the National Public Radio program taped frequently at the Boulder Theater, is showing a little Christmas cheer--tonight's musical guests, who each perform several numbers between segments of interviews and enviro-talk, are rich and diverse. Featured will be guitar phenom Robben Ford and the Blueline, who return from frequent dips into jazz-fusion territory for a taste of what Ford does best--play the blues. And if that isn't enough to entice to you to take part in a real, live radio show, folk-rocker Jonatha Brooke of The Story will also be on hand. Tickets to the 7 p.m. taping are $7 in advance ($9 day of show); call 786-7030. Come on down and be ready to applaud loudly: The Boulder Theater is located at 2030 14th St. in Boulder.
Monday December 11 Put on your red dress: A favorite event for seniors, the annual Mayor's Gala Holiday Ball gives some of the city's older citizens a chance to kick up their heels to the popular Hot Tomatoes Dance Orchestra at the Adam's Mark Hotel, 1550 Court Pl. Put on your holiday best; tickets to the 7:30 p.m. gala must be purchased in advance at the following neighborhood recreation centers: Ash Grove, 1700 S. Holly St.; Barnum, 360 Hooker St.; Berkeley, 5031 W. 46th Ave.; Highland, 2880 Osceola St.; Montbello, 4397 Crown Blvd.; Park Avenue, 1849 Emerson St.; and Platte Park, 1500 S. Grant St. For information call the nearest center or 458-4868.
Tuesday December 12 White Christmas: There's nothing like a family extravaganza to make you feel all gooey and Christmasy inside. And if that doesn't scare you off, you're a sure candidate for this year's Walt Disney's World on Ice, a cool, classic rendition on skates of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, featuring none other than those endearing Disney dwarves Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey, Snoopy, uh...well, you get the point--they'll all be there, right down to the wicked, vain queen and the handsome prince. Performances begin tonight at 7:30 at McNichols Arena, 1635 Bryant St., and continue daily through December 17. Tickets range from $10.50 to $17.50; for specific showtimes and reservations call Ticketmaster at 830-
