1) East High Black Box Production

The East High Theater Company has kicked off its season for the 2022-2023 school year. The first performance for students is in the small and intimate Black Box Theater, which doesn’t have an elevated stage and instead integrates the seats of the audience with the actors on the floor. This is the first production in school history that was written by a student. Conrad Marr Branch is a senior who has performed with East High Theater since his freshman year. The play is a murder mystery called Red Ink and runs through the first week of November. Because tickets were selling out quickly, East High will stream the show virtually on November 4. The show starts at 7pm and you can get your streaming tickets for $20 at https://easttheatreco.org/something-rotten-tickets-virtual/.

Conrad Branch was a semi-finalist and finalist in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Student Playwriting Competition. Photo courtesy of East High School

2) Bistro Vendome Is Coming to Park Hill

After nearly 20 years in Larimer Square, the French restaurant Bistro Vendome will be moving to Park Hill, taking over the space from the recently-closed and much-loved Tables restaurant. The move was prompted because the building where Bistro Vendome was located is about to undergo a multi-year renovation.

John Imbergamo, spokesman for the restaurant, said the goal is to open in Park Hill by February 1, following some minor remodeling. “Everyone is very excited to be a part of the neighborhood. We know we’re moving from an area where much of the business is driven by the theater and symphony into an area where business will be driven more by neighbors wanting to get together.”

He says the Crafted Concepts group, which owns Bistro Vendome, Rioja, Ultreia, and Stoic & Genuine, had been looking for a space outside of downtown for a while. But when they saw the Park Hill location, they knew they found the perfect spot.

“Dustin and Amy [Barrett], who owned and ran Tables for 17 years, had established a really good restaurant that worked in the neighborhood, so it gave us the confidence to know that we could make it work too.”

Imbergamo says the Bistro Vendome menu isn’t likely to change much after it makes the move and that the hours will remain the same: open for dinner seven nights a week and for brunch on weekends.

3) Solana Apartments at Beeler Park

Located on the west side of Boston Court between 56th and 57th Avenues in Central Park, Solana at Beeler Park is a “wrap” building that surrounds an above-grade parking structure positioned in the center. The four-story building will offer 270 units and will begin leasing in the spring of 2023. Amenities will include a fitness center, conference room, private library, gaming lounge, bike and ski repair station, and a kitchen and bar event space. Outside, residents will have access to a swimming pool, shaded cabanas, landscaped courtyards, an outdoor recreation lawn, an enclosed dog park, and entertaining areas with outdoor grills. The building is owned by Reylenn Properties.

Solana Apartments at Beeler Park. Rendering from www.reylenn.com

Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site Expands

On October 5, the Department of the Interior announced the expansion of the Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site. Located in southeastern Colorado, Sand Creek is the site of one of the most atrocious massacres of Native tribes in our nation’s history. On November 29, 1864, U.S. soldiers launched an unprovoked seven-hour attack on over 700 Native people from the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes residing in the encampment. More than half of the 230 people killed were women and children. It was designated as a historic site in 2007 to preserve the location of the massacre and to display interpretive signs about the attack. The additional land was acquired with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The deal will add 3,478 acres to the Sand Creek site, with an expansion that will more than double its size to encompass over 6,500 acres of shortgrass prairie.

Otto Braided Hair (Northern Cheyenne) presents Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera with a Pendleton blanket. Senators Michael Bennet (far left) and John Hickenlooper (left) were also in attendance. Photo courtesy of Shannon Voirol