Control Group Productions (CGP) is a Denver-based performance company. It co-directs work|space Denver, a 120-seat black box theater in the River North Arts District. Part of a vibrant local community of progressive performing arts, Control Group creates unique live art pieces using dance and movement, sculptural art, and sound/lighting/physical environments. At work|space, CGP presents dozens of other artists and companies annually, advancing Denver’s contemporary arts culture and building bridges to other artists and communities across the state and around the world.

CGP is seeking business and private sponsors interested in supporting the work that we do and benefiting from the visibility that sponsorship offers. Attached to our activities, your brand will reach 1000s of Coloradans each year, and will travel with our company across the country and beyond. CGP is a 501c3 non-profit organization, making all donations tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

FRIENDS OF CGP: SPONSORSHIP LEVELS

All sponsorships include a listing on our website and Facebook page, and on the back page of our event programs. In addition, we offer our special thanks for the following sponsorship levels:

$100 Event Sponsor
Advertisement in event program, event webpage, and newsletter
We match our entry-level sponsors with a specific up-coming event by including an ad in the event program (2x3.5”) and placing your logo on the event webpage and in newsletter for the month leading up to the event.

$250 Season Sponsor
Listing in programs and online for 6 months
Season Sponsors support a full season of programming by CGP at work|space. These sponsors receive 2x3.5” ad slots in all event programs for 6 months, and their logos appear in newsletters and online.

$500 Venue Sponsor
Logo on foyer wall, ad in all programs for 1 year
Venue Sponsors help keep our theater working! As thanks, we put your logo (6x6”) in the foyer right next to the main entrance, and in all newsletters for a year, and we run your ad in all event programs.

$1,000 Production Sponsor
Logo included on all CGP print and online advertising for 1 year
Production Sponsors offer crucial support to CGP’s company work. We include your logo on all of our print materials (1x1”), as well as on the foyer wall (12x12”), in all newsletters, and on the homepage of our website.

$5,000 Visionary Sponsor
You tell us what you want.
Visionary Sponsors help create the vision for our company and theater. At this level, we invite you to work with us to formulate the best way to offer you our thanks by promoting your business.

HOW TO BECOME A SPONSOR

To become a sponsor of Control Group Productions, you can make a contribution by check with a CGP representative, donate through PayPal, or send a check to:
Control Group Productions
4715 Perry St.
Denver, 80212
 

Contact patrick@controlgroupproductions.org or 303-947-2827 for more information.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to do with all the goodness! Over the last year, Control Group has taken some amazing steps forward:

• Two spectacular, critically acclaimed new works, and a bundle of appearances at events across the Front Range;
• Our long-awaited 501c3 charter as a non-profit organization;
• And a fantastic new home venue in fantastic partnership with experimental theatre company the LIDA Project LINK.

Up-coming, our first tour outside Colorado, with performances at American Dance Festival LINK in North Carolina in July; and the first international tours to our venue this coming October. Truly, our hard work and steady vision is bearing extraordinary fruit, and we are achieving the full range of goals that drove us to begin this project just three years ago.

We are getting there! We are creating the change we want to see in our community, and we couldn’t be doing it without your solid and ardent support. And so, glowing with these successes we are coming to you with a plea for help, an invitation to get involved in new ways, and a belief that together we are changing the face of our culture in ways that are crucial, far-reaching, and incredibly exciting.

Your help will have an immediate effect that also stretches far into the future, ensuring our stability through our these steps forward and setting us up to continue our trajectory of growth sustainably and successfully over the coming year and beyond. We exist on a robust mix of earned income, private donations, and foundation (and hopefully soon governmental) support. Your donations are crucial part of this equation! We are seeking to raise $3,000 within the next month, money that will contribute to two important organizational needs:

New Equipment: our new facility requires an expansion of our sprung floor and “marley” (dance linoleum). This floor keeps the many dancers rehearsing, studying, and performing at work|space healthy, cushioning high-impact movement and providing a smooth surface with the right grip for the extreme dynamics of contemporary dance. $1,500 covers this fundamental need.

Touring Expenses: Control Group is headed out on its first tour! This is a HUGE opportunity to present our work to new audiences, and at American Dance Festival no less! – one of the most prominent gatherings of dance professionals and students in the world. With private support covering our accommodations and existing company funds covering many other associated costs, we are turning to you for help with the travel costs of $1,500.

We believe strongly that the arts are a precious cultural commodity. Support for the arts is an investment in our community’s vibrancy, richness, intelligence, and character. The first donations have already come in! Please, join in this community effort to move our local culture forward with excellent new works, exciting opportunities for artists and audiences alike, and expanded participation in the 21st century global arts dialog.

And now for the fun part! We want to make sure you know how much we appreciate your support. As you consider how best to help, check out these great benefits for giving at different levels…

FRIENDS OF CGP: GIVING LEVELS

$10 Buddy Reward: Poster from Salon Romantik, opus 1
Like that doll for boys back in the 80s – “My Buddy and me!” As our buddy, you’ll get a poster from CGP’s most recent show. You may also get a series of bad haircuts from us that leave you basically bald (sorry to all of our dolls that were defaced in this way). You may choose to waive some or all of these benefits. (image coming soon)

$25 Mate
Reward: CGP T-shirt
Mate is Australian for “anyone whom I happen to be addressing” – but we go with the nautical application, where it denotes a pertinent part of a ship’s crew. Your pertinence is denoted by a Control Group T-shirt that designates you far and wide and part of the hippest crew that ever crewed a crew. (image coming soon)

$50 PAL
Reward: DVD of Salon Romantik, opus 1
Short for Phase Alternating Line, PAL is the European standard for broadcasting and DVD encoding. This giving level gets you a DVD of our most recent work – and just because we love you, we’ll encode it in the American NTSC, just in case you don’t have a European DVD player.

$100 Compadre
Reward: DVD box set of CGP works 2009-2012
Compadre is Spanish for “old chum from way back.” To avoid pangs of nostalgia for us and our work, you’ll receive the limited edition DVD box set of Control Group’s 2009-2012 seasons. Plus, after the next show you attend we’ll talk about the good old days, possibly accompanied by some sangria.

$250 Crony
Reward: Art Print by Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi
As a Crony, you’re part of our elite inner circle – secret handshakes, back room meetings, and a special, individualized present from us to you: an 8x10” print from our photo shoot with phenomenal artists Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi. Don’t worry, we’ll give you a choice of nudity or… less nudity. (images coming soon)

$500 BFF
Reward: All of the above! Plus VIP status for the next year
That’s right, Best Friend Forever! Actually, just for a year. But for that year you get EVERYTHING that we offer to any of our other (lesser) friends, plus you get free admission and VIP seating at all CGP events – and you’re welcome to come over pretty much any time and hang out.

$1,000 El Savior
Reward: Salvation of your immortal soul. (and other gifts as desired)
Also known as the Jebus Level, EL SAVIOR! is like Christmas for everyone. You’ll be greeted by a great “Hurrah!” every time you grace us with your presence, before being ushered to a seat of honor where you will be waited on hand and foot for the duration of your stay. A T-shirt – yours. DVDs – just say the word! Your name embossed on a seat – done. We may even name our first-born child after you (first come first served on this)!

Control Group Productions is a 501c3-chartered not-for-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Please know that, by accepting our gifts at each level of giving, the tax deductibility of your donation must be adjusted to reflect the value of the gift you receive.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

You can contribute online through Paypal here.

To contribute by check, make check payable to ‘Control Group Productions and send it to:
Control Group Productions
4715 Perry St.
Denver, CO 80212

If you’d prefer to remain anonymous, we also accept envelopes of cash.

If you would like to help CGP and PHCA but aren’t able to donate financially, we are always looking for volunteers for building maintenance and renovations, advertising, and events staffing. Please sign up with Patrick at patrick@controlgroupproductions.org.
Thank you for your generous support of our ambitious young organization!

Sincerely,
Patrick Mueller

company biography

Control Group Productions was founded in 2008 under the artistic direction of Patrick Mueller. Our defining purpose is to provide a forum for the creation of excellent, innovative, and unique art pieces.  Our basic medium is performance, spanning (thus far) stage, site-specific, installation, and film works.  We approach our medium outside of the artificial strictures of traditional forms (dance, theatre, fine art, etc.), instead employing the fullest palette available within the unique situation of each work.  We allow each concept and process to select the tools and material and inform the mode of presentation for the product. If that sounds like esoteric gibberish to you: Control Group is a dance company that doesn’t just (and sometimes plain doesn’t) dance.

For its first two years, Control Group was the permanent resident company of the Packing House Center for the Arts in northwest Denver, where we premiered all of our works from this period.  Our debut project, the triptych Three Treatises on Interplanetary Weather Systems, follows the trajectory of an astral body from deep space through planetary impact, recreating this narrative experientially in three parts told with varying media – live installation, stage performance, and a short film.  The creative process spanned January to August 2009, with premieres in March and May for the installation and stage work, and May 2010 for the film.

In 2009 we also produced Tomb / Abattoir, a live/undead installation-performance examining the tradition of haunted houses through the lens of PHCA’s slaughterhouse past.  In collaboration with installation artist Rori Knudtson and composer Myra Moreta, this work transformed the theater setting into a ghostly maze of translucent walls, with a sound score augmented by an eight-inch-deep floor cover of dried leaves.

Demolition Queens premiered on April 22, 2010 at PHCA, with further performances scheduled in 2010-11.  A by turns explosive and contemplative descent into the excesses of rock-stardom and pop culture, this work uses carefully formulated staging and live and recorded sound to create a wholly unique experience that is part rock concert, part performance art spectacle.

In 2011 we created When we were Beautiful and All that Came After in residency at Denver's BINDERY|space. This site-specific meditation/spectacle explored aging as a sculptural/geological process of reduction: decaying surfaces, facades wearing slowly away, the gradual revelation of the underlying resilient form. The work was closely followed by Denver's Westword Magazine, and received wide acclaim for its nuanced beauty and humor.

In late 2011, CGP became a permanent resident company of the new black box venue work|space Denver, in partnership with experimental theatre company the LIDA Project. Our debut project at our new home transformed the theater into an enchanted forest, a crossroads of the real and the spirit worlds. Denver Post's Lisa Kennedy described Salon Romantik, opus 1: Wanderers in the Sea of Fog as "potent..., powerful..., impressive and surreal." This piece is the first in a 5-part series exploring the ideology and historical contents of Romanticism, with refractions into fairytale, 1960s avant garde art and spirituality, and beyond.

Control Group is directed by Patrick Mueller with assistant direction by Kristine Whittle. Its other current members are Hallie Bauernschmidt and Taylor Augustine. Regular collaborators include Brian Freeland, Amelia Charter, Paul Betts, and Tricia Hoke.

Return to CGP main page

Salon Romantik Event Page here

PROGRAM NOTES – Patrick Mueller, 4/19/2012

It's important to note that Salon Romantik is Control Group's first exploration of narrative - we usually organize our works thematically and experientially, allowing a lot of space for personal interpretation. I've included the libretto below, but I hope that the work is much more than its story – it’s also a deconstruction of its own narrative, a surreal, imagistic, visceral experience in which we hope that the narrative is a vehicle for access but not the purpose of the work.

That being said, here's the libretto:

A young adventuress wandering through the wilderness stumbles upon a portal to the Spirit World. At this crossroads she meets a woodsman, who bewitches her, leaving her asleep under a tree, and then transforms into a mischievous, devilish faun. A beautiful wood nymph finds the adventuress and attempts to break the faun’s spell. When this fails she encases the lost traveler in a magical protective circle.

The adventuress dreams of the nymph and the faun, exploring their realm and dancing with them. The dream becomes a nightmare as they both turn on her, chasing her into hiding and leaving her lost and alone.

The adventuress awakes stripped of her memories and her humanity. The nymph finds her and tries to carry her to safety. But the faun captures both of them in an enchantment, and sends the adventuress into the Spirit World. The faun, once a man, has lived at the crossroads for eternity, held there by his love for the wood nymph. With his love now within his grasp, he becomes human again and seeks her favor. But fear overcomes love, and they fight until, drained of power, they both collapse.

The adventuress returns, made powerful and inhuman by her journey into the land of the Spirits. She uses her power to revive both faun and nymph, but in so doing, all three are trapped for eternity in the wilderness between worlds.

a performance by Control Group Productions

8pm on April 20, 21, 27, and 28

work | space Denver
at The Laundry on Lawrence, 2701 Lawrence St., Denver 80205

Tickets $18 at the door / $15 online here

We depart ourselves
and disappear
into the wilderness’ embrace.
Into terrible,
sublime beauty,
a return to awe and grace.

A Romantic epic spectacle performance.

Concept and Direction:  Patrick Mueller

Assistant Direction:  Kristine Whittle

Creation and Performance:  Hallie Bauernschmidt, Patrick Mueller, Kristine Whittle

Visual Design:  Amelia Charter

Sound Design:  Brian Freeland

Costume Design:  Tricia Hoke

Advisement:  Tommy DeFrantz

Dramaturgy:  Brian Freeland

Click here for images from our first photo shoot with Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi. Caution: aesthetically relevant (and awesome) adult content.

Collaborator sites and contacts:

Amelia Charter: website  |  contact
Brian Freeland:  website  |  contact
Tricia Hoke:  website  |  contact

Warning: aesthetically relevant (and excellent) adult content.

Control Group Productions, resident company at Denver’s Work|Space at the Laundry, is looking for performer-collaborators to join us for several upcoming works, including our current project, which runs 4/20-28, and our 2012-13 season starting in September.

Control Group makes intermedia performance, allowing the purpose and process to guide the form of the product. With movement as our common basis, we create works that reach into our full toolbox as performers, engaging voice, character, objects, environment, etc. to fully mine the potentials of the live stage as a situation and a medium. Check out a retrospective of our recent works here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJVijpEg28c

We’re looking for collaborators with broad physical facility, strong performance presence, and familiarity with collaborative making. We rehearse 6-12 hours/week in 2- to 6-month processes. Payment for performances (working on rehearsal wage soon).

AUDITION DETAILS

February 19, 2-6pm (includes brief group warm-up)
or by appointment
at WORK|SPACE Denver
2701 Lawrence St., Denver, CO 80212

Arrive ready for an active warm-up, repertory playtime, and material development. RSVP to patrick@controlgroupproductions.org with a resume and your intended audition date. If you are interested in the project but not available for either date, please contact us to find another time to meet.

PROJECT DETAILS

Project 1: A Return to Awe [working title]
Rehearsals: Mondays and Fridays during the day (flexible), April and May.
Performances: late July at American Dance Festival in Durham, NC.
Description: taking over an existing role for touring of our current work.

Project 2: [STORIES project V2 / working title]
Rehearsals: Fridays and TBA, September through January.
Performances: January 2013, 2 weekends.
Possible further in-area and touring performances.
Description: Collaborating as a performer on a new work.

a bit about the projects:
Both the current project and the fall project(s) are part of an exploration revolving around Romanticism, with echoes into fairytales and the 60s…

…the relationship between the self and our surroundings in a world that exceeds our understandability…

…the supernatural, the unknowable, the forest-chaos / and the idea that we, or some, are special within this…

…The solitary artist genius, the supernatural being, the Other…

…The search for secret vistas and altered states, the journey and the being-in-the-moment, the emergence of the unexpected from within the self…

Fun fun stuff.