Denver, CO
Setting the stage for success – MSU Denver RED
When you hear the word “theatre,” your mind might immediately go to the actors you see on stage. It’s fair to say most audience members probably aren’t thinking about the lighting technicians, makeup artists, props artisans or carpenters who built the set before them.
Yet these members of a theatre crew are essential to any performance’s success. Their jobs are unique in that if they are done successfully, most people won’t even notice.
“I think one of the most interesting things about working in the field (of technical theatre) is that when you do your job absolutely correctly, almost nobody notices that you’ve done anything,” said Professor Brian Kelley, the Theatre Department’s technical director and coordinator for the Bachelor of Fine Arts program in Applied Theatre Technology and Design at Metropolitan State University of Denver. “They just buy it as part of the environment of the show.”
While MSU Denver has a fair number of students who want to go into theatre design, there are more who are focused on being technicians — that is, the artisans who make all the things happen. “That’s pretty unique for most theatre programs,” Kelley said. “It’s much easier to go out and get work as a technician than it is to get consistent work as a designer.”
Just ask Zee Howard, who plans to graduate this spring with a BFA in Applied Theatre Technology and Design with a focus on lighting. “I applied to college as an undecided major,” she said. “I didn’t know I could do this as a career.” She has already landed a gig operating the spotlight at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities this spring.
“Other programs will train people in carpentry or electrical or painting, but their goal is to produce designers,” Kelley said. MSU Denver students get hands-on training (often paid through work-study programs) in building, painting and electrical installation, learning everything they’ll need to know for a real-world theatre technician job.
Theatre costumes enter a new dimension
Max Boelte graduated from MSU Denver in 2017 with a BFA in Applied Theatre Technology and Design, with an emphasis in lighting design. Before applying to MSU Denver, he considered going into electrical engineering at a different institution. But he decided he could combine his passion for theatre with his interest in electrical work while at MSU Denver.
Technical lighting, he said, involves hanging the lights, getting data and power to them, making sure they’re configured correctly and dealing with the data network. “I’ve actually been able to do a lot of IT (information technology) work,” he said.
People often think of a Theatre degree as “super-niche,” Boelte said. “But there’s a ton of applicable skills in other fields that all translate really well,” he said. Today, Boelte works at Casa Bonita, a Denver restaurant known for its immersive experiences, managing lighting projects and new installations.
“Students are building, welding, hanging lights and speakers, building props for six weeks leading up to productions,” said Jacob Welch, chair of the Theatre Department. “For a large musical, MSU Denver brings in over $1 million in equipment into the space. Our students are getting to work with cutting-edge entertainment technology.”
This reflects the MSU Denver Theatre motto “equipment for living” — a phrase coined by Marilyn “Cookie” Hetzel, professor emerita and founder of the Theatre Department at MSU Denver.
Professor Kelley is in his 11th year at MSU Denver. The born-and-raised Denverite began teaching in Ohio but returned to Colorado to teach after learning about Hetzel and the ensemble spirit she hoped to cultivate within the department — the idea that everyone working on a production has value.
“Theatres are a collaborative artistic endeavor,” Kelley said. “Everybody wants to have the show as a whole come to a successful conclusion.”
Giving the Olympics the gift of flight
As Kelley describes it, designers come in with big ideas of the worlds they want to portray on stage, but the technicians have the hands-on skills to make that design come to fruition. For example, the University’s production of “Girls Like That” this past fall involved building a 14-foot-tall replica of a cellphone using Plexiglas and acrylic paint to mimic stained glass.
“So it’s still an artistic endeavor on our part because we’re doing really, really odd things with really, really good materials … and still function within a budget,” he added.
“The goal is, I think, to really immerse people in the story, and we’re all just kind of helping push that story forward,” Howard said.
Catch a show at MSU Denver this spring!“Footloose” “Macbeth” See the full schedule and purchase tickets.
|
For Kelley Reznik, another alum of the BFA program in Applied Theatre Technology and Design, this ensemble spirit was a big part of what attracted her to the field.
Reznik, who now works as an assistant stagehand at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, wanted the college experience and started at MSU Denver at age 23. She considered studying Astrophysics but decided to take Kelley’s Intro to Stagecraft class for fun. She knew within the first five minutes she was in the right place.
“I always struggled to make friends, and I found that theatre really pulled out my gregarious, kind of, authentic self,” she said. “And I found a community in theatre that I just had not really found in any other studies.”
Denver, CO
Keeler: Why did 2026 Broncos trade for Jaylen Waddle? Because they learned a lesson from 2025 Chiefs
Even Snakes roll snake eyes. As a Broncos quarterback, Jake Plummer went 3-3 in one-score games during the 2004 regular season. In 2005, Jake The Snake improved to 5-2 in those tilts. Plummer followed that up with a 3-5 record in one-score games during 2006.
Down. Up. Down. Close wins in the NFL, year-to-year, are about as consistently reliable as New Jersey Transit.
“You can’t coach clutch,” Plummer texted me Tuesday. “It’s either in your blood, or it isn’t.”
The Bo-lief is strong enough in Broncos Country right now to bench press a F-450 Super Duty. Bo Nix is 24-10 as a Broncos QB1 in regular-season tussles, 25-11 overall. He’s 13-8 in games decided by eight points or fewer as an NFL starter, and went 12-2 last fall.
The Broncos put up a mark of 11-2 in one-score games in 2025, tying an NFL record for one-score victories (11) in a season. Nix replaced Patrick Mahomes as the NFL’s Comeback King. Before the madness of Sean Payton’s fourth-down call in the AFC Championship, Denver had a method.
“The ones that have it, you can see it in their eyes,” Plummer continued. “It permeates the whole situation and something akin to faith!”
Faith is contagious.
Fortune is fickle.
Why did Denver trade for Jaylen Waddle?
Why are fans clamoring for another hammer at tailback to pair with J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey?
Why do they want more speed at inside linebacker, someone who can run with tight ends up the seam?
Because history doesn’t say 11 one-score victories is hard to repeat.
History says it’s nearly impossible.
Over the last five decades, only five NFL teams have won 10 or more one-score games in a season — the Broncos became the newest member of that club last December.
But get a load of how those other four teams fared the very next year:
• 2024 Chiefs: 11 one-score wins, 15 wins overall. The following fall? A record of 1-9 in one-score games, six wins overall.
• 2022 Vikings: 11 one-score wins, 13 wins overall. The following fall? A record of 6-8 in one-score games, seven wins overall.
• 2019 Seahawks: 10 one-score wins, 11 wins overall. The following fall? A record of 8-3 in one-score games, 12 wins overall.
• 1978 Oilers: 10 one-score wins, 10 wins overall. The following fall? A record of 6-3 in one-score games, 11-5 overall.
Summing up? Two of the four teams that’d racked up double-digit close wins regressed badly, while the other two improved slightly.
But none of them won more than eight games by eight points or less the following season.
In fact, their combined winning percentage in one-score games that next year was 45.6% (21-25). And the average relapse was a 3.25-win falloff compared to the prior season.
With a tougher schedule, a new offensive coordinator and the usual spate of wacky, unpredictable NFL gremlins lurking, would it shock you if the Broncos finished 11-6? Or 12-5? In this division, you’d take either one of those records in a so-called “regression” year. Take it and run with it.
The Broncos’ floor is as high as it’s been since Sheriff Manning hung up his spurs. The ceiling is fluid. You swap draft picks for a proven, win-now talent such as Waddle because the football gods are going to demand that you make your own luck from here on out.
“Each season is different,” Plummer said. “When there is unfettered belief in each other, it’s contagious and those wins can happen naturally. On the contrary, when there is unrealistic expectations from the outside, pressure to perform can impede the natural flow of what’s happening on the field. That’s why believing is paramount to achieving!”
While the Snake’s Dove Valley chapter was coming to a close, the New Orleans Saints won four games by eight points or less in 2006, en route to a 10-6 mark.
The Saints were 2-3 in those close contests the next season and slipped to 7-9 overall. The year after that? A 3-6 record in one-score games and an 8-8 mark overall. Payton knows. And if he doesn’t, he’s sure as heck about to find out.
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.
Two more days of record-breaking heat are forecast for northern Colorado this week, including in the Denver area, according to the National Weather Service.
Earlier forecasts from the weather service projected 90-degree temperatures in Denver on Wednesday, which would have marked the city’s first of the year and earliest on record. The expected temperature high has since dropped to 88 degrees, which would still break daily and monthly heat records, according to the weather service.
NWS Tuesday forecasts:
- 64 degrees in Dillion, breaking the 63-degree record for March 24.
- 75 degrees in Evergreen, breaking the 71-degree daily record.
- 81 degrees in Denver, breaking the 76-degree daily record.
- 83 degrees at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, breaking the 76-degree daily record.
- 83 degrees in Boulder, breaking the 76-degree daily record.
- 84 degrees at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, breaking the 80-degree daily record.
NWS Wednesday forecasts:
- 69 degrees in Dillion, breaking the 62-degree record for March 24.
- 80 degrees in Evergreen, breaking the 75-degree daily record.
- 88 degrees in Denver, breaking the 75-degree daily record and the 86-degree March heat record. Denver has broken or tied the March heat record three times so far this month, according to the weather service.
- 89 degrees at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, breaking the 76-degree daily record.
- 87 degrees in Boulder, breaking the 78-degree daily record.
- 89 degrees at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, breaking the 79-degree daily record.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.
Denver, CO
Married couple stars on stage at Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ “Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors”
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is celebrating more than 100 performances of its hit comedy “Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors.” The show, which puts a funny twist on the classic tale of Dracula, is filled with comedy and romance, and that romance can be seen both onstage and off.
“It is a great date night. It is fast, it is fun,” said Marco Alberto Robinson, the actor who portrays Dracula on stage.
“People leave with a smile on their face, it is a good time,” said Adriane Leigh Robinson, an actress who plays multiple characters during the show.
The duo not only finds romance on stage in the production, but off stage, they are already in love.
“We are just best buddies,” Marco Robinson said.
“We are married,” Adriane Robinson said as she laughed.
The duo has lived in Denver for years and has enjoyed helping bring Dracula to life at the Garner Galleria.
“Dracula is a cult classic about a blood thirsty monster. But this is different, because he is not only blood thirsty, he is spicy,” Adriane Robinson said.
The other cast members of the production told CBS News Colorado they are confident both Robinsons are capable of starring on Broadway in New York. However, both said they have found a purpose and belonging in Denver and at the DCPA.
“We have found a super tight and loving community that we don’t ever want to leave,” Adriane Robinson said.
Both have been in many productions at the DCPA, but added Dracula has given them an opportunity to explore a side of their relationship that they’ve never had before.
“It’s the easiest (to be romantic interests on and off stage),” Adriane Robinson said.
“It is super easy. We can come up with something at home and bring it in. It is nice to not be passing ships,” Marco Robinson said.
Both said they have an appreciation for the surrounding arts community in Colorado, and have loved being on the same funny production in Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors.
“We are putting roots down here, and regional theatre is super important. And, the Denver Center is doing some of the best of it,” Marco Robinson said.
Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors, plays at the DCPA through May 10. For more information on tickets, visit their website.
A professional cornhole player and quadruple amputee is arrested for murder
The Bumpboxx BB-777 is the ultimate in boombox nostalgia
US military sends drones, alongside 200 troops, to Nigeria amid fears of renewed Boko Haram insurgency
Chicago alderwoman apologizes for ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ comment on slain student
Greater weight loss promised by higher-dose Wegovy shot, now approved by FDA
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
Chicago alderwoman apologizes for ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ comment on slain student
Fake Euronews website targets Hungary election with false claims
An air traffic controller was juggling extra roles during the LaGuardia plane crash
Iran War: Pentagon set to send thousands of elite 82nd Airborne troops to region | BBC News
Video: Passengers Wait in Long Security Lines at LaGuardia After Deadly Crash
-
Detroit, MI6 days agoDrummer Brian Pastoria, longtime Detroit music advocate, dies at 68
-
Georgia1 week agoHow ICE plans for a detention warehouse pushed a Georgia town to fight back | CNN Politics
-
Movie Reviews6 days ago‘Youth’ Twitter review: Ken Karunaas impresses audiences; Suraj Venjaramoodu adds charm; music wins praise | – The Times of India
-
Alaska1 week agoPolice looking for man considered ‘armed and dangerous’
-
Education1 week agoVideo: Turning Point USA Clubs Expand to High Schools Across America
-
Sports4 days agoIOC addresses execution of 19-year-old Iranian wrestler Saleh Mohammadi
-
Science1 week agoIndustrial chemicals have reached the middle of the oceans, new study shows
-
New Mexico2 days agoClovis shooting leaves one dead, four injured