Because it was too expensive for the Three Leaches Theatre Company to perform Shakespeare in a proper rehearsal space, they rented an office.

“Literally just a simple 400-square-foot room. We have some furniture from our shows in there,” said Melissa Leach, co-founder of the Three Leaches.

The office cost Leach and her co-founder Amber Irish about $800 a month, and they rented it out for $15 an hour to other small theater companies, such as Flamboyán, a new theater company with a Puerto Rican focus.

With rents rising and small theater groups being pushed out, rehearsal space is becoming increasingly difficult to find in Denver.

Meanwhile, the community’s remaining strongholds, such as the Buntport Theater near the Arts District in Santa Fe and the People’s Building in Aurora, are booked up a year in advance due to high demand and a lack of affordable space.

In late May, the Benchmark Theater in Lakewood announced it was leaving its home after six years. That meant an open theater space. The building is owned by the Colfax Business Improvement District, which leases it to creative community organizations. Leach applied for the space and landed the new sublease.

Three for one

The Three Leaches’ name will be on the theater lot, but they will be joined by Flamboyán, founded last year by Jon Marcantoni, and Josh Berkowitz of The Laboratory on Santa Fe. Flamboyán will occupy the stage four months of the year – February, June, September and November – while Berkowitz will largely control the theater’s attached gallery space. But the terms are flexible, and Leach and Marcantoni emphasized collaboration among the three groups.

“Our working relationship is simply ‘communicate, overcommunicate,'” Marcantoni said. “Let’s collaborate, let’s create great art, let’s invite the community, and let’s be a place that’s not just for us.”

The 40 West Arts District has housed Metro Denver’s overpriced artists for nearly a decade. In 2017, a handful of galleries, including Pirate Contemporary Art Gallery, Edge Gallery, and Next Gallery, moved into the thriving neighborhood. The theater building itself has housed 40 West Arts Gallery, Edge Theater, and Benchmark Theater for the past 13 years.

The new Three Leaches Theater will be part performance space and part gathering place for the public, Leach said. They plan to host workshops and karaoke nights and participate in the arts district’s lively First Friday Art Walks. Of course, they will also rent the theater to small businesses when they can. Leach said she hasn’t settled on rates yet, but they would likely be around $15 an hour, the same as the office space.

“I want to talk to people in the community and see what can be done,” she said.

“Are we still doing this?”

Leach and Irish started their company 14 years ago, a couple who describe themselves as “nerdy theater kids” with a dream of creating a “fun, exciting, kind of edgy theater that does what we want to do and is affordable for everyone,” Leach said.

They set a precedent for “simple, combative” productions, based on the philosophy that good plays do not require elaborate sets and costumes. They priced at $1,000 per play, including all rental fees, and kept ticket prices under $20.

“Every few years we asked ourselves, ‘Are we still doing this?'” she said. They kept going. They produced 13 seasons of shows, including 10-minute plays, a Zoom play, “Macbeth” and many absurdist comedies.

In 2021, Leach told Shoutout Colorado that they began cutting space rental fees out of their $1,000 budget because Denver spaces had become too expensive, and they moved to a “pay what you can” ticket system to avoid turning away new theatergoers.

“People are more likely to try something new if it costs them $5 than if it costs $30,” she said.

To make it work

After the pandemic, the Buntport Theater — which Leach considers a “role model” among community theaters — decided to offer its rehearsal spaces for free before moving to a price that was “just enough to keep our heating and cooling systems running,” said Buntport co-founder Erin Rollman.

“It wasn’t a business or financial decision,” Rollman said. “We’re not making any money, in fact, we’re actually making a loss. We made this decision because we know it’s extremely difficult to produce work in this city and there are very few spaces to rent right now.” She said they were able to offset the financial burden of low rental fees through grants from foundations such as the Science and Cultural Facilities District, the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and the Olson Vander Heyden Foundation.

But word has spread about Buntport’s offering — very widely. According to the theater’s website, they are “inundated with requests” from artists trying to book time. Not to mention, the Buntport has its own shows to rehearse and perform, including a season-opening production of “Buntport’s 55th Original Show” that begins Nov. 1. Rollman is excited about the prospect of having another space to point interested artists to.

“Honestly, it’s overwhelming,” Rollman said. “It’ll just be nice to finally be able to say, ‘There’s this other place you should check out.'”