A shot from the performance of Wild Party in 2017, which “transported audience members to a different era as guests at a decadent, 360-degree party set in the Roaring Twenties,” according to DCPA’s website. The group that put on the show is called Off-Center, and specializes in immersive theatrical experiences. (Courtesy Adams VisCom)
Over the past 15 years, Charlie Miller has produced dozens of theatrical performances for hundreds of thousands in Denver in various places, from small coffee shops to massive warehouses.
“We’ve learned a million lessons, like we’re never going to do a show without HVAC,” he said.
Miller, a sixth-generation Denverite, has spent his entire career with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, building his own line of programming within the nonprofit organization for over a decade. It’s called Off-Center, and it specializes in creating interactive, unconventional theatrical productions.
And now, Off-Center wants to experiment with something new: permanent real estate.
“The market is tricky right now, and we have a lot of really specific needs,” Miller said.
Earlier this month, Off-Center submitted materials to the city proposing the conversion of a nondescript 18,000-square-foot retail building at 545 S. Broadway in Denver into a venue for the group, complete with its own bar and box office.
“It’s an exploratory thing that relies on the city to give the blessing for us to know if it’s even viable for us,” Miller said of the submission. “It’s a long way from reality.”
The group has lived a “nomadic lifestyle,” performing in Lakewood’s Belmar Park, Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace and in old RiNo warehouses where Mission Ballroom now stands, among other places. It’s a taxing effort for Off-Center, spending thousands to get the necessary permits and short-term leases.
Off-Center recently signed a two-year lease for 27,000 square feet at 409-417 S. Broadway, currently a collection of empty retail buildings slated to eventually be demolished to make way for apartments in D4 Urban’s Broadway Park development.
That arrangement, however, is merely a temporary one as the group seeks out a permanent home. Off-Center shared its “real estate wishlist” with BusinessDen. In it, the group states they’re looking for 20,000 square feet, with 15,000 of that being programmable space. The building needs 16-to-20-foot ceilings, multiple entrances/exits and at least 150 parking spots nearby.
A rendering of the proposed Off-Center location at 545 S. Broadway. It’s just one potential location among many the group is exploring. (Public Records)
The center has tapped Dorit Fischer and Hayden Hirschfeld of NAI Shames Makovsky as its brokers. The general vision is to be as centrally located and accessible as possible.
“We’re not beholden to any one part of the city,” Miller said of where he’d like Off-Center to be located. “I think what’s important to us is that it’s easily accessible from all parts of the city; that there’s good public transit nearby. And obviously, Broadway Park has great access to light rail and bus and so that’s exciting to us.”
The group said using the city-owned Denver Performing Arts Complex downtown isn’t practical because the theaters there are too traditional and not suited for immersive experiences, in addition to being shared by multiple groups.
Long before it had real estate aspirations, Off-Center was a mere thought in the minds of two young DCPA employees.
“I came here to help start a multimedia department in 2008, and be the resident video designer for the theater company,” Miller said. “The DCPA at the time was also trying to figure out how to engage millennials who weren’t coming to the theater. And so as the token millennial on the artistic team, they look to me for ideas for how we might engage new audiences.”
Charlie Miller stands in front of posters from the many productions of Off-Center. “I grew up going to the Denver Center as a kid,” he said. “My parents were subscribers and so I saw lots of shows here, and I fell in love with theater.” (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
Miller, now 38, had recently graduated from Harvard, where he studied filmmaking. He teamed up with another DCPA “token millennial,” Emily Tarquin, to launch Off-Center in 2010. Back then, it was a tiny offshoot of the theater company.
The duo started to push the boundaries of the arts. From performances involving one actor and one audience member on up to massive immersive experiences, Off-Center began an “incredible cycle of learning and experimentation,” Suzanne Yoe said.
Yoe has been with the DCPA for over three decades and does communications work for the institution. She’s been watching the small group grow into a major attraction and believes Denver is becoming “an immersive hub of the country, if not the world.”
“[It’s] theater that puts audiences at the center of the story, and sometimes that’s in a very participatory way and other times, it’s a story that envelopes you,” she said.
The group caught its first big break in 2015 when it received money from the Wallace Foundation, a New York philanthropic arts organization. That funding – $1.3 million over four years – allowed them to commission Third Rail Projects, an immersive theater group, to produce Sweet & Lucky, its first large-scale production which took place in 2016. Set in a mysterious antique store, participants walk through a series of “dreamlike” encounters, accompanied by custom cocktails.
That performance was widely acclaimed by critics; Westword wrote that “almost everything about the evening — the sights and sounds, even the smells — is beautifully put together.”
Annie Barbour in the Theater of the Mind, which was Off-Center’s first show as its own standalone programming line in 2022. (Courtesy Matthew DeFeo)
In 2022, Miller was promoted and Off-Center became its own independent programming line of the DCPA. That same year, it produced Theater of the Mind, which was created in-part by David Byrne, the Talking Heads frontman. The show took place at the York Street Yards in Denver’s Clayton neighborhood.
“You start it’s a group of 16 in a funeral and this person pops out of a coffin, and they’re David and they’re dead. But it’s obviously not (the real) David and then they take you into their mind. And then in each room there’s a different neuroscience phenomenon that is demonstrated to the audience, as it’s woven together by telling stories of this person’s life lived backwards,” Miller said.
That show was a smashing success, selling 42,082 tickets over 2,743 performances, equivalent to selling out two Nuggets games or four Red Rocks concerts. It produced an estimated $13.63 million dollar economic impact.
“That is what we work to achieve, something that is out of the ordinary, something that will stay with you,” Yoe said.
A shot from the performance of Wild Party in 2017, which “transported audience members to a different era as guests at a decadent, 360-degree party set in the Roaring Twenties,” according to DCPA’s website. The group that put on the show is called Off-Center, and specializes in immersive theatrical experiences. (Courtesy Adams VisCom)
Over the past 15 years, Charlie Miller has produced dozens of theatrical performances for hundreds of thousands in Denver in various places, from small coffee shops to massive warehouses.
“We’ve learned a million lessons, like we’re never going to do a show without HVAC,” he said.
Miller, a sixth-generation Denverite, has spent his entire career with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, building his own line of programming within the nonprofit organization for over a decade. It’s called Off-Center, and it specializes in creating interactive, unconventional theatrical productions.
And now, Off-Center wants to experiment with something new: permanent real estate.
“The market is tricky right now, and we have a lot of really specific needs,” Miller said.
Earlier this month, Off-Center submitted materials to the city proposing the conversion of a nondescript 18,000-square-foot retail building at 545 S. Broadway in Denver into a venue for the group, complete with its own bar and box office.
“It’s an exploratory thing that relies on the city to give the blessing for us to know if it’s even viable for us,” Miller said of the submission. “It’s a long way from reality.”
The group has lived a “nomadic lifestyle,” performing in Lakewood’s Belmar Park, Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace and in old RiNo warehouses where Mission Ballroom now stands, among other places. It’s a taxing effort for Off-Center, spending thousands to get the necessary permits and short-term leases.
Off-Center recently signed a two-year lease for 27,000 square feet at 409-417 S. Broadway, currently a collection of empty retail buildings slated to eventually be demolished to make way for apartments in D4 Urban’s Broadway Park development.
That arrangement, however, is merely a temporary one as the group seeks out a permanent home. Off-Center shared its “real estate wishlist” with BusinessDen. In it, the group states they’re looking for 20,000 square feet, with 15,000 of that being programmable space. The building needs 16-to-20-foot ceilings, multiple entrances/exits and at least 150 parking spots nearby.
A rendering of the proposed Off-Center location at 545 S. Broadway. It’s just one potential location among many the group is exploring. (Public Records)
The center has tapped Dorit Fischer and Hayden Hirschfeld of NAI Shames Makovsky as its brokers. The general vision is to be as centrally located and accessible as possible.
“We’re not beholden to any one part of the city,” Miller said of where he’d like Off-Center to be located. “I think what’s important to us is that it’s easily accessible from all parts of the city; that there’s good public transit nearby. And obviously, Broadway Park has great access to light rail and bus and so that’s exciting to us.”
The group said using the city-owned Denver Performing Arts Complex downtown isn’t practical because the theaters there are too traditional and not suited for immersive experiences, in addition to being shared by multiple groups.
Long before it had real estate aspirations, Off-Center was a mere thought in the minds of two young DCPA employees.
“I came here to help start a multimedia department in 2008, and be the resident video designer for the theater company,” Miller said. “The DCPA at the time was also trying to figure out how to engage millennials who weren’t coming to the theater. And so as the token millennial on the artistic team, they look to me for ideas for how we might engage new audiences.”
Charlie Miller stands in front of posters from the many productions of Off-Center. “I grew up going to the Denver Center as a kid,” he said. “My parents were subscribers and so I saw lots of shows here, and I fell in love with theater.” (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
Miller, now 38, had recently graduated from Harvard, where he studied filmmaking. He teamed up with another DCPA “token millennial,” Emily Tarquin, to launch Off-Center in 2010. Back then, it was a tiny offshoot of the theater company.
The duo started to push the boundaries of the arts. From performances involving one actor and one audience member on up to massive immersive experiences, Off-Center began an “incredible cycle of learning and experimentation,” Suzanne Yoe said.
Yoe has been with the DCPA for over three decades and does communications work for the institution. She’s been watching the small group grow into a major attraction and believes Denver is becoming “an immersive hub of the country, if not the world.”
“[It’s] theater that puts audiences at the center of the story, and sometimes that’s in a very participatory way and other times, it’s a story that envelopes you,” she said.
The group caught its first big break in 2015 when it received money from the Wallace Foundation, a New York philanthropic arts organization. That funding – $1.3 million over four years – allowed them to commission Third Rail Projects, an immersive theater group, to produce Sweet & Lucky, its first large-scale production which took place in 2016. Set in a mysterious antique store, participants walk through a series of “dreamlike” encounters, accompanied by custom cocktails.
That performance was widely acclaimed by critics; Westword wrote that “almost everything about the evening — the sights and sounds, even the smells — is beautifully put together.”
Annie Barbour in the Theater of the Mind, which was Off-Center’s first show as its own standalone programming line in 2022. (Courtesy Matthew DeFeo)
In 2022, Miller was promoted and Off-Center became its own independent programming line of the DCPA. That same year, it produced Theater of the Mind, which was created in-part by David Byrne, the Talking Heads frontman. The show took place at the York Street Yards in Denver’s Clayton neighborhood.
“You start it’s a group of 16 in a funeral and this person pops out of a coffin, and they’re David and they’re dead. But it’s obviously not (the real) David and then they take you into their mind. And then in each room there’s a different neuroscience phenomenon that is demonstrated to the audience, as it’s woven together by telling stories of this person’s life lived backwards,” Miller said.
That show was a smashing success, selling 42,082 tickets over 2,743 performances, equivalent to selling out two Nuggets games or four Red Rocks concerts. It produced an estimated $13.63 million dollar economic impact.
“That is what we work to achieve, something that is out of the ordinary, something that will stay with you,” Yoe said.
