About Us

Westcliffe Center for the Performing arts

(WCPA) was incorporated in 1992 and received its not-for-profit status the following year. The WCPA is housed in the Historic Jones Theater and in the adjoining Studio 2 at 2nd and Main Streets in Westcliffe, Colorado.

Our goal is to provide a Center for the Performing Arts in the picturesque Wet Mountain Valley of Colorado. We encourage new playwrights and provide classes and theater training each summer through the cooperation of local universities. WCPA provides a full summer season of plays, music, dance and classic as well as year-round first-run motion pictures. We produce both new plays and musicals as well as seasoned favorites: comedy, drama, melodrama and one man and woman shows.

Read about the History of the Jones Theater, and its beginnings during Colorado’s great Silver Mining Boom around 1880.

Theater Mural by Dixie K. Clare, 2013

Board of Directors

Bev Allen

President

Retired Archivist, Custer County resident and landowner.

Christiane K. Relph

Vice President; Fundraising Committee; former Assistant Development Director

Seattle, WA; Custer County resident and landowner.

Cheryl Pinnella

Secretary

Retired Custer County School teacher; Custer County resident and landowner.

Scott Mischnick

Treasurer

Custer County landowner and business owner.

McKenzie Huffman

Director

Custer County land and business (building) owner.

Allie Neas

Board Member

Custer County resident, and land and business owner.

Don Pinnella

Board Member

Retired Clinical Therapist and Custer County Schools Life Skills Coach; Custer County resident and landowner.

Betsy Woodbury

Board Member

Veteran, retired from the USAF. Custer County resident and landowner.

Roland Williams

Board Member emeritus

Retired civil engineer; Custer County resident.

Our Founder

Anne Kimbell Relph

Anne purchased the historic Jones Theater in 1992 to preserve it for the town of Westcliffe. She leased it for only direct expenses to the newly formed Crystal Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, a non-profit organization, which is now d.b.a. the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Relph is a former stage, television and film actress. She starred on Broadway opposite Eddie Bracken in ”The Seven Year Itch,” and in London in “Roar Like a Dove,” produced by Vivian Leigh. She also played opposite Marlon Brando in “Arms and the Man” in the eastern U.S. tour. Anne first came to Colorado as leading lady at the famed Elitches Garden Theater and fell in love with the state. Her career also included some 200 television appearances, and a number of films. Anne served as the Artistic Director of WCPA throughout her tenure.

Anne also authored four novels set in Africa: To Catch a SpyThe Ibeji TwinsAssignment Africa, and her newest Assignment Paris, published under her stage name of Anne Kimbell. The novels are available through Amazon.com.