Toni Tresca

Denver Westword • 7th August 2026

Phamaly premieres '504: The Musical' as states try to weaken the law that inspired it

We're in the final stretch of our summer campaign. Our goal is to raise $25,000 by August 9 to support the journalism our community relies on. Reader support is helping shape the future of local news. Nearly five decades after disabled activists occupied a San Francisco federal building to force the government to enforce Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the protections they fought for are again under pressure.
Nine states renewed a lawsuit in January challenging federal Section 504 re...

Estes Valley Voice • 6th August 2026

A&E: This Weekend, August 7-9

If last weekend belonged to jazz, this one belongs to the visual arts and wine. Galleries throw open their doors for First Friday Art Groove, Bond Park fills with wine lovers, and live music spills out from breweries, patios, and taverns nearly every night. Here’s what’s happening around Estes Park this weekend, August 7-9.

‘Spider-Man’ stays at the Historic Park Theatre

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” follows Peter Parker as he fights crime in a world that has forgotten who he is as a result of t...

Estes Valley Voice • 6th August 2026

YMCA renovations give new life to two performance venues

Performers returning to Hempel Auditorium this summer found a room that looked, sounded, and functioned differently from the one that closed for renovations last year.

The turquoise chairs were gone. New flooring, lighting, acoustic panels, and audiovisual equipment had been installed. Backstage, two former dressing rooms had been combined into a larger space that can accommodate rehearsals, meetings, and pre-performance gatherings.
Outside, the Kathie Mennel Amphitheater received its own upgra...

Estes Valley Voice • 6th August 2026

Estes Park Wine Festival pours into Bond Park for 11th year

Months before the wine begins flowing in Bond Park, Tim Bowers hears from visitors planning their Estes Park vacations around the annual festival.

“Obviously, since it’s in Estes Park, we get a lot of people who plan their summer trip around being in town,” Bowers said. “I get a lot of calls from people who want to know the dates for the next year because they want to make sure they are around for the event.”
Those returning visitors will join vacationers who happen upon the festivities when th...

Denver Westword • 5th August 2026

Photos: Bright Nights gets wild at Four Mile Historic Park

We're in the final stretch of our summer campaign. Our goal is to raise $25,000 by August 9 to support the journalism our community relies on. Reader support is helping shape the future of local news. A lantern shaped like a great white shark opens its illuminated jaws at Four Mile Historic Park, inviting visitors to step inside for a photo. Nearby, glowing seahorse lanterns appear to float along the path and oversized butterflies turn a walkway into one of Bright Nights’ most colorful attr...

Denver Westword • 4th August 2026

Colorado Ballet bets on cheaper tickets to build its future

We're in the final stretch of our summer campaign. Our goal is to raise $25,000 by August 9 to support the journalism our community relies on. Reader support is helping shape the future of local news. Colorado Ballet can sell out “The Nutcracker.” The more difficult question is who can afford to make the production part of their holiday tradition and whether the company can build an audience that reflects the Denver it hopes to serve.
“If we do not build our audiences, we will not survive m...

OnStage Colorado • 4th August 2026

‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ struggles to find its frequency

On the same weekend that Spider-Man: Brand New Day delivered the second-largest worldwide opening in film history, Elemental Theatre Company introduced Aurora audiences to an earlier variation on the same idea.Baroness Orczy’s 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel helped establish the secret identity template later followed by Zorro, Batman and Spider-Man. Although Sir Percy Blakeney appears to be a silly, wealthy Englishman, he secretly saves French aristocrats from the guillotine as the heroic Scar...

OnStage Colorado • 3rd August 2026

'Closing Times' reckons with a lifetime of regrets

A man sits in a bar, reminiscing about the life he did not lead. He goes to a bus stop, where a young woman who clearly knows him refuses to leave him alone. Then the action slides toward an ethereal third space before returning to the bar.Rinse and repeat.Those are the three locations in Derek Murphy’s Closing Times, receiving its world premiere from Denver Theatre Ensemble at the University of Denver Black Box Theatre. Yet each cycle through them changes what the audience understands.Directed...

Estes Valley Voice • 30th July 2026

A&E: This Weekend, July 31-August 2

This weekend offers an unusual mix of speed and swing. While hundreds of runners tackle the Rocky Mountain Half Marathon, jazz musicians take over Performance Park, dinosaurs roam the Events Complex, and Spider-Man returns to the big screen at the Historic Park Theatre. From early morning races to late-night rooftop concerts, here’s your guide to what’s happening around Estes Park this weekend, July 31-August 2:

‘Spider-Man’ swings into the Historic Park Theatre

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man return...

Estes Valley Voice • 30th July 2026

What to know about the 2026 Estes Park Jazz Fest

Ya like jazz? Well, if so, you’re in luck, as Performance Park will fill with brass, rhythm, and big-band swing this weekend as the 2026 Estes Park Jazz Fest returns for two days of free outdoor concerts.

Eight jazz ensembles will perform from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, and Sunday, Aug. 2, at the Performance Park Amphitheater, 435 W. Elkhorn Ave. The lineup includes local musicians, regional big bands, and the United States Air Force Academy Falconaires.
Admission is free. Organizers encoura...

Estes Valley Voice • 30th July 2026

Estes Park declares August its first Estes Arts Month

After proclaiming August 2026 as Estes Arts Month on Tuesday, Mayor Gary Hall joked that the Estes Park Board of Trustees had to turn from the celebration to “real business.”

Then he reconsidered.
“Actually, that is real business,” Hall said. “In fact, I think this spirit of stuff is really the real business and purpose of the town — the soul and the heart of the town.”

The proclamation, approved during the July 28 board meeting, establishes a monthlong celebration of the artists, organizatio...

OnStage Colorado • 28th July 2026

‘Witch’ finds tenderness between an outcast and the devil

Jessica Robblee and Marco Alberto Robinson ignite Jen Silverman’s bleak comedy.Fairly early in Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s Witch, Elizabeth Sawyer invites the devil into her home for a nightcap.Scratch has already failed to persuade the suspected witch to sell her soul. The two have nevertheless become friends, drinking beside her stone fireplace and comparing notes on a world that has mistaken cruelty for common sense. Elizabeth asks whether he is still working. Scratch cannot believe sh...

OnStage Colorado • 27th July 2026

Impact’s ‘Stupid Fucking Bird’ feels everything at once

Impact Theatre Collective opens Aurora’s Storyteller Theater with an impassioned, inconsistent production.Midway through the second act of Impact Theatre Collective’s Stupid Fucking Bird, four young lovers crowd the stage and passionately explain what they want. Conrad wants Nina. Mash wants Conrad. Dev wants Mash. Nina wants a life larger than the one available to her. Their declarations overlap until the language becomes an indistinguishable roar.Then Sorn, the group’s weary elder statesman, e...

OnStage Colorado • 25th July 2026

Three voices fill empty spaces in ‘Honky Tonk Angels’

Jessica Hindsley’s sparse staging puts the focus on the young performers powering this country jukebox musical.In the opening scene of Little Theatre of the Rockies’ Honky Tonk Angels, three women appear in silhouette. Then Parker Cropp, Ainsley Haggin and Emily Johnson join in close harmony, and the production makes its strongest argument before the story has even begun: These performers may be appealing alone, but they become irresistible together.All three performers are current students at t...

Estes Valley Voice • 24th July 2026

A&E: This Weekend, July 24-26

Christmas comes early in Estes Park this weekend, though you’ll want sunscreen instead of a winter coat. Alongside the Christmas in July Market at the community center, the town offers another packed lineup of live music, family activities, classic cars, and outdoor gatherings, while Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” continues its run at the Historic Park Theatre. Here’s what’s happening in Estes Park this weekend, July 24-26:

‘The Odyssey’ at the Historic Park Theatre

Academy Award-winning di...

Estes Valley Voice • 24th July 2026

Christmas comes early to Estes Park

The Estes Valley Community Center is hosting its second annual Christmas in July market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 25. The free event combines holiday shopping and family activities with a tropical summer theme, inviting visitors to exchange winter boots and ugly sweaters for flip-flops and Hawaiian shirts.

According to Julie Bunton, fitness and 55Plus manager at the community center, the event grew from a longtime affection for the holiday.
“I guess I’ve just always loved Christmas,”...

OnStage Colorado • 20th July 2026

This 'Spelling Bee' in Creede is S-U-P-E-R

Creede Rep’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee pairs winning comedy with a tender portrait of belonging.The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a lot like pizza. Even a merely adequate production can still hit the spot because the recipe — eccentric children, absurd vocabulary words and unpredictable audience volunteers — is so reliably enjoyable. When all the ingredients come together, something familiar becomes difficult to resist.Creede Repertory Theatre serves up an especially...

OnStage Colorado • 19th July 2026

Creede Rep’s ‘Working: A Musical’ finds its strength close to home

Localized production of Working is a heartfelt hometown tribute to Creede hampered by laborious scene changes.Before Creede Repertory Theatre’s Working: A Musical, I ate dinner at Kip’s Grill on Main Street, watching servers weave between tables with tacos, drinks and checks. Little did I know I was getting a preview of what would appear onstage later that evening.During “It’s an Art,” Sydney Wilson’s exuberant Creede Hotel waitress revels in the theatricality of service while celebrating the sk...

OnStage Colorado • 18th July 2026

‘Friends/Romans/Countrymen’ loses sight of its outsiders

Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s ambitious new Julius Caesar riff needs to give its peripheral Romans more room to lead.When Alexander Quiñones enters Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s Friends/Romans/Countrymen, monumental columns tower over him, marble stairs climb toward the heavens and heroic music promises the arrival of someone important.Then Quiñones’ Virgil begins sweeping the street.The contrast neatly establishes the promise of David Davalos’ world-premiere comedy: retelling Julius Caesar...

OnStage Colorado • 17th July 2026

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 • 16th July 2026

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 • 16th July 2026

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 • 16th July 2026

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 • 14th July 2026

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...