A woman named Sylvia enters a dream realm to confront Lilith and the fear of passing a family curse to her unborn daughter. That story anchors Hypnagogia, a circus-and-music theater production at Denver’s Elaine Wolf Theatre from Friday, October 9, through Sunday, October 11. The show combines aerial performance, movement, dialogue and an original score, according to Westword.
The production is part of the 2026 Neustadt JAAMM Festival, presented by the Mizel Arts and Culture Center. The JCC lists the Elaine Wolf Theatre as a 400-seat venue, placing the performance within a campus that hosts arts and cultural programming as well as other community activities. JCC Denver identifies the theatre and its capacity.
A local setting for circus arts
Aerial performance has an established, though not necessarily representative, local presence. Aerial Cirque Over Denver says it was founded in 2006 as the city’s first aerial dance and circus school. That history offers one documented example of Denver aerial-arts activity; it does not establish a broader trend or make the school part of Hypnagogia. The production’s specific combination of circus performance and narrative theater is described by Westword.
Denver’s circus history also includes a very different format. The Denver Public Library’s archival history says P.T. Barnum bought land in Denver in 1882 as an off-season respite for his show. Barnum’s traditional circus and today’s performance-centered theater are not the same kind of production, but the archival account places circus in the city’s past as well as its present. Denver Public Library, Special Collections and Archives documents the land purchase.
Different ways of retelling Lilith
Hypnagogia uses the demonized figure of Lilith as part of Sylvia’s dream-world confrontation. It is one contemporary theatrical treatment, not a definitive account of the figure’s history. A distinct modern literary reinterpretation came in 1972: Judith Plaskow’s “The Coming of Lilith,” developed from a group exercise at a theology conference at Grailville, recast Lilith and Eve as forming a sisterly bond, according to the Jewish Women’s Archive. Plaskow’s work provides a point of comparison, not a source for the production’s plot.
The JAAMM program has included other kinds of arts and entertainment. For example, JCC Denver reported that the 2025 festival included a Maccabeats performance on September 11. That dated event shows a different part of the festival’s programming; it does not, by itself, establish a year-to-year trend. JCC Denver reported the performance.
Hypnagogia is produced by Starry Night Productions. Its run is at the Elaine Wolf Theatre, 350 S. Dahlia St., inside the Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center. Tickets are available through Starry Night Productions.
