The Autobiography is now available!
Henry Lowenstein (1925-2014) was a theatrical producer and designer in Denver. In his lifetime he participated in over 700 productions as a producer, designer, or technician. He was the producer at the beloved Bonfils Theatre on East Colfax for over 20 years, and later founded and operated the New Denver Civic Theatre on Santa Fe Drive from 1990-95. His many contributions to community theater in Denver earned him the title “Father of Denver Theater”.
Born in Berlin on July 4th, 1925, Henry Lowenstein grew up among his parents’ circle of friends from the theater, with dancers rehearsing in the living room and Kurt Weill playing the piano while composing the Three Penny Opera.
After Hitler came to power in 1933 everything changed. In 1939 Henry was one of 10,000 Jewish children sent to England by the Kindertransport and thus saved from the Nazi Holocaust. Alone, in England, he worked for a year at the Whipsnade Zoo while attending a one-room school, and later worked full-time on a dairy farm for 6 years.
Henry arrived in the United States in 1947, the typical immigrant: no money and no education. He worked as a gravedigger, a foundry laborer, and in a paper plate manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania while earning his high school diploma and attending art school.
Henry enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1950, serving as Artist/Illustrator for the Air Force and earning 2 years of credits, ultimately earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois. He met and married civilian artist Doris Brewer (1925-1990). At the completion of his military service, Henry was accepted into the Yale School of Drama graduate program. In addition to his studies, he worked behind the scenes on many Broadway shows at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. He designed 25 productions for summer stock theaters with such stars as Tallulah Bankhead, Constance Bennett, Gloria Vanderbilt, Bea Lillie, Geraldine Page, and Art Carney. Henry’s designs were reviewed favorably by the New York Times and The Saturday Review; his work was also featured in Opera News.
In 1956 he was approached by Helen Bonfils, principal owner of the Denver Post, and offered a job as the designer at the Bonfils Theatre in Denver. During his first years in Denver he designed not only for the Bonfils Theatre, but for many other local, regional and national events. In 1967 he officially assumed the role of Producer at the Bonfils Theatre, as well as for the Denver Post Opera series in Cheesman Park.
As Producer at the Bonfils Theatre he created the Bo-Ban’s Cabaret series, the Festival Caravan program, the first regional school touring program and summer student workshop in conjunction with Denver Public Schools and served on the Management Committee of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). The Bonfils Theatre (renamed the Lowenstein Theatre in 1984) was closed by the Bonfils Foundation Board of Directors in 1986, and Henry retired from the Bonfils and the DCPA after 30 years of dedicated service.
He then established the New Denver Civic Theatre, started a new School Touring Program and merged and converted three derelict buildings on Santa Fe Drive into the Denver Civic Theatre (now Su Teatro), a two-theatre complex where he produced more than 90 shows until again retiring in 1995.
Henry was one of the original founders of the Colorado Theater Producer’s Guild (later renamed “The Colorado Theatre Guild” – the Henry awards are named after him), served on the Mayor’s Commission of Art, Culture and Film, and later on the Scientific and Cultural Facilities Districts Denver Cultural Council.
Want to read more? Henry’s autobiography is now available for free download. Click the buttons below to download your own copy.
PDF file
This file is great for printing or reading on a large screen. Clicking the button takes most users to a PDF reader within the browser. You can click the download button in the reading screen to download the actual file. Some browsers may download the file directly without showing a reader. Format: 8 1/2″ x 11″ pages with two columns per page, intended for double-sided printing (363 pages total).
E-Reader file with popup footnotes
Use this file for most e-readers such as Kindle, Apple Books, Calibre, etc. This file has popup footnotes which don’t work in all e-readers, but are much easier to use: no need to navigate back to a point in the text.
E-Reader file with footnotes at the end
This file is more likely to work with all e-readers. Clicking or tapping on a footnote number in the text takes the user to a list of footnotes at the end. Clicking or tapping on the number in the list takes the user back to the place in the text. But you have to remember what the footnote number was to get back.
A word about e-readers: There are free applications for reading .epub files on every major platform. There are lots of advantages to using this format for online reading: you can customize the font, size, and colors of the text, and many of these apps allow zooming in on pictures. Some readers work better than others. I did a bit of testing on this. I used both .epub files on the following platforms. The “Safer EPUB” works on everything I tested. I have these recommendations for the best reader experience with the “Easy EPUB” file:
- Mac OS: Apple Books (“Books”)
- iOS, iPadOS: Apple Books (“Books”)
- Windows: Calibre
- Android: Lithium Reader
Kindle gets honorable mention for all four platforms, but doesn’t allow zooming in on pictures in Windows or Android. Adobe Digital Editions works on all platforms, but it’s really awful.
Photos from the Autobiography:
Pingback: Testing E-Reader Apps with Henry Lowenstein’s Autobiography – Colorado Theater History
Eric
23 Jun 2025Please leave us your comments about the book! Thanks for reading.
Kristin
27 Jun 2025So excited to learn more about Henry’s remarkable life! Thanks for sharing this with us!