New dates, location and ticketing for David Byrne’s world-premiere “Theater of the Mind” in Denver

Former Talking Heads leader David Byrne and writer Mala Gaonkar’s “Theater of the Mind” this week got a location, run dates and ticketing information in advance of its Denver world premiere this summer.

Described by producers as an immersive, hybrid experiment in art and science, “Theater of the Mind” was announced in November 2019 and originally scheduled to visit Denver in August 2020.

After the pandemic scuttled the original date, producers promised it would return at some point — although, until this week, the postponement seemed distressingly indefinite.

Now, “Theater of the Mind” is scheduled to officially world-premiere in Denver in September, with previews starting on Aug. 31 and an overall run date at least through Dec. 18 of this year, according to producers at Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Off-Center unit.

It will take place in a 15,000-square-foot historic warehouse within the “adaptive reuse campus” of York Street Yards in the Clayton neighborhood (York Street Yards, 3887 Steele St. in Denver).

Tickets will go on pre-sale to all DCPA subscribers May 6, and on sale to the public on May 20. Previews begin on Aug. 31, with the show officially opening in September — no doubt to international critics who will visit the Mile High City for their sundry reviews.

Denver Center officials encouraged people to sign up to receive more information and first access to tickets at theateroftheminddenver.com.

“‘Theater of the Mind’ will take audience members through an immersive journey of self-reflection, discovery, and imagination, inspired by and grounded in neuroscience,” according to a Denver Center press release. ” ‘Theater of the Mind’ is led by a Guide whose stories are inspired by the creators’ lives. Audiences will explore how they perceive the world through sensory experiments that reveal the inner mysteries of the brain.”

Clear as mud, right?

“A group of 16 audience members will go from room to room and experience these perceptual things. When they leave one room, another group goes in there,” Byrne told Rolling Stone in 2019. “That way, you can get 400 people in from 6 p.m. to 10. You get the same number as if it were a theater show, but you get more in small groups.”

COVID has no doubt prompted changes to those plans, but the show — presented by Denver Center’s Off-Center unit, and co-created with Mala Gaonkar, promises a pioneering experience. Directed by Andrew Scoville, it’s produced with support from Nate Koch, LeeAnn Rossi and the Arbutus Foundation.

“(Gaonkar and I) both had this interest in presenting scientific inquiry in a way that was more accessible to the public,” Byrne said in a Jan. 26 New York Times article. “The sciences used to be called a form of art, but now they’re very much separate, and we thought, oh, can we bring that together again?”

On Monday, Byrne also posted an Instagram story in which he extolled the virtues of Broadway (his show, “American Utopia,” is restarting its acclaimed run) while promising that everybody involved is tested and vaccinated. The always-experimenting, highly collaborative artist suddenly seems raring to go.

“We feel like it’s bringing some life, togetherness … kind of a little bit of celebration, back,” he said in the video. “Things we haven’t had for a long time.”

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