Gender swap: It’s the Year of the Woman at the Henry Awards | Arts & Entertainment

The Colorado Theatre Guild ushered in a new era with Monday’s 19th annual Henry Awards at the Lone Tree Arts Center. And while they were hoping to crack the door open for nonbinary actors, they actually blew it wide open for women. And changed the awards game forever.

Acting on behalf of what it calls “positive change,” the Guild has eliminated gender consideration from all individual acting categories. That means no more “outstanding actor” or “actress” in favor of “outstanding performance” in leading and supporting roles in plays and musicals.

The Guild has morphed all 16 of its previous individual actor categories into eight groups of larger, genderless supercategories. Each has been expanded from the traditional five nominees to 10, with the top two vote-getters (and ties) sharing the award – regardless of gender. That means the number of awards essentially stays the same. More important, the Guild says, openly nonbinary performers who do not define themselves as either male actors or female actresses will no longer be forced to choose a gender they believe does not fit them.

“Tonight is particularly special because for the first time in the history of the Henry Awards, you will not hear outstanding ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ tonight, you’ll hear ‘performer,'” Colorado Thatre Guild President Betty Hart said to cheers and a smattering of boos during her opening remarks.

“That is a direct response to this beautiful community who has been saying, ‘What about our friends who are not male, who are not female? Why should they have to choose?’ Well, now they don’t. You’re simply recognized for your excellence, just like we do with all the other categories.” 

Frankly, no one had a clue how it would all play out until Monday night. But going in, we knew that just more than 60% of the nominee pool identifies as men. There was some concern that putting everyone together would inadvertently diminish women. And the very first category of the night produced two male-identifying winners – for featured actor in a musical.  

But, while it’s impossible to state empirically without knowing how each honoree identifies, women wound up taking home the lion’s share of the individual acting prizes on Monday – and by a huge margin. It can be definitely stated that 11 of Monday’s 17 individual winners would have been considered as actresses – and only six as (male) actors – under the old system. That’s 65 percent of the wins – an enormous turnaround from the nominations.

(It is believed that none of his year’s 17 acting winners identifies as openly nonbinary., although some in the nominee pool do.) 

In the end, only three of the eight acting categories produced what would be considered the traditional male/female split. Three categories shut men out entirely. (Another included a tie, producing one male and two female-identifying winners.)

All of which, in the end, clearly made this the Year of the Woman at the Henry Awards. The strong slate of 11 honorees includes a wide range of performances, including Anne Penner (“Grounded”) revisiting her searing portrayal of a pregnant U.S. Air Force pilot who is assigned to guide bomb-dropping drones from a base near Las Vegas. Bas Bleu Theatre founder and Colorado Theatre Guild Lifetime Achievement Award winner Wendy Ishii picked up more hardware for playing an elderly woman who is determined to revisit her childhood home in the classic drama “The Trip to Bountiful” in Fort Collins. And one of the most dynamic performances of this or any other year was Clark Destin Jones starring in Give 5’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” which will be remounted Nov. 6-23 at the new Ballyhoo, 3300 Tejon St.

Two castmates won individual acting awards: Rosa Isabella Salvatierra (lead) and Leslie Sophia Pérez (featured) in the DCPA Theatre Company’s  “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.” And, in an historic first for the little Firehouse Theatre Company, Miranda Byers (lead) and Kelly Uhlenhopp (featured) both won for “Perfect Arrangement,” a play about two gay couples posing as straight in the 1950s.

The two awards (plus a third for Johnathan Underwood in “Blues for an Alabama Sky”) are the first in the storied history of Firehouse, a company started by Colorado Free University founder John Hand in 2002. He was murdered in 2004, but his company (and school) have been stewarded ever since by his remarkable sister, Helen Hand, who used the occasion of Firehouse’s breakthrough to uplift others. 

“There is incredible talent in our community, and they are showing up at every level and at every theater,” Hand said. “People should take advantage of that.”   

Salvatierra, who delivered both a breakout performance in the Denver Center’s sleeper hit of the season, “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” and a charming acceptance speech, to told the crowd that her Henry is not only her fist acting award, but nomination. Together, she said, “This is beyond anything I cold have dreamed.” 

But the line that drew perhaps the biggest laugh of the night was delivered by Shabazz Green, one of the outstanding performers in a musical winners, for his comic portrayal of all the murder victims in the Arvada Center’s “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” 

“If there is anything that we can take from the show,” he said, “It’s just to know that sometimes it’s OK to eat the rich.”  

It will be fascinating to see how the Colorado theater community responds to a full year passing without any woman being recognized as a featured actress in a musical – traditionally the strongest and most competitive category among female actors at any level of local theater. Or any man being honored for acting in a play, either in a leading or supporting role. The women swept both categories. Same for featured actor in a musical.

The debate has only just begun.

The gender change clearly stole focus from what would normally have been this year’s Henrys headline, which is one of the biggest upsets in the awards program’s history: The most honored company of the year was not the Tony Award-winning DCPA Theatre Company or the Arvada Center, the two companies that typically win the lion’s share of these awards. No, the belle of this year’s ball was the Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre, which has been delivering rock-solid, professional musicals in Grand Lake, about a 90-minute drive west of Denver, since 1966.

Rocky Mountain Rep took a leading seven Henry Awards on Monday, including the big prize of the night, outstanding musical, for “Come From Away,” the story of how a small town in Newfoundland became ground zero for compassion on 9/11. It won five awards, most by any staging (play or musical) this year.

So what should that tell anyone in Denver not yet aware of the Rocky Mountain Rep?

“It’s worth the drive,” said Michael Querio, who is celebrating his 30th season as the executive artistic director in Grand Lake. “We are really proud of what Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre has become over the past 60 years – and we are overwhelmed with this recognition.”

The DCPA Theatre Company, meanwhile, won six awards, including outstanding new play (or musical) for Denver-born Jake Brasch’s “The Reservoir,” a Denver story that has been blowing up all over the country since premiering here in January.

The shocker is that Henry Award judges afforded just one design award to the DCPA’s generally Broadway-level creatives: Tony Cisek for creating the world of “The Hot Wing King.” Next up: Four for “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” by Lakewood’s Performance Now, a company that always engenders Henry Awards love. (It came in with 14 nominations this year.)

The Arvada Center, which often takes Henry Awards home by the wheelbarrow, won just two this year – and, shockingly, none for its celebrated regional premiere of “Waitress.” Of all the next-day head-scratching sure to be taking place today, the fact Anne Terze-Schwarz has nothing to show for her other-worldly performance as the adorably damaged Jenna is the scratchiest.

The awards for plays were downright strange because of how spread out they were. Curious Theatre Company won the prestigious Outstanding Play award for “Downstate,” the hard-hitting story of a man who appears at the door of a halfway house to confront his childhood abuser. That was no surprise. What was odd is that was the only award  Curious won all night. Usually, the play that wins the top prize wins a few other awards, too, whether for acting, direction or technical work. But not so for “Downstate.” Still, it got the one that mattered. 

“As Banksy said, ‘Art should comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable,’ director Chritsy Montour-Larson said in accepting the award. “And I am proud that Curious Theatre had the courage to produce a play that does exactly that.” 

In an odd anomaly, no straight play by any company won more than two awards. Instead, five won two awards each.

There was one double-winner on the night: lighting designer Vance McKenzie, who won both for “National Bohemians” at the Miners Alley Performing Arts Center and for “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for Performance Now.

The reason he can win for two different shows is because three years ago, the Colorado Theatre Guild took the extraordinary step of splitting most every category into two tiers based on the budget size of its member companies. (The dividing line between Tier 1 and 2 is an annual budget above and below $500,000.) So McKenzie won in both the small and large budget categories.

McKenzie accomplished something else that is rare on Monday, along with John Hauser, who won the Outstanding Sound Design award (large budgets) for Miners Alley’s “National Bohemians.” That made both McKenzie and Hauser repeat winners in their categories after having won them in 2024 as well.

Another repeat winner was Jennifer Burnett, who followed up her win as a featured actress in Performance Now’s “The Music Man” a year ago with a win Monday in the expanded “featured performer” category for her work in “Cabaret” for the Platte Valley Theatre Arts in Brighton.

The Colorado Theatre Guild is a membership-based nonprofit. Its pool of judges adjudicated 170 different productions by 57 member companies, resulting in nominations for 28 companies and at least one win for 15.

Among the many companies left on the outside looking in on Monday were the disability-affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company, Town Hall Arts Center, Candlelight Dinner Playhouse. the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Creede Repertory Theatre, Theatre Aspen, Colorado Springs Theatreworks, Vintage Theatre, Su Teatro and several other heavy-hitters. Other than a sound award for the Springs Ensemble Theatre, nothing south of Lakewood won an award this year.

The Henry Awards are presented as a full evening of entertainment co-directed by Kenny Moten, the Denver Gazette’s 2023 Colorado Theatre Person of the Year, and Lee Ann Scherlong. The evening included live performances from each of the five nominees for outstanding musical. Joining “Come from Away” in that group were the Arvada Center’s “Waitress” and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” the DCPA Theatre Company’s “Little Shop of Horrors” and Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre’s “The Music Man.”

Monday’s program offered several surprises. Denver School of the Arts rising seniors Grayson Allensworth and Maya Eisbart sang Sondheim’s duet “Move On” from “Sunday in the Park with George” as a video played honoring those who have died in the past year.

And film and TV star John Carroll Lynch, who grew up in Denver, flew in at his own expense to present his friend and mentor, the enigmatically named K.Q., with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

KQ, among other things, has been creating and directing an annual jukebox musical for Magic Moments – a company that casts able-bodied and disabled performers side by side – for more than 40 years. He also directed Lynch in his first play when he was 16 – in the musical “Guys & Dolls.”

“I have never worked with any artist more successful than KQ,” said Lynch, who is presently featured in the film “Sorry, Baby” and the highly rated Amazon Prime crime series “Ballard.”

“KQ has touched and changed the lives of thousands of performers, musicians and technicians; and tens of thousands in the audience,” Lynch said. “And all for one purpose: To help us feel that we are not alone. That no one is less loved. No one is less than. No one is left out.”

Hart announced a second straight $1,000 donation from the Colorado Theatre Guild to the Denver Actors Fund, which has helped Colorado theater artists pay down their medical bills by $1.7 million since 2014.

After the final award was announced, Moten directly acknowledged the controversy that inherently comes with the administration of any awards program.

“Let’s just be honest that the Henry Awards are perhaps met at times with a little healthy skepticism – and a little side eye,” he told the crowd. “But what if we flipped the script on that moving forward so that we champion each other’s work – not only tonight, but for a full season?”

2024-25 HENRY AWARD WINNERS

See a complete list of the nominees here

OUTSTANDING PLAY

• “Downstate,” Curious Theatre Company

OUTSTANDING MUSICAL

• ”Come From Away,” Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre

OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY OR MUSICAL

• “The Reservoir,” by Jake Brasch, DCPA Theatre Company

DIRECTOR OF A PLAY

Rick Barbour, “Grounded,” Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company

DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL  (tie)

• Jeff Duke, “Come from Away,” Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre

MUSICAL DIRECTION

• Michael Querio, “The Music Man,” Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre

LEADING PERFORMER IN A PLAY (large companies)

• Anne Penner, “Grounded,” Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company

• Rosa Isabella Salvatierra, “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” DCPA Theatre Company

LEADING PERFORMER IN A PLAY (small companies, tie)

• Miranda Byers, “Perfect Arrangement,” Firehouse Theater Company

• Wendy Ishii, “The Trip to Bountiful,” Bas Bleu Theatre Company

• Johnathan Underwood, “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” Firehouse Theater Company

LEADING PERFORMER IN A MUSICAL (large companies)

• Shabazz Green, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” Arvada Center

• Luiza Vitucci, “Come From Away,” Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre

LEADING PERFORMER IN A MUSICAL (small companies)

• Clark Destin Jones, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Give 5 Productions

• Jennasea Pearce, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Performance Now

FEATURED PERFORMER IN A PLAY (large companies)

• Isaiah Tyrelle Boyd, “The Hot Wing King,” DCPA Theatre Company

• Leslie Sophia Pérez, “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter,” DCPA Theatre Company

FEATURED PERFORMER IN A PLAY (small companies)

• Heather Ostberg Johnson, “The 39 Steps,” OpenStage Theatre & Company

• Kelly Uhlenhopp, “Perfect Arrangement,” Firehouse Theater Company

FEATURED PERFORMER IN A MUSICAL (large companies)

• Will Branner, “Little Shop of Horrors,” DCPA Theatre Company

• Mitchell Lewis, “The Music Man,” Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre

FEATURED PERFORMER IN A MUSICAL (small companies)

• Jennifer Burnett, “Cabaret,” Platte Valley Theatre Arts

• Jessica Sotwick, “Sweeney Todd,” StageDoor Theatre

ENSEMBLE

“Come From Away,” Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre

CHOREOGRAPHY

• Jennifer Lupp, “Come From Away,” Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre

COSTUME DESIGN (large companies)

Kevin Copenhaver, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” Arvada Center

COSTUME DESIGN (small companies)

Susan Rahmsdorff-Terry, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Performance Now

LIGHTING DESIGN (large companies)

• Vance McKenzie, “National Bohemians,” Miners Alley Performing Arts Center

LIGHTING DESIGN (small companies, tie)

• Brett Maughan, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Give 5 Productions

• Vance McKenzie, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Performance Now

SCENIC DESIGN (large companies)

Tony Cisek, “The Hot Wing King,” DCPA Theatre Company

SCENIC DESIGN (small companies)

Andrew Bates, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Performance Now

SOUND DESIGN (large companies)

• John Hauser, “National Bohemians,” Miners Alley Performing Arts Center

SOUND DESIGN (small companies, tie)

• Brendan O’Hara, “Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!),” Breckenridge Backstage Theatre

• Kitty Robbins, “On Clover Road,” Springs Ensemble Theatre

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

• KQ, Artistic Director, Magic Moments