This year’s awardees for the OnStage Colorado Awards for Theatrical Excellence

On Jan. 19 we announced all the winners for the second annual OnStage Colorado Awards for Theatrical Excellence — The OSCA’s. We reviewed 200 shows this year and recognized many theatre artists around Colorado.

You can also watch the grand awards ceremony with a galaxy of stars, magnificent dance numbers and interminable acceptance speeches on YouTube here.

(JK, it’s just me and Toni.)

We’ll send award certificates to the theatres for distribution. If you don’t see yours in a week or so, hit us up at info@onstagecolorado.com

Here’s the big list and congrats to all!

2024 Theatre Awards by Category

Above & Beyond

  1. Noelia Antweiler for her memorable silks performance in Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Really, Arvada Center
  2. Mark Ragan for his adaptation of the script for Enemy of the People, BETC
  3. Buntport Theater and Emily K. Harrison’s Eyes Up, Mouth Agape — For their exceptional integration of live video into the performance
  4. Lara Maerz for stage management of Impossible Things, The Catamounts
  5. Colorado Ballet for their production of Jekyll and Hyde
  6. Max Shulman for his adaptation of Henry IV & V into one shortened work, ENT Center/Theatreworks
  7. WYNOT Productions for puppetry in The Little Mermaid, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
  8. Debbie Spaur for wig work in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Give 5 Productions
  9. Production team for The Pillowman, Miscreant Theatre Collective
  10. Eli Testa and company for Future is Bright: A Cabaret – a fundraiser for the Denver Actor’s Fund
  11. Homospouses for original music in The Bluebird, Theatre Artibus
  12. Meghan Frank for video/projections in The Bluebird, Theatre Artibus
  13. Kate Hertz and Bryse Taylor Boynton for their video interstitials in The Thanksgiving Play

Debbie Spaur’s wig work in ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ wins for Above & Beyond. | Photo: RDGPhotography

Musical Director

  1. Alec Steinhorn for School of Rock, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  2. Andrew Fischer for The Music Man, Performance Now
  3. Caleb Wenger for Cannibal the Musical, Town Hall Arts Center
  4. Dan Graeber for Urinetown, Town Hall Arts Center
  5. David Nehls for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Arvada Center
  6. Dominique Scott for Million Dollar Quartet, Lone Tree Arts Center
  7. Katie Hughes for The Secret Garden, Candlelight
  8. Richard Shore for Crazy for You, Candlelight
  9. Susan Draus for Waitress, Arvada Center

Original Play or Musical

  1. Buntport Theater and Emily K. Harrison for Eyes Up, Mouth Agape
  2. Cipriano Ortega for Cheyanne, Control Group
  3. Kevin Douglas and Izzy Chern for Josie’s Diner, Two Cent Lion
  4. David Myers for 237 Virginia Avenue, Local Theater Company
  5. Paul Stroili for A Jukebox for the Algonquin, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  6. Dana Cain, Jeff LaGreca, Mark Putt, The Android’s New Soul
  7. The Bluebird, Theatre Artibus

Jacob Dresch (L) and Lawrence Hecht in Best Play awardee ‘237 Virginia Avenue.’ | Photo: Graeme Schulz

Choreography

  1. Ashley Coffey, Latisha Hardy, Claire Hayes, Jari Majewski-Price, Savannah Svoboda, and Teri Westerman Wagner for A Chorus Line, Phamaly Theatre Company
  2. Kelly Van Oosbree for Cabaret, Platte Valley Theatre Arts
  3. Shawna Walker for Crazy for You, Candlelight
  4. Piper Lindsay Arpan for Legally Blonde, co-production between Sasquatch Productions & Parker Arts
  5. Ronni Stark for Urinetown, Town Hall Arts Center

Phamaly Theatre Company’s production of ‘A Chorus Line’ wins in the Choreography category | Photo: Michael Ensminger Photography

Costumes

  1. Clare Henkel for Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Arvada Center
  2. Buntport Theater and Emily K. Harrison for Eyes Up, Mouth Agape
  3. Cole Emarine for The Legend of Georgia McBride, Vintage Theatre
  4. Meghan Anderson Doyle for Hamlet, DCPA Theatre Company
  5. Nicole Harrison for Cabaret, Platte Valley Theatre Arts
  6. Nicole Watts for Confederates, Curious Theatre Company Theatre
  7. Sarah M. Stark for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Arvada Center
  8. Terri Gerrard for School of Lies, Bas Bleu
  9. Costume team for The Little Mermaid, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
actors onstage in a play

Meghan Anderson Doyle is recognized for costume design in the DCPA Theatre Company production of ‘Hamlet’ | Photo: Jamie Kraus Photography

Lighting Design

  1. Brian Miller for The Android’s New Soul
  2. Jiyoun Chang for The Lehman Trilogy, DCPA Theatre Company
  3. Kyle LaBoria for Ripcord, Spring Ensemble Theatre
  4. Sean Mallary for GloWING, Artibus
  5. Vance McKenzie for Misery, Miners Alley Children’s Theatre

Sound Design

  1. Max Silverman for Acts of Faith, Local Theater Company
  2. Jason Ducat for Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Arvada Center
  3. Kyle LaBoria, Ripcord, Springs Ensemble Theatre
  4. John Hauser, Misery, Miners Alley
  5. Alex Billman, Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, DCPA Theatre Company

Scenic Design

  1. Arnel Sancianco for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, DCPA Theatre Company
  2. Brian Mallgrave for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Arvada Center
  3. Don Fuller for The Glass Menagerie, Vintage Theatre
  4. Erik Mattson for God of Carnage, Spring Ensemble Theatre
  5. Lex Liang for Emma, DCPA Theatre Company
  6. Roger Hanna for Waiting for Godot, Bas Bleu
  7. Tina Anderson for Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Arvada Center
  8. The creative team for Gin & Gothic, Band of Toughs

A pre-curtain look at Tina Anderson’s set for ‘Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really’ at the Arvada Center. | Photo: Alex Miller

Immersive

  1. Gin & Gothic, Band of Toughs
  2. Immersive Invitational, Denver Immersive
  3. Impossible Things, The Catamounts with Lonnie Hanzon Studios

Intimacy/Fight Direction

  1. Amy Arpan for fight choreography in Misery, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  2. Maya Vinice Prentiss for intimacy direction in I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, DCPA Theatre Company
  3. Samantha Egle for fight/intimacy direction in Henry IV/V, Ent Center for the Arts

Director – Comedy

  1. Kate Gleason for Art, Aurora Fox
  2. GerRee Hinshaw for The Ballot of Paola Aguilar, BETC
  3. Jada Suzanne Dixon for POTUS, Curious Theatre Company Theatre Company
  4. Len Matheo for A Jukebox for the Algonquin, Miners Alley
  5. Steve Keim for The School for Lies, Bas Bleu

(L-R) Matthew Schneck, Andrew Uhlenhopp and Garreth Saxe in ‘Art’ at the Aurora Fox. | Photo: Gail Marie

Director – Musical

  1. Lynne Collins for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Arvada Center
  2. Steve Wilson for Crazy for You, Candlelight
  3. Kenny Moten for Reefer Madness, OpenStage Theatre & Company
  4. Ben Raanan for A Chorus Line, Phamaly Theatre Company
  5. Kelly Van Oosbree for Cabaret, Platte Valley
  6. Tanner Kelly for Sweeney Todd, StageDoor Theatre Co.
  7. Matthew Daily for Jersey Boys, Town Hall Arts Center
  8. Christopher Page-Sanders for Raisin, Town Hall Arts Center
  9. Robert Michael Sanders for Urinetown, Town Hall Arts Center
actors onstage in a play

Kelly Van Oosbree directed and choreographed the Platte Valley Theatre Arts production of ‘Cabaret.’ | Photo: RDGPhotography

Director – Play

  1. Richard R. Cowden for Around the World in 80 Days, Aurora Fox
  2. Jessica Robblee for An Enemy of the People, BETC
  3. Wendy Franz for Macbeth, Colorado Shakespeare Festival
  4. Chris Coleman for Rubicon, DCPA Theatre Company
  5. Laura Alcalá Baker for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, DCPA Theatre Company
  6. Gracie Jacobson for Josie’s Diner, Denver Fringe Festival
  7. Mikael Burke for Othello, ENT Center/Theatreworks
  8. Chris Medina for 12 Angry Men, Funky Little Theater Company
  9. Sam Gregory for The Mousetrap, Lone Tree Arts Center
  10. Warren Sherrill for Misery, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  11. Bernie Cardell for The Glass Menagerie, Vintage Theatre
actors onstage in a play

Jessica Robblee directed ‘An Enemy of the People’ at BETC. Pictured (L-R) Bill Hahn, Jim Hunt, Mark Collins, Josh Hartwell and Ben Griffin. | Photo: Michael Ensminger Photography

Actor – Comedy

  1. Annie Barbour for Lucy in Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Arvada Center
  2. Geoffrey Kent as Dracula in Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Arvada Center
  3. Laura Chavez in The Ballot of Paola Aguilar, BETC
  4. Jeffrey Bigger as Frank in The School for Lies, Bas Bleu
  5. Kathleen Davis in Spirit Level, Evergreen Players
  6. Lawrence Hecht & Jacob Dresch in 237 Virginia Avenue, Local Theater Company
  7. Anna Faye Hunter in The Making of a Great Moment, Millibo Art Theatre
  8. Edith Weiss in A Jukebox for the Algonquin, Miners Alley
  9. Matt Radcliffe in The Thanksgiving Play, SET
  10. Braden Egtvedt in Run for Your Wife, SharkBox Theatre
  11. Haley Johnson in Murder on the Orient Express, Vintage Theatre

Edith Weiss, at right, wins an OSCA for her performance in ‘A Jukebox for the Algonquin’ at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center | Photo: Sarah Roshan Photos

Actor – Play

  1. Steffen Beal in Gem of the Ocean, Aurora Fox Arts
  2. Bill Hahn in An Enemy of the People, BETC
  3. Magally Luna in Cheyanne, Control Group
  4. Miranda Byers in Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Bailey Theatre Company
  5. Kristina Fountaine in Cullud Wattah, Curious Theatre Company
  6. Brik Berkes in Hamlet, DCPA Theatre Company
  7. Xochitl Romero in Cebollas, DCPA Theatre Company
  8. Satya Chávez in Where Did We Sit on The Bus, DCPA Theatre Company
  9. Leslie O’Carroll as Stephanie in POTUS, Curious Theatre Company
  10. Karen Slack in Truth Be Told, Curious Theatre Company
  11. Carolyn Holding in Rubicon, DCPA Theatre Company
  12. Kelly Uhlenhopp in Othello 2024, Firehouse Theater Company
  13. Emma Messenger in Misery, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  14. Buba Basishvili in The Bluebird, Theatre Artibus
  15. Andrew Uhlenhopp in Red, Town Hall Arts Center
  16. Deborah Persoff in Eleanor, Vintage Theatre
  17. Matt Murry in The Glass Menagerie, Vintage Theatre

Kristina Fountaine, Daja McLeod, Alex Campbell, Sheryl McCullum and Sade Houston in ‘Cullud Wattah’ at Curious Theatre | Photo credit: Michael Ensminger

Actor – Musical

  1. Anne Terze Schwarz in Waitress, Arvada Center
  2. Matthew Dailey in Crazy for You, Candlelight
  3. Akasha Grace in The Little Mermaid, FAC
  4. Alex Forbes in Reefer Madness, OpenStage Theatre & Company
  5. Jessica Swanson in A Chorus Line, Phamaly Theatre Company
  6. Jeffrey Parker in Cabaret, Platte Valley
  7. John Hauser in School of Rock, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  8. Cooper Kaminsky in Sweeney Todd, StageDoor Theatre Co.
  9. Sherean Samimi in Cannibal the Musical, Town Hall Arts Center
  10. Elton J. Tanega in Jersey Boys, Town Hall Arts Center
  11. Mary Louise Lee in Raisin, Town Hall Arts Center
  12. Jake Bell in Urinetown, Town Hall Arts Center
  13. Clark Destin Jones in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Give5 Productions
  14. Matthew Combs in The Android’s New Soul
actors onstage in a play

Anne Terze-Schwarz (left) is Ursula and Akasha Grace plays Ariel in the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center production of ‘The Little Mermaid.’ | Photo: Isaiah Downing

Ensemble

  1. A Chorus Line, Phamaly Theatre Company
  2. A Jukebox for the Algonquin, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  3. Crazy for You, Candlelight
  4. Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, Really, Arvada Center
  5. Eyes Up, Mouth Agape, Buntport Theater and Emily K. Harrison
  6. Impossible Things, The Catamounts
  7. Pillowman, Miscreant/Creepatorium
  8. The School for Lies, Bas Bleu
  9. The Squirrels, Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts
  10. Urinetown, Town Hall Arts Center
  11. Waitress, Arvada Center
actors on stage in a musical

Jake Bell, center, with more of the cast from ‘Urinetown’ in the Town Hall Arts Center production | Photo: RDGPhotography

Best Play

  1. An Enemy of the People, BETC
  2. Around the World in 80 Days, Aurora Fox
  3. Misery, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  4. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, DCPA Theatre Company
  5. Othello 2024, Firehouse Theater Company
  6. Proof, Springs Ensemble Theatre
  7. Red, Town Hall Arts Center
  8. The Glass Menagerie, Vintage Theatre

Emma Messenger and Torsten Hillhouse in ‘Misery’ at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center | Matthew Gale Photography

Best Comedy

  1. Art, Aurora Fox
  2. Four Old Broads, Funky Little Theater Company
  3. POTUS, Curious Theatre Company Theatre Company
  4. School for Lies, Bas Bleu
  5. The Ballot of Paola Aguilar, BETC
  6. The Thanksgiving Play, Springs Ensemble Theatre

(L-R) Julia Jones, Miles Horne, Dimitri Balasopoulov and Kaleb Hacker in ‘The School for Lies’ at Fort Collins’ Bas Bleu Theatre | Photo: Bill Cotton

Best Musical

  1. A Chorus Line, Phamaly Theatre Company
  2. Cabaret, Platte Valley Players
  3. Crazy For You, Candlelight
  4. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Arvada Center
  5. Reefer Madness, OpenStage Theatre & Company
  6. The School of Rock, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center
  7. Urinetown, Town Hall Arts Center
  8. Waitress, Arvada Center

John Hauser as Dewey Finn in ‘School of Rock’ at Miners Alley | Photo: Sarah Roshan Photography

Transcript from our livestream event

Created by evil AI bots; decry all errors!

Alex Miller (00:09.376)
All right, well, I’m going to assume we’re live. If not, this will be on the podcast. So, hey, everybody, it’s Oscar night. So we are here live. Welcome to this award ceremony for the Onstage Colorado Awards for Theatrical Excellence, what we call the Oscars. I’m Alex Miller.

Toni Tresca (00:27.124)
And I’m Tony Tresca, and that’s right, we’re here tonight for the second annual Oscars, and we’ve been working really hard to compile what we think is the best of the best from the 2024 Colorado Theater Year.

Alex Miller (00:40.91)
Yeah, and it was a great year. A lot of wonderful shows and performances, tons of nominations from the 200, count them, 200 shows we reviewed in 2024.

Toni Tresca (00:51.444)
Yeah, that’s a lot of shows. 200 is, it’s a lot of shows, it’s a lot of theater, and so much of it was great. But do just want to quickly add up here at the top, we did not get to everything, and we only award shows that the Onstage Colorado crew has actually seen and written up. So we’re not going to be just awarding something because it happened. We actually sent our reviewers there, and these were nominations for the winners that were submitted by the Onstage Colorado review team.

Someday we hope to have correspondents all around Colorado.

Alex Miller (01:24.576)
or a fleet of flying electric cars, which we would need to cover this whole state.

Toni Tresca (01:29.372)
Yeah, we definitely would. Colorado is massive. so quick apologies to any theaters that did amazing work out there that we just couldn’t get to this year. Don’t worry. Your day will come.

Alex Miller (01:43.532)
Yep. So before we get into announcing the winners, just a quick note or two about how we do the OSCA selection. So based on the shows we’ve seen, we pull our review crew for feedback on what they thought were standout shows, performances, creative crew contributions and all that.

Toni Tresca (02:02.996)
That’s right. And so in addition to familiar categories recognizing top actors, directors, the set designers, costumes, and the likes, we also have a category called Above and Beyond, which is actually going to, we’re going to kick things off with in just a second. And this award is for anything that doesn’t really fit neatly into any of the defined categories.

Alex Miller (02:26.764)
Yeah, and which someday might become their own categories we get more dialed in. So for instance, this year, intimacy and fight direction have enough entrance that this year we made it its own category. I always think it’s interesting that intimacy and fight direction are often done by the same people. And so we put it in the same category. It’s sort of love and hate thing there between those two.

Toni Tresca (02:49.744)
Absolutely. And one other thing that we should note about the acting categories is that we don’t use actor or actress. Everybody is considered equally. And speaking to that, we also don’t have supporting actor awards. We believe that a great performance is a great performance. And so for our acting categories, we delineate by genre rather than by gender or supporting versus lead.

Alex Miller (03:15.616)
Right. So yeah, so our list of winners is quite a bit longer than your typical pick only the best and the rest must be satisfied with just being nominated kinds of awards. So we have 168 winners this year. And so that was that one. That was us trying to skinny the list down some.

Toni Tresca (03:30.354)
Yeah, but we really do believe that this is a strong representation of all of the great work that was on stage around Colorado last year. And even though this list is long, we put a lot into going through all the shows we saw and really calling out some of the best stuff we saw this year.

Alex Miller (03:47.714)
Yep. So we’ll have award certificates for all the winners, which will be sent to the theater company for distribution. So if for some reason you don’t get yours within a week or so, just give us a shout at info at onstagecolorado.com and we’ll get it to you.

Toni Tresca (04:01.076)
Cool. So now, without further ado…

Alex Miller (04:04.084)
No, no, no, no, no, don’t say further ado. I hate that.

Toni Tresca (04:08.243)
What you don’t you don’t like further ado Alex that what the hell’s wrong with you

Alex Miller (04:10.574)
No, no one says the word ado in any of the context. It’s a dead word. It’s zombie word that won’t go away. so more importantly, no one knows what it means. So just say without any more intro bullshit or something.

Toni Tresca (04:25.348)
All right, all right. Without any more intro bullshit, let’s get started with the 2024 On Stage Colorado Awards, or the Oscars. Our first category is Above and Beyond. Alex, you wanna kick us off with our first two winners?

Alex Miller (04:42.988)
Yeah, so the first one is for is goes to Noelia Antweiler, who actually I was just talking to last night at the after party for the Curious Curious theater production of case for the existence of God. And was telling her about the awards, kind of like hint hint. And she was like, she didn’t even know about him. So, so, Noelia, you first for the use of really in the production Arvada Center theater production of Dracula Feminist Revenge Fantasy really

Anuelia used her skills as a, she’s also an aerialist and acrobat, trapeze artist and scarf dancer. And she used that skill in her, it’s really, really cool way to incorporate that into it. And so that certainly didn’t fit into any of the category. So that’s an above and beyond award. And then the next one goes to Mark Reagan at Boulder Ensemble Theater Company for his adaptation of Enemy of the People.

So we were talking about this last week with John Moore. He was just kind of going, you know, sort of amazed that Mark pulled this out of a hat and took a, I don’t know, three hour or so long script and really trimmed it down and made it really good. And it was really a well-done show. So Mark Reagan gets another Above and Beyond.

Toni Tresca (06:01.684)
Absolutely. Next award goes to Buntport Theatre Company for their production of Eyes Up, Mouth a Gate and their exceptional integration of live video into the performance and quite possibly the best musical number about poop. I think ever written. think I could possibly, I can commit to saying that on record. It needed to be seen to be believed and so we just thought it went above and beyond. I wanted to recognize that here.

Alex Miller (06:20.686)
Ha ha ha!

Toni Tresca (06:30.418)
Our next Above and Beyond Award goes to Ellie Testa and the company behind The Future is Bright, a cabaret celebrating love, hope, and happiness for a better tomorrow. And this is in recognition of just the, this is an annual fundraiser, a cabaret that Ellie, Eli, excuse me, has helped organize for the past three years. And this past January, he held the third annual version of this fundraiser at the Parker Schoolhouse Theater.

to benefit the Denver Actors Fund. And to date, Eli and the company have helped raise roughly $35,000 for the nonprofit. So that is absolutely above and beyond and just exceptional work organizing to give back to the community. So to Eli Testa and the company of Future is Bright, congratulations.

Alex Miller (07:20.236)
That’s great. Next one goes to Debbie Spaur for the GIFI production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. So Eric Fitzgerald wanted to call her out for the amazing wig that she created for the lead there. He says, its length, color, and sausage curls makes its present equivalent to another character on stage. And I would have to say I agree with that.

Toni Tresca (07:48.188)
Absolutely. Hardeco sign.

Alex Miller (07:49.196)
Yeah. And the next one goes to Max Shulman. He’s a professor of Colorado, Colorado Springs, associated with theater works at the Ent Center there. And he took Shakespeare’s Henry IV and Henry V and adapted them, smushed them into one shorter, much shorter play than would have been for the two of them there, and did a great job with it, according to our reviewer, April Took, down in the Springs. So congrats to Max.

Toni Tresca (08:19.868)
Next award goes to the Catamounts for their production of Impossible Things, specifically Lara Mers, who was the stage manager for that production, and just did an absolutely fantastic job of coordinating the madness of that clockwork production in the park, just outside of Denver. It was a really intricate production and just took a lot of work to make sure that everything synced up, audience members didn’t arrive too early or too late.

to specific immersive scenes that were scattered around. So congratulations.

And then the next award.

Alex Miller (08:55.628)
Yeah, exactly. It was a big circle that, you know, if it didn’t line up properly, you’d have the different audience groups bumping into each other. So was quite a feat. Props to Lara.

Toni Tresca (09:09.694)
Totally. The next award goes to the Colorado Ballet for the production of Jekyll and Hyde. As Alice Kaderlin shouted out in her review, this is a ballet production for the ages. She said that the dancing and acting were first rate and the overall production values were stunning. She calls it the best Colorado Ballet show that she has ever seen. So congratulations to the Colorado Ballet and the production of Jekyll and Hyde.

Alex Miller (09:34.36)
high praise. And yeah, we don’t have a dance category yet, but we probably, we may add one in the future, but right now. You know, Alice has seen ballet all around the world for many decades and has written about it. So that was pretty amazing to hear her say that about the Colorado Ballet production there.

The next one goes to, this is a part of the Little Mermaid production at the Fine Arts Center at Colorado Springs, and it goes to Why Not Productions. This is just W-Y-N-O-T. And so many of the characters, you know, like Sebastian the crab and, you know, some of the other sea creatures were puppets that Why Not Productions created. So April Tuck, who reviewed the show, said it was really a lot of standouts, especially Sebastian the crab.

really nice job there with the puppets. you pretty much kind of, I don’t know if all of them do that, but I imagine most of them, most of those productions have to use puppets of some kind or. Boulder Dinner Theater years ago, they were actually characters, they had costumes on. So I guess you can do it either way. And the next one was a show that I saw from Miscreant Theater Collective at the Creepatorium. And this was.

The show was The Pillow Man, a Martin McDonough play, and they did it in this kind of warehouse space and they had like all these elements. the recipient of this is the entire production team of the production, from the lighting to the tech, there was an original score, there was all kinds of cool sound effects, the space itself. Mr Grant really outdid itself to create the perfect environment for this play.

Toni Tresca (11:26.662)
Next two awards are for the same production. It’s for theater artabas based out of the Savoy’s production of The Bluebird. This was based on one of the co-creators, Bubba’s real life story about immigrating to the United States, and it’s loosely inspired by a poem of the same name. And we just wanted to recognize two outstanding elements within this production. So first was for the Homo Spouses.

for the original music that they created. It was really haunting stuff that they pulled for this all original and just there was not largely a Mayan piece and so there was really no words other than so this music really became kind of a voice within the piece in a really powerful way. And the second award for this production goes to Megan Frank for the video and production design that happened throughout this production.

Alex Miller (12:13.39)
Indeed, yeah.

Toni Tresca (12:23.154)
as I mentioned, no words. So, but they didn’t, that didn’t mean that there weren’t incredibly striking visuals that used throughout. In addition to the performer, Booba’s physical theater skills, Megan Frank’s video design really just elevated this production. And Theater Artabas, this long time listeners of the pod know is one of our favorites for their consistently impressive physical theater work. And this was no exception.

Alex Miller (12:50.284)
Yeah, and really unique types of performance that you won’t really see anywhere else around Colorado that I can think of to compare to. So the next one goes to the Springs Ensemble Theater Company for the Thanksgiving play. And the recipient is Kate Hertz and Bryce Taylor Boynton. so this is also for show, and I didn’t. So you want to explain a little bit why you gave this award.

Toni Tresca (13:20.668)
Absolutely. So in the script of the Thanksgiving play, which is kind of a satirical farce about these high-minded liberal theater people who are putting on a culturally sensitive Thanksgiving play, and in the script, there are these really outrageous scenes that were ripped from real lesson plans of teachers that are really culturally insensitive. And there’s no direction on how to stage these. There’s no accompanying video.

And so what the team for this production at Springs Ensemble Theater did is they designed and shot these really intricate videos. Some were animated, some were just different images, some were lot of kind of other elements in video elements in there, but it was really powerful stuff that they just played in between the scenes and it was really impressive and elevated the production. So wanted to honor the work that went into that.

Alex Miller (14:16.056)
Great. All right, well, our next category is best actor in a comedy. And the first one goes to Local Theater, whose production of 237 Virginia Avenue was one of our favorite plays of the year. I think it’s fair to say. And we given this award kind of in tandem to Lawrence Hecht and Jacob Dresh, who really, you know, it was just the two of them on stage and they played so well off each other. was just a pair of fantastic performances.

in a really cool original play that I think we’ll probably talk about a little in some of the other categories as well.

Toni Tresca (14:50.708)
Absolutely. The next two awards go to the same production, but are for two different actors. First go is for, and the production is Dracula Feminist Revenge Fantasy, really at the Arvada Center. The first award goes to Annie Barber. She played the lead, Mina, in this production, and she had a really fantastic transition from kind of a scaredy cat to a really badass vampire slayer who was able to hold her own.

Alex Miller (15:18.669)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (15:19.812)
against our other winner in this category for the production, that is Jeffrey Kent as Dracula. So he was the big bad in this production. He was appropriately accented and hilariously maniac, maniacal and neurotic in really fun ways. his presence was just really elevated this production. And he and Annie had fantastic chemistry and just played off each other wonderfully. So wanted to recognize

both of their performances in this category.

Alex Miller (15:51.756)
Yeah, Jeffrey looked like he was having an enormous amount of fun playing Dracula in that it was just like right up his alley and he had all these fantastic costumes to help develop the characters. So great job with that. And we’ll be hearing more about that one as well, I think. So my next actor, comedic actor performance goes to Edith Weiss for Jukebox for the Alc-

at Miners Alley. So this was an original play by Paul Strolli that premiered here and it’s a great ensemble cast, but Edith really stood out as it’s a show about like kind of a senior folks in a senior home. And she just like really, really brought it. And I actually saw her last night as well at the curious party. And I was telling her how much I enjoyed her performance. I didn’t tell her that she won a prize or won an award, but she was happy to hear it.

Toni Tresca (16:43.796)
I’m

Alex Miller (16:46.498)
Then the next one for actor in a comedy goes to Haley Johnson for her performance in Murder at the Art and Express at Vintage Theater. So Haley is someone we haven’t seen on stage in a while because she was very busy running benchmark theater. And so sometimes people get into running a theater, but they get into it because they love acting and then they wind up not acting as much because they’re so busy running the theater. So it was really cool to see her on stage and I almost didn’t realize it was her at first because she was in this.

but she was great. was really, really nice performance.

Toni Tresca (17:19.432)
Yeah, she was this over-the-top kind of rich person who was insanely demanding and got into fights with almost all of the other passengers. just a really fun, it was a really fun supporting role and great to see Haley on stage again. Next award goes to Raiden Agtavet, that’s E-G-T-V-E-D-T for his performance in Run For Your Life at Shark Box. So this, Alex, this was…

your nomination, you saw this performance. You want to share a little bit more about Braden’s performance?

Alex Miller (17:53.452)
Yes, A Run For Your Wife is kind of an old farce that, you know, it was fun, he really, I said in my review that he flourished in the center of it all with a winking, wild-eyed performance that teetered just on the edge of being too much without going over. And it was close in places, but sometimes I was just like, whoa, I think he’s gonna pop a vein or something, because he was so big. But he really, really, for that kind of a show, it was appropriate and he did a great job.

Another show that up in kind of in the hills a little bit, this was at Evergreen Players was their production of Spirit Level, which is a comedy, like a Beetlejuice kind of story where a couple dies and they’re trying to prevent, at first they’re trying to prevent anybody from moving into their place. And as part of this, Kathleen Davis, who’s been acting up there for many moons played this fantastic, just completely batty,

ghost sort of overseer of some sort. And she’s just brought a great, great comic performance there.

Toni Tresca (19:04.496)
Next award is for Betsy’s out of boulders production of the Ballet of Paolo Aguilar for Laura Chavez as the titular Paolo Aguilar. And this was, you saw this one Alex, so could you share a little bit more about what made her performance so special?

Alex Miller (19:17.645)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Miller (19:21.558)
Yeah, she’s like this character at the center of all the action and she’s just is one of those roles where it’s just like she’s on stage the whole time and she has to be really big and really pulled it off nicely. And it was a it was an interesting comedy about election electioneering. And she’s hired as the sort of Latino person to figure out who these Latino voters are. So there’s a lot of comedy around that, which definitely reflected our our

modern times here as a lot of political operatives are trying to figure out how to reach these different demographics.

Toni Tresca (19:57.652)
Awesome. Next award for actor in comedy goes to Anna Faye Hunter for her performance in The Making of a Great Moment at the Millibow Art Theater. So our reviewer, Judith Spears, wrote, this is a lead role in a two-hander and Springs Theater veteran Anna Faye Hunter showed great range in her character’s idealistic optimism and disappointed fury. So congratulations, Anna Faye Hunter, for your award here.

Next up goes to Jeffrey Bigger as Frank in the School for Lies at the Bos Blue Theater up in Fort Collins. This is the titular misanthrope in this production as School of Lies is a contemporary adaptation of the misanthrope. It’s all in rhyming couplets. And Jeffrey Bigger, who was on stage pretty much the entire time, he was just really commanding and you couldn’t take your eyes off of him.

His reactions, his eye rolls, his size, frustration at all of the performance that was going on around him was just excellent here. It’s an excellent comedic performance in a very good show that we’ll be talking a little bit more about later in the awards. So the final award in this, yeah, go ahead, Alex.

Alex Miller (21:00.073)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (21:13.934)
Yeah, yeah, it’s a really clever Dave, David Ives. I was just gonna say it’s a really clever David Ives play that like I can’t think of another playwright who could have pulled this off this all these writing couplets and and he did he did a great job with it and that was one that we made we made the trip up to Fort Collins to check it out. was a lot of fun.

Toni Tresca (21:32.638)
That’s right, we actually went up together. We hung out a little bit before the show. It’s great, Fort Collins is awesome. You’ll be hearing more about Fort Collins throughout this awards. So the final award in this category for actor in a comedy goes to Matt Radcliffe as Jackson in the Thanksgiving play at Springs Ensemble Theater. So Jackson is kind of this unemployed but really enthusiastic theater performer who just really commits

Alex Miller (21:34.466)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Toni Tresca (22:01.428)
to this. He’s dating the director, but he’s constantly getting in fights. He’s not the best boyfriend in the world, one might say. And Matt just really embodied this character excellently with just perfect douchebaggery energy that just really sold this part. It was a pretty strong ensemble across the board, but Matt in particular as Jackson was absolutely hysterical in this production of the Thanksgiving play Down in the Springs.

Alex Miller (22:09.163)
Ha ha.

Alex Miller (22:29.208)
Great, great. All right, well, we’re musing. To jump ahead, think I got our order mixed up. We were supposed to do these a little later, right, Tony?

Toni Tresca (22:42.194)
We were, but I figured we’d just roll with the punches.

Alex Miller (22:45.312)
Okay, yeah, I know we’re not doing the big suspense, know, best actors and all that. So we’re just mixing around. It’s almost kind of alphabetical. So we had, there was a lot of musicals in Colorado last year. And so we have quite a few awards for actor in a musical starting with Jessica Swanson, who from Family Theater Company in their production of A Chorus Line, which I didn’t get to, but everybody said was just a banger production and our reviewer.

Eric Fitzgerald said that Jessica was outstanding as Zach’s former love interest who’s in desperate need of a job. Clad in a bright red dress, she bleeds with Zach for a chance to be in his chorus. She convinces him with a showstopper musical number, The Music and the Mirror. And it was a choreographed number that was a highlight of the production. So that one goes to Jessica Swanson. And then the other one was, this is one that we were both at at Platte Valley. I’m not gonna say Platte

Platte Valley Theater Arts. They just changed their name in 2025. And so this is their production of Cabaret directed by Kelly Von Osbery. And Jeffrey Parker was just such an astounding spot on and memorable performance as the MC in Cabaret. I was just like, I think we both air for that one too. And we were just kind of blown away at just how fully he filled that role.

Toni Tresca (24:12.34)
Yeah, such a physical performance, insanely vocally demanding. And Jeffrey, I’ll give you this, your performance is so good that I will forgive you for dragging me up on stage to make you dance with you in Act Two. That’s a big one, Jeff. Great work in all seriousness. It really was a great performance. Our next award for Actor in a Musical goes to Chiran Sami, who played Frenchie and others in

Alex Miller (24:22.67)
you

Toni Tresca (24:41.876)
Hannibal the musical at Town Hall Art Center. this is really one of the lead trappers and she was just really, she’s really a breakout star of this production that had a lot of very funny Colorado performers. She was doing a ton of different accents. She was beating people up with ease. She made it look very easy and hilariously funny. She committed to so much onstage violence. I just, it was a really hilarious performance. so great work.

Alex Miller (25:06.542)
You

Toni Tresca (25:11.828)
Anything else you want to add, Alex?

Alex Miller (25:12.184)
Yeah, yeah, it was interesting casting. Cause usually when you see this play, the trappers are guys dressed in all kinds of furs and stuff. Stephen, Stephen directed this, didn’t he?

Alex Miller (25:26.318)
Cannibal? Yeah, Steven Berg directed it and his take was to just do it with these kind of, I don’t know, sexy women doing the French trappers and she was really, she was great.

Toni Tresca (25:26.366)
That’s right.

Toni Tresca (25:41.04)
Yeah. Next award goes to Matthew Daly for his performance as Bobby in Crazy for You up in Candlelight. Crazy for You is a banger. It’s a big spectacle musical. And Matthew Daly is kind of this outsider who has come into the town. He’s come to buy this theater that’s run down. And he goes on this insane transition through a whirlwind romance. And if you haven’t seen the show, it’s super duper dance heavy. So

In addition to having to do a ton of singing and acting, Matt Daly was also tapping his ass off across this stage for basically the entire show. And there is a particularly memorable sequence with him and Patrick Case that was, I can only describe as Scooby-Doo-esque in terms of the mirroring situation. Matt was just an insanely physical, dynamic, and emotional performer.

Alex Miller (26:19.884)
You

Toni Tresca (26:38.716)
And for that, I really just have to recognize his work here. So great job.

Alex Miller (26:44.782)
All right, the next one for Actor in a Musical goes to Clark Destin Jones and Hedwig and Angry Inch. This was a Give Five production that Friend of the Pod Julia Tobey pulled together and it was a really big swing for her and her production and it really played out well. It was in this warehouse space downtown that I don’t remember the name of it, but it was.

fitting it and our reviewer Eric. So we all saw this, but Eric said it was just a tour de force production and Jones just commanded the stage for nearly 100 % of the time. Because you know, Hedwig’s a very fiercely charismatic and complex character on this crazy journey of self discovery. And Clark, as we were talking about earlier, had this fantastic wig to help him along. So it was a great performance.

Toni Tresca (27:33.545)
Absolutely.

Alex Miller (27:33.646)
And then another one, this is a musical that goes around and around and It’s done a lot, Jersey Boys, it’s about the four seasons. And I finally got to see it at town hall and they had a really great production of it. And there were a number of great performances, but the one, this one goes to Elton J. Tanega who played, can’t remember which one he played. So he was Tommy.

tough guy from New Jersey and did a great job in that role. really a great show if you get a chance to see it sometime, I would check it out.

Toni Tresca (28:12.35)
Yeah. Next award goes to Mary-Louise Lee, stage veteran for her performance in Raisin at Town Hall Art Center. Our reviewer, Eric Fitzgerald, wrote that, Lena Lee exemplifies the caring mother alongside that of a wise elder, she projects into the future by owning a home, albeit in a less than welcoming neighborhood, and vehemently opposes Walter Lee becoming involved with the liquor store. And in particular, Eric Singled out,

her rendition of A Whole Lot of Sunshine as a breathless interlude. So congratulations, Mary, for your work in Razor. Next up is for Alex Forbes, who played May in Reefer Madness, the musical at Open Stage Theater in Fort Collins. May is the gangster girlfriend in the show. It can be a thankless part, but not when you cast somebody like Alex Forbes in this role. She was just…

super physical and in particular what sold this were her reactions to everything that was going on. was never stiff, she never went dead, she was always very engaged in it and she has incredible pipes to back up that really dynamic comedic performance.

Alex Miller (29:30.956)
All right. That’s one of those shows I just haven’t gotten to. I want to see Reefer man this.

Toni Tresca (29:36.04)
Definitely recommend. We’ll be talking more about Reefer Madness a little bit later in the awards.

Alex Miller (29:40.43)
Yep. So 2024 was a year of two big productions of School of Rock. One was at the Space Center, Vertas production, and the other was… I think they were both great productions. We kind of the Miner’s Alley one a little better. It was also nice because Miner’s Alley is just a smaller space so you could really see the action. And some of the same young musicians that played in…

Toni Tresca (29:50.74)
That’s right.

Alex Miller (30:10.777)
and Parker were also in the one in Golden. but anyway, John Houser played the lead Dewey Finn made famous by Jack Black in the original film and did just a great job of it. And he always does. And he’s also at Miner’s Alley, he’s sort of this indispensable sort of Jack of all trades. also does like, I think he does sound and electrical and stuff like that. So great job by John Houser.

And then up in the hills at Stage Door Theater Company, they did a production of Sweeney Todd and Cooper Kaminsky was the titular character. Say it, so Eric got up there and saw it and said it was, he said it was a tour de force as well. So a perfect blend of control and madness, bringing pathos and humor to such songs as My Friends and A Little Priest to Cooper Kaminsky up there in Evergreen.

no, statures and conifer, I’m sorry.

Toni Tresca (31:06.898)
Next.

That’s right. Next award goes to Acacia Grace for her performance in The Little Mermaid as the titular Little Mermaid, Ariel. This was at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs. And our reviewer, April Took, wrote that Acacia Grace is simply radiant as Ariel. As the musical opens, the adolescent mermaid with the flaming red hair pops up from the orchestra pit as it’s swimming to the surface. Not only can this talented, Juilliard-trained actor sing and dance,

but she embodies the youthful cadence of the innocence that Ariel is. Effervescent and energetic, she swims, floats, and dives into the role and our hearts head first. So really great performance by Acacia Grace down in Springs in a banger of a musical.

Next up goes to Matthew Combs as KRS24 in the brand new musical, The Android’s New Soul, that premiered at the Bug Theater. This is one of my favorites of the year. I love this musical. It’s an absurd, in-your-face dystopian musical about a bug war. There’s cyborgs there. There is a bomb that drops and causes everybody to go through funky radiation.

and there’s a whole lot of Android sex. And Matthew Combs is at the helm as the titular Android who becomes the boyfriend to the Doctor character. And Matthew is a great actor. He’s been seen in a bunch of productions, including A Legend of Georgia McBride last year over at Vintage. But his performance here as the Android for something that could have been very stiff and robotic, it was surprisingly human and very engaging.

Alex Miller (32:52.206)
So that was a really short run. Are we going to see that come back around, you know?

Toni Tresca (32:55.966)
God, I hope so, Alex. I really wish it were Dana Kane and the entire team over there that did a really fantastic job. And Dana has been fighting to make this production seen for decades. So I know that she filmed it so that it could be a filmed version of it could be released. So you will be able to see that. But as for a live stage production, I haven’t heard anything.

Alex Miller (32:57.454)
I want to see it.

Alex Miller (33:21.162)
Okay. All right. The next musical actor award goes to So this was at Town Hall. So this is a great musical. It’s so much fun. there was so many great things going on in this one. But he’s the of the lovable hero type guy who’s in the middle of it all, a dashing but dirty hero who works at the yuckiest urinal in town, as I wrote my review.

So best actor in a musical for Town Hall’s production. And then the next one is a name we’re gonna hear a lot. And actually we were just touching on a show that she was also in. So she played Ursula, the evil sea witch in The Little Mermaid. And she also, yeah, she was in Yurtown and she was fantastic in that, but we nominated her for her role in Waitress. So this is Anne-Theresa Schwartz, who is just had a…

Toni Tresca (34:04.318)
She was also in urine town. Yeah.

Alex Miller (34:17.002)
huge year. was also in Hedwig. she was all over the place. One of his True West Awards for her in December. boy, she is a force of nature on stage. And I just can’t wait to see what she’s up to in 2024. But in Waitress, I have to say, Tony, it was probably one of my favorite musicals that I’ve seen in several years, at least. And it was so well done by the Arvada Center. So

Just fantastic work by Anteira Schwartz in that lead role.

Toni Tresca (34:48.884)
And apparently she’s a great human offstage as well as John Moore was telling us last week. She’s done incredible advocacy for the Denver Actors Fund as well. So a great, great actor and credible in Waitress as the titular waitress, Jenna. The titular, don’t know, playing on the name. I think it’s Jenna, she was really, really dynamic. Really great in that. So now we’re going to be moving on to our new category.

Alex Miller (34:53.239)
I’ve heard. Yeah.

Alex Miller (35:09.238)
Sounds right. Yep.

Alex Miller (35:14.73)
Now we’re moving into actor in a play.

Toni Tresca (35:18.93)
That’s right. So our first award goes to Betsy’s production of An Enemy of the People for Bill Hahn’s performance as Peter. So he is the mayor in this production who is vehemently opposed to sharing the truth about the water supply and that it’s been poisoned. And I very much worried for Bill Hahn throughout the production that his

Alex Miller (35:43.341)
Ha ha ha.

Toni Tresca (35:43.518)
head was going to explode because veins were bursting from his forehead throughout so much of it. Nobody can get into a tizzy like Bill Hahn. And he just really was a really compelling villain who I don’t want to say you rooted for him because you didn’t. I really hated him. And that’s why I love this performance.

Alex Miller (35:47.437)
Yes.

Alex Miller (36:04.672)
Mechanic, temper, well I’ve seen them in a few shows where he displays that.

Toni Tresca (36:12.85)
Yeah. Next award goes to the Denver Center’s production of Suboyus for Xchitas, Romero. So that is X-O-C-H-I-T-L as Celia. So she was the middle sister in this production. It’s about a road trip where they have to dispose of a dead body. so along, but along the way they bond and as Cecile.

Cecilia, she is just the kind of the instigator, but also the one who is able to kind of talk between the other sisters. And it was really, really meaty part and she did a lot with it. So just wanted, we wanted to award that for Actor in a Play.

Alex Miller (36:53.102)
All right, Tony, you still have this next one, so why don’t you take this one.

Toni Tresca (36:57.94)
Sure thing. So this is for control group productions of Cipriano Ortega’s Cheyenne. So this was a new play and we’re giving this award to Magalia Luna who played Lisa. So she was this flamboyant art dealer who is, she’s constantly hitting her vape pen and she is not afraid to tell, to like totally tell you off and tell you, just need to focus your art so you can make money. She’s, this is another villain. You may be sensing a theme in some of the performances that

that I like, I love a good villain. And Lisa is, Lisa’s definitely that in Cheyenne. She’s constantly probing the central character Cheyenne to deliver more commercial work and kind of sell herself out so that she can make a buck. And Magalia Luna, she’s also a really, she’s a storied actor. She’s been seen on a number of stages, Firehouse and Su Teatro. And so she’s just really accomplished actress and this is a fantastic comedic performance from her.

Alex Miller (37:28.824)
Yep.

Alex Miller (37:59.8)
Great. All right, my next actor in a play goes to Christina Fontaine, a Curious Theater’s production of Colored Water. So this is a play about a water shortage. It’s kind of like based on the Flint, water crisis in some ways. And so she is just, she’s great in everything she does, but she was really enjoyable to watch in comic roles. But here she shows great dramatic depth as the conflicted Amy. So while acknowledging the troubled past that puts her

odds with a big ma, the other character she’s convincing as a woman on the mend, working to reestablish herself or trying to convince her mother she’s changed. Just another great performance by Christina. And the next one, this was a fun show that you and I both went up to in Bailey. So this is from the Bailey theater. was Dear Jack, Dear Louise, which was Ken Ludwig play on his parents’ romance during World War II, which was really cool. A couple of great performances, but Miranda Byers as the

the other as the female lead and it was just fantastic. And she’s an actor, don’t see a lot, but when she pops up, I’m always like, gosh, she’s awesome. So great job there Miranda and in Dear Jack, Dear Louise.

Toni Tresca (39:14.502)
Next award goes to veteran stage actress and luminary over at Vintage Theatre, Deborah Purcell, for her performance in Eleanor. This is the one-hander and it’s 90 minutes of acting. She is introducing the audience to a variety of characters. It’s not just Eleanor. And as Eric Fitzgerald wrote, she lights up Vintage Theatre once again. We’re treated to a stirring performance from her.

So it’s a really great work. It’s a really great role for her. And it sounds like she did a lot with it over there and wanted to recognize that. Next is for Stephen Beale in Gym of the Ocean at the Aurora Fox Art Center. Eric said, as citizen Barlow, Beale gives an unparalleled performance, hitting every beat as a young man seeking a different life. His understated performance is one of the strongest of this season. So.

This is a part of Aurora Fox’s commitment to staging all of August Wilson’s play. And sounds like this production of Jim of the Ocean was a real banger with Stephen Beale being a key part of that.

Alex Miller (40:25.42)
Great. All right, well, this year’s Shakespeare or last year’s Shakespeare show at the Denver Center was Hamlet directed by Chris Coleman. you know, they’re they’re not all local actors that are in there. So I wanted to kind of pick pick one of one of our local local boys and Rick Berks played the the ghost. And Hamlet, don’t see the ghost all that much, but he really breathed a lot of life into this ghost. And he also played.

a gravedigger and he was the player king in the play within a play and that really when he was on stage he was really doing great work. So Brickworks in the DCPA production of Hamlet. And then I think to say this is one of the most talked about performances of the year for Emma Messenger. So she played sort of the evil, another villain in misery at Miners Alley Theater. So this is of course is based on the Stephen King.

book and later film and she was apparently, I didn’t get to see this one but Eric said that, you know, she was just brilliant capturing Annie’s emotional imbalance and called it one of the finest performances of the year. So that’s for Emma Messenger at Minor Zali’s production of Misery.

Toni Tresca (41:36.914)
And Emma’s always great. I would definitely co-sign what Eric said about her performance in Misery. It was really great. It was kind of hard to figure out which performance of Emma’s this year to award as well, because she was also quite fantastic over in vintage theaters, production of Glass Menagerie, among a ton of other appearances. So this is really kind of a recognition of a lot of her great work this year.

Alex Miller (41:38.579)
yeah.

Alex Miller (41:50.862)
She had a busy year. Yes.

Toni Tresca (42:04.244)
Next up is another, this is another very well-deserving Colorado theater person. It’s Kelly Uhlenhof for her performance as Iago in Othello 2024 over at Firehouse Theater. So this was a big swing for Firehouse. They’re casting what is normally a man as a woman here. And Eric wrote that her portrayal as the highly calculating Iago is excellent, filled with just the right amount of destructive determination and wicked objectives.

As always, Ool and Hop gives a first rate performance, never missing the opportunity to explore a character’s subtext. So yeah, it’s a real winning performance from Kelly and a really, really interesting production at Firehouse.

Alex Miller (42:45.87)
Kelly’s great and she and her husband Andrew had a busy year. And just a real quick correction, it’s Yulin hop, I was told by Andrew once. So I always make sure. It looks like Yulin hop, it’s Yulin. Yep. Yep.

Toni Tresca (42:57.63)
That’s a great correction. Eulenhopp, my apologies, Kelly.

Alex Miller (43:07.656)
Alright, I think you have the next one.

Toni Tresca (43:11.294)
Sure. So next up is for Leslie O’Carroll for her performance as Stephanie in POTUS, a curious theater company. So Stephanie is kind of this, she starts the play as a mild-mannered secretary who is worried about losing her job, but then she goes on a, she starts tripping on drugs throughout the show through a series of unfortunate events. And that gives Kelly, that gives Leslie O’Carroll

so much comic gold to mine. She’s running around the place in at one point an inflatable. She’s causing so much damage and mishap there. It’s a really she was chewing so much scenery in this production in a really delicious way.

Alex Miller (43:47.822)
you

Alex Miller (43:54.84)
You

Leslie always puts 100 % into everything she does and it was great to see her get an award here. Well, speaking of the Yulen Hopps, Andrew Yulen Hopp gets a best actor nod for Red at Town Hall Art Center. So this is a play about Mark Rothko, the artist, and Eric Fitzgerald said that Andrew is nothing shy of supreme, captured the essence of a man on the precipice of superstardom while displaying all the insecurities someone might go through while facing immortality through his criminal.

creative endeavors and just turned into really high quality performance. So congrats to Andrew there. And then another best actor nod goes to Caroline Holden or Carolyn Holding for the Denver Center Theater Company production of Rubicon. So this was a play about spies that she pretty much, she was the main character and she was really the focus of every scene. And she just did a great job of

I think she was shedding personalities and different, don’t know, what’s it, she’s disguises, I can’t remember. She was definitely, a lot of costume changes, a lot of sex scenes and just a really busy but compelling performance there.

Toni Tresca (45:07.326)
That’s right.

Toni Tresca (45:14.488)
Absolutely. She was kind of lying to herself as well as others throughout the whole production in ways that were really interesting and gave Caroline a lot of really juicy material as an actor to explore, which she did. Next up is for a production we mentioned a little bit earlier in our Above and Beyond category, but this time we want to shout out the central actor at the helm in the center of The Bluebird by Theodor Artibas, that is Buba Besta-Villay.

Alex Miller (45:19.116)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (45:28.888)
share.

Toni Tresca (45:44.196)
He really has this is a really timeless piece that just describes the immigrant experience so succinctly. It’s not it’s not always pretty but it’s really honest portrayal. It’s insanely physical with him enacting just sequences that span massive amounts of time. There are a lot of them are really abstract some require him to embody different animals and things and but it was a really just powerful performance that you could not take your eyes off of the whole time.

Anything you want to add to that Alex, know you also sell that production.

Alex Miller (46:14.146)
Yeah. Yeah. yeah. Yeah. Booba is an amazing artist and he came he came from Georgia and just brings like a really different kind of theater to Denver. And so we’re so lucky to have him here. And he’s just got all these skills as a mime and a performance artist and just a real creative dynamo.

Toni Tresca (46:37.372)
Actually, and I was just talking with him over at Buntport on Friday night when I was seeing the opening night of Jane Eyre there. And I was just talking to him about how impressed I always am with theater art of his work. And he was sharing just the, they’ve got a new show coming up soon that they’re working on. So I was very excited to hear that. But great work for Bluebird this year. Really, really nice. Last year, really nice job. Another really great performance was

Matthew Murray as Tom in the glass menagerie at Vintage Theater. So Tom is kind of the central narrator. He’s the audience’s viewpoint into this really dysfunctional family situation. And Matt is a great actor. He’s been seen across Colorado in a number of different roles. But as Tom, he’s really, really moody in appropriate ways. And you…

Through his performance, you learn that he’s an unreliable narrator. He’s not telling you, the audience, the full truth in a way that I found really challenging to watch as an audience member, but very, very rewarding as well. And as he goes on and the truth gets revealed in really frightening ways sometimes, his reactions were very stirring. They left a lasting impact on me.

Alex Miller (47:59.614)
All right, the next award goes to Karen Slack, another really well-known theater artist in Colorado for her performance in Truth Be Told, a curious theater company. So Tony, you saw this, I didn’t. So what would you say about Karen’s performance here?

Toni Tresca (48:15.742)
So this is a two-hander that starred Karen and Jada Suzanne Dixon, who’s also the artistic director at Curious Theater. the play is about a journalist who’s coming to interview the mother of a shooter. He has committed a public amass shooting. And Karen Slack is playing this devastated mother who is unwilling to admit the painful truth about her son’s actions. She refuses to acknowledge that it was him. She thinks it’s a conspiracy by the government until…

this heartbreaking turn in the final moments of the play that I’m getting choked up even just kind of thinking about now where all of a sudden Karen’s character just all the reality sets in and it hits her and she unleashes this devastating wail that I’ve not been able to get out of my system since seeing it. you, I couldn’t, I had to sit, I remained seated in the theater after seeing that performance just shaken.

by what Karen was able to accomplish with her work in this production.

Alex Miller (49:19.757)
All right. Cool. Well, another really big performance that a lot of people talked about was another one woman show. Where did we sit on the bus at the Denver Center? This was Satya Chavez and Julie Walker just had nothing but great things to say about this exceptional one woman show where she’s kind of telling her life story. But also there’s some music incorporated into it. And it was, I think, maybe a little bit

of a sleeper that I know a lot of people who did see it were like, holy crap, can’t believe more people didn’t get out to see this. But so that one goes to such a Chavez for whenever we sit on the bus. And then, go ahead.

Toni Tresca (50:01.832)
Yeah, that.

No, I definitely agree with that. She’s not only leading the show, she’s also doing kind of live mixing because it’s kind of a partial like hip hop musical as well. So it’s just a really demanding role.

Alex Miller (50:17.998)
All right, new category.

Toni Tresca (50:22.642)
Yeah, so we are moving on now to director in a comedy. So first up, we’ve got Kate Gleason for her work at the Aurora Fox Art Center on art. So can you share a little bit more about this production, Alex?

Alex Miller (50:40.174)
Oh, this is such a good show. is another one that’s, you know, play this comedy. It’s been around a long time that I hadn’t gotten to see. And I had this fantastic cast with, again, Andrew Ulenhop and I’m going to blank on the other two actors, but Gareth Sachs, and I can’t remember the third, but great, great show. And Kate did a great job just directing this sort of pressure cooker, three guys in this play. So great.

Good job there.

Toni Tresca (51:11.752)
Yeah. Next award goes to Lynn Matteo for his work on Miner’s Alley’s production of Jukebox for the Algonquin. This was Paul Strolli’s play that was the Padets regional premiere in Golden. And Lynn just did a really fantastic job directing this farcical comedy that also has a lot of really poignant truths about aging and the assumptions that we make about people as they age.

I found to be very effective.

Alex Miller (51:45.698)
Great.

Alex Miller (51:51.917)
And is this next one yours?

Toni Tresca (51:54.418)
Yeah, I can take this next one since it was my nominee. Yeah, this is for a production we’ve talked about a little bit already. This is POTUS at Curious Theatre Company, and the award goes to Jada Suzanne Dixon. This was a big, farcical comedy about the women who are keeping the President of the United States functional, barely. It’s a really insane comedy that you have to, there’s a lot of different traffic that you have to control in this production.

Alex Miller (51:56.503)
Okay.

Toni Tresca (52:22.228)
There’s a dead body that’s coming in and off the stage, people running around, there’s a hell of a lot of blood. There’s a scene that involves a really complicated toss off stage that has to be nailed very well. And Jada just, she really pulled it off. It’s a hard show. Curious is also not known necessarily for their comedies. And so it was a big swing for them and I think it really paid off.

Alex Miller (52:53.838)
The next one is back to the Ballet of Pala Aguilar at this was Boulder Ensemble Theater Company show and Jerry Hinshaw directed this one, which was a fair amount of physical comedy, a lot of comings and goings and some tricky material. And honestly, the play never didn’t seem like it was 100 % quite finished, but I Jerry did a really nice job making it kind of.

seem so. So that was for the Bella Appella Aguilar. And then the next one was the one we talked about earlier, the School for Lies, Steve Keim, who I think is the production production production manager up there at Bob Blue in Fort Collins. This is a challenging show, it’s a lot of really fast moving pieces. It’s a high speed farce, a lot of traffic control to deal with. And also this challenging script with all these rhyming couplets. And he got a lot of great performances out of the cast there.

Toni Tresca (53:55.238)
And that’s the final award for director of a comedy. We are going to move on now to director of musical. So first up goes to Ben Rana for his work on chorus line for a family theater company. So Ben is also the artistic director over there. And this was the production that they did to kick off their 35th anniversary as a company. They’re Denver’s premier disability affirming a theater troupe and

This production that was staged at the Denver Center in the Round, that’s right, a chorus line in the Round, and it worked. It’s amazing. was dealing with a, he was working with a really massive cast there, really complicated dance sequences, and a lot of emotions in this production that he managed really well. Next up is a production we talked about a little bit as well. This is Cabaret by Platte Valley, and we’re,

Alex Miller (54:28.641)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (54:51.356)
recognizing the work that Kelly Van Osbry did for her direction here. She staged it in a really kind of immersive way that into the actors, you were seated at tables and around in the Kit Kat Club, actors were coming in and around you the whole time, inviting you to be involved in the production that really added to.

the ultimate gut punch of Cabaret when you realize when the world starts falling apart, you feel it because you’re inside it too and you’ve been made complicit in this world. I think that’s a really powerful way to stage Cabaret particularly in 2024.

Alex Miller (55:28.514)
Yep. Yep. We had Kelly on the podcast last year and she had a pretty big year, some great stuff. So next one is crazy for you, which I did not get to. This was up at candlelight. So Steve Wilson directed this. Tony, you want to hit this one?

Toni Tresca (55:45.065)
Yeah, as I said earlier, this is what we recognize. We recognize this in best actor. But Crazy for You is a massive musical that’s super dance heavy, but also is very comedic and has to be directed really quickly in order for it to work. The transition, there’s a lot of different transitions between locations. And Steve really did an excellent job of managing all of that business on stage and also still ground remit, being able to ground the show in a

really strong sense of emotional truth and you believe the central relationship that’s at the core of this production, which if you don’t, this romantic comedy doesn’t work.

Alex Miller (56:24.846)
Yep. Back to Jersey Boys at Town Hall Art Center, Matthew Daly directed this one and interesting story that he was actually in the Broadway national tour of Jersey Boys and did nearly a thousand performances of the show. So he knew the show really, really well and really brought it on the small and it has no small feat to it. Of he choreographed it as well. Town Hall has that kind of kind of a sort of a shallow, longer type stage. It’s not the easiest place to.

You don’t have a ton of room to choreograph big numbers, but he pulled it off and also just brought out some great performances from the cast there.

Toni Tresca (57:05.038)
Next award goes to Lynn Collins at the Arvada Center for her direction of Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet. Now, Lynn, she had a really strong year over at the Arvada Center. She also directed Waitress for Them, which was another strong production. But what really set her work apart for Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet was how she was able to transform the, it’s kind of the smaller space at the Arvada Center.

into this really immersive spectacle. You felt like you were right in the middle of wartime Russia because that’s exactly what she and the creative team did to place you there. She kind of had to really do a lot of work to make this 70 page slice of war and peace pop. It’s not an easy show to understand or follow the story, but with her direction, you were really able to really follow the plot and it ends on a really striking moment.

with the comet that I just, I think really sold the whole show and tied it together. So that’s why we’re recognizing Lynn’s work for direction here. The next award goes to Christopher Page Sanders for his direction of Raisin at Town Hall Art Center. So as our critic, Eric Fitzgerald wrote, Page Sanders maintains a solid focal point tied into Hansberry’s original play. He’s adept at storytelling and uses the musical numbers.

to further the story by employing the ensemble to contribute to each song with a revelatory dance. The production never falters and moves quickly from scene to scene with an exacting pace. this is Christopher Page Sanders also did the choreography for this production, which really helped tie that kind of his overall sense of direction together and really made Raisin production that song.

Alex Miller (58:54.24)
All right, next one is director musical winner for Kenny Moten, one of the busiest guys in Colorado theater for Reefer Madness at Open Stage Theater. Tony, you want to hit this one? I did not see this one, but you did.

Toni Tresca (59:06.221)
Sure. Kenny took a big swing with Reaper Madness and that he chose to stage it in an immersive style. did, he, Fort Collins has not, they’ve not done a lot of immersive work. So he had to do a lot of training both with the cast as well as pre-show to help get the audience trained on how to be involved in the show. And on top of this kind of immersive element that was very fun and sprinkled throughout the production, it also was just a really funny musical.

based on a propaganda short film about the toxicity of marijuana that really was consistent laugh riot from start to finish with a lot of really energetic musical numbers in between.

Alex Miller (59:52.258)
All right, next one is from, goes to Stage Door Theater Company for their production of Sweeney Todd and directed, choreographed, and even, and also music directed by Tanner Kelly. So Eric Fitzgerald went up and saw that one, said it was just a remarkable production that transports you to a dark London filled with all these characters and a throbbing storyline, he says, but yeah, Tanner did it all up there. And he’s a,

Great lead person up there at that stage door.

Alex Miller (01:00:29.138)
And then the next one goes to Robert Michael Sanders at Town Hall Art Center. We’ve talked about Year in Town. Man, this was a great production of a show that a lot of people are familiar with, but some people are kind of think it’s weird or something just because of the title. But then again, that funky stage at Town Hall where doing these big dance numbers are gotta be a real challenge.

as well. but I’m just trying to, I’m sorry, just for a second here, I think we, okay, we’re still on director musicals. So yeah, so this is the last one in this category. So Robert Michael Sanders at Urinetown. Great job.

Toni Tresca (01:01:14.546)
Yeah, now we will be moving on to director in a play. First up, are recognizing Chris Medina for his work directing 12 Angry Men at the Funky Little Theater Company down in the Springs. Our critic, April Took, wrote, pacing and synergy are what make this cast pull off what might be a sleeper. Funky’s artistic director, who also doubles as a snarky juror 10, has aptly guided each actor to hone their character. The online deliveries, the jurors collectively speak

with their body language to perfection. So nice work to Chris down in the springs. Next up, we’re recognizing Jessica Robly for her direction of Betsy’s production of Enemy of the People. This is, as we talked about this a little bit throughout the show, but this is a really strong adaptation of a classic play. There’s no reason that the show should work as well as it does, but it does because of the ebbed direction by Jess and really strong casting that she did as well.

She assembled a team of some of the finest stage actors in the state and their work together created a production that was really masterful and really spoke to our time.

Alex Miller (01:02:28.718)
Yep, for sure. And then over at Aurora Fox Art Center, they took a very familiar old property around the world in 80 days and did a banger job with it. Eric really thought it was great. that this is Rich Cowden’s somewhat new to Fox. think he’s finished his first year and did a great job pinpointing each stop on the global expedition with around the world in 80 days. And then Josie’s Diner, this was

was at Denver Fringe Festival. This is a Two-cent Lion production directed by Gracie Jacobson, who’s one of the founding members of Two-cent Lion. And as Eric said, it was an improvisational element to it. And she did a great job managing all of those elements with the there in Josie’s Diner.

Toni Tresca (01:03:18.92)
Yeah. Next up, we’re recognizing Wendy Franz for her direction of Macbeth at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. She really reimagined this, particularly from the point of view of the witches and made some really interesting directorial choices with this production and a lot of really strong work with the casting and throughout. So I wanted to recognize her for that. Next up, we’re honoring Warren Sherrill for his work directing Misery at Miners Alley Theater. It’s really

Alex Miller (01:03:46.424)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:03:48.196)
And he captured both the humor as well as the terror that is in this Stephen King play adaptation. Goldman’s script can be a little bit difficult, but he really found a strong directorial interpretation that worked with his three actors. And I mean, when you’re working with those three actors, you can’t go wrong. So credit to him for casting the show as well.

Alex Miller (01:04:08.642)
Yeah.

Yeah, just saw Warren last night at the Curious Theater production. We were talking about a case for the existence of God, which he also directed. So we’ll have a review of that on there pretty soon. The next one is for Denver Center Theater Company production, Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. The director was Laura Alcala Baker. This was a really great show. was really, really funny, but really impactful story about a young woman whose sister is killed in an accident.

Toni Tresca (01:04:20.542)
course.

Alex Miller (01:04:42.184)
lot of moving parts, fantastic set, a lot of great performances, and she, Laura, pulled it off well. And then down in the Springs at the Ent Center, Theatre Works, Michael Burke directed the production of Othello. So this Judith Sears, our reviewer down there said it was set in the Civil War South, and Othello’s a Confederate general, and there are a lot of elements of folk songs, and you know, really, really

unique vision by the director to pull this one off for Michael Burke.

Toni Tresca (01:05:18.074)
I’ll take us out and do the last three. So we’re honoring Chris Coleman at the Denver Center for his work of Rubicon. This is a really sharply directed spy thriller that could have fallen on its face. The script is a little bit on the longer side. It’s only for people. You’re like, how do you tell a story that spans decades in this fashion? Well, Chris really managed to work with the team to pull it off very well. So wanted to recognize his work there.

Alex Miller (01:05:30.037)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:05:47.06)
Next up is Bernie Cardell over at Vintage Theatre for his work directing The Glass Menagerie. This was actually Cardell’s 150th production and what a production it was. That’s four-hander. He directed it with great reverence for Tennessee Williams, a written word as well as the underlying symbolisms. Tennessee Williams is a really hard playwright to stage, so it takes a really strong director and that’s what Bernie Cardell is. And so great job, Bernie.

Alex Miller (01:05:56.782)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:06:16.774)
And the final award in this category goes to Sam Gregory for his work directing the Mouse Trap over at Lone Tree Art Center. Sam really, it’s a great play and great direction. He skillfully directed the production, focusing on attention to detail throughout. The play moves at a rapid clip and Sam really just carefully drops the breadcrumbs for this mystery along the way in a really skillful way that even if you know the twist, which I did,

Alex Miller (01:06:25.294)
Great play.

Toni Tresca (01:06:45.556)
you’re still able to kind of go along for a really fun ride that is very rewarding.

Alex Miller (01:06:53.218)
Great. All right, well, into our next category is ensemble. this is sometimes it really is just a great ensemble piece of actors. Sometimes we can’t decide who to name in a particular one. And so we use this category as a catch all because sometimes it’s just that whole cast just works so well together. the first one here that Tony, called out was a chorus line from Family Theater Company, which I think we’ve we’ve talked about a couple of times, but great, great.

work there. then Jukebox for the Algonquin at Miners Alley. This was just such a great team effort by the cast, you know, portraying these these residents at this senior home in Paul Strolli’s play, one of the highlights of the year, I think. And then you up in Candlelight, you’ve mentioned Crazy for You a couple of times, also a big busy musical that that’s just had a great cast. And we also talked about Dracula, a feminist revenge fantasy.

So this was one of those ones, you we called out Annie Barber and Jeffrey Kent, but really the whole group of people there that put that together were just really strong, including Noelia Antweiler and Jess, what’s her last name? Who played the, kind of the, yeah, Jessica Ostrand.

Toni Tresca (01:08:15.516)
Augustin? Yeah.

Alex Miller (01:08:20.046)
It was great as well. Yeah. So, and then the last one I’ll do is Eyes Up, Mouth of Gape at Bundport. So this was their, Bundport’s, I called it in my review, one of their funniest in a couple of years. All their stuff is funny, but this one was like really over the top. It was kind of disgusting in a lot of ways. It was just a ridiculous story. And Bundport only does ensemble work. really, it’s always the four of them. In this case, they did have a fifth actor helping out as well.

Toni Tresca (01:08:20.564)
question.

Toni Tresca (01:08:49.531)
Yeah, it was a collaboration with Square Product Theater based out of Boulder. Emily K. Harrison, who’s a great ensemble telling that story of a pun intended shitty situation. Next in the ensemble category is another production we’ve talked about a little bit already. It’s the Catamounts production of Impossible Things. So this is an immersive piece that it’s about a character who is

Alex Miller (01:08:59.01)
Yep.

Toni Tresca (01:09:14.292)
graduating and it’s about to go into the rest of their life, but doesn’t know what they’re going to do. And so then is confronted by all these storybook characters come to life and this clockwork production that featured a ton of really impressive actors from across the state. And so wanted to shout out how well this piece worked cohesively because it really was a team effort. You could not remove a single person from that show and still have it have the same impact.

Next up is for another production we’ve talked about a little bit already. This is The Pillow Man by Miss Creighton Theater over at the Creepatorium, which as you mentioned, Alex just had a really great ensemble that worked in a really creepy play. Then we are honoring the cast of School of Lies at Bas Blue for their just the great team effort that it took to pull off this couplet done entirely in rhyming couplets, which

Alex Miller (01:09:41.474)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:10:10.322)
with a lesser cast could get old very quickly, but they make it work really well. They make sure you understand what’s going on and you’re also still laughing. So great job to that entire team there. And then the next award in this category goes to the cast of The Squirrels by Westcliff. So as April said, was once engaged, the audience becomes immersed in the life of these hungry and combative squirrels.

Alex Miller (01:10:29.026)
Great play.

Toni Tresca (01:10:38.004)
that you just really get transported into this animalistic world. And she really praised the ensemble here. So wanted to recognize their work. Next up, have You’re in Town at Town Hall Art Center. It’s a great musical. We’ve talked quite a bit about it already throughout the rest of the awards, but it’s a team effort, huge dance show.

everybody’s kind of doing a million things and they still have to be funny. And they really were. And the final winner in this category is the team behind Waitress over at the Arvada Center. Obviously Anne is amazing at the lead, that show really doesn’t work without the rest of the people who work at the diner, the love interest, her doctor love interest, who she enters a tumultuous relationship with.

Alex Miller (01:11:10.635)
yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:11:34.32)
And just all of the supporting cast who fill out the diner. Everybody from the biggest part to the smallest part in the show was really just firing at a very high level.

Alex Miller (01:11:46.688)
So good. Yep. Next category is for musical director. Sometimes the unsung hero, often kind of in the background, they might be on keys or directing the pit. But this first one was a musical director for Cannibal the musical at town hall. was Caleb Wenger, who was actually part of the part of the story. were he was I think he gets does he get shot at some point? He’s he’s yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:12:11.57)
That’s right, he gets shot with an arrow.

Alex Miller (01:12:13.902)
Yeah, he’s definitely, you know, they’re engaging him in the play. was really fun stagecraft. And then Richard Shore for Crazy for You up at Candlelight, which we’ve mentioned several times. And another one we haven’t mentioned that was Million Dollar Quartet at Lowentree Art Center, which I think it was the first time you saw this one. So this is the story about a legendary meeting of some legendary musicians that really required some faithful reproduction of, you

Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Elvis Presley songs in there. And then another.

Toni Tresca (01:12:50.898)
And and Dominique Scott, was the music director there, he’s also in the show. He was playing Jerry Lee Lewis. So he’s on stage. He’s also having to act. He’s another one like Caleb, who is very involved in the show.

Alex Miller (01:12:57.933)
Okay.

Alex Miller (01:13:01.646)
Uh huh. Uh huh. Great. And then David Neils, another very busy music director on Colorado stages did a Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of, is it 1837? At the Arvada, 1812 at the Arvada Center. yeah, David always does great work. And then School of Rock.

Toni Tresca (01:13:14.676)
1812.

Toni Tresca (01:13:21.822)
And that was scary, that was pretty scary for David too, because David was, he hates being on stage in the center of attention. And Lynn Collins, she put him right in the center of the stage. He had to engage and talk to the audience. So, but he really rose to the occasion there.

Alex Miller (01:13:27.234)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (01:13:37.97)
All right. And then at Miners Alley School of Rock, which we’ve mentioned, the music director was Alex Steinhorn. So this is tricky show. It’s got sort of a house band that’s driving in the background, but it’s also got the band of the students. So you basically have two distinct sets of musicians that you’ve got to keep track of. So handled them well.

Performance Now did the Music Man this year, Andrew Fisher was called that by Eric Fitzgerald for really bringing it in that production. And then The Secret Garden up at Candlelight, saw this one, Katie Hughes was the music director. And we’ve talked about this a bunch, what was the music like in that show?

Toni Tresca (01:14:22.684)
It’s really luscious, it’s traditional in a lot of ways, but it’s very full, it requires really skilled orchestral players. And Katie at the helm was able to assemble that team and directed them to perfection, I mean. The score for Secret Garden has stuck around for so many years for a reason. It’s pretty iconic and Katie just really did a great job with it.

Alex Miller (01:14:49.998)
All right, you wanna bring out the, do the last two in this category?

Toni Tresca (01:14:53.204)
Sure, so if you’ve been listening so far, you’re going to recognize the names of these next two winners. It’s You’re in Town at Town Hall Art Center, the music director at Dan Graber, who did a really nice job coordinating a bunch of different musical styles. You’re in Town is a satirical send up of musical theater. And so there’s everything from like your traditional patter song to the Big I Want song. And he really was able to transition between all these different musical genres very well.

Alex Miller (01:15:21.902)
Great job.

Toni Tresca (01:15:21.906)
And then the final winner in this category is Susan Drash, is for her work in Waitress over at the Arvada Center. Susan is a, she’s been, she’s worked on a number of Broadway productions, touring shows. So she’s a real professional and she knows what she’s doing. And Waitress is a very demanding score, but she really knocked it out of the park.

Alex Miller (01:15:44.948)
All right. One of my favorite categories, Original Play or Musical. this is a this was a great year for original work here in Colorado, starting off with 237 Virginia Avenue, local theater played by Matt Myers, which was, boy, how do you even describe it? It’s set at different points. So it’s it all they all take place at this one address and starting out like in the frontier days and moving up.

Toni Tresca (01:15:53.79)
Thank

Alex Miller (01:16:12.61)
decades through the Civil War and just funny, but also really intense and creative play. So great job by Matt Myers and I hope that gets some runs elsewhere. And then another one we’ve talked about a number of times was Cheyenne by Cipriana Ortega that you really liked quite a bit. I think it was a piece that he was working on for a number of years that he really finally got to the stage.

Toni Tresca (01:16:41.726)
That’s right. Yeah, it’s about the kind of the things that artists have to do, the compromises that they have to make in order to get their art scene and the kind of the tension between commercial pressures versus artistic pressures. It really worked well. Next winner in this category for original play or musical goes to Buntport for their production of Eyes Up Mount The Gate. It was, as we’ve said already, it was one of their funniest in years.

It’s about the Dave Matthews band releasing a bunch of shit through a bridge that hit a ferry. It really shouldn’t work. yet, yeah, it’s true story. That’s true. And it shouldn’t work. And yet somehow it does ever so delightfully.

Alex Miller (01:17:15.374)
True story. Yes.

Alex Miller (01:17:27.534)
Yep, and we’ll talk about the fantastic costumes in that in a little bit.

Toni Tresca (01:17:31.22)
We also wanted to recognize Josie’s Diner by Two Cent Lions. It was an immersive comedy that really just was the brainchild of playwright and company founder Kevin Douglas. It just really worked. It’s set in this queer coffee establishment and it’s about these just interpersonal relationships that arise from that. You got coffee and some pastries in it too, so it’s a fun warm time.

Alex Miller (01:17:59.148)
Yep. Another one we’ve talked about, Jukebox for the Algonquin by Paul Strolli. So Paul is associated with the Purple Rose Theater, Jeff Daniels Theater in Chicago, and came to town and also appeared in the play. Really touching story, but also quite funny about this group of seniors and really, really strong piece. And I think he’s going to have some great success getting it staged in other theaters as well. So Dana Kane for the Android’s New Soul.

that we’ve talked about a couple of times, as well as the Bluebird from Bubba Bashele at Theater Autobus. So all kinds of great new works in Colorado this year, and those are our winners.

Toni Tresca (01:18:43.326)
Yeah. Now we’re going to move on to best plays. So these are just plays that were really excellent and we wanted to recognize those. So first up is Enemy of the People by Betsy. This was the Mark Reagan adaptation of the classic play about the water crisis that had, Mark was able to show, still had a lot of contemporary resonance and through his adaptation and Jess’s direction and a lot of performances really just made this play work very well. Another one.

Alex Miller (01:19:12.204)
Really great.

Toni Tresca (01:19:13.65)
Another one that we thought was a really excellent production was Around the World in 80 Days, by Aurora Fox. We talked about this a little bit, Rich Cowden is the director. It’s a very fast paced show that is based on the Jules Verne novel. Very fun, family friendly, kind of setting the Aurora Fox back on a really strong path. really strong work to that whole team there. And next up was For Misery over at Miners Alley Theater, which

we’ve talked about as well, Stephen King adaptation that is very hard to work on the stage, particularly because everybody knows that 1990 movie so well. But Warren Sherrill and the team over at Miners Alley did a bang up job with the show.

And then over at the Denver Center, Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, did both of you and I, I know we’re very impressed with how well this worked on the stage. It’s based off of a book and it’s about it’s kind of this heartbreaking journey of this girl who’s just struggling to be accepted by her family and by the white people around her, her relationships that she goes through. it was a

really affecting peace.

Alex Miller (01:20:32.142)
Really enjoyed that one. Othello 2024 at Firehouse, which we’ve talked about a couple of times. Firehouse is on fire these days. They’ve been rolling out a lot of really strong stuff in the last couple of years, and this was definitely a highlight of their season. Also, Springs Ensemble Theater Company with Proof, best play nod there.

And they are kind of all over the map sometimes. They do some pretty off the wall stuff. Proof was, I think, a little bit more mainstream, but did a great job with it, according to our reviewer, April. And then we talked about Red at Town Hall. So Eric Fitzgerald said, it was just a big testament to Matthew Kepler’s direction, allowing the script to speak for itself through penetrating dialogue and well-defined intentions without being heavy-handed.

And that’s the, and then we got Glassman Adry, which we’ve talked about a couple of times, which Eric also really, really, really loved and of course had the great performances by Emma Messenger and some others. So now we can talk about best comedy. What do we have here, Tony?

Toni Tresca (01:21:43.55)
So we have got art over at Aurora Fox Art Center, which is a three-hander we’ve talked about quite a bit already. Very fun. Another play kind of about the pressures of the artistic world. It’s a place a lot of some people don’t really like, but I know that this production really, really did work. We’re also honoring Four Old Broads by Funky Little Theater Company. April.

Alex Miller (01:21:55.008)
So great. Loved it.

Toni Tresca (01:22:09.012)
said that the comic timing and diverse personalities showcased in this amusing mystery set in the Southern retirement home was excellent. There’s boisterous chatter, feisty clashes in a fast-paced fun comedy. So really great work there. And then another production we’ve mentioned already, but this is POTUS by Curious Theatre Company. Super fun, super fast, all female and…

You know, it was a real nice palate cleanser ahead of the election, even if things maybe didn’t go the way people wanted it to.

Alex Miller (01:22:46.294)
Yep. And then back to School for Lies up at Bob Blue. Really great comedy, great farce. As we talked about David Ives. never disappoints with his clever scripts. And this one was a real, real fun one with a great cast.

Betsy’s production of the Ballad of Pella Aguilar. Also, you know, not the perfect script, but a really fun comedy with some great performances, including some like particularly evil political operatives that were sort of despicable, but quite funny. And then the Thanksgiving play, which, you know, it’s been a while since we’ve seen that around here, but you got to check it out at Springs Ensemble Theatre Company, Tony. And, you know, I had my issues with it when I saw it.

curious a few years ago, but it really does have some fun parts to it.

Toni Tresca (01:23:37.212)
Yeah, and that’s the last winner for our Best Comedy category. Now we will move on to Best Musical. And our winners in this category are all productions that we’ve talked about already. So I’m just going to go ahead and kind of rapid fire through these. So our winners in the category for Best Musical are A Chorus Line by Family Theater Company, Cabaret by Platte Valley, Crazy for You by Candlelight, Natasha Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812,

by the Arvada Center, Reefer Madness by Open Stage Theater, The School of Rock by Miners Alley Theater Company, You’re in Town by Town Hall Art Center, and Waitress by the Arvada Center. So really, yeah. You took the words right out of my mouth, Alex. I was just about to say, it was a very strong year for musicals. There are so many other musicals that got left on the cutting room floor.

Alex Miller (01:24:20.14)
but a great year for musicals.

Toni Tresca (01:24:34.696)
But these are really what we think are some of the cream of the crop and really showcase some of the exciting musical work done by Colorado.

Alex Miller (01:24:42.786)
Yeah. Speaking of musicals, our next category is choreography. So again, Family Theater Company, A Chorus Line recipients are Ashley Coffee and Letitia. Letitia, whoops, I’m sorry here. I’m just trying to see what.

Let’s see, Westerman. Oh, I’m sorry. My screen is messing up here. I can’t see them all. Anyway, that was for Chorus Line. Cabaret, so Kelly Van Osbry who directed and also choreographed this for Platte Valley Theater Arts. in a candlelight in Johnstown, Crazy for You, choreographed by Shana Walker.

Parker Arts did a production of Legally Blonde choreographed by Piper Lindsay Arpan and done by Sasquatch Productions, which we haven’t talked about that one a lot, Tony, but you saw it,

Toni Tresca (01:25:38.396)
I did, and it was a very solid production of Legally Blonde. And in particular, thought that Piper’s choreography really was insanely complicated and challenging, but the local team of performers really executed it at a very high level.

Alex Miller (01:26:00.126)
All right, and the last one for this category of choreography is Ronnie Stark, who choreographed, You’re in Town at Town Hall Art Center. Again, I can’t stress enough how challenging it must be to stage big musicals on that postage stamp size stage. And that was really, those really were some really big numbers in there for that show. Cool, another fun category coming up. Tony, what’s this one?

Toni Tresca (01:26:27.486)
We’re doing costumes. So first off, we’re starting off with cabaret at Platte Valley, Nicole Harrison for her work there. It’s a big production and she did, she kind of outdid herself with a bunch of sexy costumings that are can be, that are versatile enough that they can be trans, that the characters and the Kit Kat Club can play a variety of characters in the show. Her stuff, particularly, I thought all of her stuff with Sally Bowles and the MC were,

Alex Miller (01:26:29.154)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (01:26:40.236)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:26:56.498)
really strong, so wanted to recognize her work in that category. Next up we’ve got Confederate, done by Curious Theater, Nicole Watts. She did a lot of convertible costumes. So this play was set across two different time periods. And so almost all of the actors had to play different, all of the actors had to play at least two roles. And so all of the costumes had to be converted and often on stage in view of the audience. So.

You couldn’t hide any of the material and Nicole did a really strong, a really good job.

Alex Miller (01:27:24.909)
Nope.

Toni Tresca (01:27:30.258)
Then our next winner is Claire Hinkel for her work on Dracula over at the Arvada Center. Great stuff just all around. I mean, particularly just want to shout out Jeffrey Kent’s outfit as Dracula that had a really gentlemanly flamboyant vamp quality as well. then kind of contrasting with some of the other work that she did in this production, the straight jacket that she designed for Renfield, all of the really

Alex Miller (01:27:44.526)
You

Toni Tresca (01:27:58.132)
cool heroine costume that Annie Barber got to Don as Nina. It was really just strong, strong work by Claire.

Alex Miller (01:28:05.186)
Yeah, I think if I had to pick one top winner for costumes, would have been Claire. Those were just boffo. They were so good.

Toni Tresca (01:28:14.576)
Another strong competitor though would also be our next winner in this category, which is the ensemble of Buntport for their work on Eyes Up, Mouth at Gate and the absolutely hysterical costumes that they designed. all of the people were playing humanized versions of the items involved in the boating accident. So there was a boat, there was a tour bus, there was the bridge itself, there was this tower that was looming.

Alex Miller (01:28:24.398)
Yes.

Alex Miller (01:28:35.01)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (01:28:40.174)
Sears Tower, yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:28:43.369)
And then the document, and then Aaron Rollman was playing the documentarian who looked appropriately kind of NPR-y in nature.

Alex Miller (01:28:50.646)
Yeah, yeah, they really went all in on these costumes. And of course, compared to the budget for the Arvada Center, Budport had a lot less to work with. They came out with these really, really, really great, great outfits.

Toni Tresca (01:29:05.084)
Yeah. Next up, we’re recognizing Megan Anderson Doyle for her Viking costumes that she was able to create in Hamlet at the Denver Center. It’s a really cool reimagining done by Chris Coleman there to set it in the Viking times. And Megan really had a field day designing all these costumes with different furs and pelts and helmets and swords and different things, accessories and things like that. Horns, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the horns. You’re right, Alex.

Alex Miller (01:29:10.316)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (01:29:27.608)
Yeah.

Toni Tresca (01:29:33.908)
And so just really cool, strong work from Megan in a kind of cool take on Hamlet.

Toni Tresca (01:29:41.64)
Then we got Sarah Stark for her work on Natasha Pierre at the Arvada Center. A lot of different costumes she had to design here that had to look kind of appropriately Russian in nature. And she did a really cool job with that. Next winner here is Terry Gerard for School of Lies at Bas Blue. And this was, you and I saw this together, really colorful costumes that were very appropriately kind of character-y.

So you immediately recognize who all of these kind of people were from those costumes.

Alex Miller (01:30:16.128)
Yeah, they were really fun costumes and also had just crazy ass wigs to go along with them as well. And they were they were like pastel colors and just really fun.

Toni Tresca (01:30:26.578)
Yeah. Next winner in this category are the costumes behind the costume team behind the Little Mermaid at the Fine Arts Center. Just a bunch of different effervescent costumes over there that allowed the characters to move really seamlessly, which is really important in that musical show that you’re doing. Like you mentioned, they created a whole bunch of cool kind of complex puppets, but also blend of regular costumes as well. So wanted to recognize the strong work there.

And then the final winner in this category is Cole Emerine for his work over at Vintage Theater’s production of The Legend of Georgia McBride. In particular, I wanna shout this out because of how many costume changes have to happen live on stage. This is a show about a drag, about a Elvis impersonator who turns into a drag performer. And so all of the drag outfits, not to mention the Elvis outfits are

had to be really specific in order to work, and Cole did a really strong job pulling just all of these crazy items for characters to accessorize with.

Alex Miller (01:31:36.494)
Yep. All right. Our next category is lighting. this is a of, know, tech category, but still super important. And it was was hard not to mention glowing, which was the other busses second show of the year. was about these moths and whole thing is set in darkness. there’s also a lot of light involved in all in a lot of different kinds of light, like handheld lights and lamps and string lights.

All the stuff that really contributed to make a really cool visual presentation. Misery at Miners Alley, Vance McKenzie, I’m sorry, I should say glowing, the light designer was Sean Mallory. Misery at Vance McKenzie for the lighting in that show at Miners Alley. Tony, that one, it’s pretty dark show, was the lighting on the grayer, blacker side.

Toni Tresca (01:32:29.576)
Definitely on the more eerie side, but I think what really was so impressive about Vance’s work in this show is, Misery is a show that has a lot of transitions. It feels like a film script in that way. And so the lighting transitions really help with that. There’s also a lot of storms that happen throughout the show. And so his work was really essential in making that believable on stage.

Alex Miller (01:32:50.478)
Okay. And then in the Springs rip cord at Springs Ensemble Theater Company, reviewer Judith named Kyle Laboria for lighting. said that strobe lighting and explosive sounds of an executioner throwing a switch created the terror of a haunted house on a very small stage for that production down in the Springs. And then Brian Miller for the Android’s new soul. again, this is one we’ve mentioned a number of times. What was the lighting like in that show Tony?

Toni Tresca (01:33:21.672)
super duper colorful and crazy. There were so many lighting cues throughout that show and the Bug Theater is a really complicated space to actually light in and he was lighting on multiple levels as well because there was these platforms that he was having to light so he really did a custom lighting rig in there that was super sci-fi colorful and really really sharp and effective.

Alex Miller (01:33:48.558)
All right, and the last one in this category is for the Lehman Trilogy at the Denver Center, lighting by Jian Chang. So the Lehman Trilogy is a very dark show. They’re all wearing, they’re wearing black, the same black costumes the whole time. But Jian Chang did a really nice job of, you know, all the different shades of black and gray and making the scenic design stand out despite all that darkness.

Toni Tresca (01:34:16.68)
Yeah. Now we’re moving on, speaking of scenery, to best scenic design. So in this category, we want to honor Tina Anderson for her work at the Arvada Center for the production of Dracula. It’s another Baphos set from her that was highly functional while also not being too cluttered. was a really cool kind of moody, Gothic piece that didn’t look like any other version of Dracula’s castle that we’ve seen before.

Alex Miller (01:34:43.042)
Yeah, a lot of really cool levels to it.

Toni Tresca (01:34:45.46)
Next up is Lex Lang for her for their work designing Emma at the Denver Center. This is not one of my favorite shows the Denver Center did, but there is no denying that the kind of Bridgerton storybook come to life set that they designed for it absolutely popped. It was so colorful and right from the second when you walk in, you just demanded your attention. So wanted to shout out the work that they did there.

Alex Miller (01:35:01.998)
I’m go.

Toni Tresca (01:35:14.938)
Next up is the creative team of the immersive production, Jen and Gothic by the band of Tufts. This was staged at the Ellie Cochland, in and around the Ellie Cochland Opera House, I should say. You and I both saw this and you kind of lose count of how many different performance spaces there are, because they’re just performing upstairs in the lobby, around the theater, downstairs, in the orchestra pit, in the loading dock.

Alex Miller (01:35:35.523)
Yeah.

Alex Miller (01:35:41.602)
Yeah. Yep.

Toni Tresca (01:35:43.08)
with the band setting up in different places. There’s the need to light all these different locations, have the scenic elements in it and the sound in all of it. And it was just a really cool immersive production. So I wanted to honor the scenic design. And then next up is for Springs Ensemble Theater’s production of God of Carnage, Eric Mattson, a Judas Sears, said it was a tastefully decorated living room of the two main characters that go together.

Alex Miller (01:35:55.106)
Yeah, huge challenge.

Toni Tresca (01:36:10.91)
Three of the wall pieces are actually flat screens, which displays change to illustrate and respond to the play’s action. It’s kind of like if the set design became a Greek chorus. So really nice work to Eric Mattson.

Alex Miller (01:36:27.886)
Great, well no scenic design category would be complete without Brian Mulgrave, whose amazing sets have been gracing Colorado stages, particularly at the Arvada Center for many years. So this set for the Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, amazing photos, know, looking at this set and also the way, as you mentioned, that was staged in kind of an immersive way in the smaller theater there at the Arvada Center.

Not yet. I’m not your perfect Mexican daughter at the Denver Center. So the scenic design was by Arnel Sancianco. This set was, it was so interesting. there was a several levels of it. There was a whole rack of shit like hanging over the whole thing. And it would come down at points. There was a really interesting depiction of the deceased daughter by like just having her dress in this like sort of a, it was like a phone booth, like a transparent like case.

and also the quinceañera dress winds up in there. So really, really cool effects on stage there with scenic design there. Don Fuller for Vintage Theaters Production of The Glass Menagerie. So you saw this one. What was that set like, Tony?

Toni Tresca (01:37:36.848)
Yeah, so was super surrealist. Murals covered the back wall with exaggerated Picasso-like paintings that really evoke a strong response from you when you look at them because you can’t quite tell what’s going on. And every single inch of the playing space was used appropriately without feeling constrained in that kind of tinier of the three vintage spaces. But it worked really well.

And then finally, was wanted to recognize Roger Hanna for the work on Waiting for Godot at Bas Blue. This is one I saw and Roger used this technique called the infinity mirror, which is when you position two different mirrors facing each other to kind of create that infinite effect. And with a show like Waiting for Godot, which is all about the space in between that waitingness of it, this kind of larger framing device of the infinity mirror design coupled with really

Alex Miller (01:38:04.801)
All right.

Toni Tresca (01:38:33.246)
kind of striking set pieces that filled out the rest of the set where they’re just waiting throughout the whole show. Really, really strong, strong work.

Alex Miller (01:38:45.462)
Great. All right. Now we’re moving into sound design. So we’re getting towards the end here at Max Silverman for Acts of Faith at Local Theater Company. You saw this one, Tony, what kind of the sound elements in that show?

Toni Tresca (01:38:57.222)
So this is a travel around the world show. A lot of it’s set in Africa and so a lot of different water sounds. It’s very spiritual. there’s interplays between heaven, powers and demons. And so he had to kind of create what those different worlds sound like. And I thought Max just did a really strong job kind of taking this production that I had seen before, but really elevating it through the work, through the use of his sound effects and design throughout the show.

Alex Miller (01:39:28.974)
Another one goes to Jason Ducat for the Avada Center’s production of Dracula, feminist revenge fantasy. this was, sometimes sound designers get, know, sometimes you just like, okay, we don’t need to sound every second, but Jason really did do that. And it really worked. There was just, cause it’s such a creepy story and there’s just always something interesting going on sound wise in that show and did a great job, you know, building on the course of the amazing set that went along with it. So.

And then at Springs Ensemble Theater Company, again for Ripcord, Kyle Laboria, as Judith Sears called out this one. I don’t have information about specifics there, but that one goes to Kyle Laboria for Ripcord. And then finally in sound design, Alex Billman for DCPA’s production of Where Did We Sit on the Bus. Tony, you remember by you nominated this one for sound?

Toni Tresca (01:40:23.026)
Yes, because it is live. This production is a hip hop musical that requires live mixing, audio mixing and vocal looping on stage throughout the entire production. In addition to a shit ton of other sound effects that are going on throughout this world, because you’re kind of in the mind of this character. It’s like the memory palace and you’re just being transported around via sound effects. So if we, this, if we didn’t nominate Alex Billman for

for their work on where did we sit on the bus? What are we even doing in the sound category, frankly is my opinion. And then I do want to go back briefly. We, one other winner in this category with John Houser for his work at Miner’s Alley for Misery. We’ve shouted out his work performance wise in School of Rock, but as we mentioned, he’s also does technical work for the company and his sound design for Misery was the best of the best in terms of creepy sound effects on stage.

Alex Miller (01:40:51.694)
You

Alex Miller (01:40:55.498)
Okay. Yeah, that sounds like it was quite a challenge.

Alex Miller (01:41:03.994)
yeah.

Alex Miller (01:41:22.171)
All right, two more categories to go. What’s next?

Toni Tresca (01:41:22.259)
Yeah.

Next, we’re doing immersive. first up is Gin and Gothic by Band of Tufts. This is an immersive production about the Brontes that was staged at the Ellie. It’s a hard, it was a challenging piece to put together. I know from talking with the creative team, but it really came together well. It was cool to be transported to all of these different crazy settings throughout the characters lives all around the building. Next up is for

Denver Immersive and their work organizing the Immersive Invitational. Full disclosure here, I was one of the judges there, but I didn’t do any of the organizing for that. I just showed up and judged the amazing work that the teams did creating 48-hour, immersive pieces in 48 hours. That was all the work of Denver Immersive who put this whole thing together. It was an incredible festival, a great community building event, and I’m looking forward to attending.

the second annual immersive invitational in 2025 this year in November.

The final winner in this category is one we’ve talked about already, but it is Impossible Things. This is the Catamounts, plus work by Lonnie Hansen. It’s an amazing location with great cast and a fun story that was built around Lonnie’s installation that he created about all these like storybook characters that’s on full display. Still, it’s permanent exhibition.

Alex Miller (01:42:52.652)
Yep. All right, last but not least, intimacy and fight direction. So this is a new category, but there’s a lot of this going on. So April took us the end centers production of Henry IV and V. There’s a lot of sword fighting in it. And there’s also some intimacy direction. really, I don’t have the name of the director here for some reason, but we will let them know.

Also for Misery, Amy Arpan, a lot of striking fight choreography, intense physicality. So not swords, but really intense. What’s the fighting like in that?

Toni Tresca (01:43:38.622)
There is a hammer that gets used on a kneecap very effectively. There’s a lot of hand-to-hand kind of struggles that are in there. And I would also say the intimacy direction in here was, because she also helped with that. And it was very effective in that kind of central relationship between Annie and Paul. It’s appropriately too intimate, or I should say inappropriately too intimate.

Alex Miller (01:43:44.887)
Toni Tresca (01:44:07.013)
because she’s his nurse, but also kind of wants to be his lover. And so in addition to the strong bite work, the intimacy direction was very good too.

Alex Miller (01:44:17.198)
This last one really was really impressive feat of intimacy direction by Maya Veniz-Prentis with Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter at the Denver Center. And I’ll just read you the bit that I wrote in my review. In one of the most touching and inventive sex scenes I’ve seen on stage, Maya Veniz-Prentis guides the couple through first time awkwardness to create a moment that’s as sweet as it is funny. So these are teenagers, so it’s really, really touchy. So they do it fully clothed, but they go through the motions that only

sort of replicate the act while entirely convincing us that that’s what’s happening. It’s a neat example of how to convincingly depict intercourse without necessarily showing it. So really, really nice work there by Maya Venise Prentiss. So that is it. That is all our awards. I know we had a lot of them and we’ve gone on for a while, we’ve, and we probably, we certainly could have done more, but we just can’t get to everything. I’m sorry. You know, I think about some of the theaters we didn’t get to this year, like.

a Thunder River up in the hills and all the way down to Rango and AmeriClairs. you know, we just can’t get to all of them, but we’re doing our best. that is a big congrats to all the winners.

Toni Tresca (01:45:28.488)
Yeah, and we will have all of them posted online in just a bit. And we will have this recording up as our podcast on Monday or Tuesday. So from all of us here at OnStage Colorado, we want to wish a big congratulations to all of the winners and we hope you have a great night.

Alex Miller (01:45:47.246)
Yep. And for all those theater artists out there gearing up for the new year, break legs all around. We can’t wait to see everything you’ve got in the store for 2025.

Alex Miller (01:45:59.784)
All right.