There’s drama unfolding at the Denver Immersive Repertory Theater before the first performance.
The theater at 15th and Blake streets, backed by a $400,000 loan from the Denver Downtown Development Authority, was sued last week by the general contractor building it out.
Littleton-based Beaver Construction Consulting alleges that the theater at 1431 15th St. owes the firm $269,000 for unpaid work.
The theater owned by Steve Wargo and Blair Russell said in a statement that DIRT “has endured some unforeseen challenges that have caused significant operational delays and financial impacts towards completing construction on our building as originally envisioned.”
“That being said, we are actively moving forward with construction on our venue and look forward to producing ‘Midnight’s Dream’ when the building is ready for it,” the theater said.
Beaver Construction and its attorney, Matthew J. Casebolt of Casebolt Law Corp., declined to comment.
In the lawsuit, Beaver says it was contracted for $654,000 of work in April 2025. DIRT, meanwhile, was awarded a $400,000 loan from the DDDA that July. After a long back-and-forth with the city, the business received the funds in February of this year.
DIRT co-founders Wargo and Russell told BusinessDen at the time that those funds would be used to pay actors and for other ancillary expenses.
“When [the award] was announced, and when we applied, we went into it with the idea that we would use it to finish the core and shell construction on our space,” Russell said in March. “Because we didn’t get the money in September or October, we had to just move with our own funds to do that work.”
“The DDDA loan was for FF&E and working capital,” Wargo told BusinessDen on Wednesday, declining to comment further.
But Beaver’s lawsuit alleges that the partial payment it received from the theater was made with DDDA funds.
“A dispute then arose among the parties with respect to the entire amount remaining to be paid to Plaintiff,” the lawsuit says.
Beaver claims it offered to participate in mediation, but that never happened.
A settlement reached May 19 called for DIRT to make three payments, according to court documents obtained by BusinessDen. A $27,000 payment was to be made in May, followed by payments of $124,000 in June and $127,000 in July.
The lawsuit claims the theater made that first payment, but missed the second required one by June 15.
The immersive model allows theatergoers to participate in a play, not just watch. DIRT’s first production will feature 11 rooms with scenes happening simultaneously — with 18 hours of acting in each show.
But, for now, the theater-to-be doesn’t have any actors. On June 15, the settlement’s second payment date, DIRT announced on its Facebook page that “we’ve decided to release our performing company from their contracts rather than keep them waiting indefinitely while we finish the build.”
“It was the honest and ethical thing to do,” the theater said.
