Tramway Theater

National Theater Conservatory

Originally created for the National Theater Conservatory, the Tramway theater is now an integral part of the DPAC education outreach and also serves as yet another venue for the largest theater complex in the US after NY's Lincoln Center.

Denver, Colorado  |  Intimate drama  |   with Eric Bartczak Architects

Located in the heart of Denver’s downtown arts district at 13th and Arapahoe streets, the historic Denver Tramway building is owned by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and home to the Denver Center Theatre Company, the Denver Center Theatre Academy, the National Theatre Conservatory and the National Center for Voice and Speech. The building, constructed in 1910 to serve as the maintenance and storage facility for Denver’s railroad system, underwent a $9.3 million renovation and expansion, for which Robert F. Mahoney & Associates served as the acoustical design consultant.

Completed in October 2003, the project brings to the building a new theater for children’s productions, a state-of-the-art dance and movement studio, a design studio, a TV and film studio, rehearsal spaces, educational resources and the addition of a fourth floor to the existing three-story structure.

The new fourth floor is dedicated to the research and diagnostic work of the National Center for Voice and Speech, which conducts vocal research, assists people with vocal disorders and hosts free voice workshops designed to prevent vocal problems. The world’s only speech research center affiliated with a performing arts organization, the NCVS was merged with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Wilbur James Gould Voice Center in large part because of the additional facilities provided by the Tramway expansion project.

Founded in 1972 by Chairman Donald R. Seawell and dedicated to excellence in the arts, the Tony Award-winning Denver Center for the Performing Arts is a showcase for live theater, a nurturing ground for new plays, a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit, a national training school for actors and the site of some of this country’s most innovative voice research. As the DCPA, which purchased the Tramway nearly a decade ago, notes: The architectural and acoustical improvements to the building “promise educational benefits for generations to come.”