I started the True West Awards in 2013 – the same year I started The Denver Actors Fund, an all-volunteer nonprofit that helps Colorado theater artists pay down their medical bills.

And I started both programs with a colostomy bag attached to my gut – the result of what I playfully call my “colon blow.” After a foot of it was removed in a frantic emergency surgery that left my stomach looking like a ballpark frank ’n beans in a bun, a clever local playwright named Josh Hartwell dubbed what remained as my “semi-colon.”

I had just left my job of 20 years at The Denver Post. Thank all that is holy, my health insurance had not (yet) left me. During the five necessary months between surgeries to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, I took a good look around at the community I had been covering as a journalist since 2001. I saw four people under 40 battling cancer. One, a local technician 20 years my junior, had just lost his entire colon. Another, who has since died, was a single mom. I saw another director who had been partially but permanently paralyzed by a botched routine shoulder surgery. Everywhere I looked, people were scrambling to help in disorganized ways.

When I finally had what they call the “takedown” surgery that took away my bag and gave back my life, I finally went on Facebook and told folks what I’d been up to.

I quickly heard back from a local playwright and distinguished military veteran who had done two tours in Afghanistan. He had a colostomy bag, too, and was way overdue for his second surgery because his military health benefits had run out – and his insurance company canceled his takedown. Now he would have to wait until he could fully pay off the first surgery before doctors could proceed with the second. To make a bad situation downright obscene, he had also run out of the disposable bags you have to change at least once a week or risk infection because he could not afford them. I asked for his address and immediately dropped off my extras on the porch of the modest duplex he was renting.

News flash (not): Our health-care system is broken.

Talking about all this with Christopher Boeckx, an actor, lawyer and now an Arapahoe County magistrate, it seemed so simple. If we had a fund with some money already in it, I could have gone online, ordered that man some bags and had them overnighted to him. From that, Boeckx and I started the Denver Actors Fund, which has since paid down Colorado theater artists’ medical bills by $1.5 million.

Around that time, I lost my journalistic stomach (pun intended) for dispensing traditional annual theater awards – the kind with nominations and categories and winners. Whether it’s the Oscars or the Henry Awards or my own original Denver Post Ovation Awards, no matter how positive your intentions are, you are going to leave those unnominated – and 80 percent of those that are – feeling like losers.

In my recovery year, I transitioned my old Ovation Awards into the True West Awards, a daily December writing project that aspires only to tell 30 positive stories from the year. I call it “30 Days, 30 Bouquets.” Think of them as an old-school ring-and-run that leaves flowers on an unsuspecting porch rather than a fiery bag of you-know-what.

With no categories or nominations, the hope is that, from one day to the next, those honored get a surprise boost during the holidays, and no one can feel dissed because no one (should) see it coming.

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Today, my worlds collide because I’m shamelessly using this platform of positivity in the Denver Gazette to lay flowers at those in the Colorado theater community who give back by giving to the Denver Actors Fund.

In 2024, 26 Colorado theater companies, five school groups and a select group of creative individuals proactively raised $134,000 for the Denver Actors Fund, which in turn has paid down Colorado theater artists’ medical bills by $236,000 for the year.

I can talk with all the bluster in the world about all the good my little side labor of love aspires to do for artists in this community. But it’s all talk without the companies that hire those artists stepping up and giving back. Because that $134,000 represents 57% of the funds we had to send out this year. One doesn’t happen without the other.

We’re grateful for the participation of all 26 of those companies, but three warrant special recognition because they have made the extraordinary ongoing commitment to donate 100% of all proceeds from one designated performance of every production to the Denver Actors Fund. They are the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center, which led the way with $27,103 in 2024; Miners Alley Playhouse in Golden with $21,656; and the mighty little Firehouse Theater Company at the Colorado Free University with $6,081. Others that help in large ways include the Arvada Center with $6,076, Candlelight Dinner Playhouse with $5,555 and Vintage Theatre with $3,296. BDT Stage closed in January, but not before raising $6,714 in one glorious night. 

Keep in mind, the DAF eligibility pool includes every artist in the state. And there are more than 80 theater companies in all. In the past 72 hours alone, we’ve helped a stroke victim pay for his cognitive, physical and speech therapy; an actor who’s recovering from an ovarian cyst; and another navigating the expensive terrain of Crohn’s disease.

Remember the guy with the botched shoulder surgery? That was Robert Michael Sanders, who has had a direct hand in helping to raise more than $125,000 for the DAF since 2013. Since he was named Executive Director of the Town Hall Arts Center in 2021, designated performances have generated $96,000 for the DAF. 

“From a person who did not know they would ever need the DAF to discovering first-hand how truly scared and lost and alone a major health event can feel, that all drew me to do everything possible to support this organization,” Sanders said. “When I went to my board and explained why this commitment is so important, they didn’t ask why, they asked, ‘How can we do more?’

“Who we are really helping are the performers on our stage, and on other stages, and the technicians and the backstage artists, so that they can continue to tell stories and take care of themselves. Without them, it doesn’t matter how many tickets you sell. You don’t have a show.”

But here’s what should make your heart grow three sizes: A huge chunk of DAF revenue is raised by young people under 18. Eli Testa, a now legendary (to us) college freshman, created a teen company called Future is Bright when he was 14 just to raise money for the DAF through an annual, all-kids cabaret that raised an astonishing $17,045 in January – and $37,000 over the past three years.

Students at Denver School of the Arts have held fundraisers for the DAF every year since 2014, including a camaraderie-building rite of passage called the Drama Dash that raised $9,645 in September, and $42,000 overall.

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This is why we do it

The margins at a small theater company like Firehouse are razor-thin. But Producing Artistic Director Helen Hand said supporting the Denver Actors Fund is important, “and we are committed to keep doing it.

“We are proud of the shows we are producing at Firehouse, but the reason we are able to do what we do is largely because of the artists who come here and work with us,” she said. “And they clearly appreciate our commitment to an organization that is committed to helping them. Knowing we have their back with regard to health care and other traumas they experience increases our credibility with our actors and creates a sense of partnership that results in better work.”

It matters to actor Candace Joice, who in 2020 held a bake sale that raised $369 welcome dollars for the DAF. She could not have known then that, four years later, she would need more than $8,000 in bills assistance to have some pre-cancerous lumps removed.

“That was an emotionally and physically taxing journey that spanned many months of 2024, including MRIs and biopsies and surgery,” Joice said. “ The Denver Actors Fund took away that huge financial burden so I could focus my energy into my health. What a beautiful gift. It’s no exaggeration to say that the DAF rescued me this year.”

But here’s what’s so organic about all of this: When Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company manager Mark Ragan read that the DAF had stepped up to help a woman who has performed with his company, he was moved to donate $10,000 of his own money to replenish the DAF’s coffers.

Community helping community.

Companies supporting the Denver Actors Fund in 2024:

• Town Hall Arts Center: $27,103
• Miners Alley Playhouse: $21,656
• BDT Stage: $6,714
• Firehouse Theater Company: $6,081
• Arvada Center: $6,076
• Candlelight Dinner Playhouse: $5,555
• Vintage Theatre: $3,296
• Veritas Productions: $2,376
• Creede Repertory Theatre: $2,342
• Beehive Productions: $2,000
• Wesley Players/Elitch Theatre:$1,910
• Cherry Creek Theatre: $1,040
• Shifted Lens Theatre Company: $1,034
• Dana Cain Events: $800
• Buntport Theater: $767
• Magic Moments: $728
• Benchmark Theatre: $700
• Give 5 Productions:  $556
• Two Cent Lion: $530
• Insight CoLab: $405
• OpenStage & Company: $243
• Theatre Artibus: $200
• Third Side Theatre: $200
• Aurora Fox: $150
• Everyman Theatre Company: $125

School groups:

• Future is Bright: $17,045 
• Denver School of the Arts Drama Dash: $9,645
• Cherry Creek High School: $2,000 
• Mile High Youth Theatre: $848
• MSU Denver: $298

Special events:

• Ebner-Page Productions: $7,779
• Applause for PAWS (Mary Dailey) $5,232

Note: The True West Awards, now in their 24th year, began as the Denver Post Ovation Awards in 2001. Denver Gazette Senior Arts Journalist John Moore celebrates the Colorado theater community by revisiting 30 good stories from the past year without categories or nominations.

Unsung hero of the day

Carter Edward Smith has had spent plenty of time in the acting spotlight, but 2024 “was an incredible year for his growth as a human and artist,” said his friend – and fellow bartender at Vintage Theatre – Luke Rahmsdorff-Terry.

Smith made his directorial debut this year with “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” but you would never know it was his first time, Rahmsdorff-Terry said. “He had a gentle hand with a lot of younger performers and helped guide them to some heartbreaking and hilarious performances.”

On stage, Smith appeared in Town Hall’s “Urinetown” and Candlelight’s “Scrooge.” He also made a little history by playing bag, bad Callahan in Sasquatch’s “Legally Blonde” eight years after having played the pervy professor’s teaching assistant in a run at Town Hall. “That was a fun little twist, and he brought some charismatic sleaze to the part,” Rahmsdorff-Terry said.

Speaking of Candlelight, another actor who made his directorial debut this year was Chas Lederer, with “Scrooge.”