Known as “Broadway in the Rockies,” Theatre Aspen is one of the Rocky Mountain region’s most celebrated professional theatre institutions and one of the most distinctive performing arts destinations in the country. For more than forty years, Theatre Aspen has brought world-class productions to the heart of Aspen, Colorado, drawing Broadway’s finest talent to a one-of-a-kind outdoor venue and building a legacy that has made it a beloved institution for audiences around the world.
Theatre Aspen’s award-winning productions are presented in the Hurst Theatre, situated in Rio Grande Park along the Rio Grande Trail, steps from the river and the beloved John Denver Sanctuary. With Aspen Mountain as a daytime backdrop and starlit skies filling the nights, audiences experience something no Broadway house can offer: the extraordinary union of dynamic professional theatre and the breathtaking natural splendor of the Colorado Rockies.
Since its founding in 1983, Theatre Aspen has produced hundreds of productions spanning classic plays, contemporary works, beloved musicals, and new work, attracting a long roster of acclaimed artists to its stage. Performers including Margaret Cho, Darren Criss, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jeff Hiller, Felicity Huffman, Judy Kaye, William H. Macy, Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Phylicia Rashad, and many other celebrated artists have called Theatre Aspen home. Each season brings a curated program of mainstage productions, late-night cabarets, family programming, and new works development, complemented by one of the largest theatre apprentice programs in the country, dedicated to training the next generation of theatre artists and administrators.
Theatre Aspen now operates on a year-round calendar, with programming that extends well beyond its primary summer season. Each fall, the Hurst Theatre becomes home to Solo Flights, Theatre Aspen’s nationally recognized annual festival of new one-person shows. Launched in 2019, Solo Flights presents bold works in the early stages of their development, drawing celebrated theatre artists from across the country for a week of performances, talkbacks, creative panels, and special events. The festival also awards the Solo Flights Project Advancement Fund grants, providing $10,000 to selected works to support their continued development toward future production and the advancement of the American Theatre.
Theatre Aspen also proudly collaborates each summer with the Aspen Music Festival and School on an annual concert musical, bringing Broadway’s brightest stars together with a full orchestra for one of the summer season’s most anticipated events. Now in its seventh year, this partnership has presented some of the most memorable evenings in Theatre Aspen’s history and stands as a hallmark of Aspen’s extraordinary cultural landscape.
Theatre Aspen’s education program is a cornerstone of its mission and one of its most significant community commitments. Theatre Aspen carries responsibility for arts and theatre curriculum within the Aspen School District and delivers a wide variety of programming throughout the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond, serving students and families at every level with camps, workshops, scholarships, and in-school programs.
Nestled in one of the world’s most extraordinary destinations, where majestic mountain vistas and world-class culture coexist, Theatre Aspen is far more than a summer tradition. It is a fixture of the Aspen community, a platform for stories that matter, and a place where the power of live performance meets the wonder of the natural world.
Theatre Aspen works under an Actors’ Equity Association SPT (Small Professional Theatre) agreement and employs members of SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers) and USA829 (United Scenic Artists).
Theatre Aspen is a proud member of the Colorado Theatre Guild and ACRA (Aspen Chamber Resort Association).
We welcome you to Theatre Aspen. We acknowledge that we gather on the ancestral land of the Uncompahgre band of the Ute Nation and pay our respects to the Ute past, present, and future. Theatre Aspen is grateful to all those who have stewarded the land for generations. We strive to honor their relationship with this land by embracing the beauty of our surroundings and celebrating the cultural legacies of all indigenous peoples who have been its inhabitants. To learn more about the history of the Ute and indigenous people in our area, visit Aspenaif.org.
Since 1983, the mission of Theatre Aspen has been to produce world class entertainment and arts programming in an engaging and personal way, through transformative and enriching live performance art. In line with our goal to create excellent theatre, we are committed to continuing our pursuit of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in our hiring, leadership, casting, education, and workplace practices, both on and offstage. We recognize, collectively and individually, this work is never complete.
Creating art calls for people with different backgrounds, abilities, and perspectives. That’s why, as a leading performing arts organization, we embrace diversity in all its forms. We believe creativity starts with inclusion, and we are committed to cultivating a workplace where all people can do their best work and succeed without barriers. Through our theatre presentations, educational and training programs, and audience development, we strive to shift perspectives and be catalysts for community conversation.
We aim for everyone in our Theatre Aspen community to feel welcome, and for the art you see on our stage to reflect the world in which we live.