No doubt about it: The storied Bug Theatre would no longer be open if not for the ongoing, largely unheralded efforts of an unsung hero of the Denver arts community named Alex Agosta-Weimer.

“Absolutely,” said GerRee Hinshaw, who has hosted The Bug’s “Freak Train” for more than 20 years. “He is the reason The Bug has never closed.”

Affirms Gary Culig, who starred in David Sedaris’ ‘The SantaLand Diaries,” a 10-year seasonal tradition through 2008: “Without Alex, there would be no Bug.”

The theater, located on Navajo Street just south of 38th Avenue in Denver’s Highlands neighborhood, has weathered one existential challenge after another. A deteriorating 110-year old building. Gentrification and skyrocketing surrounding property values. Most recently, a certain global-stopping pandemic. But because of Weimer’s insistent and consistent loyalty to the place, the doors to Denver’s most unique live theater and film venue are still open to legions of emerging, wayward artistic freaks.

“The Bug remains this holdout of old Denver, a jewel in a sea of encroaching slot homes and mixed-use garbage,” said Adam Cayton-Holland, part of a local comedy super-trio called The Grawlix who have kept The Bug as their home base since 2012. “The Bug sits like a cultural middle finger to the Nu Denver blitzkrieg. And the fact that it still remains, and thrives, letting all manner of oddballs get on that stage and shoot for their dreams, makes Denver cooler, weirder and great.”

Every last Monday (except December), Hinshaw co-hosts “Freak Train,” the longest-running variety show in Denver, with Agosta-Weimer her unseen partner in the booth. “Freak Train” goes by one simple premise: The first 12 to sign up get 5 minutes to do whatever they want on the stage, as long as they don’t endanger themselves or anyone else. All are welcome. All are encouraged. None are mocked.

“What’s great about Alex is that he doesn’t judge artists. He’s not a gate-keeper,” said Hinshaw. “He’s focused on giving as many people access to that stage and audience as possible.”

The 160-seat proscenium theater opened in 1912 as a movie house called the Ideal Theater. It was bought by Chandler Romeo and Reed Weimer (Alex’s brother) for $60,000 in 1993. The next year, it re-opened as The Bug Theatre for live theater, film, live music and all manner of special events. Over the years, it has been home to concerts by Jeff Buckley and Jonathan Richman. This past summer, The Bug hosted a three-week run of “Puerto Rican Nocturne,” local playwright Jon Marcantoni’s drama about the police assassination of two Puerto Rican independence activists in 1978.

All because of Agosta-Weimer, who arrived in Denver from Seattle in 1998 and now rules The Bug as Executive Director and all-powerful boss of a staff of one: The poor sap who runs the box office, operates lights and sound, shovels the sidewalk and cleans the toilets. (That, of course, would be himself.) ”And he does it with a wry smile and pure love for the Bug and its quirky community,” said Culig.

Turns out, he’s also pretty funny, said Cayton-Holland.

“We do our monthly Grawlix comedy shows there, which always include a silly sketch up top,” he said, “and on the day of the show, I can text Alex and say, ‘Hey, do you have a gimp mask?” for whatever nonsense we’ve cooked up. And a half hour later, he’ll text me with photographs of several options.”

He’s also known for his own random costumes, going back to when he played Surly the Elf in “The SantaLand Diaries.”

“At our last Halloween show, Alex dressed as Sean Connery (playing Professor Henry Walton) in ‘Indiana Jones,’ and he would not break character,” Cayton-Holland said. “Costume, accent, everything. He was doing his job like the total pro he is, and the schtick in no way detracted from his job. During tech rehearsal, he’s in character. Seating people, he’s in character. It was relentless. Then midway through the show, he pops in backstage and suddenly he’s in character as Hunter S. Thompson. He had made a wardrobe change and everything. And he wouldn’t break that character either. It was hilarious, and a little concerning. Like you got the feeling he would go home as Hunter S., and probably stay that way for a while. Dude commits.”

Truer words have never been spoken: Dude commits. That’s why the Bug survives, Hinshaw said.

“I just don’t know that anyone could have worked for as long and as passionately and for as little pay as Alex has, and built The Bug into the center of non-mainstream arts that it has become,” she said. “Much to his own detriment, he will give you the shirt off his back and last drop of blood in his veins if he thinks it will help.”

Then long live Agosta-Weimer. And, as Cayton-Holland says: “Long live The Bug.”

Note: The True West Awards, now in their 22nd year, began as the Denver Post Ovation Awards in 2001. Denver Gazette Senior Arts Journalist John Moore celebrates the Colorado theater community by revisiting 30 of the best stories from the past year without categories or nominations. *