Denver Actors Fund in Action: Angela Mendez

Posted on August 27, 2016 by John Moore

Angela Mendez appeared in Vintage Theatre’s recent production of “Curtains” as songwriter Georgia Hendricks.

Financial-aid recipient: Angela Mendez is a longtime local performer most recently seen in the New Works Festival at the Historic Elitch Theatre. She will be traveling with Director Christy Montour-Larson and her all-Colorado cast of the Armenian massacre musical “I Am Alive” for a special performance on Sept. 10 at the Alex Theatre in Los Angeles. She will then play Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” for the Vintage Theatre this winter. Of her recent performance in Vintage’s “Curtains,” Broadway World said Mendez brought “an outstanding, classic voice and a palpable heart” to the role of songwriter Georgia Hendricks.

Her medical story: A root resorption is an odd occurrence where your body decides to treat your tooth like regular bone. Instead of healthy dentin, the body starts to turn over the tooth’s inside, so that it becomes like Swiss cheese – the internal structure becomes weak, and it can break suddenly. This happened in one of Angela’s front teeth this year. She had to have it removed and have a bone graft surgery so that the area would heal properly for a permanent implant and a crown. Altogether, Angela faces $3,461 in out-of-pocket costs. Because the oral surgeon must be paid in full, up front, without help, Angela would not be able to schedule the procedure until March 2017 at the earliest. She has just moved and is living on a shoestring budget.

How we will help: The Denver Actors Fund has made $2,000 available to help Angela Mendez achieve her goal of raising the full $3,461 she needs to schedule the surgery sooner and put her dental ordeal behind her.

How you can help us help Angela Mendez more: If you would like to target a specific donation to Angela Mendez to help raise the remaining $1,461 she needs, simply mail checks in any amount made out to Denver Actors Fund (with Angela Mendez’s name written in the topic field), to P.O. Box 11182, Denver, CO 80212. Or use this donation link. If you use the online option, be sure to designate that your donation is a targeted donation to Angela Mendez. Otherwise, your donation will be applied to the replenishment of the DAF’s general fund.

(Note: At the Denver Actors Fund, anonymity of aid recipients is presumed and fully protected, unless and until the recipient chooses to have his or her story told.)

ABOUT THE DENVER ACTORS FUND:

The Denver Actors Fund is a modest source of immediate, situational relief when members of the local theater community find themselves in medical need. In addition to financial relief, a team of more than 60 Denver Actors Fund volunteers offers good neighborly assistance including meal prep and delivery, child care, transportation, errands, construction, pet-sitting and more. For more information, visit our web site at DenverActorsFund.Org.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

To DONATE the Denver Actors Fund: Please click here (with our humble thanks):

APPLY FOR AID:

To apply for Denver Actors Fund aid: Fill out this brief online form here

MORE WAYS TO HELP:

DONATE BY MAIL:

Send checks made out to the Denver Actors Fund to:
P.O. Box 11182
Denver, CO 80212

ATTEND UPCOMING DENVER ACTORS FUND EVENTS:

COMING SEPT. 26: “Miscast 2016,” the Denver Actors Fund’s major annual fundraiser, takes place at Town Hall Arts Center. Come for the fun as actors from all over the metro area and Front Range perform in roles they would never – ever – normally cast to perform. READ MORE BUY TICKETS

“DENVER ACTORS FUND PRESENTS …” MONTHLY FILM SERIES: The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Littleton hosts a monthly film series in partnership with the Denver Actors Fund featuring films inspired by musicals that are currently being performed by a Colorado theatre company. Next up on Monday, Oct. 12, is “Night of the Living Dead,” featuring pre-screening entertainment by cast members from Equinox Theatre Company’s upcoming stage production. Tickets available here.

SHOP AT AMAZONSMILE:

Denver Actors Fund

BUY A POSTER!
134 women (and a few token dudes) from the Colorado theater community, all supporting the Denver Actors Fund. They cost $20 per poster (20×28). To order, email your quantity to denveractorsfund@gmail.com. We’ll take care of delivery and payment from there.

VISIT OUR ONLINE MERCH STORE:

Click here to see how you can buy DAF products such as T-shirts, key chains, puzzles and much more

Denver Sonnets Project, No. 98: Maggy Stacy

Posted on August 27, 2016 by John Moore

By John Moore

CultureWest.Org is endeavoring to make short films out of all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, each featuring actors with Colorado connections. The artistic intent is primarily to further CultureWest’s mission to spotlight the local theatre community and their current or upcoming productions. It’s also an attempt to promote Shakespeare education in a fun way. This is an entirely volunteer, DIY project with a proud budget of … zero dollars.

We are rolling out new Sonnet videos … well, as soon as they are completed and turned in. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist that hosts the entire series.

For Sonnet 98, Henry Award-winner actor Maggy Stacy teamed with Director Sheryl Glubok, cinematographer Thomas Jaeger, actors Matt Block and Nicholas Bode, Editor Wesley Matheny, the band Sunboy and many more from 7andCo Productions to produce an amazingly well-crafted tale of a woman (appropriately named Miranda) who is locked in winter, even in the spring, and lamenting her separation from her beloved. In this evocative interpretation, Miranda’s lover may be being cuckolded – or is he there all along, separated by another kind of distance?

Maggy Stacy was nominated for her performances in both Vintage Theatre’s “Rabbit Hole” and The Edge Theatre’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” – and won for “Rabbit Hole.” She just opened “Suddenly Last Summer” for Spotlight Theatre, running through Sept. 24 at the John Hand Theatre. (720-530-4596). Stacy is a graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver and Chatfield Senior High School. Running time: 5 minutes.

Special thanks to Syntax: Physic Opera, Justin Renaud, Tommy Freed, Clay Cornelius, Brady Wlyer and Tommy Venter of Sunboy

The Denver Sonnets Project is an ongoing public art project, open to a variety of actors and filmmakers. Each new short sonnet film is posted here first. The project is an endeavor to call attention to the work of the Colorado acting community and the Denver Actors Fund. Learn more at www.DenverActorsFund.Org.

Video series by John Moore. For those of you who have signed up for a sonnet, please keep them coming!

The Denver Sonnets Project is a volunteer collaboration, with limited eligibility requirements for participation. For information on how to register for a future episode, email your interest to John Moore at culturewestjohn@gmail.com.

From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April dressed in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
Yet seemed it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play.

Completed episodes to date (in numeric order):

Sonnet 1: Cast of “Cult Following”: “From fairest creatures we desire increase …”

Sonnet 2: Josh Robinson, “See thy blood warm …”

Sonnet 6, Joe Von Bokern: “Make worms thine heir!”

Sonnet 10, Augustus Truhn: “Thou art so possessed with murd’rous hate …”

Sonnet 11: Crystal Verdon Eisel: “Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die.”

Sonnet 17: Anne Sandoe: “If I could write the beauty of your eyes …”

Sonnet 23: Gabra Zackman, “As an unperfect actor on a stage …”

Sonnet 31: Sean Scrutchins and Devon James: “Thou art the grave where buried love doth live …”

Sonnet 36: Rachel Fowler, “I may not evermore acknowledge thee …”

Sonnet 44: John Carroll Lynch, “Thought kills me that I am not thought …”

Sonnet 47: Adrian Egolf, “Thyself away are present still with me …”

Sonnet 55: Cajardo Rameer Lindsey: “You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes”

Sonnet 73: Jim Hunt: “Love that well which thou must leave ere long …”

Sonnet 74: Lowry Elementary School: “Thou hast but lost the dregs of life …”

Sonnet 78: Erica Lee Johnson: “So oft have I invoked thee for my muse” …

Sonnet 90: Adam Stone: “If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last …”

Sonnet No. 91: Sam Gregory: “Thy love is better than high birth to me”

Sonnet 94: James O’Hagan-Murphy: Sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds …”

Sonnet 98: Maggy Stacy: “From you have I been absent in the spring …” (above)

Sonnet 124: Cast of Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s ‘The Tempest’

Sonnet 131: Josh Nelson, “In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds …”

Sonnet 136: Lyndsay and Jeremy Palmer, “Make but my name thy love …”

Sonnet 144: Cailin Doran, “Two loves I have, of comfort and despair …”

Please consider supporting the Denver Actors Fund at www.DenverActorsFund.Org

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Jihad Milhem

Posted on August 23, 2016 by John Moore

Jihad Milhem, left, with Benaiah Anderson in Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s 2016 “Troilus and Cressida.” Photo by Jennifer M. Koskinen.

Financial-aid recipient: Jihad Milhem is a Denver actor who this summer played King Priam’s son, Paris, in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “Troilus & Cressida.” Previous Denver roles include James St. James in K: The Rise and Fall of the New York Klub Kids for Denver’s Pandemic Theatre Collective; and Happiness is a Warm Gun for The LIDA Project. Milhem moved to Denver after having worked in New York City and Philadelphia for 12 years. He can be seen this fall in The Edge Theater Company’s “Marie Antoinette.”

His story: Jihad was assaulted after performing in the play “K: The Rise and Fall of the New York Klub Kids” with Pandemic Theatre Collective at the Milk Bar near 10th and Broadway. His knee was dislocated, and his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) was completely torn, requiring reconstruction. While Medicaid covered his surgical costs, Milhem has been unable to return to his restaurant job as he continues his rehabilitation. And that has made paying the rent and other expenses difficult. (Side note: The Colorado Shakespeare Festival staff was kind enough to incorporate Milhem’s injury into the story, allowing him to continue to perform in “Troilus & Cressida.”)

How we will help: The Denver Actors Fund has made $900 available to Milhem to help satisfy his immediate needs including rent, and give him some financial breathing room going into September.

How you can help us help Jihad Milhem more: If you would like to target a specific donation to Jihad Milhem, simply mail checks made out to Denver Actors Fund (with Jihad Milhem’s name written in the topic field), to P.O. Box 11182, Denver, CO 80212. Or use this donation link. If you use the online option, be sure to designate that your donation is a targeted donation to Jihad Milhem. Otherwise, your donation will be applied to the replenishment of the DAF’s general fund.

A message from Jihad Milhem: “My Denver Actors Fund aid makes it possible for me to go through this next month of healing and physical therapy without having to worry about keeping a roof over my head or food in my stomach. Words cannot begin to express the gratitude and respect I have for the DAF. So many actors like myself would be lost without the help the DAF provides. All the thanks must go out to the Denver theatre community – this embodiment of all of your kindness and caring has truly made my life better. This token of your concern and charity graces me, and all I can hope is to one day help you good folks help someone else one day.”

(Note: At the Denver Actors Fund, anonymity of aid recipients is presumed and fully protected, unless and until the recipient chooses to have his or her story told.)

ABOUT THE DENVER ACTORS FUND:

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

To DONATE the Denver Actors Fund: Please click here (with our humble thanks):

APPLY FOR AID:

To apply for Denver Actors Fund aid: Fill out this brief online form here

MORE WAYS TO HELP:

DONATE BY MAIL:

Send checks made out to the Denver Actors Fund to:
P.O. Box 11182
Denver, CO 80212

ATTEND UPCOMING DENVER ACTORS FUND EVENTS:

SHOP AT AMAZONSMILE:

Denver Actors Fund

VISIT OUR ONLINE MERCH STORE:

Click here to see how you can buy DAF products such as T-shirts, key chains, puzzles and much more

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Joey Wishnia

Posted on August 4, 2016 by John Moore

Joey Wishnia with Robin Wallace in Senior Housing Options’ “A Hint of Winter” at the Barth Hotel in 2011.

‘Thank you so much for your invaluable help to me.’

Financial-aid recipient: Joey Wishnia, who won the Colorado Theatre Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, was educated at Rhodes University and received a teaching diploma in Speech and Drama from Trinity College in London. He came to the United States in 1993 and quickly established himself in the local theatre community as actor and director concentrating on classical theatre. He has worked in practically every facet of the entertainment industry, most recently having performed in Vintage Theatre’s “Sunset Boulevard.” He has also written scripts for children’s theatre, devised and appeared in four one-man shows and developed several educational programs aimed at encouraging children to read.

His story: Joey Wishnia has Macular Degeneration, which involves monthly visits for eye injections. He also has recently had two cataract removal surgeries (one eye at a time) and also has had two teeth extracted. These medical setbacks have made it hard for Joey to keep up on his everyday expenses.

How we will help: The Denver Actors Fund initially made $522.40 available to Wishnia to help satisfy his immediate financial needs and give him some breathing room going into September.

Update February 2017: The Denver Actors Fund has made an additional $900 available to Joey Wishnia to help pay for his continuing eye injections.

Update May 2018: The DAF Board approved an additional grant of $520.37 to pay for Joey’s continuing eye injections for macular degeneration.

Update March 2019: The DAF Board approved an additional grant of $682.25 to pay for Joey’s continuing eye injections, bringing his total overall support including targeted donations from the public to $2,939.62.

How you can help us help Joey Wishnia more: If you would like to target a specific donation to Joey Wishnia family to give them a little more breathing room, simply mail checks made out to Denver Actors Fund (with Joey Wishnia’s name written in the topic field), to P.O. Box 11182, Denver, CO 80212. Or use this donation link. If you use the online option, be sure to designate that your donation is a targeted donation to Joey Wishnia. Otherwise it will be applied to the replenishment of the DAF’s general fund.

A message from Joey Wishnia: “I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Denver Actors Fund. Not only because they have helped me, but because they hold an umbrella over the heads of our theatre community to protect us from the rain that always comes unexpectedly.”

(Note: At the Denver Actors Fund, anonymity of aid recipients is presumed and fully protected, unless and until the recipient chooses to have his or her story told.)

ABOUT THE DENVER ACTORS FUND:

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

To DONATE the Denver Actors Fund: Please click here (with our humble thanks):

APPLY FOR AID:

To apply for Denver Actors Fund aid: Fill out this brief online form here

MORE WAYS TO HELP:

DONATE BY MAIL:

Send checks made out to the Denver Actors Fund to:
P.O. Box 11182
Denver, CO 80212

COME TO OUR EVENTS:

Friends, we at The Denver Actors Fund believe in building community while building funds. Most of our events are performative in nature so that you have a good time while helping a good cause. Here are some of the events that are currently being planned on our behalf.

MONDAY, MARCH 18: Lauren Bahlman and Jessica Austgen, improv comedians, book nerds and hosts of a popular podcast called “Required Readcast,” are hosting a special event in collaboration with Benchmark Theatre: Their first-ever LIVE recording of the podcast, during which they comically dive back into the age-old required-reading list to see which books are still awesome … and which scarred them for life. (For a taste, just listen to this hilarious conversation about “Lord of the Flies.”) On March 18, the quippy literary pair will be discussing George Orwell’s 1984. Which is perfect because Benchmark Theatre will be staging the dystopian classic from March 15-April 13. “We’ve been wanting to discuss this one on the pod for a while, and thought it would be a perfect collaboration with the opening of the Benchmark production,” Bahlman said. “Maybe we can bring a little levity to the situation. We’re hoping to have one of the cast members as a guest as well.” All proceeds from that evening, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at 1560 Teller St. in Lakewood, will go to The Denver Actors Fund. Suggested donation of $5. Drinks and such will be available. No reservation necessary.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20: Local actor (and former DAF aid recipient) Emma Rebecca Maxfield (Performance Now’s The Wedding Singer) and actor Andy Seracuse (Vintage Theatre’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) present an evening of songs at the Vintage Theatre with special guest Brandon Bill. Maxfield and Seracuse plan to independently stage an upcoming production of The Last Five Years in September with a “large portion of our proceeds going to The Denver Actors Fund every step of the way,” Maxfield says. So attend the fundraising event at Vintage on March 20 and enjoy an evening of cabaret. A portion of the ticket sales will go to Vintage; of what remains, a portion will go toward The Last Five Years, and an equal portion to the DAF. 7:30 p.m. at 468 Dayton St., Aurora, 303-839-1361 or vintagetheatre.com.

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, MARCH 22-23: Darrow Klein, star of the Arvada Center’s new production of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” is also one of the youngest and oldest (as in longest) supporters of The Denver Actors Fund. She is arranging to take collections for the Denver Actors Fund following the March 22-23 performances. This effort is being initiated entirely by Darrow, who is also donating one week of her own acting stipend. If you plan to see this important and acclaimed show about the 13-year-old Jewish girl who chronicled the horrors of being trapped in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, why not plan to attend on one of our special DAF nights? Performances take place at 6901 Wadsworth Blvd. For ticket information, call 720-898-7200 or go to arvadacenter.org

Click here for the complete current lineup of events

SHOP AT AMAZONSMILE:

Denver Actors Fund

VISIT OUR ONLINE MERCH STORE:

Click here to see how you can buy DAF products such as T-shirts, key chains, puzzles and much more

CultureWest

Changing the Culture of Culture

Monthly Archives: August 2016

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Angela Mendez

Denver Sonnets Project, No. 98: Maggy Stacy

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Jihad Milhem

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Joey Wishnia

‘Thank you so much for your invaluable help to me.’