Denver Actors Fund in Action: Nancy Warner

Financial-aid recipient: Nancy Warner has been a dresser, backstage crew member and faithful volunteer for Phamaly Theatre Company for many years, most recently as a show-runner for Phamaly’s “Vox Phamilia: Under Construction” at the Community College of Aurora. For nearly 30 years, Phamly has existed to provide performance and backstage opportunities for people with disabilities. […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Archie Villeda

Financial-aid recipient: Actor Archie Villeda  is a local actor who most recently appeared in Su Teatro’s Dona Rositas Jalapeno Kitchen in 2015. Other titles include Ludlow: El Grito de Las Minas in 20914 and  the class comedy La Carpa Aztlan Presents: I Don’t Speak English Only in 2012 (pictured below with Manuel R. Roybal Sr.). […]

Arvada Center actor: ‘George H.W. Bush groped me,’ too

Jordana Grolonick, second from left, made a benefit appearance for the Denver Actors Fund with her Arvada Center ‘A Chorus Line’ castmates at the Denver Alamo Drafthouse on Aug. 28. Photo by John Moore. The claim by Jordana Grolnick of Longmont has been confirmed by an official, and an apology has been issued Posted by […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Mark Shonsey

  Financial-aid recipient: Funnyman Mark Shonsey has been an an actor in the Denver theatre and improv-comedy communities since 2003. The graduate of John F. Kennedy High School and the University of Colorado Denver most recently played Nicky in the Town Hall Arts Center’s production of Avenue Q in January. It’s a role he first played  […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Paul Hartman

Financial-aid recipient: Paul Hartman and his wife, Amanda, are both longtime members of the local theatre community.  Paul is a musician who has playing in pits from the Midtown Ats Center in Fort Collins to the Candelight Dinner Theater in Johnstown to Performance Now in Lakewood to more. Most recently, he played for DAF recipients […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Greg Alan West

Financial-aid recipient: Greg Alan West is a longtime actor and costumer in the Colorado theatre community whose notable roles have included the one-man epic I Am My Own Wife and Lucien in The Boys Next Door for Firehouse Theatre Company; Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival; and Dogberry in Lost […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Carol Kelly

Financial-aid recipient: For 18 years, Carol Kelly was the Hair and Makeup Coordinator for Phamaly, the acclaimed Denver theatre company that creates performance opportunities for actors with disabilities. Most recently, she worked on Cabaret at the Denver Center’s Space Theatre. Her medical story: Carol has been put on a two-week medical leave by her doctor […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Daniel Perkins

Financial-aid recipient: Daniel Perkins, known in your theatre programs as DP Perkins, came to Colorado in 1980 to do a show at the Heritage Square Opera House, and stayed. He was part of a brigade that piled into a car and drove to Golden after the Goldenrod Showboat in St. Louis closed. The group included […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Norrell Moore

Financial-aid recipient: Norrell Moore has been regularly performing in the local theatre community since 2012, when she played Vivienne Kensington and Rachel Jackson in high-profile, back-to-back productions of Legally Blonde The Musical at the Arvada Center and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Aurora Fox. Major roles that followed included playing the heart-wrenching hippie conformist Sheila […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Jaime Lujan

Jaime Lujan, far right, and the cast of The LIDA project’s ‘Watershed, Part 1,’ a 2013 collaboration with Metropolitan State University. Photo by John Moore.   Financial-aid recipient: Jaime Lujan is an actor, vocalist and performance artist who has been active in the Colorado theatre community for 17 years. Her credits include the DCPA Theatre […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Cathrine Floyd

  Financial aid recipient: Cathrine Floyd (pronounced KUH-TREE-nuh), played Miss Lark in Englewood Summer Drama’s 2016 production of Mary Poppins alongside her daughters, Emma and Hanna. Cathrine’s story: Shortly after Mary Poppins ended, Cathrine was diagnosed with breast cancer. After undergoing chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, Cathrine was found to be cancer-free last month. The bills […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Emily K. Harrison

Financial aid recipient: Actor and producer Emily K. Harrison is the founder of the now 12-year old, intentionally lower-cased square product theatre. She just completed a controversial turn playing child beauty queen and murder victim JonBenét Ramsey in House of Gold, performed in Ramsey’s hometown of Boulder. Joanne Ostrow of The Denver Post called it […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Christopher Tye

Financial aid recipient: Adrianna Tye is the mother of actor Christopher Tye, who appeared as Curtis Taylor Jr. in Ignite Theatre’s production of “Dreamgirls” in 2014-15 at the Aurora Fox. Christopher died without warning on July 20, his birthday. He was 36. “He died too young and without warning or signs,” said his wife, Tahesha […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Abner Genece

  Financial aid recipient: Actor Abner Genece performed last season in Curious Theatre’s Water by the Spoonful and has been cast as a full member of the Arvada Center’s Black Box Theatre Company for its upcoming second season. Artistic Director Lynne Collins has cast Genece to play Sir John in Sense & Sensibility, Ambimbola in […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Katherine Paynter

Financial aid recipient: Katherine Paynter is an actor who just performed in Performance Now Theatre Company’s “The Wedding Singer,” which closed Sunday. Paynter, who hails from Minnesota, studied theatre arts through a dual-college program within both Minnesota State and North Dakota State universities. She is now a Denver-based flight attendant with United Airlines and made […]

Christopher Dyer joins Denver Actors Fund Board of Directors

Christopher Dyer, a longtime executive with the Denver-based premium cable TV network Starz/Lionsgate, has been unanimoulsy appointed to the Denver Actors Fund Board of Directors, President Will Barnette has announced. The 4-year-old Denver Actors Fund makes financial and practical assistance available to members of the Colorado theatre community facing situational medical need. Last week, The […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Meghan Ralph

  Financial aid recipient: Meghan Ralph has been heavily involved in the Denver theatre community since 2004, working as actor, stage manager, assistant director, run crew, box office, photographer and anything in-between. She is one of the founders of Equinox Theatre Company and has worked with Spotlight, Firehouse, Vintage and many others. Most recently, she […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Traci J. Kern

Financial aid recipient: Longtime actor and 20-year vocal coach Traci J. Kern has appeared in productions for many local theatre companies, including as the Narrator in both “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for Cabrini Productions and “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” for Ben Dicke Productions at the Aurora Fox. Recent productions as Music Director have […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Nick Thorne

About Nick Thorne: Actor, director and producer Nicholas Thorne died on Feb. 8, 2017, of complications from a severe asthma attack. He was 25, and a graduate of Denver School of the Arts and the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley. He was the Artistic Director and a co-founder of the Black Actors Guild, which […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Daniel Langhoff

About Daniel Langhoff: Popular actor Daniel Langhoff most recently appeared as Cervantes, the playwright who defends his life through storytelling, in Performance Now’s production of “The Man of La Mancha.” Other recent roles include Tateh, the immigrant single father in the Performance Now’s epic musical “Ragtime,” for which he won a 2016 True West Award. […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: David Ballew

Financial-aid recipient: David Ballew has been an active actor in the Colorado theatre community for nearly two decades, with credits at local theatres ranging from Theatre Group to Equinox Theatre to Vintage Theatre and more. Memorable productions include Southern Baptist Sissies, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Jeffrey and Evil Dead The Musical. Most recently, […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Lara Maerz

Financial-aid recipient: Lara Maerz has been an active Stage Manager in the Colorado theatre community for many years, including stints at The Edge Theatre, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Springs TheatreWorks, Theatre Aspen and Parker Performing Arts School. Most recently she ran The Addams Family Musical for the Northglenn Players. She is a graduate of Jefferson […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Maggie Sczekan

Financial-aid recipient: Maggie Sczekan has been performing in the Colorado theatre community for the past six years, most recently as Fiona in Colorado Springs Arts Center’s “Shrek The Musical” (billed as Maggie Davenport), and in the Arvada Center’s “Sister Act.” Of her performance as Fiona, The Gazette wrote: “Maggie Davenport deserves an action figure – […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Faith Angelise Goins-Simmons

Financial-aid recipient: Aurora native Faith Angelise Goins-Simmons is playing Lily in the Aurora Fox’s Porgy and Bess. The daughter of Pastors Verdale and Jane Goins is a graduate of Aurora Central High School and the University of Denver, where she was the first person of color to graduate from the Lamont School of Music. She […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Patrick and Melissa Sawyer

Financial-aid recipients: Patrick and Melissa Swift-Sawyer are longtime contributors to the Colorado theater community. Patrick’s roots go back 40 years, from performing in melodramas at the historic Imperial Hotel in Cripple Creek (where he grew up) to The Crystal Palace in Aspen, Boulder’s Dinner Theater, The Carousel Dinner Theater (now Midtown Arts Center) in Fort […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Cody Schuyler and Jacquie Jo Billings

  Financial-aid recipients: Cody Schuyler and Jacquie Jo Billings are longtime performers  in the Colorado theater community and engaged to be married next year. The couple recently appeared together in Miners Alley Playhouse’s “You Can’t Take it With You” as Essie Carmichael and Tony Kirby Jr. Schuyler was nominated for a 2015 Henry Award for his […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Asad Clinton

Financial-aid recipient: Littleton actor, dancer and choreographer Asad Clinton was an ensemble member in Breckenridge Backstage Theatre‘s recent production of “Chicago.” He was called “commanding” by The Denver Post when he played a tagger named Graffiti Pete in Vintage Theatre Productions’ “In the Heights.” He appeared in both “Aida” and “The Wild Party” for Ignite Theatre […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Bailey Walton

  Financial-aid recipient: Bailey Peyton Walton is part of the well-loved local theatre family that includes her brother, Burke Walton, and father, Kevin Walton. Bailey studied English at the University of Colorado-Denver and is a graduate of Cherry Creek High School. Recent roles have included Tracy in Hairspray with both the Evergreen Players and Candlelight […]

Denver Actors Fund announces statewide expansion

In the video above, new parents Rebecca Joseph and Daniel Langhoff present Denver Actors Fund President Will Barnette with the Colorado Theatre Guild’s first Community Impact Award at the 2016 Henry Awards.   The Denver Actors Fund, which in three years has directly distributed more than $55,000 to metro-area theatre artists in situational medical need, […]

Denver Actors Fund in Action: Robert Larson

  Financial-aid recipient: Robert Larson is a graduate of Cherry Creek High School and serves as the music director of Hope United Methodist Church. As an actor, he most recently appeared in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” at the PACE Center in Parker. He is also a singer with the Original Dickens […]