Shadow Theatre Company is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization utilizing the performing arts to serve the community.
"$500 and a dream!"
Founded by Jeffrey Nickelson in 1997, Shadow Theatre Company (Shadow) answered the artistic and spiritual necessity of creating an African American theatre for the Rocky Mountain region.
Shadow began its journey with a $500 gift to produce its first production- Innocent Thoughts, and a dream. The dream of an ambitious actor, tired of working on stage mostly one month out of any given year, who wanted to let in artists who felt that they could never get into that open door. Shadow gets its name from the idea of bringing light to the shadows.
Shadow's performances continue to reflect upon the social morés of our time, challenging audience members to reconsider their own values, attitudes and actions. In addition to our theatrical season, each summer Shadow provides an intensive, five-week artist-in-residence program for area youth that culminates in a full production led, produced, directed and performed by program participants.
Shadow has presented over 50 productions and received countless awards including the Mayors Award for Excellence in the Arts and numerous Denver Post Ovation Awards and nominations.
"From the heart of the human condition."
MISSION Our mission is to develop cultural awareness through theatre and to provide an understanding, respect and appreciation of our history and culture as expressed from the heart of the human condition.
VISION Shadow Theatre Company consistently seeks to provide a vehicle of artistic expression for Colorado's indigenous actors, artists, and writers that will be non-exclusive to any and all cultural communities and take responsibility for educating children through an "edutainment" format designed to empower youth by promoting positive peer influence with a primary focus on African-American and Latino youth.
"Look someone in their eyes today and make sure they know you love them."
Mr. Nickelson has co-starred in the television productions "Crossroads Cafe", "America's Most Wanted" and "Picket Fences". He will be remembered for his performances on the stage as Coalhouse Walker in the Boulder Dinner Theatre's Ragtime, Smokey Joe in Smokey Joe's Cafe, Troy Maxon in Fences, Percy in The Little Tommy Parker Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show, Frederick Douglass in The Spirit of Frederick Douglass, Macbeth in Macbeth, Dr. Glorious in Sedona, The Wiz in The Wiz, Darryl in Don't Lose, Osiris in Osiris, Yasha in The Cherry Orchard and Ira Aldridge in Innocent Thoughts. Some of his other favorite roles included A Soldier’s Play, Measure for Measure, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men (with Paul Winfield) and Hamlet and Me, his one-man show that had been performed across the country and in England.
"Bringing light to the shadowed."
Hugo Jon Sayles is very proud to be the Producing Artistic Director of Shadow Theatre Company. He has been involved in the performing arts for more than thirty years as director, performer, choreographer, writer and teacher.
Hugo is a recipient of the Colorado Council of the Arts 1997 Fellowship for his play Voices From the Soul, and a 2002 finalist in the nationally renowned Jerome Fellowship with his play The Sisters, Sweetwater.
A member of the Shadow Theatre Company family since its inception, he has directed such productions as From Okra to Greens; the Marlowe Award winning My Children, My Africa! And the Denver Post Ovation Award winning Topdog/underdog.He has been seen performing in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Fences, Two Trains Running and The Life & Times of Ol' Alfred. He has also co-written Sweet Corner Symphony & In Search of Eckstine: A Love Story with Jeffrey Nickelson; and this season he created An Evening with Nina.
Hugo has used his skills in dance, theatre & communications to work with youth at Colorado State University Family Action Center in the project Kaleidoscope, which uses theatre to explore value clarification in at-risk youth throughout the community. Similarly, he has worked with Eulipion's Cultural Arts Center youth-at-risk program called PRISM- a summer youth employment program.
Since 1991, Hugo has been an Artist Facilitator with the Colorado Educational Theatre's Building Bridges and Play-Makers. Hugo has also spent the past ten years working with the Aurora Fox summer youth theatre program, teen acting classes and has directed some of their summer youth productions. Throughout the years, Hugo has been teaching special workshops in story-telling, playwrighting, theatrical dances and voice for actors.
At Shadow Theatre Company, Hugo has spent the last three season's working as the main director for Shadow's Youth Ensemble CRUNK (Creative Resources Uniting Neighborhood Kids)- a program for young performing artists who creatively come together with professional artists as well as other very talented young artists from various fields in the performing arts in order to create a show.
Jeffrey W Nickelson (1956 - 2009) was the founder and executive/artistic director for Shadow Theatre Company from 1997 - 2009. He has directed and produced over 60 plays, and has performed as an actor in over 100 plays over the course of his 30 year career. He was posthumously awarded the 2009 Mayor's Cultural Legacy Award, the 2009 Ovation Award for Lifetime Achievement and the 2010 Best of Westword's Best Theatre Booster award.
He began his acting career here in Denver under the tutelage of the late John McCallum. His training as an actor began in February 17, 1978 at the Denver Black Arts Company production of Don’t Loose and had been learning about the arts ever since. Classically trained, Mr. Nickelson was a graduate of the award-winning Denver Center of Performing Arts' National Theatre Conservatory and the British-American Drama Academy with the Yale School of Drama in Oxford, England. He was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades for his work as a community leader, producer, director and actor. The Denver Drama Critics' Circle nominated him for Best Actor in a Lead Role for Levy in the Eulipions' production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Best Actor in a Musical nomination for the Shadow Theatre Company production of In Search of Eckstine: A Love Story. He won the Special Achievement Ovation Award for opening the new Shadow Theatre in 2008. In 2009, he won the Henry Award for Outstanding Direction of a Play for Shadow Theatre Company's production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Shadow Theatre Company strives to challenge the community-at-large to participate in our determination to be an example of the re-emergence of community-based independence.
