Richard B. Eichenberger, co-founder of the Colorado Choir in 1978 and founder of the Columbine Chorale in 1987, will be remembered this weekend with two meaningfully prepared memorial concerts.

Eichenberger, a legendary teacher at four Denver public high schools from 1951-81, died Sept. 25 at the age of 99 years and 59 days. He was also the principal at Yeshiva Toras Chaim High School, an orthodox Jewish boarding school for boys, from 1967-97. He earned a law degree. And he fathered four children, including daughter Rebecca Eichenberger, a Denver East alumna and veteran of eight Broadway musicals.

The Colorado Choir, founded with Randolph “Casey” Jones, toured the state and performed regularly with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. Eichenberger conducted for his own Columbine Chorale from 1987-2006, performing throughout Colorado and making three tours of Europe.

“My father was extraordinary, and we miss him terribly,” said Rebecca Eichenberger, whose siblings include Brian, David and Stephen. Brian, a former longtime music teacher at Denver West High School, has followed his dad as conductor and music director of the Columbine Chorale since 2004.

Richard Eichenberger created the Chorale “to provide its singers and audiences with choral music experiences of the highest quality,” according to the group’s online origin story. “It is the fundamental goal of the Chorale to present performances of great choral literature in a manner that reflects the Chorale’s deep sense of commitment to the aesthetic beauty and integrity of the music itself.”

The Columbine Chorale will present two choral-music tribute concerts titled “Our Musical Heritage” at 3 p.m. Saturday (March 16) at Laradon, 5100 Lincoln St. in Denver, and again at 3 p.m. Sunday (March 17) at Plymouth Congregational Church, 3501 S. Colorado Blvd. in Cherry Hills Village. Each piece of selected music “has special meaning for our choir and his legacy,” the Columbine Chorale said in its announcement.

Tickets are $5-20 at columbinechorale.org will benefit the Columbine Chorale.

Boulder’s bolder playwriting festival

Andrew Rosendorf, perhaps Colorado’s favorite playwright not living in (or from) Colorado, is one of the featured writers at Local Theater Company’s upcoming 13th Local Lab new-play festival.

Rosendorf, who hails from McLean, Va., was one of the featured playwrights at last month’s Colorado New Play Summit, and he has had previous works fully staged at both Local and Curious Theatre Company.

This weekend, all eyes will be on his latest new play “Stockade,” which brings home Colorado Academy grad Luke Slattery, recently profiled here for his significant role in the George Clooney film “The Boys on the Boat.”

Rosendorf’s play for the Denver Center, “One-Shot,” was about a gay 1990s teen finding safety only in the video store where he worked. His featured play for Local this weekend is called “Stockade.”

“The play takes place post-World War II and focuses on gay and lesbian soldiers who fought for their country and then had to come home and fight their country,” Rosendorf told me at the Colorado New Play Summit.

“The title comes from the fact that if you were a United States soldier and were fighting overseas and discovered to be gay, they would throw you in stockades on overseas American Army bases and hold you there for months until giving you an undesirable discharge.”

“Stockade” will be read at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Dairy Arts Center. The other featured new plays will be Pulitzer Prize-winner Beth Henley’s “The Unbuttoning” – described as “a Blue Ridge fantasia” at 7:30 p.m. Friday (she wrote “Crimes of the Heart”); and Michelle Tyrene Johnson’s “Chasing Breadcrumbs” – about a playwright “navigating a minefield of Karens” at 1 p.m. Sunday. 

Tickets $30 at localtheaterco.org.

Snow postponements

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts has canceled all theater performances scheduled for Thursday, most impactfully, the national touring production of “Shrek The Musical” at the Buell Theatre. Its directive to ticket-holders: “Please visit https://www.denvercenter.org/landing-page/show-updates/ for ticket options on specific shows.” The decision also impacts performances of the plays “Cebollas,” “Rubicon” and “The Improvised Shakespeare Company”; as well as the immersive experience “Space Explorers: The Infinite.” In addition, all DCPA Education classes are canceled.

Central City Opera has postponed its annual “teaser” of the coming season from Thursday night to Friday, April 12, at the Wellshire Event Center. The company also had planned to introduce its new artistic director, Alison Moritz, for the first time. Tickets $110-$170 available at blackbaud.com …

Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, the state’s largest dinner theater, has canceled its Thursday night performance “Crazy for You” in Johnstown …

Everyman Theatre Company has canceled Friday’s scheduled performance of the play “My Brilliant Divorce” at The Bug Theatre. Both Saturday performances are expected to go on as scheduled.

Miners Alley Playhouse has canceled Thursday’s performance of “A Jukebox for the Algonquin in Golden.”