Our newest edition spotlights theatre workers in the Denver area. If you would like to recommend a theatre artist (from anywhere) for a future Role Call, fill out our open Google Form here.
Bernie Richard
Scenic artist
Hometown and current home: Aurora, Colorado
Known for: Richard is known for her work as resident scenic painter at Aurora’s Vintage Theatre. One particularly standout effort, which you can see highlighted on YouTube, is Richard’s work on the dragons for the company’s staging of She Kills Monsters.
What’s next: Richard will be working on Vintage Theatre’s productions of Grand Horizons (March 21-April 27) and Ryde the Cyclone (May 2-June 8).
What makes her special: “I have the joy of having several of Bernie’s wonderful paintings hanging in my house, but to understand how amazing her raw artistic talent is, I think about her painting of a simple sign,” said Biz Schaugaard, who has worked as production manager for multiple Vintage productions, and who Richard credits for giving her the chance to paint for the theatre. “She asked me what font I thought it should be in. I thought she was joking, but next thing I knew, she had painted the sign in perfect New York Times font free hand. She just dives into creating and blows my mind every time. I can’t wait to watch her talent grow.”
The art of scaring people: Richard said she’s always been inspired by horror movies and Halloween, finding herself fascinated by the monsters and effects created by artists who have spent their lives perfecting the art of scaring people. “Theatre gives me a chance to work outside of my comfort zone and make art that I otherwise wouldn’t think to,” Richard said. “I constantly get to work in new mediums and try new techniques. It’s thrilling when I’m given a project that I have no idea how to accomplish. Theatre forces you to grow in ways that other means of artistic expression may not. I hope that someday my work in theatre can take me to doing work in film, especially practical effects and monsters for horror movies.”
Courtney Ozaki-Durgin
Creative producer, writer, and experience designer
Hometown: Denver
Current home: Denver (by way of Broomfield)
Known for: Ozaki-Durgin is the founder of the Japanese Arts Network, a national resource supporting and advancing the work of Japanese artists and culture in America, and creative producer for Off-Center at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which brings immersive theatre to Colorado. Ozaki-Durgin also wrote an original immersive theatrical work, co-produced and devised with Theatre Artibus and Luster Productions, called ZOTTO: A Supernatural Japanese Folktale.
What’s next: In April, Ozaki-Durgin and collaborators Leah Cardenas, James Brunt, and Fronzo Gilkey II will premiere Inheritance Kitchen, a new original immersive theatrical work centering the stories of three families (Japanese, Latine, and Black) who lived in the same house in the Historic Denver Five Points Neighborhood in different decades. The experience will explore the shared resilience they cultivated by leaning into community, with food as a love language, and how our experiences as children shape our beliefs and help us to persevere. Additionally, she is gearing up for a future tour of ZOTTO to Seattle (dates TBD). And with Off-Center, Ozaki-Durgin is working with creator James Lopez and the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver to premiere an original work exploring the history of displacement on the campus, the cultural significance of its spaces and places, and the stories of the people who have lived, worked, and gone to school on that land.
What makes her special: Actor and producer Elizabeth Kirchmeier praised Ozaki-Durgin’s emphasis on working closely with the Denver community and creating works that reconnect Denver to its history. “It’s more important than ever to focus on our shared past and learn about the places we live and share with our neighbors as Denver grows and changes,” said Kirchmeier, who worked on a previous production of ZOTTO. “Courtney is a dedicated storyteller and theatremaker who makes the Denver theatre and immersive scene one of the best in the U.S. right now.”
Connection through immersion: Ozaki-Durgin emphasized the importance of resourcing and supporting immersive works. “I work in immersive theatre because it has the unique ability to lift up narratives of marginalized and silenced voices while opening audiences’ hearts through the shared embodied experience of being at the center of these stories,” Ozaki-Durgin said. “It tells truths and allows us to see how interdependent we are and how deeply our humanity is connected, while also inciting joy and transformative moments that help us to be introspective and in dialogue with one another.”
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Clove Love
Multidisciplinary theatre artist: director, intimacy professional, playwright, stage manager, teaching artist, and more
Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Current home: Denver
Known for: Love has worked as an intimacy director, educator, and consultant for a number of theatres, including Vintage Theatre (Fun Home), the Arts HUB (Rent), Phamaly Theatre Company (Funny as a Crutch), and Upstart Crow Theatre Company (A Long Day’s Journey into Night). As a director, they led The L-Word and Uneven Sides of a Triangle, produced by Premiere the Play Podcast, and they have been assistant director for productions at Curious Theatre Company, Upstart Crow, and Theatre Company of Lafayette. Love has worked as a theatre instructor for the Arvada Center of the Arts and Humanities spring break camps, summer camps, and spring classes, with a specialty in devised theatre, and their debut reading as a playwright was in September 2024 when their play Distance was part of the Queer Reading Series produced by And Toto Too Theatre Company.
What’s next: Love will direct Romeo & Juliet (May 1-18) at the Dairy Arts Center, produced by Upstart Crow, as well as Bella O’Brien’s water from the river is also in the sea, which will receive a staged reading in March followed by a full production in 2026, produced by Flamboyán Theatre. This summer, Love will be the intimacy director for The Legend of Anne Bonny, co-produced by Shifted Lens Theatre Company and Two Cent Lion, and they will be a teaching artist at the Arvada Center and devised theatre instructor for the Miners Alley Performing Arts Center summer camp.
What makes them special: Aidan Blank, a director, actor, and movement choreographer who will lead the movement for Love’s production of Romeo & Juliet, called Love “one of the most booked and busy Denver theatre artists working.” In addition to Love’s work as a director, Blank highlighted Love’s work taking consent-forward practice workshops to the annual Colorado Thespian Conference in 2024. “Clove is one of the pioneering artists forwarding intimacy directing and professionalism in Colorado,” said Blank.
Called to aid: With theatres worried about declining audiences, Love said they’re looking to support the work of unsung theatre educators, teaching artists, and community theatre companies who are working to create future generations of artists, instilling their passion for the art and the skills they’ll need to build a career. “Theatre is my career, my passion, and my livelihood,” Love said. “Losing it would be devastating for my health, motivation, and socialization. This is why my mission as a theatre professional and artist is to aid, however I can, in the progression of live theatrical performance as an art form and outlet of creative expression for years and generations to come.”
James Brunt
Director, actor, devising professor, poet, and Black Santa
Hometown: Denver
Current home: Aurora, Colorado
Known for: Brunt has appeared in numerous immersive productions around Colorado, including Theater of the Mind, an immersive journey that takes a group of 16 audience members through a 15,000-square-foot installation inspired by neuroscience research, co-created by award-winning artist David Byrne and writer Mala Gaonkar (just announced for the coming season at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre). Brunt also performs original slam poetry.
What’s next: Brunt is currently in Michelle Tyrene Johnson’s new comedy Chasing Breadcrumbs (through March 9) at Local Theater Company. Brunt is also devising, co-writing, and co-directing the new immersive work Inheritance Kitchen alongside collaborators Ozaki-Durgin, Cardenas, and Gilkey II, set to premiere in April.
What makes him special: Kit Baker, a director, playwright, dramaturg, and administrator in the area, highlighted Brunt’s larger-than-life stage presence and his ability to combine his acting chops with his poetic sensibilities to achieve compelling performances. “Of the hundreds of theatre artists I have seen in my time working in theatre in NYC, Chicago, London, Berlin, Poland, Russia and Colorado, I’ve never known anyone else combine a passion against injustice with this deep desire to take care of us in the audience in quite the same way,” said Baker. “I took my nephew to visit his Santa and it was the jolliest time I’ve ever had with any Santa anywhere by a Rocky Mountain mile. I know he loves being Santa, and that’s why we adore his work all the more.”
Performance and connection: Through his work, Brunt wants to help people connect more to what performance really is and can be. “I want people to be able to walk away talking about how much even the wildest of pieces connect with them,” Brunt said. “In a world where things are being taken away constantly, I want people to remember how powerful the ability to feel is.”
Kenny Moten
Director
Hometown: Hagerstown, Maryland
Current home: Fort Collins, Colorado
Known for: Moten’s large musical productions include Beauty and the Beast at American Stage, Caroline, or Change at Aurora Fox, 42nd Street at Midtown Arts Center, and Murder on the Orient Express at Candlelight. He is also the co-creator and co-writer of the podcast The Bright Lights of Denver, produced by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and co-president of the Denver Actors Fund. He has served as artistic director of Midtown Arts Center in Fort Collins.
What’s next: Moten will direct Hair at American Stage Theatre Company (March 26-April 27) in St. Petersburg, Florida.
What makes him special: “Kenny’s work is some of the best I have ever seen at any level of theatre,” said Jessica Kroupa, managing director at OpenStage Theatre & Company, where Moten directed Reefer Madness last year. “Kenny never makes you feel less than for not knowing things, in fact, he is one of the few grown and established arts professionals I know that helps to illuminate pathways for young professionals in the field. Kenny opens doors and opportunities and pulls individuals into situations where he thinks they will thrive. He encourages and pushes for the best out of everyone he knows.”
Toward the future: Moten said he’s excited to keep pushing his work forward, “finding new ways to tell stories that connect with both new and longtime audiences across the country,” he said. “I’m passionate about supporting emerging artists and creating bold, thought-provoking work that challenges, inspires, and helps reshape the landscape of regional theatre and theatre across the country.”
Melissa Leach
Artistic director, producer, and director
Hometown: Born in Louisiana, grew up in Indonesia, Scotland, and Texas
Current home: Denver
Known for: Leach is the co-founder and artistic director of The Three Leaches Theater, which runs and produces at a space they moved into just last September, as well as renting it out to smaller performance groups. Leach is also playwright, and she directed Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell’s The Lifespan of a Fact for The Three Leaches this past December.
What’s next: Next up for The Three Leaches is Catherine Butterfield’s To the Bone (March 12-22), directed by Lauren Kottenstette. Leach is also looking forward to the rest of the company’s 14th season, curated based on the concept of right, wrong, and the gray areas that often arise in conflict.
What makes her special: Multiple people praised Leach and The Three Leaches for championing affordable theatre with a slogan—“plays for under $1,000 that don’t suck.” Indeed, the founding mission of the company is to produce shows with $1,000 budget so ticket prices can be $10. “While dozens of local theatres have closed since Covid, TTL has thrived,” said Jon Marcantoni, founder of Flamboyán Theatre, Colorado’s first Puerto Rican theatre, which currently shares space with The Three Leaches. “Her collaborative model welcomes a variety of voices that expands access to the theatre arts and offers hope for small companies to sustain themselves in an increasingly competitive market.”
Theatre for everyone: When Leach and co-founder Amber Irish founded The Three Leaches, they wanted to create exciting, edgy, quality theatre that would be affordable to everyone. But as costs climbed, that budget became tougher to maintain, leading to the company switching away from $10 tickets and to a pay-what-you-can model so they can stay loyal to their commitment. “The arts have become an elitist pastime, when creating and storytelling should belong to everyone,” Leach said. “We learned quickly that we still have to be smart with our budget, but ultimately people who can pay a little more for a ticket do, and it balances out with those who need to pay less.”
