What Is Hunger Artists?

What exactly is a hunger artist? It seems like an odd name after all – “the hungry guys” as a patron once said. Our name actually comes from two excellent stories, one by Franz Kafka and the other by Salman Rushdie. Kafka tells the tale of a man who would rather perform than eat, while Rushdie told of the Plentimaw Fishes, who could transmute old stories into new. Both were “hunger artists”, and we are as well. We always look toward bringing something new to the stage and we love theatre more than (almost) anything else.

Hunger Artists Ensemble Theatre was formed in 1979 by a group of actors who believed that working in a collaborative, ensemble style would produce the most affecting theatre, and has grown through the years to include some of the finest directors, designers, technicians and actors in Denver.

The company performed where they could in the early years, everywhere from Hannigan’s Greenhouse to the Mercury Café and the Pirate Gallery. In 1988, in collaboration with CityStage Ensemble, Hunger Artists moved to the wonderful (and sorely missed) Theatre At Jacks on Platte street downtown, and stayed until it closed in 1993. From 1993 to 1996, with the support of the University of Denver's Theatre Department, we were a resident company at DU. In 2002 we became a resident company with our long-time friends at the LIDA Project Theatre on Stout street in downtown Denver. This brings us full circle – we’re next door to the Mercury Café. We hope to stay there a long time!

Over the last 25 years Hunger Artists has performed everything from Shakespeare to Stoppard, with a history of productions focusing on the larger issues of our culture. In 1997, we produced the epic Angels In America at the Acoma Center, the largest production in our history in terms of artistic staff, community involvement and audience attendance. At the Denver Civic Theatre in 2000, we produced another epic, the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Kentucky Cycle. Lauded by both critics and patrons, The Kentucky Cycle received 3 Denver Drama Critics Circle awards including Best Director.

Our reader’s theatre program has been a great success with our patrons, performed primarily in the Victorian splendor of the Byers-Evans House Musuem. Our annual holiday productions of James Joyce’s The Dead and An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe have been so well received we are bringing them both back in our 2004-2005 season.

We are proud to have received 17 awards and 44 nominations from the Denver Drama Critics Circle. We have received the Westword Best of Denver award 36 times, including Best Production awards for The Real Thing, Breaking the Code, Angels in America, Dancing At Lughnasa and The Kentucky Cycle. Most recently, our production of Bent received both the 2003 Denver Post Ovation award and Westword’s Best of Denver, both for Bill Hahn - Best Actor in a Drama.

As much as we enjoy it when the critics like our shows, it’s the accolades from our patrons that mean the most to us. Many of our patrons have been with us since nearly the beginning, and we are very grateful for their support, as well as all the wonderful people who donate the time, money and effort to make our brand of theatre a reality.