Category: Denver Actors Fund

‘Without your help, I never would have been able to see a light at the end of this very long tunnel.’ Aid recipient: Rob Riney has performed on stages around the state for more than 10 years, most recently in the Aurora Fox’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Equinox Theatre’s Disaster The Musical and the… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Rob Riney

  Aid recipient: Emma Maxfield is a busy local actor currently performing in the Arvada Center’s children’s theatre production of Seussical and having just understudied the two female roles in BDT Stage’s I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change in Boulder. She previously starred as Julia in Performance Now’s The Wedding Singer and played Taylor… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Emma Maxfield

Aid recipient: Maggie Lamb (who long went by the name Margie), had been performing in the local theatre community for two decades when she was cast as the bipolar wife and mother Diana in Next to Normal, and it changed the trajectory of her stage career forever. Maggie would never be looked at the same… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Maggie Lamb

Aid recipient: Fort Collins native Will Ferrie, a graduate of Rocky Mountain High School, is an award-winning actor and longtime member of OpenStage & Company in Fort Collins who most recently played Sir Robin in Monty Python’s Spamalot. He won the OPUS Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his work as Bartley in The Cripple… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Will Ferrie

The actor: Xavier Frétard was a longtime circus performer who came to Colorado Springs in his early 20s and performed for 15 years with the Millibo Art Theatre in Manitou Springs. His signature routine, according to co-founder Birgitta De Pree, was riding a tall bicycle he built while wearing 5-foot stilts and a red top… Continue reading Denver Actors fund in Action: Xavier Frétard

Aid recipient: Tresha Farris is a 25-year-old Colorado native who studied acting and writing at the University of Colorado Denver and at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts through its Education classes. She most recently played Cordelia in Fearless Theatre’s production of “King Lear” and was in the ensemble of an original play called… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Tresha Farris

  Aid recipient: Broc Timmerman of Loveland has been an actor at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown for most of its 10-year existence, most recently as a tumbling salt shaker in Beauty and the Beast; in the ensemble of Kiss Me, Kate; as Tenario in Man of La Mancha, and, coming up next, in Newsies.… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Broc Timmerman

Aid recipient: Gloria Shanstrom’s involvement in the Colorado performing-arts community began in 1985 as an usher at Boettcher Concert Hall. She was named the  House Manager at the Auditorium Theatre (now the Ellie Caulkins Opera House) in 1997, then the Buell Theatre just before it opened in 1991. In 1997, she was hired as a… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Gloria Shanstrom

  Aid recipient: Tim Campbell is a well-known local actor currently working as the Food Service Manager at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, located 45 miles north of Denver in Johnstown. Tim, a graduate of Lakewood High School and Metropolitan State University of Denver, most recently played bumbling alcoholic uncle Billy in Candlelight’s A Wonderful Life. Other… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Tim Campbell

Aid recipient: Denver actor Jeff Jesmer, who works at many Denver theatres as both an actor and scenic builder/designer, is currently appearing as David Cameron in Vintage Theatre’s “The Audience.” Other recent roles include  John Proctor in “The Crucible,”  Richard in “The Lion in Winter” and Paul in “The Champagne Charlie Stakes” (all for Firehouse… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Jeff Jesmer

‘Because of this help, I am able to stay active and stay walking’ Aid recipient: Trenton J. Schindele of Northglenn is a longtime actor for the Phamaly Theatre Company, having appeared in many productions including “Evita,” “Fuddy Meers,” “Cabaret” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” (“As Motel, Trenton Schindele is authentic and down-to-earth,” wrote Juliet Wittman… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Trenton J. Schindele

  Aid recipient: Jay Louden has been a longtime actor and director with the Evergreen Players, having most recently directed “The Dining Room” and performed in “The Explorer’s Club.” and “Enchanted April.” He has directed more than 30 productions, including “The 39 Steps” last month for StageDoor Theatre in Conifer.  Last year, he appeared in… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Jay Louden

Aid recipient: Allison Caw is a Philadelphia native who earned her MFA in Theatre at Naropa University in Boulder and recently appeared in Off-Center’s “The Wild Party” for the Denver Center at the Stanley Marketplace. Other Colorado credits include “_______, An Opera,” and “Beowulf, A Thousand Years Of Baggage” for The Catamounts. She has been… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Alli Caw

Financial-aid recipient: Don Gabenski has been performing for 15 years with Phamaly Theatre Company, which exists to provide performance opportunities to actors with disabilities, and more recently Spoke N Motion, Denver’s only fully integrated dance company. Phamaly highlights have included playing the patriarch Jacob in “Joseph and Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” The Wiz,” “Guys and Dolls,”… Continue reading Denver Actors Fund in Action: Don Gabenski

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

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

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

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

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