AURORA | It took more than 40 years for Herbert Siguenza to fully connect with Pablo Picasso. Siguenza, a California-based artist and actor, said his concept of a one-man show exploring the personal life of the Spanish artist stretches back to his childhood, when he saw a book devoted to Picasso’s home life in a dentist’s office. After attending art school and helping to build the theater troupe Culture Clash, that connection finally came to fruition. Siguenza’s original show “A Weekend with Pablo Picasso” will run until April 28 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The show is more than mere biography — it features interaction with the audience, as well as real-time drawing and painting by Siguenza. We caught up with the actor to talk about the roots of the show, Picasso’s ambitious output and the difficulty behind getting rights to the artist’s imagery.

Aurora Sentinel: In your one-man show ‘A Weekend with Pablo Picasso,’ you juggle two different art forms. You’re playing the role of Pablo Picasso, but you’re also creating original works of art on stage. Which specialty came first for you?

Herbert Siguenza: Art. I would see my older brother drawing and I would copy him. I had the talent; I eventually went to art college in California. When I was in college, I started doing some community theater in Spanish. In 1984, we formed Culture Clash. It’s a three-man satirical performance group. That really took off. It became very popular with audiences all over the U.S. I’ve done Culture Clash for the past 30 years.

What was the inspiration for this show?

This concept has been in my mind since I was 7 years old. I was in the dentist’s office with my mom and I picked up a book called ‘The Private Life of Pablo Picasso.’ It was a photo book by David Douglas Duncan. It just shows Picasso at his home … how he lived life every day. This book had a huge, profound effect on me as an artist … It’s been in the back of my mind since then. It took 45 years later for me to be able to do it. I had to wait until I was older.

What was it about Pablo Picasso that stood out?

Picasso was prolific. He created every day of his life. Whether it was painting, engraving, sculpture, poetry — he was constantly creating. I think that is inspirational. You’re here to work, you’re not here to goof around. He was constantly reinventing himself, constantly searching and exploring new ways of seeing. I think as an artist you have to do that. You have to do other things in order to expand, explore, to grow. During that exploration, Picasso invented cubism. He’s basically the father of modern art because he was so restless.

The paintings you create on stage are your own. Why didn’t you try to create copies of Picasso’s works?

When we did the workshop I was reproducing his work on stage. We were also projecting actual works. We thought that was all right, but the estate wrote us a letter that said you can’t do that unless you pay us $200,000. They don’t want you to show his art out of context. It was a challenge for me. I thought, ‘If they don’t want me to do actual Picassos, what if I create my own images a la Picasso?’ I think it turned out better. Now, the pieces are actually mine. I actually have ownership.

What’s the basic dynamic and mission of the show?

It’s a very, very simple concept. Purposefully simple. I want people to not think of it as a play but more as an experience. If they spent a few days with Picasso, what would he talk about? The whole premise of the play is that he gets a call from his dealer — to do three vases, six paintings by Sunday evening. It’s already Friday. The dealer sends the audience to make sure that he completes the order. The audience becomes the voyeurs. By the end of the play, by the end of the weekend, I think people will have a much better sense of who Picasso was and hopefully admire him more.

So are you producing different artwork every night?

No, that would drive my stage manager crazy. We have certain paintings that we do every day, they’re the same image. I try to keep it uniform that way. I’m creating in the style that he was doing in 1957.

Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com