The theater is more than doubling the total square footage of space available for rehearsals, storage and productions.

Buntport Theater is starting its 25th season with a lot of room to grow. The theater now has more than double the space available for rehearsals, storage and productions, thanks to a new deal in which it is leasing to own the building where it has been renting space for more than two decades.

Company members were surprised when a “For Sale or Lease” sign popped up in front of the building at 717 Lipan Street. The theater collective, which has been bolstering Denver’s theater scene since 2001 with quirky and original plays and musicals (like its upcoming revival of Edgar Allen Poe Is Dead and So Is My Cat), had tried in the past to purchase its part of the building without luck.

Company member Erin Rollman says that at one point, the group had the right of first refusal written into the contract so that if the landlord decided to sell the building, Buntport would have some protection and control over the situation. “It’s hard to be a renter,” Rollman laments. “We’ve been in the same space for 25 years, but you don’t feel total security. At any time, we could be moving somewhere else.”

That became a real possibility when a development company made an offer on the building. “We felt like they were going to raze the building and we were going to be kicked out,” Rollman says. “We were like, ‘We probably only have two years here at most if we let this happen,’ so we had to scramble and figure out a path to getting it ourselves.”

That path opened up with what Rollman calls an “angel investor” who bought the building as a stopgap; Buntport Theater is now leasing to own the building and just launched its 25th season with a five-year capital campaign to raise more than $2 million to support the purchase, renovations and other related costs.

Over $1 million of that goal was already raised before Buntport went public with the campaign, as company members reached out to individuals who had supported the group in the past. According to Rollman, the members plan to apply for grants as well, but “that process is just longer than being able to have conversations with individuals.”

The five members of Buntport are running the capital campaign to keep administrative costs minimal, allowing donations and grant funding to go directly to the purchase of the building.

Buntport Theater previously occupied about 3,500 square feet of the converted warehouse space just south of downtown Denver; now the company will take up the whole 10,000 square-foot building, with plans to add a rehearsal space for the community, more storage areas, a sewing room, a woodshop and more.

Kristen Fiore Oct 13th, 2025 Westword