‘I am beyond grateful for this. Truly, I cannot thank all of you enough.’ Aid recipient: Denver native Cipriano Ortega is an actor, artist, musician and educator who in the past five years has performed in two productions at Su Teatro (“Dona Rosita’s Japapeno Kitchen” and “Christmas in Colorado”), and in Curious Theatre’s 2017 […]
‘Thank you for helping me pay for the orthotics that allow me to live and walk and perform safely and comfortably.’ Aid recipient: Boulder actor Adam Russell Johnson next will appear in Phamaly Theatre Company’s August 2019 production of “Chicago” at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Most recently, he appeared in Phamaly’s 30th anniversary […]
Thornton dentist Brian Kelly now has donated $30,000 in free dental care to Colorado theatre artists Aid recipient: Longtime Denver actor Jordan Manchego most recently appeared in “Cry-Baby The Musical” for Equinox Theatre Company. He is a graduate of Prairie View High School in Henderson and the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. Among […]
Chris Gibley will lead expanded board that now also includes Gail Bransteitter, Dr. Kelli Lewis and Fletcher Woolsey The Denver Actors Fund Board of Directors has voted unanimously for Littleton native Chris Gibley to become its next President. Gibley has 30 years of business experience holding senior management positions with Arthur Andersen, the Federal […]
Just after pregnant actor was ordered on bed rest, her daughter was diagnosed with cancer Aid recipient: Denver actor and soprano DaNia Mortimer is a longtime member of the local theatre community. Her credits include “Little Women,” “Annie” and “Bye Bye Birdie” at the Town Hall Arts Center and Performance Now’s “South Pacific” in 2013. […]
‘I’m now able to replenish funds that were lost while I was sick.’ Aid recipient: Actor Jacob Villarreal has been an active member of the Colorado theatre community since first moving here in 2012. You may have seen him around the state in “Forever Plaid,” “Hair,” “In the Heights,” “The Music Man,” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” […]
‘To have a resource like The Denver Actors Fund touches me so very deeply.’ Aid recipient: David Jensen just completed a run of “Our Town” at Miners Alley Playhouse playing the town drunk, Simon Stimson. David’s recent roles have included Henry and others in “Angels in America,” directed by Timothy McCracken; Dr. John Buchanan Sr. […]
‘Ask for the help. God knows we all need it at one time or another.’ Aid recipient: For all 30 years of the acclaimed Phamaly Theatre Company‘s existence, Denver actor Mark Dissette has been a member. Phamaly is one of the only companies in the world that exists to create performance opportunities for actors […]
‘This is a huge comfort, and a weight off of my mind’ Aid recipient: Luke Rahmsdorff-Terry is a longtime local actor, director and sound director, mostly with Lowry’s Spotlight Theatre. He played Ed Carmichael, the chime-playing son-in-law, in Spotlight’s farewell production of “You Can’t Take It With You” last September. Before that, he was […]
‘Now I can use my strengths and energy to help others and pay it forward’ Aid recipient: Actor Teal Jandrain is a Fort Collins native who has has been acting since childhood. She got her start at the educational Debut Theatre Company, and has been a company member with OpenStage Theatre Company for two […]
‘This means more to me than you could possibly know’ Aid recipient: Actor Regina Fernandez is a company member for the Arvada Center’s 2019 black-box season, meaning she is currently appearing in “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “The Moors” and “Sin Street Social Club” – all at the same time. In 2017, she appeared […]
‘Thanks to The Denver Actors Fund, I will be able to hear my director, my fellow actors and the band’ Aid recipient: Kathleen Traylor of Littleton is one of the founding members of Phamaly Theatre Company, which she helped to create in 1989 when she and four other students from the Boettcher School in Denver […]
‘Here I am. Breathing, because of you.’ Aid recipient: Katrina Niemisto of Denver is a stage manager in the local theatre community who has worked most recently at the Lone Tree Arts Center and for the Denver Center Theatre Company’s Colorado New Play Summit. Her medical story: Katrina recently underwent a complicated hip surgery necessitated […]
‘I’m so thankful for this amazing program that has helped so many actors in town, now including myself’ Aid recipient: Boulder High School graduate Matthew D. Peters is a busy actor, director and choreographer who most recently directed ‘The Little Mermaid’ for BDT Stage (and played Jetsam), choreographed ‘Newsies’ for Candlelight Dinner Playhouse and […]
‘It’s powerful medicine to know there are great people out there in the world,’ says the actor Aid recipient: Amy Arpan is an actor and circus choreographer who most recently appeared as Mrs. Soames in Miners Alley Playhouse’s March production of “Our Town.” She is also the owner and principal performer at Amy Arpan’s Illusions […]
A superhero in our midst injured in the service of others finds a community waiting to help him in his time of need Aid recipient: Denver native Matt Gnojek recently starred as Seymour in Equinox Theatre Company’s production of Little Shop of Horrors. The Aurora Sentinel’s Ramsey Scott called Gnojek “an amazing singer whose talent […]
‘Kenny Moten does everything with integrity. He’s a solid human being.’ If you think being a performer is hard, try being a performer and the owner of your own entertainment and consulting company. Kenny Moten makes the transition from actor to producer to businessman and back again in same manner that often describes his rich […]
‘Without your help, I never would have been able to see a light at the end of this very long tunnel.’ Aid recipient: Rob Riney has performed on stages around the state for more than 10 years, most recently in the Aurora Fox’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Equinox Theatre’s Disaster The Musical and the […]
‘I’m blown away by the kindness and generosity of The Denver Actors Fund.’ Aid recipient: Kent Sugg is a veteran actor and director living in Boulder. He is currently playing Fagin in Candlelight Dinner Playhouse’s production of Oliver! after having played the title role in Scrooge and a member of the ensemble in Mary Poppins. […]
Aid recipient: Emma Maxfield is a busy local actor currently performing in the Arvada Center’s children’s theatre production of Seussical and having just understudied the two female roles in BDT Stage’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change in Boulder. She previously starred as Julia in Performance Now’s The Wedding Singer and played Taylor […]
Aid recipient: Miriam Suzanne is a True West Award-winning writer, director, producer, actor and musician whose unconventional novel Riding SideSaddle was adapted for the stage by Buntport Theater in 2016 as 10 Myths on the Proper Application of Beauty Products. The play, a story of gender fluidity and transition, took place in a bathroom as […]
Aid recipient: Maggie Lamb (who long went by the name Margie), had been performing in the local theatre community for two decades when she was cast as the bipolar wife and mother Diana in Next to Normal, and it changed the trajectory of her stage career forever. Maggie would never be looked at the same […]
Some of the local theatre community’s top performers will gather at the Mizel to support The Denver Actors Fund Miscast 2018, the fifth annual fundraiser for The Denver Actors Fund, returns Monday, Sept. 17, at a new home: The Mizel Arts and Cultural Center. Miscast is an opportunity for some of the local theatre community’s top […]
Aid recipient: Sue Thompson, originally from Portland, Maine, is a Denver actor who last appeared in the ensemble of Performance Now’s “Hello, Dolly” in 2017. Sue has lived in Colorado since she was 11. She went to ThunderRidge High School in Highlands Ranch and studied Music Theatre at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, where […]
Aid recipient: Fort Collins native Will Ferrie, a graduate of Rocky Mountain High School, is an award-winning actor and longtime member of OpenStage & Company in Fort Collins who most recently played Sir Robin in Monty Python’s Spamalot. He won the OPUS Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his work as Bartley in The Cripple […]
Aid recipient: Loveland native Faith Ford is a graduate of Thompson Valley High School and the University of Northern Colorado. She played Tracy Turnblad in the Town Hall Arts Center’s recent production of “Hairspray,” and she will return there next month as an ensemble member in the Green Day musical “American Idiot.” She previously […]
The actor: Xavier Frétard was a longtime circus performer who came to Colorado Springs in his early 20s and performed for 15 years with the Millibo Art Theatre in Manitou Springs. His signature routine, according to co-founder Birgitta De Pree, was riding a tall bicycle he built while wearing 5-foot stilts and a red top […]
Aid recipient: Tresha Farris is a 25-year-old Colorado native who studied acting and writing at the University of Colorado Denver and at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts through its Education classes. She most recently played Cordelia in Fearless Theatre’s production of “King Lear” and was in the ensemble of an original play called […]
Aid recipient: Broc Timmerman of Loveland has been an actor at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown for most of its 10-year existence, most recently as a tumbling salt shaker in Beauty and the Beast; in the ensemble of Kiss Me, Kate; as Tenario in Man of La Mancha, and, coming up next, in Newsies. […]
Aid recipient: Gloria Shanstrom’s involvement in the Colorado performing-arts community began in 1985 as an usher at Boettcher Concert Hall. She was named the House Manager at the Auditorium Theatre (now the Ellie Caulkins Opera House) in 1997, then the Buell Theatre just before it opened in 1991. In 1997, she was hired as a […]