Steve Wargo stands over the plans for his Denver Immersive Repertory Theater, which he is starting next year with Blair Russell. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
What will have 16 scenes, 11 different sets and span two floors? A show at the Denver Immersive Repertory Theater — and it’s coming to LoDo next March.
“It’s gonna blow your mind,” said co-founder Steve Wargo.
The 10,000-square-foot operation is currently under construction at the corner of 15th and Blake streets, where Patagonia and Zoom Healthcare once operated.
Wargo, 48, is a playwright and joined in the venture by 34-year-old Blair Russell, a producer on the Tony-nominated “Slave Play.” The duo met through mutual friends five years ago.
“We think immersive is actually the future of what the theater will be,” Russell said.
Blair Russell
And Denver is putting money behind it. The Downtown Denver Development Authority awarded $400,000 to the project on Wednesday.
“If the DDA money didn’t come through, this was something we were eventually going to have to talk to a bank about, so it would be debt financed, and that’s never fun,” Wargo said.
The major difference between traditional plays and an immersive one is that the audience is part of the experience. It’s set up to where you choose your own story, picking which scenes to join and meandering throughout the space as the show progresses. It’s designed so that you can’t see it all in one go. Coming with a group? You’ll be split up.
“Alice went down the rabbit hole all by herself,” Wargo quipped.
But creating this type of venue requires a ton of work upfront, to the tune of $750,000. The two are converting the space at 1431 15th St. into a three-pronged venue.
The first component is the bar and lounge, open to the public, no ticket needed. Inside the performance space, there will be a cabaret area attached to the wider show happening around it. People will need tickets to the cabaret, though they’ll be discounted, since there’s fewer scenes and experiences to explore. The layout of the area will change with each show.
Besides the DDA money and another city-backed $10,000 grant, the whole project has been self-funded. The pair have a landlord who shares their excitement. Fred Glick is a developer by trade at the Denver-based Columbia Group, but has a degree in theater and is excited that the project will provide jobs for Denver artists. Rent payments for the theater won’t start until they’re gearing up for their first show.
“This is about creating life on blocks that are sometimes kind of marginal,” Glick said.
Blair and Russell will have a staff of over 40, half of them actors. Between the buildout, labor and business development, the pair expect to have spent nearly $2 million by the time the doors open in the spring.
And from there, they’ll need to raise money for each run of shows, paying investors back from ticket sales.
But Wargo and Russell expect it will be easier doing business here than on Broadway.
“I think the story of New York writ large since the turn of the century is that it has gotten so expensive to do anything there, because your basis has gotten out of control,” Wargo said.
“A lot of the 99-seat theaters that I cut my teeth in 20 years ago, 25 years ago, the buildings are gone — demolished. New condos have gone up. They’ve turned the Greenwich, venerable Greenwich Street Theater … into a very high end yoga studio,” he added.
But Denver is embracing immersive theater. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, for instance, is looking to find a permanent space for its own immersive theater group, Off Center. There was even a convention for industry professionals, the Denver Immersive Gathering, which the two attended in 2022, helping them seal the deal on coming to town.
“Everywhere we turned it was people saying that Denver is going to be the immersive center of the universe, that this is the place to do immersive,” Russell said.
Steve Wargo stands over the plans for his Denver Immersive Repertory Theater, which he is starting next year with Blair Russell. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
What will have 16 scenes, 11 different sets and span two floors? A show at the Denver Immersive Repertory Theater — and it’s coming to LoDo next March.
“It’s gonna blow your mind,” said co-founder Steve Wargo.
The 10,000-square-foot operation is currently under construction at the corner of 15th and Blake streets, where Patagonia and Zoom Healthcare once operated.
Wargo, 48, is a playwright and joined in the venture by 34-year-old Blair Russell, a producer on the Tony-nominated “Slave Play.” The duo met through mutual friends five years ago.
“We think immersive is actually the future of what the theater will be,” Russell said.
Blair Russell
And Denver is putting money behind it. The Downtown Denver Development Authority awarded $400,000 to the project on Wednesday.
“If the DDA money didn’t come through, this was something we were eventually going to have to talk to a bank about, so it would be debt financed, and that’s never fun,” Wargo said.
The major difference between traditional plays and an immersive one is that the audience is part of the experience. It’s set up to where you choose your own story, picking which scenes to join and meandering throughout the space as the show progresses. It’s designed so that you can’t see it all in one go. Coming with a group? You’ll be split up.
“Alice went down the rabbit hole all by herself,” Wargo quipped.
But creating this type of venue requires a ton of work upfront, to the tune of $750,000. The two are converting the space at 1431 15th St. into a three-pronged venue.
The first component is the bar and lounge, open to the public, no ticket needed. Inside the performance space, there will be a cabaret area attached to the wider show happening around it. People will need tickets to the cabaret, though they’ll be discounted, since there’s fewer scenes and experiences to explore. The layout of the area will change with each show.
Besides the DDA money and another city-backed $10,000 grant, the whole project has been self-funded. The pair have a landlord who shares their excitement. Fred Glick is a developer by trade at the Denver-based Columbia Group, but has a degree in theater and is excited that the project will provide jobs for Denver artists. Rent payments for the theater won’t start until they’re gearing up for their first show.
“This is about creating life on blocks that are sometimes kind of marginal,” Glick said.
Blair and Russell will have a staff of over 40, half of them actors. Between the buildout, labor and business development, the pair expect to have spent nearly $2 million by the time the doors open in the spring.
And from there, they’ll need to raise money for each run of shows, paying investors back from ticket sales.
But Wargo and Russell expect it will be easier doing business here than on Broadway.
“I think the story of New York writ large since the turn of the century is that it has gotten so expensive to do anything there, because your basis has gotten out of control,” Wargo said.
“A lot of the 99-seat theaters that I cut my teeth in 20 years ago, 25 years ago, the buildings are gone — demolished. New condos have gone up. They’ve turned the Greenwich, venerable Greenwich Street Theater … into a very high end yoga studio,” he added.
But Denver is embracing immersive theater. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, for instance, is looking to find a permanent space for its own immersive theater group, Off Center. There was even a convention for industry professionals, the Denver Immersive Gathering, which the two attended in 2022, helping them seal the deal on coming to town.
“Everywhere we turned it was people saying that Denver is going to be the immersive center of the universe, that this is the place to do immersive,” Russell said.
