When Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall met with state legislators about a big-dollar request, he came prepared with visual aids.
“We showed them a map of all the amazing performing arts venues in Colorado, and they had something in common,” Marshall recalled. “They were lined up, up and down the I-25 corridor. And it's so stark when you start to look at, ‘Well, what is it about these rural communities that they have or don't have?’ You would be hard-pressed to find anywhere in the country, let alone in Colorado, a thriving, growing community that doesn't have a vibrant arts culture.”
In 2022, the Colorado legislature signed off on the largest single grant to CMU, a $39 million award to help fund a new theater in Grand Junction. A little more than two years later, the Asteria Theatre welcomed its first performance, a soft opening headlined by CMU alum and Grammy-winning singer Kalani Pe’a.
Mo LaMee, head of the university theater department, said it was the first in what he expects to be a tradition of acts worthy of the new facility.
“That synergy that's happening between students, between producing companies, local companies and just the community experience and then the access to all of these wonderful performances that are out there in the world that can now have a home here in Grand Junction is pretty exciting,” LaMee said.
Asteria, Marshall said, was chosen as the name to match the ambitions of the project. The word is sourced from Greek mythology — a reference to the stars. Marshall said CMU is hoping to check off every possible meaning of the word and its connection to the stage when they host the country’s most prominent astrophysicist this fall.
“If you look at the back of house and the stage house from the outside, you'll notice at night that it represents, it mimics starlight. And that's of course the double entendre of bringing stars to the stage,” Marshall said, adding, “We're also drawing on that name of being literally stardust that has created this place. And if you sort of reverse engineer all of that, one of our biggest first acts will be the famous astrophysicist, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, who will be here later this fall to help us open the Asteria Theatre.”
For LaMee — who is directing the theater’s grand opening production of “Amadeus” — it’s the stage lights that spark the imagination. Previously, CMU productions were housed at Robinson Theatre, a facility that dates back to the ‘60s and whose technical capabilities seem prehistoric when set against modern advancements in lighting, design and functionality — to say nothing of the semi-annual flooding of Robinson’s orchestra pit.
By contrast, Asteria has advanced technical abilities, a theater shop for crafting set designs and seating for more than 800, with no bad sightlines to be found. And, yes, stage lighting to match the star lighting.
“Lighting is painting on real people. Everything that's on the stage has to be made and created and intended,” LaMee said. “And you can do that with light. And light can take you to places that only your imagination can take you.”
