Toni Tresca

Toni Tresca at a reading for Diego Florez's play 'Cuauhtémoczin' on April 22, 2023.

About Me

Editor of Bucket List, contributor to Denver Westword, Estes Valley Voice, and co-host of the OnStage Colorado Podcast. He is a member of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association, and Editor & Publisher Magazine has named him one of 2026's "Tomorrow's News Trailblazers."

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My Latest Work

OnStage Colorado •

Candlelight’s ‘Matilda’ finds magic when it keeps things simple

Strong young performers and inventive staging lift Candlelight’s Matilda, though broad comedy slows the show.Near the beginning of Candlelight’s Matilda the Musical, the titular character balances atop a block and tells an enraptured librarian the opening of a story she has invented.Above them, the Escapologist and the Acrobat — played by Carter Edward Smith and Chloe Wheeler — silently give shape to her words on a raised platform. The Acrobat flips, the Escapologist hoists her even higher and,...
Estes Valley Voice •

A&E: This Weekend, July 17-19

Following two weekends dominated by festivals and rodeo, this weekend, July 17-19, 2026, settles into a more relaxed rhythm without slowing down. There’s a major movie premiere at the Park Theatre, a new exhibition opening at the Art Center of Estes Park, brewery anniversary parties, artisan markets, and enough live music to keep nearly every stage in town busy. Here’s what’s happening around Estes Park this weekend, July 17-19:

‘The Odyssey’ sails into the Historic Park Theatre

This weekend,...
Denver Westword •

Hit and Run: Musical Improv has invented 730 musicals and counting

Hit and Run: Musical Improv got its name before it had performed a single show. After the group’s first rehearsal in 2006, founder Stephen Wilder came outside to find his car had been hit.
“My car was parked on the street, and an unknown party had collided with the car, pushed it and wrapped it around a stop sign,” Wilder says. “Ultimately, that was a major event in my life that I had to deal with, but that is also where the name of the group came from. I said, ‘Okay, if this is going to happen,...
OnStage Colorado •

Storyteller Theater opens an affordable home for Aurora arts

The Storyteller Theater opens July 17 on East Colfax, offering an accessible, flexible home for local artists.9905 E. Colfax Ave. has been a bank, a chocolate factory, a church and a hair salon. On Friday, July 17, the Aurora building will add “theatre” to its résumé.The Storyteller Theater opens across the street from the Aurora Fox Arts Center and on the same block as The People’s Building, bringing another performance venue to the Aurora Cultural Arts District. Its first production, Impact Th...
OnStage Colorado •

What I learned at the National Critics Institute

Toni Tresca shares what he learned at the National Critics Institute and how it will shape OnStage Colorado’s coverage.A critic walks into a bar. The playwright is already there. So are the director, several actors and the other writers who spent the morning pulling apart the critic’s latest review.It sounds like the setup to a bad joke. At the National Critics Institute (NCI), held at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, it was simply another night at Blue Gene’s Pub. Th...
Denver Westword •

Diplo’s Run Club brings a 5K and daytime rave to Denver

Diplo’s Run Club will make its Denver debut this weekend, and for once, the city’s overlapping obsessions with running, parks, DJs and doing something aggressively active before brunch will all fit into one event. According to Sam Hunt, executive vice president at Wasserman Music, who works closely with Diplo on the event, Denver has been on the Run Club wish list for a while.
“We tried to do it last year and thought we had a site in Boulder that would have been perfect, but then, not at the las...
Estes Valley Voice •

A&E: This Weekend, July 10-12

After the whirlwind of Fourth of July festivities, this weekend offers a chance to catch your breath without running out of things to do. The crowds may be a little smaller, but the calendar is still packed. From the SnowyGrass Music Festival and the final nights of Rooftop Rodeo to artisan markets, outdoor concerts, and movie screenings, here’s what’s happening around Estes Park this weekend, July 10-12:

Find Waldo Around Estes Park

Where’s Waldo? All over Estes Park. Throughout July, Macdona...
Estes Valley Voice •

Inside the Sundance Directors Lab at the Stanley Hotel

For two weeks in June, the Stanley Hotel became a working film lab.

“Michelle Satter, who is the founding director of the program, always says is your worst day at the (Directors) Lab will be your best day at the lab,” Ilyse McKimmie, who led this year’s Directors Lab in Estes Park. :That’s because It means that you have learned something or tried something that didn’t work, that informed you, that was a discovery, but you did it in this safe, protected space. And that means that you’re hopeful...
Estes Valley Voice •

Your guide to the 2026 SnowyGrass Music Festival

The SnowyGrass Music Festival is back, which means Stanley Park is about to become a small village of banjos, fiddles, low-back lawn chairs, friendly dogs, mountain views, and people who absolutely brought a cooler but somehow still forgot sunscreen.

The 11th annual festival, presented by Upstream Concerts and RiverPointe Vacation Condos, runs July 9-12 at Stanley Park, 380 Community Drive. The four-day festival brings Colorado and national bluegrass and Americana acts to Estes Park, featuring...
OnStage Colorado •

Akram Khan’s ‘Thikra: Night of Remembering’ at Jacob’s Pillow

The ritual power of Akram Khan Company’s final touring production does not need to be fully decoded to be felt.About midway through Thikra: Night of Remembering, an elder whips a woman in white around by her hair at first and then seems to take control over her body. The younger dancer has no choice but to follow. Though she resists and buckles, she always gets pulled back into the ritual’s orbit. That’s also how the piece feels to watch: You may not understand all its rules, but it drags you in...
Denver Westword •

Haus of Other’s NEBULA turns sci-fi spectacle into immigrant support

When guests walk into NEBULA on July 11, Haus of Other wants them to feel as if they have stepped through a portal.
“When you first walk into the space, the plan is to have a sort of warp area,” explains organizer and Haus of Other founder Gary Adrian Randall. “Then when they first emerge, we’re going to separate the space into different areas. So there’ll be an area that kind of feels like deep space, then there’ll be an area that kind of feels like an alien jungle and then we’re hoping to crea...
Denver Westword •

Colorado Black Arts Festival celebrates 40 years in Denver

Jaleesa McIntosh can still recall one of her earliest memories of the Colorado Black Arts Festival: The sound of the drumming, the dancing and the feeling of meeting a larger African diaspora in real time.
“I have been going to the Black Arts Festival since I was young, I would say probably seven or eight,” McIntosh says. “My mom took me and my cousin there every year, and I loved it.”
That childhood tradition has since become part of her adult work. The executive director of the Colorado Black...
Estes Valley Voice •

'A&E: Fourth of July Weekend, July 3-5

Fourth of July weekend has arrived, and while there won’t be fireworks over Lake Estes this year, there are still plenty of ways to celebrate. Live music fills patios, rooftops, and breweries around town, the Big Bang Concert celebrates its tenth anniversary, and families can begin the month-long Find Waldo scavenger hunt downtown. Whether you’re hunting for Waldo, catching a movie, browsing art galleries, or spending the holiday listening to local musicians, here’s what’s happening around Estes...
Estes Valley Voice •

The Big Bang Concert will go on without July 4 fireworks

The Big Bang Concert began with a simple observation: Every Fourth of July, people crowded roadsides, parking lots, and other makeshift viewing spots around Estes Park, looking for a place to watch the fireworks over Lake Estes.

Joshua Collins thought the town could do better.
“I see all these people pulled over on the side of the road and waiting for fireworks,” Collins said. “I came up with the idea to provide a place for people of all ages and capacities to enjoy the fireworks. I rented the...
Estes Valley Voice •

Rooftop Rodeo rides into Estes Park for 98th year

When a visitor to the Estes Park Wool Market asked whether the Rooftop Rodeo takes place on an actual roof, Cindy Schonholtz had an answer ready.

“No, that would be dangerous,” Schonholtz said.
The name is easier to remember than to explain. It dates to the 1940s, when Estes Park’s rodeo was promoted as a rodeo with altitude, staged at 7,522 feet above sea level. It may not be the highest rodeo in the country — that honor goes to the Cripple Creek Gold Rush Rodeo at 9,640 feet — but it is still...
Estes Valley Voice •

Estes Valley Community Center goes all in on National Pickle Month

Julie Bunton does not consider herself “a pickle person.” Her son’s girlfriend, on the other hand, is, which drew Bunton’s attention to pickles.

“Because of my son’s girlfriend, I’ve started to learn to look out for all things pickle for her,” Bunton said. “For whatever reason, I stumbled across National Pickle Month as a thing and thought it would be perfect to do in Estes.”
The result is a monthlong series of pickle-themed adult programs at the community center, 660 Community Drive. The first...
Denver Westword •

A cultural beacon: Morning Star American Indian Village to open at Cheyenne Frontier Days

When dancers step into the new Morning Star American Indian Village during Cheyenne Frontier Days, they will enter the performance space from the east. That may seem like a minor design aspect in a project that encompasses 3.8 acres, including a sunken dance arbor, artisan booths, storytelling spaces, a permanent teepee, native plants, educational signs and a veterans memorial, but to Bill Oates, chairman of Cheyenne Frontier Days’ Indians Committee, that element speaks volumes about the thought...
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