Jacqueline Antaramian is coming home. Twenty-two years after her last role with the Denver Center Theatre Company, the actress is stepping back into rehearsal halls she once knew intimately, cast as Prospera in a reimagined staging of Shakespeare's The Tempest that opens the company's 2026-27 season.
Director Chris Coleman asked Antaramian to read for the role of Prospera, according to the Denver Gazette. Antaramian has expressed joy and gratitude at returning to Denver, per the same account. Longtime colleague Leslie O'Carroll said Antaramian was the leading actress at the Denver Center for many years, with a huge following, beloved by the community — a sentiment echoed by critic Juliet Wittman, who called the casting of Antaramian as Prospera perfect, the Gazette reports.
The production leans into that Shakespearean spectacle with an unexpected tool: jazz. Director Chris Coleman infused the show with jazz standards, using music as a magical element meant to make the 400-year-old text land with contemporary audiences, according to Courier Colorado. The staging reimagines Shakespeare's sorcerer Prospero as Prospera, exiled on a Mediterranean island rather than a generic fantastical one, the outlet notes.
A Homecoming Two Decades in the Making
Antaramian's history with the Denver Center runs deep. She was brought into the company in 1989 and spent 15 seasons there, appearing in 194 productions overall and 43 mainstage shows, including five Shakespeare plays, according to the Denver Gazette. She joined as an undergraduate, given major parts by the company when she was just 19 or 20 years old, and first introduced herself to Denver audiences in a production of Company.
Her last Denver Center role before the 22-year hiatus was Elvira in Blithe Spirit, the Gazette reports. During that earlier tenure she also took on landmark parts including Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters and Sabina in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, according to Westword. In 2001 she starred in the world-premiere musical adaptation of Mark Harelik's The Immigrant at the Denver Center, the same outlet notes — a production staged 17 years after the company had premiered Harelik's original non-musical version of the play, per the Gazette.
Shakespeare Has Followed Her Career
Antaramian's command of the Bard's language extends well beyond Denver. She has played Olivia in Twelfth Night in four separate professional productions, including runs at both the Denver Center and San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, according to The Munro Review. Her past Denver Shakespeare credits also include Cleopatra and Titania, the outlet notes. Just last year, in June 2025, she starred as Queen Elizabeth in the inaugural production of Richard III by the Chanticleer Shakespeare Company in Fresno, California — a city where she once studied acting at California State University, Fresno, per the same review.
Her stage work has crossed into opera as well. In 2013 she was cast as the silent character Andromache in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Berlioz's Les Troyens, Westword reports. On television, she has appeared in The Sopranos, Homeland, and Manifest, and she reunited with Denzel Washington in a production of Julius Caesar. More recently, in September 2024 she joined season two of FX's The Old Man, playing Khadija, an adviser to an Afghan tribal leader, alongside Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow, according to the Denver Gazette.
From Armenia to a Colorado Stage
Antaramian is a native of Armenia, per the Gazette's reporting.
The full ensemble supporting Antaramian includes Erika Soto as Ariel, Moses Villarama as Caliban, Janiah-Camile François as Miranda, Alistair Toovey as Ferdinand, and Timothy McCracken as Alonso, according to BroadwayWorld. Behind the scenes, the creative team includes sound design and original music by Lindsay Jones, along with scenic design by Chika Shimizu, costume design by Kevin Copenhaver, and lighting design by Charles R. MacLeod, per the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Where and When to Catch the Show
The Tempest opens the Denver Center Theatre Company's 2026-27 season with preview performances starting October 2 and a run through November 1. Performances take place at the Kilstrom Theatre inside the Denver Performing Arts Complex. The Kilstrom Theatre is in the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex.
The Tempest arrives as the second production of a season that opened in September with Karen Zacarías' telenovela comedy Destiny of Desire, part of an eight-show mainstage lineup that also incorporates two world premieres developed through the Colorado New Play Summit, according to OnStage Colorado. Coleman is directing both The Tempest and the musical Once during the season, the outlet notes.
