Toni Tresca

Colorado

Journalist at Freelance

Host at Such a Nightmare: Conversations about Horror

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Articles

Colorado Shakespeare Festival Returns for Season 68 with a Trio of Power Plays

2 days ago | westword.com | Toni Tresca

In an age of endless streaming options, political unrest and AI-generated everything, it’s easy to feel like old stories don’t matter anymore. But at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival? Shakespeare still hits. "Over the last five years, I think we have become even more attuned to what Shakespeare is saying in these plays," CSF artistic director Tim Orr says. "With the lockdown and the loss, along with the political turmoil in the country, we see it again and again in these plays.
Watch Street Paintings Come to Life at Denver’s 23rd Chalk Art Festival

3 days ago | westword.com | Toni Tresca

It starts with a sketch and a few sticks of chalk. Then come the artists — some professionals, some complete newcomers — kneeling side by side on the concrete. As hours pass, hands darken, colors bloom and an ordinary city block is transformed into a living gallery. “Chalk art is basically a performance-based medium,” says Michael Rieger, longtime artist director of the Denver Chalk Art Festival.
Ditch Rainbow Capitalism: Fifteen Alternatives to Corporate Denver Pride

4 days ago | westword.com | Toni Tresca

Let’s be real, Denver Pride just doesn’t hit the way it used to. Once a grassroots celebration of queer resistance and joy, today’s Denver PrideFest feels more like a commercial spectacle than a community rally.
Your 2025 Guide to the Sixth Annual Denver Fringe Festival

1 week ago | westword.com | Toni Tresca

Every June, Denver turns into a playground for the unpredictable. Rooftops, bookstores, breweries and black boxes across the city crack open to reveal everything from trash-collecting astronauts to tango-dancing about the human experience, all part of the wild, sprawling celebration that is the Denver Fringe Festival. Now in its sixth year, Fringe returns Wednesday, June 4, through Sunday, June 8, with more than 200 performances of 75 self-produced shows across nineteen venues.
Going in Blind: Oracle is Loosely Immersive, But Highly Reflective

1 week ago | westword.com | Toni Tresca

Tucked behind a nearly invisible hallway sign in the Coloradan, Union Hall feels less like an art gallery and more like a secret waiting to be discovered. Located in Denver’s bustling Union Station neighborhood, the entrance is so easy to miss that you might accidentally find yourself boarding a train before realizing you’ve gone too far. But that hidden quality, as Gallery and Marketing Manager Jess Díaz points out, is part of the charm.
‘Bright Star’ burns bright

1 week ago | boulderweekly.com | Toni Tresca

'Bright Star' might be one of the best Candlelight Dinner Playhouse productions in recent memory. Credit: RDG Photo When you find yourself at a dinner theater sitting next to two people who’ve seen the same musical three times, you pay attention. That was the case during Bright Star at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown, where a couple of self-declared superfans eagerly shared their love for the show’s sweeping romance, soaring harmonies and Appalachian soul.
Theater Festivals Hitting Colorado This Summer

2 weeks ago | westword.com | Toni Tresca

Whether you’re looking to catch Broadway-caliber performances in the mountains, witness a play produced in under 24 hours or wander through Arvada sipping wine while watching micro-theater in shop windows, there’s a festival here with your name on it. So grab your calendar and maybe a few snacks for the road because these festivals are worth the drive. Below, we round up Colorado’s must-see summer theater festivals, organized alphabetically so you can plan your theatrical road trip from A to Z.
The Conversation Brings Israeli-Palestinian Debate to Stage in Boulder

2 weeks ago | westword.com | Toni Tresca

In a time of polarization and unrest, a new project at Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center is asking audiences to do the hardest thing of all: talk. "The temptation is to not talk about difficult things or to do it politely, but we really have to learn how to be able to talk about shit so that can move forward," says playwright Ami Dayan. "It’s important to understand the other side as human beings rather than as animals, or whatever. The political sphere is so diverse and antagonistic.
Arts ecosystem disrupted by Trump’s NEA freeze

2 weeks ago | boulderweekly.com | Toni Tresca

Front Range hip-hop legends The ReMINDers will perform at Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Theater on May 31 as part of Motus Theater’s Youth Behind & Beyond Bars series.
The Narrators Marks Fifteen Years of Stories

2 weeks ago | westword.com | Toni Tresca

No one screens the stories. There’s no scoring system. And there sure as hell isn't any consistency. You might hear a tale that makes you cry, or one that involves a grown man in a mouse costume getting mobbed by children. That’s the charm of The Narrators, a low-tech, high-heart monthly storytelling show that takes place inside Denver's Buntport Theater. "We never know what’s going to be said," says The Narrators co-host and producer Ron S. Doyle.