CU Alum named 2018 Colorado Theatre Person of the Year
2018 True West Awards
Actor鈥檚 reinvention as a playwright is hope for anyone wanting to transition to a larger artistic life. It can be done. Spectacularly.
You could say Jessica Austgen鈥檚 reinvented life came full circle in 2018 鈥 if that circle were the shape of a heart.
The boldest and busiest year of her professional life culminated in a bustling December, during which she performed in 14 shows a week 鈥 by day in the Denver Center鈥檚 Theatre for Young Audiences production of Corduroy; by night being silly in the Aurora Fox鈥檚 A Christmas Carol parody Twist Your Dickens.
Rehearsals also began last week for the Arvada Center鈥檚 upcoming staging of Austgen鈥檚 world-premiere play Sin Street Social Club. The moment Austgen met the actor who has been cast as the female understudy made it clear just how full that circle of hers has come. Because these two were not meeting for the first time. Director Lynne Collins had no idea when she cast Annie Barbour that the recent graduate from The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University had been Austgen鈥檚 student back at Denver School of the Arts.
鈥淛essica is plugged into so many different communities,鈥 Collins said. 鈥淭hat coincidence just illustrates that she鈥檚 had a massive effect on a whole lot of people.鈥
Austgen is an actor, improviser and playwright. She鈥檚 also an educator, podcaster and Executive Director of the Denver Improv Festival. She鈥檚 also, it cannot be overstated, a self-described nerd. We鈥檙e talking Bucky Barnes. Warcraft. All things Potter (Harry or Henry) and Aaron Tveit. Her dream role is to play Gavroche in Les Mis茅rables. (Gavroche, you should know, is a 12-year-old boy.) It鈥檚 perfectly fine if you tell Austgen she looks like Tony Award-nominee Beth Malone. Or a hobbit. Or a Newsie. She will thank you for the compliment.
鈥淗er nerd cred runs deep,鈥 said her husband, actor and director Geoffrey Kent.
But to those who know Austgen, she鈥檚 also Rocky. She鈥檚 Wonder Woman. She鈥檚 The Comeback Kid. She鈥檚 a hopeful example to anyone who ever decides to transition to a much larger life than we ever think possible. It can be done. Spectacularly.
And Austgen is now the True West Awards鈥 2018 Colorado Theatre Person of the Year for her many contributions to the local theatre ecology as a performer, writer and educator.
From 2014: Our 鈥楢rt and Artist鈥 profile of Jessica Austgen
鈥淵ou鈥檝e heard the expression: 鈥楯ack of all trades, master of none鈥?鈥 Kent said. 鈥淲ell, I have had a front-row seat to every new thing Jess has taken on 鈥 and she has mastered them all. She has conquered every field she has entered. I don鈥檛 know what she can鈥檛 do.鈥
Collins sees Austgen as 鈥渟omebody who keeps making new adventures for herself and new ways of working in the world. And there aren鈥檛 that many people who can do that.鈥
A Turning Point
After graduating from Fairview High School and the 麻豆影院, Austgen鈥檚 life followed a pretty familiar actor trajectory. She was working steadily on stages across Colorado, including three summers with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, but eventually came to realize being on a stage was never going to completely feed her artistic spirit. So she decided to take the first of many risky and wildly successful hairpin life turns: A head-first dive into both improvisation and theatre education. In 2007 she was hired as a DCPA Teaching Artist and three years later became a core member of Off-Center鈥檚 foundational improv team called Cult Following. She built up such a solid reputation so fast in improv 鈥 undoubtedly the scariest of all the performative arts 鈥 that she was soon rescuing and then running the Denver Improv Festival.
Around 2012, Austgen took another big risk when she enrolled at the University of Denver to pursue a master鈥檚 degree 颅in playwriting. How did that work out? Just after graduation, Off-Center commissioned her to write a Comic Con-themed drag adventure. Austgen made her professional playwriting debut when DragOn opened in the Denver Center鈥檚 Garner Galleria Theatre in May 2017. It was about a fledgling drag queen who is put through trials and tests to find her swagger.
鈥淚 saw DragOn, and I thought that was just a really well-made play,鈥 said Collins, who then challenged Austgen to pitch an adaptation idea for her upcoming rep season at the Arvada Center. Austgen came back with Sin Street Social Club, based on Aphra Behn鈥檚 The Rover, and boom 鈥 it will have its world premiere opening March 15.
鈥淭hink about that,鈥 Kent said. 鈥淎 year and a half after she took up playwriting, she had plays picked up by the Denver Center and the Arvada Center for their world-premiere productions. I don鈥檛 know how to explain that, other than to say: She just knows how to write.鈥
2018 True West Awards: Creative Couple Jessica Austgen and Geoffrey Kent
Collins jumped on Sin St. Social Club because she is building her Arvada Center season around the theme of women writing their own stories. (The slate includes The Diary of Anne Frank and The Moors.) Sin City is described as 鈥渁 flirty, fun, feminist comedy that follows a novice nun and her nightclub-singing sister to the streets of 1916 New Orleans in a last-ditch effort to save their departed daddy鈥檚 dance club.鈥
The source story, which depicts the sexual adventures of a group of badly behaving Englishmen in Naples at Carnival time, is nothing if not problematic in the 鈥淢e Too鈥 era, so Austgen is re-casting the story from a female perspective. 鈥淚n this update, we give the female protagonists more agency, so the story becomes more about them taking control of their lives rather than being pawns of these men,鈥 Austgen previously told the DCPA NewsCenter.
The script, Collins said, is reflective of Austgen鈥檚 playful, improv-comedy roots.
鈥淚鈥檝e never met anyone quite like Jessica,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 have worked with her as an actor for three years now, and I am blown away by how her brain works. She is just so smart. Her sense of language and storytelling is really special. And she has the fastest mind of anyone I have ever met. I think that comes from having her improv chops.鈥
Westword鈥檚 Susan Froyd also sees improv as both Austgen鈥檚 stepping-off point and theatrical bailiwick, 鈥渂ut she鈥檚 the complete package,鈥 Froyd wrote. 鈥淪he is a renaissance woman who manages the art of telling stories both on stage and on the page.鈥
Austgen returned to performing scripted theatre in 2012 and immediately won a Best of Denver Award from Westword for her performance in Curious Theatre鈥檚 Collapse. In 2016 she won one of the most highly sought acting jobs in the state when she was named to the Arvada Center鈥檚 inaugural, year-round company of repertory actors. She has since performed in Tartuffe, All My Sons and more, earning a 2018 Henry Award nomination for her cheeky turn in a modern adaptation of Sense & Sensibility鈥 on wheels.
Jessica Austgen to Les Mis茅rables: Cast me as Gavroche
The highlight of her performing year, however, had to be playing (surprise!) a man in The Catamounts鈥 Men on Boats, a witty and impeccably choreographed tru(ish) telling of John Wesley Powell鈥檚 1869 expedition to chart the Colorado River. Another highlight of Austgen鈥檚 year was helping to bring stability to the venerable Avenue Theater by launching the ongoing improv-themed game show Comedy Sportz as a regular weekend offering there.
But heading into 2019, there鈥檚 no question Austgen is now speeding down the lane driven by playwrights. And Kent believes his wife 鈥渋s right on the precipice of truly finding her voice at a national level.鈥
If her success teaches us anything, he added, it鈥檚 this: 鈥淒on鈥檛 be afraid to pursue every avenue that feeds your inner artist.鈥