Theatre Troupe Offers Horror, Interaction, and Local Writers

There’s a theatre company in town hoping to go viral…but in a plague kinda way.

Pandemic Collective, a performance group that specializes in horror theatre, launches its fourth season this October. Working with local writers to premiere original work, Pandemic is promising their most terrifying season ever.

“A lot of the artists we find are writers who don’t really have the opportunity to write,” explained Rhea Amos, the company’s founding artistic director. Amos has written and directed a few of the company’s shows, including its inaugural production, Blood Bath, the story of Erzabet Bathory, a prolific serial killer who bathed in the blood of her victims as a beauty ritual.

“Even to this day, horror is a pretty unexplored theatre genre,” Amos said. “There are some classics, but in terms of new work, there’s not a lot available.”

Pandemic aims to make its shows avant-garde, provocative, and cutting edge. But like any other new theatre company, Pandemic hasn’t always had a following.

“Truly, [early crowds were] sparse, because the whole nature of Pandemic is, and has always been, utilizing and empowering off-the-beaten-path types of artists and work,” Amos reminisced. “As we continue, we’ve been building a following of audience members and horror enthusiasts that don’t necessarily identify as theatre-goers but do come to our offerings, which is something I never anticipated.”

Pandemic’s first season was primarily gothic, historical horror.

As the company evolved, Amos said they began to experiment with interactive pieces. Past productions include the legend of London’s first public gallows, a rock circus masquerade with a suicide-awareness platform, and a showcase of plays once performed at a Victorian theatre in Paris that specialized in stylized, shocking, and gory horror theatre.

“We’ve edged out quite a bit,” Amos said. “I think the way we started was maybe a little tamer, a little more romantic. Now we’re a little more blood-curdling screams and making messes, starting fires. We are much grittier now.”

Pandemic frequently collaborates with local artists to enhance its productions. Comic book artist Shane Rodriguez provided projected scenic art for Room 104. Sand artist Alex Polzin screened live sand drawings onto a cloth backdrop during Tyburn: Deadly Nevergreen, changing scenery by drawing in the sand. Bands Teacup Gorilla and Odyle provided music for Pandemic’s production of Grand Guignol.

“Whenever I find an artist I love, I find a way to factor them in,” Amos said.

A majority of Pandemic’s shows have been featured at the Bakery, a warehouse space in downtown Denver’s ballpark neighborhood. In fact, Blood Bath was the first play ever performed in that space, inspiring Amos to build a theatre company around a horror genre.

In May 2016, Pandemic presented K: The Rise and Fall of the New York Club Kids, its first venture into immersive theatre. The site-specific experience was held at the dance club Milk, where attendees could drink and dance while the show happened around them. Utilizing the club’s several rooms, audiences experienced events surrounding the 1996 murder of Club Kid Andre “Angel” Melendez, largely based on the film Party Monster.

Amos said Pandemic’s exploration of immersive theatre was inspired by the kind of experience you’d get from a haunted house.

“There’s something about going into this dramatic scenario and knowing you’re in a show, but when it’s all around you, your reality becomes this performance,” she explained.

Artistic company member Dakota Hill became involved with Pandemic after being cast in K.

“It was such an incredible experience, and I felt like I had found kindred spirits,” Hill gushed. He has also written and directed shows for the company.

Their latest immersive show was held this past February. At A V-Day Massacre, a whodunit set at a cocktail party, attendees could interview actors and explore the space in order to find motives and clues to the mysterious death of a party guest. Throughout the show, audience-members discussed as a group and voted to help determine the killer.

Even Pandemic’s recent season release party was immersive. Set at Syntax Physic Opera on South Broadway, it centered around the story of territorial governor John Evans, who instigated the Sand Creek Massacre.

“What I think draws in our audiences is the simple fact that we’re consistently mounting original works that are unlike anything you see in the local theatre scene,” Hill said.

Hill wrote Pandemic’s upcoming December show Life or Death, which examines a human’s base animal instincts when faced with a life-threatening situation. He says his show is about what it means to be human, what it means to look within yourself and reconcile with the darkest part of who you are, and what it means to be afraid.

“I think people yearn for new experience in the arts, and theatre is no exception, of course,” Hill claimed. “I think all of us really have an understanding that the horror genre is a constant meditation of themes of grief and loss as well as survival and overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles.”

After a few years of mainly performing at the Bakery, Pandemic is moving to its own space in 2018. The location, just north of Sloan’s Lake at 29th Street and Sheridan, will also be host to another theatrical project, Feral Assembly. There, the companies will be able to explore with more creative freedom, as the black box space will be built to their specifications.

Hill says what makes Pandemic unique is how the company collectively appreciates the genre for what it can say about the world, and for how theatre can act as a mirror, forcing us to examine our world from a different perspective. While he understands some see the horror genre as a way of getting cheap thrills, Hill sees something deeper to offer.

Pandemic also plans to offer an educational platform, where artists can learn to incorporate modern methods of performance they might not encounter in traditional classes. Amos would eventually like to provide her own insight on producing plays, ensuring more companies like Pandemic continue to thrive in Denver.

This season will offer a $20 subscription package, which provides subscribers with a code for $5 off six ticket purchases as well as gifts, treats, and special invites to additional Pandemic events along the way.

For more info on Pandemic Collective and to purchase tickets or a subscription, visit PandemicCollective.org.

Coming Up This Season:

Cadence (Oct 19-28) – Part documentary-style film, part live play, this show pieces together the details of a teen’s demonic possession and disappearance in the wake of an unsolved murder spree.

Life or Death (December 7-23) – This is the story of four characters trapped in a terrifying struggle for survival on Christmas Eve

Yurei (April 5-21, 2018) – Based on the Japanese mythology behind “Tomino’s Hell,” a deadly poem whose words must never be spoken aloud, this show features a newlywed who discovers a piece of parchment in a mirror that causes a spirit to haunt her.

Yet A(nother) Night of Grand Guignol (June 14-30, 2018) – This show revisits French horror theatre — high in melodramatic style, steeped in gore.