Jeffrey Nickelson

Oscar & Felix - Producer/Felix Unger - 2009
Smokey Joe's Cafe - Producer/Smokey Joe - 2009
Joe Turner's Come and Gone - Producer/Director - 2008
Twilight's Last Gleaming - Producer - 2008
Hands of History - Adapter/Producer/Director - 2008
Dinah Was - Producer/ Director/Actor - 2008
A Rose Among Thorns - Producer - 2007
Soul Survivor - Producer - 2007
Two Trains Running - Director - 2007
The Spirit of Frederick Douglass - Producer/Director/Frederick Douglass - 2006
Plenty of Time - ProducerDirector - 2006
Four Queens No Trump - Producer - 2006
Waitin' 2 End Hell - Producer/Actor - 2006
Visions: A Tribute to August Wilson - Producer/Levee - 2006
Emergence-See - Producer - 2005
Topdog/Underdog - Producer/Lincoln - 2005
Breaking the Fourth Wall - Producer/Singer - 2005
Paul Robeson - Producer - 2005
God's Trombones - Producer - 2004
Three Ways Home - Producer/Director - 2004
Blood Knot - Producer/Director - 2004
The Little Tommy Parker Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show - Producer/Percy - 2004
God's Trombones - Producer - 2003
MacBeth - Producer/MacBeth - 2003
Sweet Corner Symphony - Producer/Co-Writer/Director - 2003
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill - Producer/Director - 2002
My Children, My Africa! - Producer - 2002
Bourbon at the Border - Producer/Director - 2002
In Search of Eckstine: A Love Story - Producer/Tristan - 2002
Come Back Little Sheeba - Producer/Director - 2001
Not Here - Producer/ Director - 2001
In or Out! Doing Time? - Producer/Co-Director - 2001
Fences - Co-Producer/Troy Maxon - 2001
Flyin' West - Producer/Director - 2001
The Evils of Tobacco/Hughie - Producer/Director - 2000
From Okra to Greens - Producer - 2000
The African Company Presents Richard III - Producer/ Director - 2000
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Producer/Director - 1999
Riff Raff - Producer/Torch - 1999
In Search of Eckstine: A Love Story - Director/Co-Writer/Tristan - 1999
Sedona - Co-Producer/Dr. Glorious - 1998
Voices From the Soul - Producer/Director - 1998
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground - Producer/ Director - 1998
Day of Absence - Producer/Director - 1998
In Search of Eckstine: A Love Story - Producer/Co-Writer/Tristan - 1997
Innocent Thoughts - Producer/Actor - 1997

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.

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.