Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center collaborates with entrepreneur and philanthropist Max Appel to share the riveting story of Denver's Westside Jewish Community through a limited engagement play, Promise on the Hill: My West Colfax Memories, showing September 22, 23 & 24 at 721 Santa Fe Drive.
DENVER, Sept. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center collaborates with entrepreneur and philanthropist Max Appel to share the riveting story of Denver's Westside Jewish Community through a limited engagement play, Promise on the Hill: My West Colfax Memories, showing September 22, 23 & 24 at 721 Santa Fe Drive.
Su Teatro's Executive Artistic Director, Anthony J. Garcia, and renowned entrepreneur, Max Appel, partnered up to write Promise on the Hill. The theatrical memoir invites the audience to take a step back in time and experience the Jewish community that once populated Denver's West Colfax neighborhood from 1930 through the 70s.
West Colfax gifts a distinctive view that looks east out over the city, a vision that at the time represented the promise of a new world with unprecedented religious and economic freedom, ergo The Promise on the Hill: My West Colfax Memories.
The compelling and ambitious new play recounts the experiences of a generation whose parents had immigrated from Eastern Europe to escape the horror of the pogroms. A community bound together by cultural and spiritual tradition transformed the city of Denver as the "Westside" which produced a significant number of successful educators, entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, civic leaders, and philanthropists.
Inspired by the production of poet Bobby LeFebre's Northside, Su Teatro patron, Appel approached Garcia about creating a piece that would explore the Jewish Westside along West Colfax Avenue, stretching from the "Bottoms under the Colfax Viaduct, the top of the hill west to Sheridan Boulevard and beyond," as cribbed bed by Garcia. "The project evolved slowly during the pandemic. I was very reluctant as I was not from the Jewish community and feel that stories such as these have the most authenticity and power coming from those within them. However, as we began to talk about it, I was blown away by the influence and contributions of the Jewish West Colfax community and I began to see the parallel with my parent's generation."
Appel is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, and mind behind worldwide brand OxiClean. Born into the Westside in 1932, he followed the path of many, straddling the cultural tightrope between his immigrant parents with the protection of the shtetl (a town name that came to mean 'community') and the draw of a dominant mainstream culture offering opportunity and unspoken restrictions. Appel's contemporaries were the Perlmutters, the Gart brothers and so many others. Inspired by greatness, he is determined to make his mark by honoring his history, striving for social change, and ensuring legacies live on not only through a theatrical play, but also by instigating a revival of one of Denver's oldest Jewish establishments, Zaidy's Deli & Bakery.
Promise on the Hill chronicles a rich part of Colorado history, beginning as an immigrant story, but truly is a story about how the American dream came to be. It showcases a vibrant community that contributed much to Denver and its surrounding areas. A generation whose memory is often lost will no longer be forgotten. Promise on the Hill is a nonfiction tale sharing the lives of parents who traveled to escape oppression and poverty, and their kin, who navigated a new world of possibilities and turned their learned resilience into generational success.
The play includes traditional music from Jewish ceremonies and original music written by Garcia and Appel. "This is not the definitive story; this is but one of the many that need to be told," states the duo.
WHAT
The Promise on the Hill: My West Colfax Memories
WHO
By Anthony J. Garcia and Max Appel
WHEN
September 22, 23 & 24 at 7:30 PM
WHERE
Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center
721 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, CO 80204
TICKETS
Students & Seniors (65+) - $17
Adults - $20
Available for purchase at http://www.suteatro.org or via phone at 303-296-0219
SU TEATRO SAFETY REGULATIONS
Su Teatro means Your Theater, Your Art, Your Community. We believe we must do whatever we can to keep the community safe. As such, all audience members ages 12+ must show proof of full vaccination against Covid-19 2 and a valid picture ID. Audience members under age 12 who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 must provide proof of a negative Covid-19 Test taken within 48 hours of attending.
Media Contact
Nicole Kristen Abunassar, NK Groupe LLC, 1 347-566-1939, [email protected]
Maria Luisa Burgos, Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, (303) 296-0219, [email protected]
SOURCE Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center
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