Podcast: Henry Awards 2025!

Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre leads the pack this year with Come From Away

In this episode, hosts Toni Tresca and Alex Miller run down the Henry Awards winners from Monday night’s ceremony at Lone Tree Arts Center.

See the full list of winners.

Joined by the cast, Director Christy Mountour-Larson, at podium, accepts the award for Outstanding Play for Curious Theatre’s production of ‘Downstate’ at the Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Awards ceremony Monday, July 29 at the Lone Tree Arts Center. | Photo: Toni Tresca

Transcript

Created by AI orcs; read with skepticism (and contempt, if you prefer).

Alex Miller (00:00)
Hey, alright, hello and welcome to the OnStage Colorado Podcast. I’m Alex Miller.

Toni Tresca (00:06)
And I’m Tony Tresca and we are here today with a bonus episode to focus on the just announced winners of the 2025 19th Annual Henry Awards hosted by the Colorado Theater Guild.

Alex Miller (00:21)
Right, so today is July 29th, the ceremony was last night, Monday night. And so the Colorado Theater Guild has dozens of judges who fan out around the state to see shows and rate all the pieces, parts of them on a score sheet. So those scores ⁓ include things for directing, acting, lighting, design, and all that. they’re then tallied and the nominees are announced. So the Henry season runs May 16th.

2024 to May 15, 2025 and featured 170 productions by 57 companies. So pretty decent representation there.

Toni Tresca (00:57)
That’s right, and the number of productions is up from 2024. So there were more shows that were adjudicated this year during the awards. But yeah, that is important to note. It’s not on a kind of a year cycle like we do with the Oscars in which we just do awards for all of 2025. This is on a very specific cycle.

And then on Monday night, the 28th of July, at the Lone Tree Art Center, all of the winners were announced in a very big ceremony. And this year there were a couple of surprises, including the big winner of the night, Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater, and one major difference in the award show, because this year there were no actor or actress categories, just outstanding performer.

And that was a big change that not everybody loved as evidenced by a couple of boos that were heard when Colorado Theater Guild President Betty Hart actually announced this decision. But I would say those boos were vastly outnumbered by the eruption of applause that came when Betty actually ended her statement about why they had included, made this change to make those who don’t identify.

Alex Miller (01:52)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (02:12)
as ⁓ male or female or non-binary performers feel more included and represented in the award process without having to choose a binary category to submit to. So it ended up getting a big round of applause, but it was notable that not everybody in the room was on board with that.

Alex Miller (02:30)
Yeah, yeah, and I talked to a few people who were like, I’m not sure about it. But, you know, and on our awards that we do for the Onstage Colorado, the Oscars, you know, we started we we decided right off the bat that we weren’t going to do actor actress, not certain. mean, not necessarily just for the, know, ⁓ you know, non gendered people or differently gendered people or whatever, but just because like, why why would you why do you distinguish them anyway, because none of the other categories are distinguished that way for sound design, whatever.

Toni Tresca (02:56)
That’s,

yeah, that was the reason we initially did it. And I believe that was mentioned during the ceremony as well, that now performers will just be judged based on their performance, similar to any other technical category, because acting is, technical. It requires a lot of skill. There is a craft to it. And so I think that this is a really good change. I, we’ve also, like you mentioned, we’ve definitely landed on the, it’s a good thing since.

That’s how we do our own awards here at OnStage Colorado.

Alex Miller (03:25)
Right.

Yeah. I would say the difference is they’re only picking two from each category, whereas we usually have, you know, multiple, many more winners. So there is a chance that, you know, one year it could be two guys or two women or two, you know, non-gender people or whatever. And then people would be complaining, I’m sure.

Toni Tresca (03:31)
That’s right.

I mean, as did happen this year, there were a couple categories in which men were shut out altogether. There were two women who won the award, but we’ll dig into those winners and all the interesting stats that came up a little bit later. I want to talk first about kind of the ceremony itself. ⁓ What did you think of the Henrys this year, Alex?

Alex Miller (04:06)
Yeah, you so last year they made a real effort to streamline it to get it down from whatever it was over three hours, think, ⁓ you know, previous. And I think a lot of people like, my God, that’s a lot. And so last year I thought it was a it was a, we both thought it was really good. This year seemed a little flatter. ⁓ I’m not sure why exactly, but I don’t know. But, you know, it was still it was still a good ceremony. I think they came in at what, two and a half hours, maybe something like that.

Toni Tresca (04:13)
That’s right, yeah.

So

I timed it, ended up, the Henrys ended up starting at 7 10 and then they ended at 9 18. So the actual length of the show this year was two hours and eight minutes, which is down even from last year. I think what you’re noticing is that this year it did feel kind of arbitrarily kind of tight. There were a couple of speeches that kind of got.

in which the band ended up playing people off and you were like, they’re clearly right at the end. I feel like we don’t lose anything if we just let people finish what they’re saying. And I’m not sure, I think it was the performances of the five featured show, five nominated shows for Best Musical, Come From Away, Music Man, A Little Shop of Horrors, The Arvada Center’s production.

Alex Miller (04:58)
They get played off. Yeah, yeah.

Toni Tresca (05:25)
of waitress and then what was the last one? I’m forgetting one.

Alex Miller (05:31)
I can’t remember.

Toni Tresca (05:34)
I’ve got my little handy dandy program here, but I know I’m not going to be able to find it in a timely fashion.

and Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, also from the Arvada Center. ⁓ Those were all, I thought they were all really good. Exactly. Particularly, I thought the standout was ⁓ Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater’s ⁓ performance of Come From Away. That solo number that the actress did was just breathtaking. It’s a real, and that performer ended up winning in their acting category later.

Alex Miller (05:49)
Yeah, all great. Nice and short. Yeah.

Yeah.

She’s fantastic.

Toni Tresca (06:13)
as well as that show for best ensemble and best musical. So it was a clear favorite among the Henry judges as well. And that performance really allowed us in the room who hadn’t been to Grand Lake to kind of understand why it won so much.

Alex Miller (06:27)
Right, right. Yeah, because I have to say, you know, I didn’t see any of those shows up at Grand Lake. In fact, I really I think we were both talking about this like we need to get up to Grand Lake and see what those guys are up to because, you know, haven’t been up there.

Toni Tresca (06:40)
100 % I agree. I really want to go up and see what those guys are doing. They always make an effort to do a regional premiere up there as a part of their season. This year that’s for their area that’s frozen that they’re doing, which, you know, not exactly a super experimental title, but it’s one that they can do. I imagine they’re going to do really, really well. ⁓ And so

Alex Miller (06:57)
Ha ha ha.

Toni Tresca (07:04)
I thought it was also interesting, Michael Cuero, who is the longtime artistic director in the area for 30 years. He finally won for music direction this year. And he said in his speech that this felt like this was quote, a nice cap off to my time there, which got me wondering, is he going to be announcing a retirement soon? He hasn’t said anything publicly, but that line certainly made those in the room kind of.

Alex Miller (07:20)
Yeah, I know.

Toni Tresca (07:33)
curious and perk up.

Alex Miller (07:34)
huh. Yeah, well, I think he said 29 years. That’s a pretty long time for anybody to be anywhere. so, but yeah, I wound up, I started out next near you on the, in side of close to the front and I went up retreating to the balcony so I could, I don’t know, take off my coat and spread out a bit. And it was

Toni Tresca (07:40)
That’s true. ⁓

Alex Miller (07:51)
little hot in there. I also spent some time in the lobby. So Brian Landis-Folkins was hanging out in there. And I was like, what are you doing out here, Brian? He’s like, I’m so antsy I can’t sit in there. But there was a video monitor. So we were able to listen to it. And the cool thing about sitting in the lobby is that all the winners, every time when you win, go out and you collect your trophy from somewhere out there in the lobby, off the lobby, whatever. So we got to see them all come out right after they were winning, all excited and stuff like that. So that was kind of fun hanging out in the lobby.

Toni Tresca (07:57)
Nice.

Alex Miller (08:18)
And a lot of people sort of, as the show wore on, more and more people were hanging out out there.

Toni Tresca (08:24)
That actually that does sound like a pretty nice experience. Maybe I have to try the lobby next year, but I’m not that I’m not that I’m complaining. ⁓ Folks who run the Henry’s I had a great seat. I was seated on the end. was next to one of the Henry coordinators or excuse me, the Henry coordinator, Barb Thomas, who I know listens to this podcast. So it was, had a great time chatting with you, Barb.

Alex Miller (08:29)
Move around.

Yeah.

Hi Barb.

Toni Tresca (08:49)
It was, we had a lot of fun just talking about the show and the winners as it was going on. And I thought, ⁓ one more thing before we dive into the winners, I thought that Betty Hart gave a really strong opening speech. ⁓ She kind of, she said, quote, no matter how often people try to get us to be divided, remember we’re stronger together and love wins. And I thought that that was kind of the unifying message of the night, which was interesting and kind of a turn from past Henry Awards.

was really kind of an intentional effort in the ceremony itself to create community and bring people together. And as Kenny Moten said later in the evening, some of the folks who won awards tonight, there’s a chance they might not be here next year because of cuts to federal and local funding. And I think that when companies are scared right now, it’s kind of hard to be petty and divided about.

this award show. And so it easier to see this as a night for community building and talking with your friends and celebrating this theater community here in Colorado, rather than kind of really like wringing your hands over the fact that one or so and so didn’t win or this company didn’t get enough for X, Y or Z.

Alex Miller (10:01)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it was funny. Betty said she left her speech on her laptop and so she just kind of ad libbed. But of course, Betty is very poised and, you know, well spoken and she really gave a nice little kickoff to the show.

Toni Tresca (10:15)
Yeah, and she announced some interesting news for those in the room. The Guild is going to be collaborating with Struck Media to create ⁓ statewide PSA kind of commercials to promote the arts across the state, which I thought was a really ⁓ interesting move. I’d be curious to see what those commercials look like and when they’re going to start being filmed and rolling out and.

where folks will be able to see them. Is this going to be on TV, on YouTube, ⁓ on TikTok?

Alex Miller (10:47)
Where was my big question? Yeah, where are you gonna put those? probably not on, know, maybe you can get them on Rocky Mountain PBS or something like that, but they’re probably better off getting them out on streaming, TikTok and stuff like that.

Toni Tresca (11:01)
Yeah, and then I thought that one of the night’s most emotional moments came about three quarters into the evening when during the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Magic Moment, Inc’s artistic director, K.C. or K.Q.

Alex Miller (11:19)
Mm-hmm.

Toni Tresca (11:20)
KQ. And it was presented by actor and director John Carroll Lynch, who flew into Denver to present that award to him. was clear he was a student of him. He clearly knew him really well. He started the speech by taking off his suit jacket and putting on this Snoopy shirt because he thought he said it would be more fitting because that was more appropriate for him. And I just thought it was a really touching tribute to him. It was clear that they

Alex Miller (11:37)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (11:49)
that they knew each other and he had a lot of really funny personal stories about them like playing D &D together and just kind of hanging out that exemplified his character and really set up his speech about what the theater community meant to him ⁓ really well. I thought that was a really powerful moment.

Alex Miller (12:10)
Yeah, yeah, and if you want to know more about KQ, John Moore did a really nice story about him in the 10.

Toni Tresca (12:17)
That’s right.

Alex Miller (12:18)
if he can get past all the pop-ups and ads and paywalls. I was trying to look at John’s story about the Henrys this morning just to see what he had to say and I just, I couldn’t penetrate the shit that was in the way. you know, it’s like, there’s nothing else on that paper that interests me other than what John writes. And so I kind of let my subscription lapse. So it’s just really hard to get back in there, which is unfortunate.

Toni Tresca (12:44)
Yeah, they’re really trying to get you to subscribe and I am really intent on not subscribing.

Alex Miller (12:50)
But yeah, I noticed, you know, the Denver Post didn’t have anything about it. ⁓ And Westward, I looked on Westward, but your story, so you did a story, it’s not up yet, but you’ll have a nice rundown of the night, right?

Toni Tresca (13:03)
⁓ likely by the time that folks are listening to this my recap and analysis of all of the major categories ⁓ Will be up on the site. Yeah, I was but yeah, it’s not it’s ⁓ I guess that’s not a new fact that coverage in the Henry’s is dwindling over the years But I think that it’s definitely still worth kind of talking about who all the winners were and who got to collect those trophies

Alex Miller (13:32)
Yeah. Well, let’s get into it.

Toni Tresca (13:35)
So the evening’s biggest winner, as I’ve already mentioned, was definitely Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater in Grand Lake, which walked away with seven wins. That comes from five from Come From Away and two from their production of The Music Man. And this allowed the company to beat out the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the usual heavyweight, who, ⁓ don’t cry for them though, they still walked away with six awards.

Alex Miller (14:03)
Uh-huh.

Toni Tresca (14:04)
largely for their plays though, including two for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, two for The Hot Wing King, one for The Reservoir, and then a sole win for its production of Little Shop of Horrors, which had entered the evening as the most nominated production.

Alex Miller (14:23)
Yeah, yeah, I that wasn’t quite right, because I think you and I both agree that was just that, and Waitress are probably the two best musicals that we’d seen. Of course, me and Kavya did not see any of Rocky Mountain Rep shows, but of the ones we saw, man, those were two great Rep shows, and they were both shout out.

Toni Tresca (14:39)
Yeah, I don’t.

I really like you mentioned, I really did like both of those shows, but I don’t want to comment on the on the outcome of the winners, because as I was sitting next to Barb, she she was telling me before the show started that she had gotten to see Rocky Mountain season and it was one of the strongest she had seen in years. She had been raving about it to everybody. So she was like, I felt really good seeing these nominations. ⁓ And as the night was going on, the wins that they were getting. And so

You know, I’m very much open to the idea that Rocky Mountain Rep produced a absolutely stellar production of Come From Away, which did end up winning outstanding production of a musical over our favorites, Waitress and Little Shop of Horrors.

Alex Miller (15:22)
Yep. Yep. And Louisa Vitucci, who, as you were noting, had sung that solo from the show was fantastic. And she did win outstanding performer in a musical.

Toni Tresca (15:34)
The other wins for that, for Come From Away were musical, director, ensemble, choreography, and as you just mentioned, performer in a musical. Its production of Music Man won music direction for Michael Cuero ⁓ and featured performer in a musical tier one for Mitchell Lewis, who had won this, who had won for this company two years ago in its production of Jersey Boys.

Alex Miller (15:59)
Cool. Yeah, so ⁓ performance now at a Lakewood did pretty well.

Toni Tresca (16:02)
⁓

Yeah, I would say so. They got four awards making this company the third most awarded company overall and they were all connected to its production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which I did not get a chance to see but from the photos that they were showing throughout the night, it looked like a very colorful, fun production of the musical.

Alex Miller (16:33)
Yeah, that’s a great show and done well. It’s one of those golden oldies that I don’t mind seeing again for sure.

Toni Tresca (16:41)
And Performance Now has been doing quite well at the Henry Awards in recent years. It’s been winning a number of the categories that it’s up against. It’s clear that the Henry Awards have respect for the polished ⁓ kind of old fashioned musicals that they program over

Alex Miller (16:58)
It seems that way, yeah. Yeah, I was talking to somebody who was like, how old are these Henry judges? I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know what the, I bet it does skew older and maybe that’s, know, those are the types of shows that they lean towards, but I don’t know.

Toni Tresca (17:14)
Definitely. Another company that had a very good night was the Denver Metro area’s Firehouse Theater Company, who won three awards, making them the fourth most awarded company, including two for its production of Perfect Arrangement and one for Blues for an Alabama Sky. Firehouse really did have a strong season.

Alex Miller (17:36)
Yeah, yeah, they’ve been doing a lot of good work and I didn’t see Alabama sky but I did see perfect arrangement and that was a really, really great show and I’m in a Miranda Byers ⁓ who won as well as Kelly Eulens hop both great performances in that one. ⁓ And then on the other on the other end so some of the ones, some of big players that usually win, ⁓ you know, quite a bit Boulder ensemble theater company Arvada Center ⁓ really didn’t win as many as they have in past years.

Give five productions and Miner’s Alley both won two awards apiece. Arvada Center’s Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder won for Outstanding Performer in a Musical with Shabazz Green and Costume Design. It demonstrated that it could still compete even after its highly nominated waitress was shut out.

Toni Tresca (18:26)
Yeah, because Waitress had 10 nominations but walked away with not a single win, making it the evening’s biggest loser. It was kind of sad to see, but I wonder. Waitress got quite a bit of its nominations in the acting categories against themselves. I couldn’t just help wonder if maybe those performers canceled each other out a little bit. But I guess we will never know.

Alex Miller (18:47)
Yeah, yeah, you never know.

Ha ha ha.

Toni Tresca (18:54)
Also joining in that kind dubious distinction was Buntport Theatre Company here in Denver, whose production of Eyes Up, Mouth of Gate, which had six nominations going into the evening and was a favorite of both of ours. It’s kind of a satirical send up of a very shitty situation. ⁓ It ended up going home empty handed.

Alex Miller (19:13)
Yeah.

I love that show so much. ⁓ I think, think, you know, Bonport is always just thrilled to get nominated, you know, and if they’ve won plenty in the past, but yeah, that one was that one was could have been like kind of offensive to some people. don’t know, but it was really funny. So winners in my book.

Toni Tresca (19:33)
Absolutely. And literally in our books, as we did give them quite a few awards in our Oscars. It was interesting though, ⁓ the winners, this was kind of a departure from recent years, particularly last year where judges tried to spread the love across fields. But this year that really wasn’t the case. Only 20 productions received awards this year, which is down from 25 in 2024.

And then similarly, just 15 companies won at least one awards, which is five fewer than the previous years. And the awards were largely consolidated among a smaller group suggesting that judges were more comfortable kind of doubling down on their few favorite productions than kind of seeking to recognize a wider array of work. ⁓ But yeah.

And I think looking at kind of the geographic breakdown, it was interesting. Eight of the companies were still based in the Denver metro area. So that’s Curious Theater Company, ⁓ the DCPA, Firehouse, Arvada, Give Five, Performance Now, Platte Valley and Miners Alley. Two are from Fort Collins, Buzz Blue and Open Stage. One from Boulder, that’s Boulder Ensemble Theater Company. One from Conifer, Stage Door, and then two from the Mountains, a Rocky Mountain Rep and the Breckenridge Backstage Theater.

and won from Colorado Springs with Springs Ensemble Theater, taking home a single win for its production of The Clove River.

Alex Miller (21:00)
Yep. Yep. So, yeah, we talked about the acting categories being changed up. the so that the one of the things that you mentioned earlier is that women kind of swept the night. 60 % of the nominee pool identified as men. So 11 of the 17 acting awards went to women. Reversing what you know what some thought might be an imbalance in the opposite directions.

Toni Tresca (21:27)
Yeah, women ended up, even though they were less nominated than their counterparts who identify as men in these acting categories, they ultimately ended up winning roughly 65 % of the acting awards. And only three categories produced the kind of what might be considered traditional male-female split. And three categories shut out men entirely. So just kind of an interesting note.

kind of that is what it looks like when you just take gender out and you are just voting on the kind of the quality of the performances. Yeah.

Alex Miller (22:06)
Yeah. So, you know, you mentioned Buntport didn’t win any. There are a couple other notable shout outs. So Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado College, which did a number of nice, ⁓ great shows this past year, as well as Colorado Shakespeare Festival, which was kind of like, they never seem to do well. They do great productions over there, of course.

Toni Tresca (22:28)
If the Henry judges do not award this year’s production of The Tempest, I’m going to have some like, they’re going have to have some deep, serious reflection on if they just hate Shakespeare and are just unwilling to recognize that for excellence because Shakespeare can be excellent and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival frequently does do excellent work. And yeah, so it is notable that they were shut out this year entirely.

Alex Miller (22:34)
Words. ⁓

Yep. Yeah. A couple others walked away empty handed with theater works, Creed Repertory Theater, Town Hall Arts Center. So yeah. You know, and I should point out one more time that, you know, when we talked about the, you know, that they were spreading their love, they were doing this, that or the other thing, they weren’t really doing any of that purposefully. It’s a ballot. They fill it out, you know, and it goes into, you know, a machine or however it’s done. And it’s just the numbers that add up. And that’s that’s who the winners are.

Toni Tresca (22:57)
Gonna be watching you, Henrys.

That’s a good point. Yeah, the awards themselves, there was no effort in past years or this year to kind of favor a single company. They literally do just add it up. But that was the kind of tone in the speeches in between by presenters. Yeah, the only thing I didn’t necessarily love about the show, and I think maybe this is what made it feel a little bit drier than in years past, is they opened each category up with a really dry kind of

we are recognizing the fine theatrical art of playwriting and new work, which you all know is an impressive thing, which I was like, was this written by AI? If it wasn’t, it just feels very flat and inhuman. And I think we could lose the introductions of the categories, which we all as theater artists and lovers know and recognize the importance of, hence why we showed up to the show, and then give that time back to the winners so that they can speak a little bit more.

Alex Miller (23:58)
Ha ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha.

Yeah, I guess it’s channeling like the Oscars a little bit where they talk about the cinematographer’s job is blah, ⁓ It’s teeing it up. But yeah, I don’t think it’s necessary.

Toni Tresca (24:33)
I think that makes sense for something like the Academy Awards, which are being broadcast to a national or in some cases global audience. And so they are kind of having to explain that, but the Henry Awards are different in that they’re largely for those people who are physically in the room there. The ceremony, yeah, it is technically, I guess it was being live streamed. ⁓ As you mentioned, they had that video feed, but it’s really, it’s not going out.

Alex Miller (24:49)
Yep.

Toni Tresca (25:00)
being played to a national audience to try to educate people about theater. So I think that you could just give that time, cede that time back to the performers and other artists in the room.

Alex Miller (25:03)
Right.

Yep. All right.

Toni Tresca (25:14)
So now let’s quickly run through all of the winners from last night. So Outstanding Production of a Musical went to Come From Away, which as we’ve mentioned multiple times throughout this podcast was produced by Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater, which was the evening’s big winner.

Alex Miller (25:32)
Yep, and they also had music band nominated and of course DCPA theater company with Little Shop of Horrors, Waitress with Arvada Center, as well as A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder were the other nominees.

So for outstanding production of a play, this one went to a pretty dark play called Downstate that Curious Theater produces about, you know, sort of recovering pedophiles. So not the most wholesome topic, but I didn’t get to that, but our review that saw it said it was fantastic. And a lot of people were saying, holy crap, Downstate was just fantastic. everybody seemed to be in agreement. That was a good win for Curious there.

Toni Tresca (26:09)
Yeah, it was interesting though. This was the only win for the production that walked away with best play. I guess that’s not totally uncommon with these awards. If you’ll remember a couple of years ago, the Arvada Center’s production of Into the Woods was not the most nominated production, but ultimately walked away with best musical. So sometimes the judges really do just show their love. They’re like, this really was the best play and wrote it high in that category while

Alex Miller (26:13)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Toni Tresca (26:37)
maybe not giving it any other, well, not recognizing it for any other element. It’s just one of the quirks of the tabulation process.

Alex Miller (26:40)
Yeah.

And I think.

Yep, and I think the only win for Curious in a pretty strong season that they had, so another head scratcher. Yep, so others in that category included The Reservoir and I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter at DCPA Theatre Company, National Bohemians at Miners Alley, and Dial for Murder at Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

Toni Tresca (26:51)
That is correct, it was Curious Theater’s only win.

Outstanding director of a play went to Rick Barber for the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s production of Grounded. This was a one woman show starring Anne Penner, which I did get to check out. It really was well done. It’s a smaller piece. It’s really intimate. It’s about kind PTSD and grappling with this. It’s about a woman who does drone strikes and kind of grappling with the realities of that.

really relation-mart play, not something that you think that might be recognized at the Henry’s particularly going up against some much bigger competition, flashier, like I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by the DCPA, The Hot Wing King at the DCPA, Downstate at Curious, and Dial in from Murder at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. This is definitely the smallest of those shows, but the Henry judges clearly liked what Rick was doing.

Alex Miller (28:02)
Yeah, yeah, in my conversation with Anne in the podcast earlier this year, we talked about, you know, I was asking you specifically, what does the director do, you know, for a solo show, other than, you know, the obvious stuff, movie or movie there and such, she has pretty interesting things about how it went down. Of course, they have this long collaboration where they’ve done this show before. So that really, ⁓ that show really showed in the direction of that show and how it came across so powerfully for people.

Toni Tresca (28:27)
been friends for years. They’re both professors at DU, so they clearly have a strong relationship. We’ll be talking about Anne a little bit more in a later category.

Alex Miller (28:35)
Yep.

So also in that category nominated was Laura Alcala Baker, I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Timothy Douglas, The Hot Wing King, both DCPA, Kristy Montor Larson for Downstate of Curious, and Elise Santora for Dial M for Murder at Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Outstanding director of a musical, I was…

Thinking Chris Coleman might get this one for a little shop of horrors at DCPA theater or Lynn Collins for waitress at Arvada Center. But no, this one I went to come from away. Jeff Duke at Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater. He was competing against himself also for his direction of kinky boots ⁓ there as well. And then also the music man at Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater was Sally Scott was also nominated. So three nominations there for this.

Director of a musical, she’s kind of showing how strong that musical theater program is up there in Graham Lake.

Toni Tresca (29:32)
time they were announcing director of a musical you kind of knew that it was going to be Come From Away since Come From Away had won almost every single category that it was nominated for to that point. And I, like you, did think Chris Coleman was going to walk away with it but Chris is okay. He can dry his tears with his other Henry Awards that he has at home.

Alex Miller (29:37)
Yeah.

Yep.

Although it might be a little uncomfortable drawing your tears with that piece of glass. Yeah.

Toni Tresca (30:01)
That’s true, that’s

true. Next category was outstanding musical direction in which Michael Cuero, ⁓ he bested himself to win for the music man over Come From Away, which he was also nominated for at Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater. Other nominees included Dom Scott in Million Dollar Quartet. He also acted in that at Lone Tree Art Center. ⁓ Angela Steiner for Little Shop.

at the DCPA and Alex Steinhorn for a Gentleman’s Guide at the Arvada Center.

Alex Miller (30:35)
So the next category ⁓ is one of these ones split into tiers. So tier one is like the bigger theaters, tier two is the smaller ones. So this is for outstanding performer in a play. And this ⁓ is one of those categories we were talking about that’s no longer actor, actress. So there’s two recipients at each tier. So the winners here were ⁓ Anne Penner, who we just talking about, and Grounded from a Boulder Ensemble theater company.

And Rosa Isabella Salvatierra, I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, who gave a really, this was a DCPA theater company, and she gave a really nice speech. She was very funny. She’s like, I’m from New Jersey. I had no idea. I’d never won any awards before. And she was fantastic in that show, as was Ann Penner in Grounded. So both definitely hats off to them, both well-deserved in that category.

Toni Tresca (31:23)
And this is one of those aforementioned categories in which men were shut out entirely. These are two women who won this category. And I thought it was funny throughout the evening. Clearly the presenters of the awards did not get the memo that there was going to be two recipients in each tier. So when they were announcing it, they would be like, it’s a tie. And the…

Alex Miller (31:42)
huh.

Toni Tresca (31:47)
Barb, who was sitting next to who coordinated the Henrys, would just like put her head in her hands and be like, it’s not a tie. There’s two winners in each category. ⁓

Alex Miller (31:50)
Yeah.

Yeah. So because these categories are quite large, I think we can skip naming everybody. But what about tier two?

Toni Tresca (32:03)
So for tier two, this was a legitimate tie. There was a tie for the first spot, meaning there were three recipients in this tier. So the three winners were Miranda Byers for Perfect Arrangement at Firehouse Theatre Company, Wendy Isha for The Trip to Bountiful at Ba’s Blue Theatre Company in Fort Collins, and Jonathan Underwood for Blues for An Alabama Sky at Firehouse Theatre Company.

Alex Miller (32:25)
Yeah, yeah, he gave a really fun speech and it was really great to see Wendy Ishii from Bob Blue win for Tripta Bountiful. Of course, she founded that theater back in the 90s and doesn’t get on stages all that often, so it was fun to see her up there.

Toni Tresca (32:39)
She gave a really nice speech too that touched on her long relationship with Warren Sherrill, whom I had no idea that they went back that far. ⁓ But if you want to hear a good conversation to learn more about Warren, you actually interviewed him last episode and get kind of deep into his past.

Alex Miller (32:41)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then Miranda Byers is one of those ⁓ actresses who every time I see her, I’m like, good, she’s in it, you know, and I really enjoy ⁓ almost pretty much everything I’ve seen her in and in perfect arrangement. She was she was really fantastic. And she was also, I don’t know if costume is one for Firehouse, but she had all these fantastic dresses that he put her in for that.

So, all right, so next one is ⁓ Outstanding Performer in a Musical, Tier One. So this was Shabazz Green, who we talked about, running in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, and he had the part where he plays like multiple, all these multiple characters, and he’s a pretty wacky, pretty wacky, super wacky part there. And then Louisa Vettucci, who we talked about, Come From Away at Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater, just fantastic, and she came out and did that little

Toni Tresca (33:22)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (33:51)
that little bit that just like convinced everybody it’s like yeah you you definitely want this one.

Toni Tresca (33:56)
Yeah, after she sang that song, I was like, yep, okay, I think you’re gonna win. I think you deserve to win. I am now really sad I did not see this show. And then in tier two, ⁓ the two winners for this category were Clark Destiny Jones. There’s performance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch by Give Five Productions. And then Jenna Say Pierce.

Alex Miller (34:08)
Yep. What about tier two?

Toni Tresca (34:22)
for her performance in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as the narrator produced by Performance Now Theatre Company.

Alex Miller (34:30)
Yep, and Clark Destin-Jones, we saw that performance and he was just fantastic and it also gave a great speech. And they’re doing a reprise of that at Ballyhoo, right?

Toni Tresca (34:42)
That is correct, so if you want to catch it, can check it out in the fall. It’ll be there, I believe, in November.

Alex Miller (34:48)
Yeah, that sounds right. So yeah, not often that you get to go and see one of these Henry Award winners after they’ve been named. cool. Well, next category is outstanding featured performer in a play. Again, two recipients in each tier. Isaiah Terrell Boyd won for the Hot Wing King at DCPA Theater Company, which was a great show that was under awarded, I think.

And then the other was Lesley Sofia Perez, who was, I am not your perfect Mexican daughter at DCPA. I think she played the mom.

Toni Tresca (35:20)
She actually was playing the best friend. ⁓ Both really great supporting performances in two shows that I know that you and I both really enjoy.

Alex Miller (35:22)
the best friend. Okay. Yeah.

Toni Tresca (35:36)
As for tier ⁓ two, it went to Heather Osberg Johnson for the 39 Steps up in Fort Collins produced by Open Stage Theatre and Company and Kelly Uhlenhop for Perfect Arrangement by Firehouse Theatre.

Alex Miller (35:53)
Yep, yep. So that one was mentioned, really great performance there by Kayle Yuland Hopp. And then I also, it’s interesting that all four ⁓ of the Portians who are on stage, there’s one Samantha Schmitz, who’s always off stage, but Brian, Hannah, Eric, and Erin were all nominated in this category, which I thought was really cool. And that was a, I hope that’s a show that they come back around and do in a couple more years. I’d like to see that again, because it was just so much fun.

Toni Tresca (36:20)
You know, that is the kind of show that you could always whip it out every anniversary of the Dave Matthews tour bus incident. You just do it every five years or so. ⁓ You can have that idea for free Buntport.

Alex Miller (36:23)
Yep.

Hahaha!

Yeah, might be a

little difficult to store all those bulky costumes of ships and buses and stuff. But yeah, what was next?

Toni Tresca (36:47)
one quick comment. I didn’t see the 39 steps up in Open Stage, but Barb, who I was sitting next to, I asked her if she had checked it out and she said it was one of the best things that Open Stage had done in years. It was a really funny production and one of the, and she really enjoyed, I won’t say anymore. She just really enjoyed that production. I won’t disparage any other shows. ⁓ The next category is outstanding featured performer in a musical.

Alex Miller (37:00)
huh.

Okay. Okay.

Toni Tresca (37:17)
This went to Will Branagh for Little Shop of Horrors as the dentist and many other characters in the DCPA’s show, and Mitchell Lewis for The Music Man by Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater.

Alex Miller (37:22)
So great.

Yep. ⁓ Yeah, great, great field of ⁓ actors in that category. In tier two, Jennifer

Toni Tresca (37:36)
and I just want to quickly point out, and that’s actually an instance of a category in which there were two men who won and no women. So it goes both ways. really does just, it’s clear that the Henry judges really, the coordinators just added up the numbers and let the top two winners win.

Alex Miller (37:42)
Yeah, right.

Yep. Yep. So in tier two, Cabaret, Platte Valley Theater Arts production of Cabaret, Jennifer Burnett, who I believe played the ⁓ older woman. ⁓ That was right, right. ⁓ Great performance there. And then at Stage Door Theater up in Conifer, Jessica Sotwick won for Sweeney Todd, which I’m sorry, I didn’t get up to see that one, but that was the second winner in that category.

Toni Tresca (38:06)
Troy Line Schneider.

Mm-hmm.

Alex Miller (38:24)
Alright, well let’s take a quick break and when we come back we’ll get to categories like outstanding ensemble performance, top new play, choreography, costumes, and more.

Alex Miller (38:37)
Onstage Colorado is brought to you in part by Miners Alley Performing Arts Center, whose production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins runs August 8th through September 14th. Assassins is a provocative, Tony Award-winning musical that explores the minds and motives of history’s most infamous figures who attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents, blending dark humor and compelling narratives to examine the American dream’s darker side. Tickets at minersalley.com. Also supporting Onstage Colorado is a Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater in Grand Lake.

Their 2025 summer season runs from June 6th all the way to September 5th and includes Disney’s Frozen, Guys and Dolls, Footloose, and Nonsense. Find tickets at rockymountainrep.com. Onstage Colorado is brought to you by Colorado Candlelight featuring Anastasia through August 31st in Johnstown. This dazzling show transports its audience from the twilight of the Russian Empire to the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s as a brave young woman sets out to discover the mystery of her past.

Tickets at coloradocandalite.com. We’re also supported by Theatre Silco, featuring Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville, August 8th through 31st in Sylvathorne. This upbeat and energetic musical is the story of a part-time bartender, part-time singer, and full-time charmer named Tully, who thinks he’s got life all figured out until a beautiful career-minded tourist steals his heart and makes him question everything. Tickets at thesilco.org.

Also supporting Onstage Colorado is the Colorado Shakespeare Festival presenting The Tempest June 7th through August 10th and Richard II July 5th through August 10th. Shows take place in the Rio Green Theater on the campus of the University of Colorado Boulder. Tickets at cupresents.org. We’re also supported by the Boulder Ensemble Theater Company whose production of Cry It Out plays August 1st through the 3rd at the Denver Savoy and at the Boulder Dairy Center August 8th through 24th.

Cry It Out is a smart and candid comedy about parenthood and class in America today and the hard choices all mothers make. Get tickets at BETC.org.

Alex Miller (40:39)
All right, we’re back with the outstanding ensemble performance at the Henry Awards. So this included ⁓ a lot of great shows. Waitress at the Arvada Center, Downstate at Curious, the Million Dollar Quartet cast at Lone Tree, the Music Man at Rocky Mountain Rep, but Come From Away came back again for this one to win for Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater.

Toni Tresca (41:00)
It also won the next category for outstanding choreography. Jennifer Love won for Come From Away. ⁓ It was at this point when these awards were announced that you started to get the sense that, I think Come From Away is going to sweep all of these musical categories. ⁓ In choreography, Jennifer ended up triumphing over Megan Bliss, ⁓ who did the Music Man, also at Rocky Mountain Rep, Stephanie Hansen, who did Kinky Boots at Rocky Mountain Rep.

Alex Miller (41:13)
I know.

Toni Tresca (41:28)
Ricky Tripp, who did Little Shop at the DCPA, and Kelly Van Osbrey, who did Fiddler on the Roof for Performance Now.

Alex Miller (41:35)
Yep. This next category is a fun one. You want to do this one?

Toni Tresca (41:41)
Yeah, so this was outstanding new play or musical. So this was any show that had its world premiere in the area. Some really, really interesting shows in this category, including National Bohemians by Luke Sorge over at Minors Ellie Performing Arts Center, The Suffragettes Murder by Sandy Rustin at the DCPA Theater Company. had Sandy on the podcast earlier this year, so you want to hear more about that. You can listen to her. had Luke on the podcast too. So you can listen to that conversation too.

Alex Miller (42:07)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (42:11)
The Ballad of Paolo Aguilar by Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, Eyes Up Mount The Gate by Bunt Port and Emily K. Harris. But the winner was The Reservoir by Jake Brash produced by the Denver Center. Jake is a local, it’s a semi-autobiographical story. We saw this play when it was done at the New Play Summit a couple years ago. Saw its fully staged production. It’s now getting its off-Broadway debut.

Alex Miller (42:39)
Yeah,

very exciting.

Toni Tresca (42:40)
soon.

It’s really an exciting time and this just feels like the cherry on top. saw that Jake shared a post about this on Instagram earlier today just sharing how it just made his heart feel warm. So shout out to you Jake. It really was an exceptional script.

Alex Miller (42:57)
Yep, go Jake, keep rolling with that one. I’m interested to see what he comes up with next. Real up and coming player right there, right from Colorado.

Toni Tresca (43:01)
Absolutely.

And

he couldn’t be here tonight because he was working on another show that’s at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. So he is still working and iterating. Maybe we’ll get to see whatever he’s working on at Fringe here in Denver soon.

Alex Miller (43:11)
Right.

The next one is outstanding costume designs. This is one of my favorite categories. I love looking at costumes. And this one went to Kevin Koppenhaver for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at the Arvada Center. So that’s a great show for costumes. Also, he also was nominated for Million Dollar Quartet at Lone Tree, along with Beth Goldenberg for The Suffragettes Murder at DCPA.

Theater Company, also Samantha C. Jones for Little Shop of Horrors at DCPA Theater Company, and Nicole Watts for Waitress at the Arvada Center.

Toni Tresca (43:54)
In tier two, Susan Ramsdorf Terry won for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Performance Now. She beat herself. ⁓ She was also nominated for Pirates of Penzance by Performance Now Theater Company, as well as Emily K. Harris and Buntport Theater for Eyes Up, Mount The Gate, Nicole Harrison for Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Rachel Herring-Luna for Perfect Arrangement by Bayer House Theater Company, and Emily Valley for Reaver Madness.

an open stage theater and company. and this was a fun, I really liked this year how they were up on the screen, they showed the costumes and pieces of the set and all of these different, and like the performers in inaction rather than just headshots. It really was fun for some of the shows that I didn’t get a chance to see to be able to kind of get a sense of what was nominated.

Alex Miller (44:46)
Right. Yeah, I think, you a of times the costumes that people really notice are the big flamboyant ones. And so that’s certainly the case with Joseph and the amazing technical dreamcoat where costume is referenced in the title itself. But I have to extra shout out to Rachel Herring-Luna for perfect arrangement, because those period costumes that they did from the, I guess it was the 50s or 60s, was during the Red Scare. So that would have been like, what, the 50s? Really, really great job on those, you know, just more subtle but

and they just looked like they were spot on. And that’s not easy to do sometimes, just finding those pieces is really hard. So another great technical category, lighting design. Who came in on top here?

Toni Tresca (45:30)
Well, I would say Vance McKenzie came out on top here. He won both in tier one and in tier two. In tier two, there was a tie, so there were two winners, ⁓ but he won for his lighting work in tier one for National Bohemians by Miners Alley Performing Arts Center. It was a great play. It was a really strong technical work. He had to create a storm on stage that was realistically moving in, and a lot of that was done by

Alex Miller (45:32)
Ha ha ha ha!

Yep.

Right.

Toni Tresca (45:59)
the lighting and sound effects, which we will get to in a category soon. But Vance got that award there. In tier one, he beat John Dunkle for Million Dollar Quartet at Lone Tree, Charles R. McLeod for Little Shop at DCPA, Shannon McKinney for Gentleman’s Guide, and Jeanette Okasuki-Yu for the Reservoir at the DCPA. And then in two, ⁓ yeah, go ahead, take it away for two, too.

Alex Miller (46:22)
And then interior. Okay, sure,

tier two ⁓ for this category and lighting design was went to Brett Maughan at Hedwig and the Angry Inch from Give 5 and as you referenced, Vance McKenzie for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Code. And think that’s the first tier one, tier two winner. So that was really exciting. He of just stayed up there for the two awards.

Toni Tresca (46:47)
Yeah, he was very funny. He was like, I don’t know why I’m here, but he was very, but I, he did excellent work. I know why he’s there. Those were really, it was, at least for Natty Bose, that was really strong work. And he was very funny. He gave a lot of thanks to the other technical artists on board, which I think made, made for a valiant endearing speech.

Alex Miller (46:49)
Ha ha ha ha. ⁓

Yes.

Yeah, I think that a lot of these technical, these folks work with each other. They probably trade secrets and equipment and all kinds of stuff. they’re sort of a class of their own. They’re not all that competitive, I think. of course, everybody loves an award, right?

Outstanding Scenic Design went to Tony Syssek for the Hot Wing King at the Denver Center. So this was like, you know, they had to recreate sort of like a whole sort of an industrial kitchen, not on the scale of Clyde’s earlier in the year, but that was I guess there was two two kitchen sets at the Denver Center this year. And this one was it also had other playing areas. So it was a very functional set that worked really well in the round there at the Kielstrum Theater.

Toni Tresca (47:51)
Yeah, we talked about the effectiveness of the set in our review of that production. ⁓ Tony won against Brian Malgrave, who did Waitress at the Arvada Center, Alan E. Macaro for Little Shop, ⁓ Cody Tellis Rutledge for Come From Away at Rocky Mountain Rep, and Reed Thompson for The Suffragettes Murder at the DCPA. I was a little surprised. thought I actually did think that Reed would win for The Suffra-

Alex Miller (48:05)
Marooka?

Toni Tresca (48:21)
Jets Murder. ⁓ I didn’t necessarily care for that production, but there was no denying that the set design was jaw-dropping.

Alex Miller (48:22)
That’s a beautiful set.

Toni Tresca (48:34)
And then in tier two, Andrew Bates won for Joseph in the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Performance Now. Other nominees included Spencer Alton, who did Cabaret at Breckenridge Backstage Theater, Megan Davis, Jeff Jinsmer and Troy Lakey for Perfect Arrangement by Firehouse, Roger Hanna for Waiting for Godot by Boss Blue Theater Company, Jez Jinsmer and Adrian Martin Fullwood for Blues for an Alabama Sky at Firehouse, and Jason Laundrie, Chloe Flores,

Robert Ureta, Paul LeBar, and Justin Gross for The Play That Goes Wrong by Steel Seated Theater Company. And I think that’s all the names. I cannot say any more in that category.

Alex Miller (49:06)
Yeah.

All right, outstanding sound design. This was well deserved. I was really happy to see John Howser get this for National Bohemians at Miners Alley. He does a lot of great work there. And I think he’s, I don’t know if he’s, I think he’s won before. think actually he won last year in this category, but still National Bohemians was a real standout because some, you don’t always recognize sound design as much as you do like some of the other categories. And of course you were talking about, you know, the lighting ⁓ and the sound went hand in hand and that went to

Toni Tresca (49:29)
He did. That’s right.

Alex Miller (49:41)
recreate this storm and not just a storm in one part of the show, was basically the entire show and it was building and building. So great job by the whole tech team there at Miner’s Alley.

Toni Tresca (49:54)
Yeah, this was interesting because the other nominees included Mack Silverman, who actually had three nominations in this category, back for Baskerville, Creed, Gents Guide at Arvada Center, and Waitress at the Arvada Center, ⁓ but didn’t end up winning in this category. Other nominees were also Elizabeth Widener for Little Shop, and Noelle Nichols, Daniel Hart.

Alex Miller (50:01)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (50:19)
Bailey Trewhiler and Uptown Works for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter at the DCPA.

Alex Miller (50:26)
And then in tier two, they had a tie between Brendan O’Hara for Every Christmas Story Ever Told at the Backstage Theater in Brickenridge and Kitty Robbins for On Clover Road at Springs Ensemble Theater Company.

Toni Tresca (50:40)
That’s right.

Alex Miller (50:42)
And that’s it. That was just the one lifetime achievement award. We talked about K.Q., the artistic director at Magic Moments, Inc. And ⁓ that was the show.

Toni Tresca (50:54)
Yeah, so be sure to check back with OnStage Colorado in January when we are going to present our third annual OnStage Colorado awards for theatrical excellence, AKA the Oscars, which are kind of our take on the award show, on which we seek to honor excellence across the state in a variety of categories, similar to this, but on kind of a year cycle rather than they do during a certain period.

Alex Miller (51:23)
Yeah, and Tony and I have been hard at work kind of trying to tally up the first part of the year to keep.

Toni Tresca (51:28)
That’s right, yeah. I’ve already dug

in. I would say based off my notes so far, I won’t name any specifics, but overall, it’s been a stronger year in my opinion for plays than musicals across the state.

Alex Miller (51:42)
Mm

hmm. Yeah. So all right. Well, next week on our regular podcast, we’ll be back with we have an interview with Dixie Longgate, who is wrapping up her, I think, 14th season doing the Dixie Longgate’s Tupperware party and also ⁓ don’t wear a tube top when you’re riding a mechanical bull or something like that. she she’s a lot of fun. She came on in character. So that’ll be on next week. And then we’ll we’ll go through all of our color headliners and probably come up with some other some other topic to talk about.

Toni Tresca (52:14)
Absolutely. So in the meantime, be sure to subscribe to this podcast. If you want more theater, you can head on over to our website on stagecolorado.com and we have a news blast that comes out pretty much every Thursday that you can subscribe to for more listings on upcoming shows. We also send out our reviews there. And then there’s a big calendar on the website and which if you want to check out shows around the state, that is the ultimate tool to do so.

Alex Miller (52:44)
It certainly is. So, all right. Well, thanks for listening. Happy Henry’s. I’m Alex Miller.

Toni Tresca (52:51)
And I’m Tony Tresca. Thank you for Henrying and we will see you at the show.