Three Stages, One Block: Why East Colfax's Arts District Can Now Keep Its Lights On All Halloween

Before July, the building at 9905 E. Colfax Ave. had been a bank, a chocolate factory, a church and a hair salon. Lexie Lazear and Matthew Rogers bought it in February 2025 for $1.045 million, even though it wasn't for sale. A commercial realtor had approached the former owner on their behalf. On July 17, 2026, it opened as The Storyteller Theater, directly across the street from the Aurora Fox Arts Center and on the same block as The People's Building.

That address now lines up with two other stages. The Aurora Fox is at 9900 E. Colfax and The People's Building is at 9995 E. Colfax. This October, for the first time, all three have spooky-season shows booked within a few days of each other. That timing is no accident. It follows from how the newest room was built and how it's priced.

A room priced for small companies

Lazear also runs Shifted Lens Theatre Company. Her stated reason for opening a venue was money: "the venue rentals around here are not only few and far between, but what does exist is extremely cost-prohibitive," she told OnStage Colorado on a July 15 tour.

So the couple built a venue meant to stay cheap. They spent close to $700,000 on construction, lighting and sound. They paid cash for the building so there's no mortgage. Rogers puts basic monthly costs at roughly $3,300 to $3,500. Community theater groups rent the room for $300 a day, and companies using it for business purposes pay $500.

One rule in that rental policy explains a lot about the district's calendar. A renter gets first right of refusal on the dark days between its performances but doesn't pay for them. Another group can use the room on, say, a Monday, as long as it leaves the existing set alone. A small company that can't afford to rent a mainstage for a month can book only the nights it needs, and the room keeps working in between.

The physical space follows the same idea. There's no permanent stage and no fixed seating. Storyteller started with 84 chairs, enough for a playing space of about 28 by 28 feet. Lazear expects theatrical setups to max out around 100 to 110 seats, and standing capacity is 220. The city required the building's street-facing windows to stay. The fix was tinted security glass, blackout shades and curtains, so the room goes dark for shows and lets in daylight for rehearsals.

"I had a friend come here, and she was like, 'This is not a black box theatre. This is an arts facility.' And I was like, 'I'll take it.'"

That's Lazear again. She describes the venue as a smaller, affordable complement to The People's Building, built for companies that need something between a basement and a traditional theater.

The first season shows how that works in practice. The five productions OnStage Colorado listed in July come from five different producers or producing partnerships.

The Wild Party closed yesterday. On that July schedule, Storyteller's next production opens Halloween night. Before then, the other two stages on the block carry the season.

The week the whole block goes dark on purpose

Feeding Beatrice at the Aurora Fox. Kirsten Greenidge's gothic thriller runs on the Fox mainstage from Thursday, October 1, through Sunday, November 1, directed by Betty Hart. It's billed as an Aurora Fox Colorado premiere. The Fox recommends it for ages 17 and up and warns of coarse language, frightening sequences and moderate stage violence. The ticket page also offers pay-what-you-can preview tickets and a separate weekday matinee option.

Dancing in the Dark: House of Omens at The People's Building. It runs October 23 through 31. Before that, The People's Building has Building Fringe tonight, October 5, and Tiny Beautiful Things October 8 through 18.

Stranger Sings! at The Storyteller. Shifted Lens opens this one on Saturday, October 31, at 7:30 p.m. It has nine performances in total. There's a 2:30 p.m. matinee on November 1, evening shows November 4 through 7, and a final weekend November 12 through 14. Lazear has said she wants to try staging it fully in the round.

On paper, all three runs overlap on October 31. House of Omens has its last date that night, Stranger Sings has its first, and Feeding Beatrice is a day from closing. Each venue sets its own nightly schedule, so check performance times with each one before planning a three-show Halloween. The point stands either way. A year ago this block had two stages. Now it can stage a gothic thriller, a dance-driven horror piece and a musical parody in the same week, about 100 address numbers apart.

November hands the block to the smaller rooms

The Fox goes quiet once Feeding Beatrice closes. Its next listed production is Hank Williams: Lost Highway, December 4 through 27. For most of November, the block runs on The People's Building and the Storyteller, and their calendars overlap twice.

1. November 4 to 8. Stranger Sings plays November 4 through 7 at the Storyteller, and 9 to 5 Jr. runs November 5 through 8 at The People's Building.
2. November 12 to 15. Stranger Sings has its closing weekend November 12 through 14, and Clue: On Stage runs November 12 through 15 across the street.
3. November 20 to 22. Once Upon a Mattress: Youth Edition runs at The People's Building.
4. November 28 and 29. The Queen City Variety Show is on the 28th, followed by Homeward Bound + The After Pawty on the 29th, with the movie at 1 p.m.

The November lineup leans younger and lighter, with two youth productions, a murder-mystery comedy and an afternoon movie. Those are the shows a 100-seat room and a community-rate rental are designed to host.

The Aurora Cultural Arts District runs its own markets off this block. The Haunted Harvest Art Market is Friday, October 16, from 5 to 9 p.m., and the Old School Cool Vintage Market is Saturday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Both are at Stanley Marketplace, 2501 N. Dallas St. On Colfax itself, this season belongs to the stages.

Before the curtain, within a few blocks

The block's food and drink options sit along the same stretch of Colfax as the theaters.

• Cerebral Brewing, Aurora Arts taproom, 9990 E. Colfax Ave. It's on the same block as The People's Building. The brewery calls itself an award-winning neighborhood brewery.
• Ollin Cafetzin, 9529 E. Colfax Ave. Co-owners Jasón Romero and Cynthia Moreno-Romero run this Indigenous-owned, Mesoamerican-inspired café, which has an ethnic studies library in the back room. The name means "Movement Coffee" in Nahuatl. Denverite highlighted the chia-seed lemonade and a prickly pear, cucumber and peach energy drink alongside the usual cappuccinos and chai lattes. Before opening the storefront, the couple spent three years doing pop-ups at community events and farmers markets.
• Society 303, 9600 E. Colfax Ave. This wine bar and café was on Westword's list of September 2025 openings, so confirm current hours before planning dinner around it.

Storyteller has its own vintage-style bar inside the performance room, along with original doors and fixtures from the 1961 building in a lobby with new black-and-white tile. Artist River Hetzel started a mural in the bathroom hallway in July, so returning visitors may find it finished.

Lazear has described what success would look like: "being regularly booked and providing access to smaller theatre companies that maybe would not have been able to survive without us." Ticket links and the latest schedules are on each venue's site, and the Stranger Sings listing currently shows nine performances between October 31 and November 14.

Glenn Janda has followed Aurora's neighborhoods for more than two decades. A new $300-a-day theater on East Colfax counts as neighborhood news, the same as a new restaurant or a road project. If you'd like to talk about what's changing near your part of Aurora, Glenn Janda is glad to help. Schedule a Free Consultation and bring your questions.