Podcast: Trump’s war on America – Colorado arts edition with John Moore

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Decimation of NEA hits state theatre companies

In this episode of the OnStage Colorado podcast, host Alex Miller is joined by special guest host John Moore — arts writer for the Denver Gazette. They dig into the harm being done by the Trump Administration’s cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and its impacts on Colorado theatre organizations.

Later in the podcast they review the Colorado Headliners — upcoming shows that might be worth checking out.

Recent Shows Discussed

John’s Recent Shows:

• Attended all three readings at the Local Lab in Boulder
• Saw “Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Hot Wing King” at Denver Center
• Saw “Pericles” – a collaboration between Denver’s Disability Affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company and UK’s Flute Theater
  • Unique interactive experience designed for people with cognitive disabilities
  • Uses repetitive “heartbeat method” that creates meaningful connections
  • Will be performed in Colorado Springs and Aurora in coming weeks

Alex’s Recent Shows:

• “Space Cowboy” at Wonderbound (Denver’s contemporary ballet company)
  • Featured live original music from Clay Rose of Gasoline Lollipop and Tom Hagerman from Devotchka
• “Echoes of Curtis Park” by Sala Project and Theater Artibus
  • Oral history with acted elements about Denver’s Curtis Park neighborhood
• “Ring of Fire” (Johnny Cash jukebox musical) at Miners Alley
• “The Cottage” at Platte Valley Theatre Arts in Brighton
  • Sandy Rustin play directed by Kelly Van Oosbree with set by Brian Malgrave

Series Fest Coverage

• Annual festival for episodic television held in Denver
• Founded by Denver natives Randy Kleiner and Kaily Smith
• Featured celebrities including Rhea Seehorn, Amy Schumer, Jason Ritter, Michael Pena
• Discussed changes in TV production with more creators making independent series

Upcoming Seasons Announced

• Boulder Ensemble Theater Company’s 2025-26 season
  • “Cry It Out” (August)
  • “Elizabeth the First in Her Own Words” (August)
  • “The Thin Place” (September-October)
  • “Every Brilliant Thing” (December)
  • “Brooklyn Laundry” (February)
  • “Mary Jane” (May)
• Lone Tree Arts Center
  • “Steel Magnolias” (April 2026)
  • “Nice Work If You Can Get It” (October 2025)
• Wonderbound
  • Rock ballets (October)
  • “Holidays at the Hollywood Hotel” (December)
  • “Decadent Desires” with Colorado Jazz Orchestra (February-March)
  • “The Sandman” with Clay Rose (May)

Main Topic: NEA Funding Cuts

• NEA issued letters canceling existing grant contracts nationwide
• Over 20 Colorado organizations affected
• Impacted organizations include:
  • Phamaly Theatre Company (lost $130,000 pilot program through 2027)
  • SuTeatro (Denver’s Chicano theater company)
  • Control Group Productions (lost $40,000 contract)
  • Motus Theater in Boulder (lost $35,000 for incarcerated youth program)
• Discussed political implications and the importance of continuing to support the arts

Upcoming Shows

• New Generations Cabaret (May 19 at Arvada Center)
  • Student-led production supporting Denver Actors Fund
  • Features 17 students from 10 high schools
• Bluebird Improv at Denver Center’s Garner Galleria (May 16-18)
  • Featuring Tim Meadows, Matt Walsh, Joe Canale, and Brad Morris
• “The Exhibit” at Curious Theatre
  • Written by and starring Regina Taylor
  • About an African-American woman’s experience integrating a school in Muskogee, Oklahoma
• “The Wisdom of Eve” by Pickett Wire Players in La Junta
• “Bright Star” at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse
• “Sister Act” in Colorado Springs
• “Agnes of God” at OpenStage
• “Head Over Heels” by Shifted Lens (May 24-June 8 at Arts Hub in Lafayette)
  • Musical featuring music by The Go-Go’s
• Annaleigh Ashford concert (June 14 at the Denver Center’s Saturday Night Alive fundraiser)

Key Theaters/Companies Mentioned

• Denver Center for the Performing Arts
• Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
• Curious Theatre
• Wonderbound
• Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company
• Phamaly (Disability Affirmative Theater Company)
• Candlelight Dinner Playhouse
• OpenStage
• Platte Valley Theatre Arts
• Picket Wire Players (La Junta)
• Theater Artibus
• Sala Project
• Control Group Productions
• Motus Theater
• Shifted Lens

Transcript

(may contain weird errors due to dumbass AI tools)

Alex Miller (00:01.09)
Hey, hello and welcome to the On Stage Colorado podcast for May 13th. I’m Alex Miller and today I’m joined by a very special guest host today, John Moore. Hey, John.

John Moore (00:11.358)
Hey Alex, I don’t know if your listeners know this, but you provide your guest hosts with a script. And my prompt at this point is I’m supposed to grunt. Consider my hello my grunt.

Alex Miller (00:15.886)
Yes.

Okay, good job. yeah, my usual sidekick Tony Tresca is down in Texas for his sister’s graduation. So I asked John to fill in. So John, you of course are the arts and entertainment guy for the Denver Gazette and you’ve been covering Colorado theater scenes since Hector was a pup. Isn’t that right,

John Moore (00:46.184)
Rough, rough.

Actually Alex, I only have one goal for today. It’s impossible to fill Tony Tresca’s considerable shoes, I have one goal. It’s the same goal that I had the last time you had me on the podcast as a guest. And I said to myself going in that I’m gonna go an hour with Alex and Tony without saying anything that’s gonna get me in trouble. And I made it through the entire hour without saying something that was gonna get me in trouble.

Alex Miller (00:52.385)
Okay.

John Moore (01:17.224)
But the problem was the podcast was an hour and 15 minutes. And in that last 15 minutes, I I blew it. So today I’m going to be on better behavior.

Alex Miller (01:20.823)
huh.

You blew it. Okay.

Well, I remember you were also concerned that you didn’t feel like you’d completed all of your thoughts. So you can focus on that today as well. I didn’t notice that, but you know.

John Moore (01:37.48)
No, what I said, Alex, is I don’t think I completed a sentence.

Alex Miller (01:40.628)
right. Okay. Well, that was certainly a full sentence right there. So, as usual, we’re going to be talking through what shows we’ve seen lately, what’s coming up new around the state and our Colorado headliners. But first, let’s go around the horn and talk a little bit about what we’ve seen on stage in the past week or so. John, why don’t you go first?

John Moore (01:44.205)
great, thanks.

John Moore (02:01.556)
Well, as you know, Alex, at this stage of my career, I’m tasked with covering the arts and that’s all of them in Colorado. So my theater going in the last couple of weeks has been less than usual. I do try to see about 170 shows a year, as you, I know you want to talk about in a bit, I spent all of last week covering Series Fest. So I didn’t get to see as many shows, but I can tell you that of late, most recently I attended

Alex Miller (02:22.584)
Yeah.

John Moore (02:30.012)
I attended all three readings for the local lab in Boulder and I saw Little Shop of Horrors and The Hot Wing King at the Denver Center. And most recently I saw Paraclize, which as you and Tony talked about last week is a collaboration between Denver’s Disability Affirmative Family Theater Company and the Flute Theater.

Alex Miller (02:49.902)
Yeah, so that’s one show that I haven’t seen. So can you tell us a little bit about what your take on how it turned out?

John Moore (02:57.652)
Sure, it was a theater experience unlike anything I’ve had in 25 years of covering theater in Colorado and I’m still processing it frankly because I mean, you’re not going to see Pericles, okay? The audience for the show are people with cognitive disabilities. It’s for people from anywhere from mildly on the spectrum to severe cognitive disabilities and they are assigned

Alex Miller (03:05.058)
Wow.

John Moore (03:24.724)
partners in the cast and they participate in this very rhythmic ritual, I would call it, telling parts of the story through chanting, through repetition. They call it the heartbeat method and now I kind of know why. But it’s sort of like, okay, so let me set the stage.

If you’re in the cast or if you’re a member of the audience, meaning somebody with cognitive disability, you sort of sit in circle in the Loft Theater at the University of Colorado Boulder, and you are kind of led through various speaking lines and motions. There’s dance, but everything is done in threes or fives, which is really important in terms of really connecting and communicating with people with cognitive disabilities.

and you can just watch them as they participate in the storytelling, just growing in confidence as they, it’s sort of like getting three shots at every line. And if you are not participating in the program, you sort of sit in the outer circle of chairs and just watch in bewilderment and wonderment as you see faces light up, you see connection between performers and audience in a way that every theater.

Alex Miller (04:31.277)
Mm-hmm.

John Moore (04:50.004)
company should dream of. It’s really special. I kind of liken it to maybe for people who are of the Catholic faith to like this, the telling of the Rosary because there is a lot of repetition and you have to kind of see it to believe it. I’m not sure what in each individual person is going to get out of it, but I certainly left enriched and it’s the kind of show they did it for a weekend in Boulder. They’re going to do it.

It’s coming weekend in Colorado Springs and then a final weekend in Aurora. And I just encourage people to go with an open mind and just see what happens.

Alex Miller (05:29.12)
All right, so that’s Pericles from Family Theatre with Flute Theatre in the UK, which is kind like the family of the UK, right?

John Moore (05:39.272)
Yeah. What have you seen lately?

Alex Miller (05:42.222)
I just finished a four show in a row run. So starting with Space Cowboy Wednesday at Wonder Bound, which is completely sold out. So I won’t say too much about it since you can’t go see it, but man, it was fantastic. This is Denver’s contemporary ballet company and they did this in collaboration. So they’re live music, live band with all completely original music from Clay Rose, from Kathleen Lollipop, Tom Hagerman from Tavashka and…

some other great musicians and the whole story was really great. was, you know, not often you see a ballet with a lot of cowboy hats and chaps and dusters and all that and combined with a kind of intergalactic storyline about these two sisters. But yeah, was a really neat show and enjoyed it a lot. And then I saw Echoes of Curtis Park. So this was the Sala project, is a, so the Curtis Park area is right around the Denver Savoy, sort of between what, Five Points and

near the Coors field area, I guess. And so this was kind of like a history, kind of like an oral history with some acted out elements and some projections from Theater Artebus and the Sala Project. So there’s a lot of actual memories from some of the, mostly the Hispanic or Chicano.

residents in the area talking about kind of the in some ways the good old days some in some ways the bad old days. So it was pretty interesting. was was it was kind of corny in places and and and touched on a lot of different things but it was I think it’d be a lot more interesting for people who actually live in that area you know or or you even Hispanic residents of Denver than it was for that it might be for for everybody but still I thought they did a neat job with it. Then I saw

Walk the Line, is like kind of the classic jukebox musical. This one’s about Johnny Cash. It’s at Miners Alley. Miners Alley and Golden. I’d never seen that one before. And I do kind of like Johnny Cash, so checked it out. I would say, you know, it was really well done. Miners Alley was generally pretty good at putting those musicals together. It doesn’t have a whole lot of, I mean, it’s more like a concert than any kind of musical with a story or anything like that, which…

Alex Miller (08:00.044)
I kind of, you know, I don’t expect a lot from a jukebox musical, I would have thought there would have been a little bit more detail because Johnny Cash does really have an interesting life, very interesting life history. And they just kind of touch on some of some of it. You’ve seen that one, I’m sure, John.

John Moore (08:16.211)
I’ve seen it before, but I have not seen it at Miners Alley yet. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Alex Miller (08:20.206)
Yeah.

Yeah. And then I saw Saturday Night Went Up to made the trek up to Brighton to Platte Valley Theater Arts to see The Cottage, which is a Sandy Rustin play that kind of wants to be like a Noel Coward or even Ken Ludwig far said it, man, it just didn’t quite get there. The script is it’s kind of a great production. know, Kelly Van Osberry directed it. It’s got a great cast, a fantastic set by Brian Mulgrave.

and all the right elements in place and it’s you know it’s fun but it just it just doesn’t doesn’t approach the masters of forests in terms of you know how well it was was constructed so that was the cottage

John Moore (09:06.984)
Yeah, I saw a recent staging of that at the Stage Door Theater in Confer, and I have such high hopes for that script, especially because when it was recently on Broadway, it was directed by Jason Alexander and had an all-star cast of Laura Lee Bundy and Eric McCormick. And as the homer that I am, I was excited that Jamie Ann Romero of Denver was an understudy in that show. But I too didn’t quite.

Alex Miller (09:12.14)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (09:16.951)
Mm-hmm.

John Moore (09:36.254)
think it all congealed into the kind of great farces of old, which is what you hope that it’s going to be. But I have not seen the production of Platte Valley. I’m looking forward to seeing that and forming my own opinion of it at that point.

Alex Miller (09:50.634)
Yeah. Yeah, I tell you, you walk in the theater and you’re like, holy shit, what a set. And I was like, I looked at the program. Of course, it was Brian Mulgrave, who Kelly, Kelly often gets to do sets for him up there. And he’s just, he’s such a great, you know, scenic designer and the costumes are great.

John Moore (09:57.876)
Of course.

John Moore (10:05.876)
You don’t mind the interjection. I think you would do well to have, you could have a Brian Maldrave hour on your podcast. He’s had such a fascinating career trajectory. mean, he went from being a performer himself, he started in Cabaret at BDT Stage and to sort of transition into just such a sublime scenic designer as he’s been for years at the Arrata Center. And as you saw with Platte Valley, he’s just…

He’s just great.

Alex Miller (10:37.73)
Yeah, yeah. It’s one of those skills that’s so far from my own skill set that’s always really wowed by anybody that can design any kind of set. And Brian’s are just so exceptional. And yeah, we definitely have him on our list of people who would like to have on the podcast. that would be, that’s of course a great suggestion. So, well, John, know switching away from theater just a little bit, I know you were at the, I hadn’t really heard about this before. It’s called Ceres Festival. It was in Denver.

Tell us a little bit about that and you were there. of my favorite TV actors, Rhea Seehorn from Bitter Calls, mostly known for Bitter Call Saul. And so she was there a lot. And so tell us about Series Fest.

John Moore (11:15.251)
this.

John Moore (11:18.824)
Yes, I’m a little starstruck, I have to admit. Yeah, well, for people who like you and like me at one time didn’t know, the first time I heard the name Series Fest, I was like, what, Series what? But I’ll start by saying that Series Fest is essentially a film festival for episodic television and for one week every year. And this has been going on now for 11 years in Denver.

Alex Miller (11:21.096)
Ha ha ha!

Alex Miller (11:34.583)
Mm-hmm.

John Moore (11:46.932)
For one week every year, Denver has become the unlikely TV capital of the world. And the reason it’s in Denver every year is because Series Fest is the brainchild of Randy Kleiner and Kaylee Smith, who are, in fact, Denver theater kids who met at theater camp. And now they are the proprietors and founders of this incredible festival. I’ve covered it. I cover it most every year. And I was sitting back on the final night looking around at their gala audience.

There’s Jared Polis and there’s Nathaniel Rateliff and there’s Senator Michael Bennett. You’re like, wow, this has really become a big deal. over the course of the week, there are panels and parties and networking. But the bulk of the program is that they have screenings for nearly 60 upcoming episodic TV shows. Some have brand new distribution deals and others that come here looking for one.

Alex Miller (12:21.826)
Wow.

John Moore (12:44.67)
But over time, Series Fest has propelled at least 12 unknown series at the time that have gone to significant streaming life on Netflix or Macs or the like. Among the series that have premiered here in years past are Yellowstone, Mr. Robot, and New Amsterdam. And of course, like all festivals, the stars do tend to come out. If you were around the film foo-

Alex Miller (13:08.183)
Mm-hmm.

John Moore (13:11.314)
If you’re on the Sea Film Center last week, you might’ve seen Amy Schumer or Jason Ritter or Michael Pena from my favorite TV show of all time after Eight is Enough, which was The Shield. Two very similar kinds of TV shows. But no, but we also had, we had Mari Povich and Kumai Bell and Lisa Ann Walter from Abbott Elementary and the completely captivating Rhea Seahorn.

Alex Miller (13:25.11)
Really?

John Moore (13:41.012)
who was, she was here all week and it was so lovely Alex to see her supporting just about every series Fest initiative. She came here and she got a big award, but she was also here with her own underdog sitcom. It’s called Cooper’s Bar, which she created as a web series during COVID and you know, with a bunch of friends of hers who just during the pandemic shutdown just got together and

Alex Miller (13:41.832)
my god.

John Moore (14:08.788)
one of their one of her friends has a tiki bar in his backyard and they just got together and drank and talked about a show that would be set in a backyard tiki bar and that’s exactly what Cooper’s bar is and they they shot it themselves and they’ve got it premiered at series fest a few years ago and now it’s been expanded into more of a traditional sitcom with because it was like 10-minute web episodes at first and now it’s

Alex Miller (14:17.902)
John Moore (14:36.144)
entering its third season as a traditional sitcom. And that’s one of the Series Fest success stories. But I would say, great, I thought I was so prepared. Cooper’s Bar, yeah. You can get it on, I mean, the first two series you can just get on YouTube.

Alex Miller (14:45.446)
huh. Where’s that streaming?

Alex Miller (14:50.03)
What’d you say, Cooper’s Bar?

Yeah.

John Moore (15:01.428)
And then third series, is in production right now. don’t know if you can quote unquote streaming. The third series isn’t done yet. It’s in post-production now. But I was going to say, if I had two takeaways from Series Fest, I’d say that the big talk of the week is that the TV industry and the model for how TV shows are getting made have kind of been totally upended by…

Alex Miller (15:12.897)
Okay.

John Moore (15:28.648)
by COVID, by the strikes and by the emergence of these streamers during that time. So the positive thing is it’s no longer like this locked box where the only way to get a show on TV is to write a pitch and send it to TV companies and cross your fingers and hope somebody buys your idea and then puts at least some facsimile of your show on the air. It’s becoming much more common for creative entrepreneurs to kind of partner up.

with independent television producers and then together like Ray Seahorn, they conceive and they plan and they film their own series. And then they sell the completed project to a major network, which is really, you know, upending the whole industry and ground shaking because, you know, over the course of 100 years, networks are not used to being handed finished projects where they don’t have as much creative control as they do with network shows. So

It’s now a strangely good time for DIY creators. It’s still highly unlikely, but if you do have an idea, the Series Fest mantra is that if you make it yourself and see what happens, but now there’s an infrastructure in place to help you. And that’s what Series Fest is all about.

Alex Miller (16:49.25)
That’s fantastic. Yeah, I’ll have to try and get to some of that next year. I didn’t hear anything about it. So I need to get on their radar.

John Moore (16:56.308)
Yeah. Yeah. If there is a sort of another take, another major takeaway from that, that people on your podcast might find interesting is that with, um, with Sundance choosing Boulder as its new home, starting in 2027, the, uh, the Denver Metro area is really kind of truly coming together as an unlikely entertainment hotspot. Um, because Sirius Fest really being focused on TV really kind of aligns well with the mission of Sundance and

especially Denver Film, which is their partner. But, you know, in Colorado, we have Telluride and we have the Boulder Film Festival and we have a ton of niche festivals throughout the year. And we’re also seeing now a big uptick in films that are being shot in Colorado. And just as an example, there’s a new film in production called Uck, UCK. It’s directed by Ty Bradford. That’s wrapping up shooting in Denver this week and it’s got

Alex Miller (17:49.454)
Mm-hmm.

John Moore (17:55.316)
an all local cast and names that this podcast will recognize because they’re all mostly all theater people, but it’s got Brian-Lindas Fulkens and Josh Hartwell and Conrad Maeda, Cheryl McCallum, Sam Gilstrap, Dave Young Robinson, Hannah Duggan. So, I don’t know. All in all, it’s a really exciting time in the TV and film industry and Series Fest was a great kind of display of that.

Alex Miller (18:02.945)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (18:12.802)
Wow.

Alex Miller (18:20.61)
That’s fantastic. Yeah, great. Well, there are a couple of other things this week we heard about. So Boulder Ensemble Theater Company announced their upcoming season. they’re doing Cry It Out by Molly Smith Metzler in August, Elizabeth the First in her own words by Carol Levin and Tammy Minnagini in August, The Thin Place by Lucas Nath. Does he pronounce it Hanath or Nath?

John Moore (18:44.5)
One of the good things about being a print journalist, is that unless you’re on a podcast, you really don’t need to know how to pronounce a person’s name as long as you can spell it. I’ve always said it, Hanif, but I don’t know.

Alex Miller (18:47.022)
You don’t have to worry about such things.

Right, right.

Alex Miller (19:00.264)
All right, well maybe some way in so Lucas, and that’s math math or her name in September and October every brilliant thing by Duncan McMillan and December. Brooklyn laundry by john Patrick Shanley in February and then Mary Jane by Amy Herzog in May plus they’ll bring back some of kids stuff for with mad library mad librarians and then Lone Tree Art Center came out with their schedule which is mostly.

John Moore (19:02.797)
Wow.

Alex Miller (19:27.264)
other things than theater but they are doing two shows Steel Magnolias in April and Nice Work If You Can Get It in October so of course everybody very familiar with Steel Magnolias. not, I don’t know much about Nice Work If You Can Get It, do you know that show John?

John Moore (19:41.204)
I don’t, was like Steel Magnolias has got some staying power. We’ve got a production of that coming up at Theater Silco in a couple of weeks. But I did want to mention, if you don’t mind the interjection, when you mentioned every brilliant thing, I’m kind of, I don’t know if it’s a facade or if it’s just a hardened skin, but I’m sort of perceived as a bit of a hard shell person.

Alex Miller (19:50.668)
Yep. Yep.

Alex Miller (19:55.682)
Not at all.

Alex Miller (20:09.026)
Hahaha.

John Moore (20:10.558)
but I have said this in print and I’ll say it again. Every brilliant thing has now been staged by 10 or 11 local theater companies, but I think anybody who has never seen it or even if you’ve seen it 10 or 11 times, you should go see it when Betsy does it because it’s a fascinating one person show that can be performed by any actor of any age, any gender, any ethnicity, because it’s a script that’s written

by a playwright who was working out the suicide of a parent. And the conceit of the Every Brilliant Thing is that this person’s mother at one point sort of suggested that her son make a list, or so, and her daughter make a list of every brilliant thing that they know of as a way of keeping themselves positive and helping you to avoid getting sucked into the pit of depression.

Alex Miller (21:01.24)
Mm-hmm.

John Moore (21:07.022)
And it sounds like if somebody said there’s a play about suicide that it might be difficult or hard, but it’s the opposite. It’s the most life-affirming play that maybe I’ve ever gone to, and I will go see it anytime, anywhere, any place.

Alex Miller (21:24.422)
well, that’s great to know because that somehow or another I have not seen that despite all of its productions in Colorado. So yeah, I’ll definitely check that out. Also Wonderbound, which we’re just talking about, they announced their next season. They’re doing rock ballets in October. Holidays at the Hollywood Hotel in December. Decadent Desires with the Colorado Jazz Orchestra in February, March. And then teaming up again with Clay Rose from Gasoline Lollipop.

Garrett Ammon over there is doing the Sandman next May. And then wrapping up the news section. So I noticed coming up on Friday, May 16th is the 2025 Bobby G Awards at the LA Cockens Opera House. So, you know, we don’t cover high school theater, but this is one I think you’re pretty familiar with, Junkie. us a little bit about the Bobby G Awards.

John Moore (22:13.608)
Yeah, the Bobby G Awards are a celebration of achievements in high school theater. They’ve become a major initiative under the umbrella of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. It’s part of a national program called the Jimmy Awards out of New York. And essentially you can think of the Bobby G Awards as sort of a statewide Tony Awards for high school theater, but it’s also part of a regional theater where

They have these awards. Kids get recognition for the, know, theater kids get the kind of recognition that normally only the stars of the sports teams get. And they just get a night to perform and commune. And one of the most beautiful things about it is that the 10 nominated actors and actresses.

for best performance come together about a week before at the Denver Center and they all learn an original medley that they perform as part of the ceremony. And it’s been lovely over the course of the years to watch group after group just become bonded for life. It’s a really positive program that focuses on communing with each other and supporting each other with

even though it is awards and there are winners, the emphasis is not so much on the winners. And yet I contradict myself because the two kids who advance from the Bobby G awards then go on to a national version of the same thing in New York where they get a 10 day intensive, where they are mentored by some of the biggest names in musical theater in New York and there are scholarships and it’s a all in all, it’s a sensational thing.

Shout out to David Cates, who he and his wife, Kateri Cates, were part of the he said, she said critiques back in the day. And it was really David who, who got the ball rolling originally and brought the idea to the Denver Center. And it was the late great Randy Weeks who saw the potential good that could be done by the Denver Center being sort of the umbrella for bringing all of these high school kids together for one big night at the Beale Theater.

John Moore (24:37.556)
And it’s really just, it’s just wonderful. And you know, it’s a really good show and you know, five shows get to the outstanding musicals get to perform a number from the show. And you know, you don’t just have to be from one of those schools or a parent of one of those kids to go to the ceremony and have a great time. You will walk out of there floating on air.

Alex Miller (24:42.561)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Miller (24:59.01)
Really? Great. Well, how do they judge these? How do they pick them? It seems like a heavy lift.

John Moore (25:05.726)
Well, they’re just as controversial as these other awards called the Henry Awards. might be, but it’s similar. You know, there’s a group of adjudicators giving positive feedback as a basic, fundamental sort of benefit of participating in the program. think they ended up having, I could be off on this. I think it’s like 60 schools a year. They actually have to cut it off every year because so many schools want to be in the Bobby G Awards program.

Alex Miller (25:08.206)
I’ve heard of this. Yes.

John Moore (25:34.12)
But the number changes every year. can’t, I can’t, don’t hold me to this, but if you sign up, then you have judges, adjudicators who are, who will come, but it’s very different from the Henry Awards in that instead of just filling out numbers between zero and 50, like the Henry Awards, these judges come and they do have to fill out numbers in various categories, but they also commit to doing short essays in every category, including the invisible arts, like stage management and

lighting and in all the nominated places, they amass a significant amount of positive intended constructive feedback from the judges that go to the directors and then it’s up to the directors how much of that, if any, they want to share with their kids. But the hope is that by having these professional adjudicators coming to your school and

spending all that time writing things down that you will, that some of that will get back to the kids and help make them better. But it essentially comes down to a numbers game, just like the Henry Awards. A slight twist to that though, Alex, is that once the 10 students who are nominated for outstanding performance in a lead role are identified,

Alex Miller (26:44.589)
Right.

John Moore (26:58.204)
Just has been the trend, you know, with the Henry Awards now and there’s a call for this nationally. They’re trying to go as gender neutral as possible. So they just named 10 nominees. But then part of the time that they spend at the Denver Center is they have a separate kind of audition session, which is intended to also give them more experience at going to auditions. So.

They go to a very scary audition with a whole panel of experts in a room and they’ve got to go and sing in front of them. And those judges, those are, those people are also judging them and filling out feedback and numbers. The two kids who end up going to New York are not the two kids who got the two best scores from the adjudicators at their school musical.

The two who go to New York are the two kids who end up getting the highest scores in this audition session, if that makes sense. So that’s kind of, that’s controversial and kind of cool too.

Alex Miller (27:56.462)
Okay. All right. Well, that’s neat. It’s neat. You know, the Denver Center doesn’t do a ton of community stuff, so it’s neat that they do this thing. all right. Well, that’s the news section. So I wanted to move on to our main topic this week, which I call Trump Destroys the World, Colorado Arts Edition. So Tony and I were talking about…

John Moore (28:05.662)
Yeah. Yeah.

John Moore (28:18.516)
Are you leading the conversation in any way there, Alex?

Alex Miller (28:22.222)
Absolutely. I can’t believe these fucking assholes in this administration are just attacking all that’s good and next they’re gonna have a war on puppies. But this past week it was a war on my god like the NEA, NPR and PBS and you what’s next. So I noticed you did a story in the Denver Gazette on May 7th, moved to gut NEA.

John Moore (28:25.854)
Yeah.

John Moore (28:35.934)
Rough route.

Alex Miller (28:51.32)
punch to the gut of Colorado arts organizations. know, as I said, the, well, it’s hard not to, it’s hard to, that anybody could spin this in any positive way. was like, I wonder what is it like on Fox News? Do they talk about this and say, yeah, this is awesome. Or do they just ignore it altogether? I would guess.

John Moore (28:56.626)
Yeah, I guess that kind of led the conversation there too, didn’t it?

John Moore (29:11.38)
I don’t watch, I can sort of envision them going up there with like, you know, flame ball emojis and going, we’re killing the arts. You saw my hate mail, you might get a sense that I honestly feel like that’s part of this national dialogue is that this perception that some percentage of the country that thinks that the arts are evil. And I don’t even know how you have a conversation about that, but anyway.

Alex Miller (29:20.107)
You

Alex Miller (29:36.632)
Yeah.

Yeah, it’s, it’s hard to get your hands around. So anyway, so the, you know, they came out with NEA issued letters canceling all existing grant contracts with hundreds of nonprofit arts exists, orgs around the country, including more than 20 in Colorado. So just unbelievable that there’s just kind of the big rug and a lot of these theaters have already, you know, they’ve already like, you know, plan the shows or the programs around these. And so I don’t know, how would you kind of

summarize what’s going on.

John Moore (30:11.604)
Alex, do you know the old marketing axiom that you only send out bad news on a Friday afternoon? That’s because if you have bad news to impart to people, but it has to come out sometime, you dump it in people’s email boxes on a Friday afternoon when the people getting it maybe have gone home for the day or gotten an early start of the weekend. If you’re a journalist, you especially do that because you hope that the journalist won’t see it for three days and then won’t think it.

Alex Miller (30:13.678)
you

Alex Miller (30:19.178)
Yes.

John Moore (30:41.21)
has as much newsworthiness and they might get away with it. But I can tell you that on Friday, May 2nd, in emails that were time stamped at almost eight o’clock on a Friday night, the NEA, which like all government agencies right now is a fundamentally different organization today than it was in January before the inauguration, but the NEA issued letters

Alex Miller (31:04.866)
Yeah.

John Moore (31:08.72)
As you said, canceling all existing contracts, grant contracts, including, you know, it’s even, it’s now, the list is up to several dozen in Colorado because I was referring to the number in this current grant cycle, but it really affects everybody who’s ever received funding from the arts. But the scary wording in it is,

is quote unquote funding is now being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the administration’s agenda. It said in the emails, know, agenda used to be one of those words that no one would ever put in a statement because it’s such a loaded term. But the crux of it is that they go on to say that it’s, you know, all of these grants were previously approved and promised.

And all of these grants are now withdrawn by the agency, even though, as you say, contracts for dozens of ongoing and upcoming projects were written and signed and promised a year ago. The canceled grantees were given seven sparse days to appeal the decision. But since then, all 10 of the NEA’s discipline directors have resigned or have been asked to resign. So good luck getting your appeal heard.

But so far, as far as I know, this has already impacted everyone from the Disability Affirmative Family Theater Company, SUTIATRO, which is Denver’s only Chicano theater company, to Control Group Productions, which as you know, Alex is a grassroots company that creates immersive original experiences that often call attention to historical injustices. And you might, at reaction.

as you might imagine, has been swift and ferocious, and I’m sad to say, largely powerless. On the bright side, I haven’t seen this community unite together in this kind of collective umbrage in a very long time. We’ve heard statements of condemnation from the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts. Colorado Theater Guild came out with a pretty strong statement and many more, but the…

John Moore (33:26.098)
Most succinct response I would say was from family managing director, Corrine Denny, who called the NEA’s action, as you said, disgusting and appalling, a punch to the gut. Because as you know, the whole reason family is even currently staging Pericles, which we just talked about, that is a tailored theater experience.

for the members of the, for audiences with cognitive disabilities as we talked about, the only way family can do a show like that is through a special grant like the NEA. This is part of a hunt of about $130,000 grant, a larger grant from the NEA as part of this pilot program that was supposed to, that was supposed to sustain programming at family and the staff to run them all the way through 2027.

And so like last May, so a full year ago, family was promised that $130,000 as part of the two and a half year pilot program. And what do you do now when the government comes out and says there will be no more payments after May 31st? There just won’t be. As you mentioned, some of these costs, because they were promised in contract form, some of these costs have already been incurred.

You know, one of the most powerful statements came out from Patrick Mueller from Control Group Productions because his stories pretty much tells the whole tale that you need to know. This is confusing to you. He went through all the NEA application hoops a year ago in anticipation of grants that were supposed to be announced on June 1st. So a year ago, Patrick did everything he was supposed to do.

And in return, he was promised a grant of $40,000 and he has been planning accordingly. But here’s the thing, the NEA doesn’t get say in June of 2024, you get $40,000 and then send you a $40,000 check. They promise you the $40,000, but you pay as they pay as you go. So because the program that Patrick is planning hasn’t happened yet.

John Moore (35:42.45)
they would not normally pay out on those expenses until the program happens. But the program is coming up. So even though he was promised $40,000 in the form of a legally binding and signed contract, Patrick’s kind of, he’s screwed. And so, you know, his statement he sent out, and he just said, he says, and as journalists say, I quote, he said, it seems illegal.

It’s definitely unconscionable. It’s probably unconstitutional and it’s entirely predictable. And in conclusion, it’s all screaming into the void because none of these appeals or protests are going to change what’s happening right now. We can only change it at the ballot box, you know, in the midterms are starting, you know, a year from November. But I don’t know.

You’re screaming into the void, I’m screaming into the void, everyone in the community is screaming into the void. But it feels better to scream than to stay silent.

Alex Miller (36:47.352)
Yeah, yeah, it really is. it’s just unconscionable is a great word for it, you know, and whether it’s illegal or not, it’s like, the damage has been done, even if it is somehow restored at some point in the future. It’s just like, you know, it’s just, it’s like Godzilla trampling through Tokyo. You know, it’s

John Moore (37:06.868)
Well, yeah, and making it even worse is that it’s time for Donald Trump’s first budget. So he did this in 2016, 17, 18, and 19. When he forwarded his proposed budget, or his minions, forwarded his budget to Congress for all of those fiscal years, it called for the outright elimination of the NEA.

and a number of similar departments. And in his first term, it was largely a symbolic statement because there was enough bipartisan support in Congress that the rather paltry $207 million budget for the NEA was restored by support of both Republicans and Democrats who realized the value of the NEA going back to 1965 and

and restored it. And 207 was a little bit of a leading commentary. It was more like 160,000 in 2000, sorry, it was more like 160 million in 2017. And it was actually during the Biden administration that the budget went up to $207 million, which is still just

0.004 % of the federal budget, but it’s the largest, it had been the largest it’s been in a very long time. But just to give people a proportion of how much money that we’re talking about, all the good that the NEA does only comes out to the tiniest little fraction of the federal budget and yet they’re still picking on it. They’re still going for it. It’s evil.

But I think most people looking at what’s happened in the first few months of the Trump administration are saying this is a very different time and the chances that Republicans in Congress are going to have the courage to go against Trump now is it’s a very different world than when they would go up against him on such a minor issue in his first term. So I think most people are preparing for the fact that the NEA has gone probably maybe forever, but certainly probably at least until there’s a new administration.

Alex Miller (39:32.108)
Yeah. So you don’t think Lauren Bobert is going to race race to the rescue and talk to.

John Moore (39:36.404)
I don’t think so. And it’s funny, I try to measure myself when we have these conversations because it’s so easy to just, in our exasperation, to just mock and to just point out the craziness of this whole thing. But there will be very real ramifications. And it goes beyond not being able to do special projects.

But certainly a project like Pericles, even if you don’t go see it, you can appreciate the value of bringing live theater in a real way to people with cognitive disabilities that will never feel the same thing in any other theater. But it’s larger than that because when you talk to the people at Family, there’s so much of that pilot program is tied to pay to staff that we’re going to see layouts at the very least.

What Ben Renan told me was, you know, if the NEA goes away, you know, this is the most measured he could be, was he said if the NEA goes away, will be hard for companies like family to continue to serve a disabled community that is already under-served, at least at our present capacity. But, you know, if you read between the lines there, there’s, you know, families always living on the edge, you know. You take away…

this kind of money out of their budget and there’s a very real concern that companies will fold, whether it’s family or somebody else. These are the ramifications of these Doge people who are sitting there and going, yeah, take every dollar, take every dollar back, take every dollar back. Well, I hope none of those people have disabled members of their family because their lives are gonna be less than.

Alex Miller (41:26.626)
Yeah, or all of the other programs that that affect, you know, that support the arts in all different ways that you know, it could be your children, or, you know, whoever. So I mean, just asking the basic question of like, why are they doing this, you know, the bullshit answer is probably to save the American people money or something. But there’s something more insidious here in the war against the arts, science and education.

John Moore (41:32.808)
So many different ones.

Alex Miller (41:52.302)
pretty much all that’s good in the world while using the savings to give tax breaks to the rich and steer dollars towards the war and deportation machines. I and you know, there’s a lot of thought over the centuries about like how, you know, societies form and the ones that value the arts tend to be the ones that are more civilized and successful as opposed to say like Nazi Germany where they kind of got rid of all that stuff and.

I don’t know, what’s your take on on why a government that’s kind of lean, starting to lean towards authoritarianism wants to do away with this kind of stuff? It’s not really to save money, right?

John Moore (42:29.972)
No, I think it’s about controlling people’s patriotism, controlling their minds. It’s a little bit misleading for me to lean back on something that I’ve put in one of my previous reports, which is that if the NEA continues to exist, it has said that one of the only projects that will apply for compensation are celebrations of the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary, which sounds a lot like

like, you know, parades to celebrate the president and that kind of thing. In fact, that very noble goal to celebrate our country and its history has been a long stated goal of the NEA. And it was actually included, it’s actually been included in grant making statements since the Biden administration. But we can…

Alex Miller (43:05.422)
Mm.

you

John Moore (43:29.044)
You know, we can see through the BS there about what’s really happening. It’s about controlling dissent because artists by nature are part of the resistance. The one thing I’ve heard more from people since Trump’s reelection is that, you know, I think artists feel more in their skin when they’re on the outside looking in as an agent for protest, as a way of putting a mirror to power.

And that is certainly not to say that previous administrations, you know, that it’s a fine line that, you know, that if the right person’s in the White House, the artists won’t respond. It doesn’t matter who’s in power. Artists respond to abuses in power, all artists political. I’ve already seen a gigantic upsurge in resistance art.

And if all you do is cover art, it’s kind of a thrilling time. You see it in murals, you see it in plays, you see it in music. And you really feel like this is where artists are in their element. But the NEA has existed since 1965 to support projects that primarily amplify underrepresented voices and by nature are all

EDI kind of programs, even though we didn’t have that language in 1965. But so many examples going back to the very beginning where programs are tailored around specific communities that are otherwise overlooked or underrepresented. And that’s been the proud history of the NEA for all of these years. And by eliminating these programs, you’re eliminating the projects. And if you eliminate projects that give people an opportunity to really

to really dive into the history of the Sand Creek massacre, say, or of the abuses of the Asian American community in the early 19th century in Denver, things like that. Silence, too, I believe in this administration, which does nothing but make noise, silence is golden. And so I think this is all about finding new ways to control the narrative.

John Moore (45:50.302)
sort of track with you.

Alex Miller (45:53.88)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, there’s this perceived, you know, bias on the part of anybody creating art, or, you know, lot of any kind of liberal arts stuff that falls into the suspicion of some of these more extreme sort of conservative politicians that, you know, and they look and they see like, well, you know, why should I have to, you know, pay for some production of, you know, whatever it is that I’m not going to go see and let that whole

that just really narrow vision of where money should go and the lack of, I don’t know, being able to see the culture as a whole and seeing the value in supporting these things. it’s also, it’s just such a tiny amount of money compared to, you know, a $400 million Qatari jet or whatever.

And it’s just it’s just so pathetic and disgusting and it’s just like you can’t say enough bad things about it But you know, I think people have got a you know You gotta get out and vote and get and take the take things back and turn it back over to some reasonable Politicians and I think you know, maybe it’s even a matter of you know, once this Trump thing You know, it’s not gonna go away forever But I think you know, he has put such a stranglehold on on his party that there’s no there’s no

way to, you know, any kind of, that they can brook any kind of opposition or protest. And I think that’s the, that can’t be the case forever for an entire party. Or if it is, like, just don’t know how they can, they can stay around at all. But it’s just like the, it’s like the biggest head scratcher. And it’s just one more thing that just be like, just infuriated about. But this one really hits us home because this is kind of stuff that we cover. And we know, we know that these are not like,

I don’t know, whatever bad people’s scheming to collect government cheese. These are people who really doing great work in our communities with the arts and just attacked like that, especially by billionaires who have no idea what $20,000 means to a small arts organization or whatever it is. It’s just the…

John Moore (48:07.476)
Or to a company like Modus Theater, which is one of the great organizations in our community, but I don’t think a lot of people in the theater community even know who they are because they don’t put on traditional plays and musicals. But Modus in Boulder exists as a social justice company that for years has given voice to all kinds of underserved populations from trans to DACA to

probably their most noteworthy programs are involving incarcerated populations. And they have these entire programs where they go into the jails and they teach people how to organize their thoughts, to write down their thoughts, how to turn those into monologues, and then empowers them to perform them. And it’s a spectacular experience to witness. And that’s another organization that had a program

lined up to be working with incarcerated youth to do the same thing. And of course, that’s, I think they lost $35,000 with the stroke of a pen. But I think it’s important, Alex, I’m thinking right now as a bit of a callback to Sirius Fest, because one of the people that I met was W. Kami Bell. And I sort of posed the question to him when,

when we’re sitting here and we’re feeling so powerless and frustrated, and I’m sure a bunch of people listening to this are, where it’s like, well, what can you do? Well, you can put out statements. I don’t think we’re gonna change what’s going on with the federal budget. But I do think that as an overall kind of suggestion for what do you do in these scary times when you’re feeling like you’re just getting run over, one is to…

And I say this word with pride, stay woke, stay awake, don’t go to sleep. I am constantly getting berated by readership for some of the columns that I write and people who try to dismiss me and go, he’s the woke columnist, he’s the woke columnist. And my response is always, do you say that as a pejorative? Because I think that’s the greatest compliment that you could give me because the alternative to being woke is to being asleep.

John Moore (50:30.322)
And this is not a time for people to be asleep. But if you don’t feel any power, if you don’t feel like anything you do is going to help, I asked Debbie Kamai Bell, like, would your inspiration be to people? He just said, pick something. You know, start small, start local. He said, people get all caught up in thinking that they have to solve all the world’s problems, and we can’t. But can you solve a small problem?

He even used as a suggestion, yes, call your representatives, but he’s also like, call your neighbor. Not to try to change their mind about politics, but just to call a neighbor and knock on a door for somebody who needs your help. Because I guarantee you, there’s somebody out there who needs your help. And what is the greatest act of resistance when you are at a time like this of such incredible greed and selfishness and evil, and that is to be selfless.

That is an act of protest. Going, you know, if it were still winter, if it would be, you know, shoveling your elderly neighbor’s sidewalks, that’s an act of protest. you’re an artist, make art. It sounds a little bit naive to go, well, go make art, but art can change the world. And you have to do something. just, whatever it is that you do, again, start small, but don’t give in.

Just deciding to turtle for the next three years is surrender and you may never get another, you know, you may not get it back in four years, so stay engaged.

Alex Miller (52:06.914)
Yeah, yeah, and of course, you know, supporting the arts and going to theaters and you know, donating some

and I know that we’ll see a lot of, you know, nonprofit or, you know, some funding organizations like Bonfield Stanton, I think, is coming up with some extra funding and places like that. It’s a tough gap to fill because this is one of the things that government is good at, you know, is funding things that maybe aren’t as sexy or appealing as some others. And it’s just…

It’s deeply un-American, and you have to hope that it’ll turn around someday. Hopefully this is the low point and we can only go up from here. All right, well, we’re going to take a quick break. When we come back, we’re to talk about some of our Colorado headliners, the shows that are coming up. Stick around, we’ll be right back.

Alex Miller (53:12.616)
All right, we’re back. here. This is Alex Miller. I’m here with John Moore. we’re going to talk, you know, I was looking at upcoming shows and there’s a lot of them that we’ve kind of already talked about. So I don’t have as many as we might normally list, but I was going to ask you, John, do you have a couple of shows coming up that you’re keen to let people know about?

John Moore (53:32.34)
Yeah, I’ve got a couple I could talk about. Do you want to do these? Do you want to take turns? See, Tony knows how it works. I’m a rookie. don’t know. The first one I would suggest is totally self-serving, if that’s okay. Because for people who don’t know, I’m also the founder of the Denver Actors Fund, which provides support for Colorado theater artists on and off stage to pay for their medical bills.

Alex Miller (53:37.004)
Sure.

It’s not complicated.

John Moore (54:02.472)
rely almost 50 % of our revenue comes from generous members, generous theater companies around town who do, who dedicate certain performances or percentages of performances where the proceeds can go to the DAF. But I would encourage anybody to plan their theater calendar around going to denveractorsfund.org slash events because you’ll see a calendar. It’s not as,

comprehensive or fancy as the OnStage Colorado calendar, which is essential, by the way, for me and for everyone in the community. Because this just gives you DAF events, and you can check that at any time. But one that’s coming up on Monday, May 19th, which is an extremely important opportunity for the Denver Actors Fund, is called New Generations Cabaret.

Alex Miller (54:36.942)
Thanks.

John Moore (54:59.464)
There’s an all-you theater company called New Generation Productions, and they’ve created a one-night-only cabaret like you’ve never seen before, and it’s all to support the Denver Actors Fund. Takes place Monday, May 19th at the Arvada Center. A little background is that New Generations is a theater company that Grayson Allensworth and Maya Arizbart founded during the shutdown when they were just 12 years old. But they have since fully self-produced in stage five.

major theatrical productions, including most recently this spectacular take on Hadestown that included a seven-piece live student orchestra. And now through their own initiative, they are collaborating on the first annual New Generation Cabaret. They’ve put together a cast of 17 students from 10 high schools, 10 Colorado high schools, some as far away as Summit County and Colorado Springs. And they have been working for months, giving up their weekends, getting ready to

form what they are calling a quote unquote curated spotlight on the next generation of artists through song and stories. But if you come, you’ll hear songs from musicals as varied as Amelie to Hare. But they’ve crafted it into a story that has a flow and it’s all sort of centered around this idea of why it’s important for young people to make art in 2025, speaking of our last conversation.

I can tell you as a former theater critic that these kids are spectacularly talented. again, nights like these are critical to the Denver Actors Fund’s ability to help people. if you’re curious, don’t come see it because it’s a, it’s a student show. Come see it because it’s going to be a great show and it’s going to be a life-affirming show. And tickets are only $20 and you can get them at ArvadaCenter.org.

Alex Miller (56:56.864)
All right, that’s a great suggestion. Well, this is completely different, but I was curious about this show coming up. This is kind of an unusual one for the Denver Center at their Gardner Galleria, sort of cabaret space, May 16th through 18th. It’s called Bluebird Improv. It’s a collection of some sub four people you might recognize, like Tim Meadows, Matt Walsh, Joe Canale, and Brad Morris, some people you’ve probably seen on TV and things, shows like The Office, Veep, Second City.

things like that. So it sounds like an interesting opportunity to get out and see some sort of real professional improv at the Denver Center this weekend.

John Moore (57:33.556)
You had me at Tim Meadows.

Alex Miller (57:35.692)
Yeah. Yeah, I’m not familiar with the other names there, but I definitely remember and recognize him.

John Moore (57:42.802)
My turn.

Alex Miller (57:44.055)
Yeah, go for it.

John Moore (57:45.684)
I am particularly fond of Regina Taylor who I first met, gosh it’s been almost 20 years ago since she created Crowns and was part of, was along, for a few years was deeply involved with the Colorado New Place Summit at the Denver Center. For those people actually you’ve ever heard of Hattitude, the Denver Center just did its annual fundraising luncheon that’s really intended to

reach out to the African American women of Denver. But it was entirely inspired, it’s called Hatitude because you know women come in their Easter crowns and it’s all inspired by the Denver Center’s first production of crowns I think 20 years ago which was written by Virginia Taylor. And Alex you probably know more about the background of Curious’s upcoming production of exhibit than I do. I just know

that it looks really interesting because Regina Taylor herself is going to be here to perform her own play. I can read you what the show description is, it’ll be a new experience for all of us. But what Curious is saying is that the exhibit is about an African-American woman who recalls pieces of her childhood as she integrated a school in Muskogee, Oklahoma. It’s about her personal

recollections at the time, kind going through an America, polarized America, which always seems to be polarized and always seems to be struggling with civil rights values. But with Regina Taylor here to not only to be here to perform in it, but also to talk about it, just major kudos to my

Alex Miller (59:23.597)
Right.

John Moore (59:41.748)
longtime friends, Jada Suzanne Dixon, because I’m sure that it was her who put this whole thing together and it’s going to be very exciting couple of weeks at Curious Theatre to have somebody of her, Regina’s esteem and just grace being here on that stage.

Alex Miller (01:00:02.03)
That’s great. Yeah, and I think Tony Truska is gonna be out at that later this week for a review on our site. the other one, this is, you know, I don’t know if this is gonna be a good production. I just think it’s, I just love to see theater alive in places like this. So this is the wisdom of Eve from the Pickett Wire Players who perform all the way down in La Junta, Colorado. Is that how you pronounce it? La Junta? La Junta.

John Moore (01:00:26.632)
Lahanta has only skipped out on mine.

Alex Miller (01:00:29.354)
Okay, so this is way down in the kind of the southeastern corner of the state, southeast of Pueblo. So this is a story about, it’s based on that film All About Eve, and it’s an inside story of this woman in the New York theater world, and rise to stardom. And it’s just interesting to think of that story being told at La Junta. So just wanted to throw one out there for the Pickett Wire players.

John Moore (01:00:58.1)
Go pick at Wired Players. I’ve been covering theater for 24 years and there’s never been a time when I can honestly say that I have a handle on all of our theater companies because every day you hear names that you’ve never heard of. So I don’t know if they’ve been around forever or if they’re brand new, but welcome. Yeah, there you go.

Alex Miller (01:00:59.883)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (01:01:20.792)
They’ve been around for a while, I believe. Yeah.

John Moore (01:01:24.02)
I can tell you there’s some shows that are already open that I haven’t seen yet that I’m looking forward to seeing and that includes Bright Star at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse and Sister Act down in Colorado Springs. Just because I have, as she calls herself, my my Jewish friend Jackie. We have a thing going back 10 years now. She’s obsessed with Sister Act. My Jewish friend Jackie is obsessed with Sister Act.

We have a pact that any time anybody does Sister Act, I have to take Jackie to go see Sister Act, so that’ll happen. But I’m also looking forward to Agnes of God at Open Stage. I should give a little shout out to Carter Shakespeare Festival’s getting ready for it to open up its new season. It’s gonna be here before we blink. That opens with the 10th of September. I don’t know, do you have others on your list, Alex?

Alex Miller (01:02:19.788)
Yeah, is, Agnes of God is, yeah, that’s up at Open Stage. So, I think that’s all I had. I was just gonna mention on the way out that new on our site, we’ve got a review, my review of Space Cowboy and Echoes of Curtis Park. Tony did a review of Ride the Cyclone at Vintage Theater, the aforementioned Sister Act.

April got out to see, she really liked it. guess it’s got kind of a disco 70s theme to it, which she really enjoyed. And then Silent Sky at I think the Springs Ensemble Theater Company. Well, I’m sorry, Silent Sky, wait a second. is TheaterWorks at the end center, sorry. And then I’ll have my review of Ring of Fire and The Cottage. then yeah, we’ll also have a review of the aforementioned

John Moore (01:03:03.444)
That’s theater works, isn’t it?

Alex Miller (01:03:14.804)
Agnes of God from

Alex Miller (01:03:21.366)
that is Leela or your Leela will be at that one. So lots of stuff coming up on the website. Please do.

John Moore (01:03:27.102)
Let me, can I throw one more in real quick? To just, one of our newer theater companies shifted lens. They did a really cheeky production of Cruella Intentions earlier in the year, but they’re gonna be back with Head Over Heels, which for my generation, anybody tells me there’s a musical about the go-gos, I’m gonna be there. That’s gonna be May 24th through June 8th at the Arts Hub.

Alex Miller (01:03:47.864)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Miller (01:03:51.532)
Hahaha.

John Moore (01:03:57.172)
which is Lafayette. And also just because I think people will be interested, this is something that you’d have to have a lot of money and you’d have to plan in advance. But Denver loves Annalee Ashford and why not? The Denver-born Broadway, Tony-winning television star is coming home for a one-night-only concert performance.

Alex Miller (01:03:59.138)
Yeah.

John Moore (01:04:24.206)
on June 14th, that is part of the Denver Center’s Saturday Night Alive, which is a very pricey ticket, but for a good reason. It’s the one night when the Denver Center goes out and they raise like a million dollars in one night for their education programs. And Annalee will be the headliner this year. It will be pricey. But if you want to see Annalee, yeah.

Alex Miller (01:04:46.67)
All right, but for a good cause. right. All right, well, if you wanna stay up to date on what’s going on in theaters and comedy venues across the state, subscribe to the Onstage Colorado Newsletter, which comes out every Thursday. And of course, definitely check out the Denver Gazette. John Moore is the busiest man in arts journalism in Colorado. He cranks out shit tons of copy on a regular basis. If you wanna, I’m talking about you.

John Moore (01:05:11.06)
Wait Mary are you talking about me or Tony Tresca because I? Don’t know if we were to do a word count contest I think I think the in the indy fatigueable Tony Tresca might have me be I’m old He’s he’s out there. He’s out there cranking out

Alex Miller (01:05:23.766)
I don’t know. Yeah, Tony is prolific. He does it without breaking a sweat too. He always seems so in control of everything. you know, I had, like I said, I did these four shows in a row and it’s been a long time since I’ve been like a, I don’t know, any kind of a daily news journalist. And it’s like, takes me, it’s really hard for me to crank out that much copy in between all the other stuff that I’m doing to make money.

So I’m still working on a couple of my reviews, but I will get to those in between my other stuff. So, but that’s all for this week. Thanks so much for listening and thank you, John Moore for coming on this show. It’s fantastic to have you here with all of your amazing insight on this Colorado theater scene.

John Moore (01:06:07.441)
Thanks for having me and very sheepishly I say to people, please support the Denver Actors Fund.

Alex Miller (01:06:14.614)
Absolutely, and we’ve got a link on our site for that, but you can just go to what’s the URL for it?

John Moore (01:06:20.68)
DenverActorSfund.org.

Alex Miller (01:06:22.766)
All right. All right. We’ll see you next week and out of the show.