John Moore

Denver

Senior Arts Journalist at The Denver Gazette

Senior Arts Journalist @DenverGazette ... formerly @denverpost … and I founded @DenverActorsFun and @theums.

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Articles

The MacKenzie Moment

4 days ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

The first words out of Denver actor Amie MacKenzie’s mouth when she opened her front door to me last week were: “I don’t have any heat!”Untruer words were never spoken. “She’s cooking,” said longtime Denver stage director and producer John Ashton. Truer words were never spoken. MacKenzie has booked 13 legit film or television projects since the beginning of 2024, an extraordinary span of success during which she also turned an emphatic 60.
There are lights, cameras and action in Colorado again

6 days ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

The just-completed SeriesFest – a weeklong festival for episodic TV in Denver – furthered the Colorado film and television industry's forward momentum. The whole world, it seemed, took note in late March when it was announced that the Sundance Film Festival has chosen Boulder as its new home starting in 2026. According to the governor's office, Sundance is expected to generate $2 billion in economic activity for the state over the next 10 years.
Tears and laughter for Jill Sobule at impromptu Colorado gathering

6 days ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

An overflow crowd of about 120 filled Swallow Hill Music Hall’s Tuft Theatre – including 90-year-old namesake Harry Tuft – for a spontaneous memorial gathering May 2 to honor Denver-born indie rocker Jill Sobule, who died the night before in a suburban Minneapolis house fire. Sobule was to have performed Friday at Swallow Hill, followed by weekend dates in Carbondale and Fort Collins.
Move to gut NEA is 'a punch to the gut' of local arts orgs

1 week ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

The White House unleashed a wave of dread and confusion this week when the National Endowment for the Arts issued letters canceling all existing grant contracts with hundreds of nonprofit arts organizations around the country, including more than 20 in Colorado. “Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the administration’s agenda,” it said in the termination emails, which were sent out after 7 p.m. last Friday (May 2).
GUEST COLUMN | He’s still got it

1 week ago | texarkanagazette.com | John Moore

The difference in a collector and a pack rat is whether you're rich or poor. Those with money are considered refined and people of taste. Poor people are pack rats. I'm a pack rat. A proud one. But to clarify, I'm a neat and orderly pack rat. Just don't ask my wife if she agrees with that statement. There are family members who keep heirlooms and those who don't. Most don't.
SeriesFest 2025: If you want to make television, now is the time to pilot

1 week ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

The good news for anyone who wants to make television in 2025 is that the industry has been completely disrupted over the past five years. The bad news for anyone who wants to make television in 2025 is that the industry has been completely disrupted over the past five years. After the shutdown, the strikes, a flood of new content followed by an inevitable retraction, there are no absolute or reliable rules for how TV gets made right now. It’s the wild West out there.
Jill Sobule: A songwriter who kissed a girl, and the sky

1 week ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

Jill Sobule, a fourth-generation Denver indie rocker who rocketed to fame with the 1995 radio hit "I Kissed a Girl,” died in an early morning house fire on Thursday (May 1) in Woodbury, Minn., her family announced. She was 66. The nightmare ending came at a time when the celebrated activist and icon was enjoying both a career resurgence and reinvention.
W. Kamau Bell's message for those listening in Denver: 'Pick something'

1 week ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

Emmy Award-winning comedian, ACLU ambassador and just-crowned “Celebrity Jeopardy” champion W. Kamau Bell has a message for anyone who feels unmoored by the unstable state of national affairs. “Pick something.” Bell said. I mean yelled. “Pick something!“People get all caught up in the thinking that they have to solve all the world's problems. No. Solve a small problem. There's somebody in your neighborhood who needs your help.
Denver's Gabe Ebert nominated for second Tony Award

1 week ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

Gabriel Ebert, a 2005 graduate of Denver School of the Arts, has been nominated for a 2025 Tony Award for his outstanding performance in the new play “John Proctor is the Villain,” it was announced this morning. Ebert, nominated in the best featured actor category, won the 2013 Tony Award for his supporting performance as Mr. Wormwood in “Matilda the Musical.” That made him the first alumnus of Denver School of the Arts to ever win a Tony.
Why Film on the Rocks is leaning into more commercial titles

2 weeks ago | denvergazette.com | John Moore

There’s something ironically countercultural about Film on the Rocks, Denver Film’s signature annual summer series at Red Rocks. Namely, how counter-countercultural it has become. Throughout the year, Denver Film champions independent and underrepresented film in a dozen different ways, most emphatically with its prestigious annual Denver Film Festival. It also partners with local groups on weekends celebrating Asian-American cinema, women-focused cinema, queer cinema and even silent film.