The Colorado Theatre Guild delivered the softest, sweetest parting uppercut to the founders of a beloved Boulder theater company by bestowing a record-breaking nine Henry Awards on a boxing play called “The Royale” at a ceremony held Monday at the Denver Performing Arts Complex’s Wolf Theatre.

The play, written by Marco Ramirez (“Orange is the New Black”) and staged by the metamorphosing Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado (BETC), was inspired by the true story of Jack Johnson, who became the first Black heavyweight champion at the height of the Jim Crow era.

The play earned 11 nominations from the Henry Awards, which have celebrated achievements among Colorado Theatre Guild member companies since 2006. That makes “The Royale” the most-honored play in Henry Awards history.

The play won in every category for which it was nominated. The only reason it didn’t win more is because three “Royale actors” were among the five sparring for Best Supporting Actor – a nod that went to Cris Davenport.

“The Royale” also won for Outstanding Play, Ensemble, Direction (Curious Theatre Artistic Director Jada Suzanne Dixon), Lead Actor (Lavour Addison), Supporting Actress (Alicia “Lisa” Young), Lighting Design (Emily A. Maddox), Costume Design (Sarah Zinn) and Sound Design (CeCe Smith). The historic haul broke the record for a play of eight awards set by Curious Theatre’s “The Whipping Man” in 2014.

Toni Tresca, reviewing “The Royale” for Onstage Colorado, called the play “a gripping, action-packed sports drama that explores the value of representation and the cost of success.” And he singled out Dixon’s direction as “next level.”

“The Royale” is a project that Addison took to BETC founding producers Rebecca Remaly and Stephen Weitz, ending a five-year search for a company to stage the play, which he called “the perfect balance of theatricality and athleticism – and we had just the right creative team,” he said.

“I think people of color are often used for their athletic talents. We see that in the NFL, we see it boxing and in the mixed-martial arts. But we didn’t focus on the racism aspect. We were focusing on the story of someone fighting for family. So we took a very personal approach to it – and I think that’s what resonated with everyone.”

Remaly and Weitz, who founded the company as the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company in 2006, moved on after the mosr recent season ended in May. Before Monday, BETC had won only one Henry Award in its 17-year existence.

“I would have retired a long time ago if I thought this would happen,” joked Weitz, who drew laughs with his fun attire. He and his wife wore playful track suits with nametags saying only, “Retired.”

BETC is now being run by Mark Ragan and Jessica Robblee, who won her own Henry Award on Monday for her performance in the solo play “The Belle of Amherst” for Clover & Bee Productions, a separate company she and Ragan founded in February.

Last year, the Colorado Theatre Guild took the extraordinary step of splitting nearly 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.) And because six awards ended in ties, an all-time high 41 competitive awards were handed out Monday.

The big-dog DCPA Theatre Company, which tends to either sweep the Henry Awards or get swept under the rug depending on the year, matched BETC with nine awards – perhaps most significantly for Maiesha McQueen’s starring role in “The Color Purple,” truly one of the great performances in local theater history. The DCPA led all companies with 37 nominations.

The Arvada Center, during a major leadership transition year, was next with six. The new Give 5 Productions, founded last year by Julia Tobey, won three awards for its inaugural production of “Footloose,” co-produced by Parker Arts at the PACE Center. At a time when it is economically infeasible to start a major new theater company, Give 5 has been an unlikely success story.

“It’s working because Parker Arts is giving me money to do what we need to do – so thank you, town of Parker,” Tobey said. “We are thrilled, excited, grateful. It’s a total shocker.”

Outstanding Musical went to the Arvada Center’s “Into the Woods,” which overcame many COVID challenges. That was easily the surprise of the night, given that the top prize was the only award “Into the Woods” won on Monday. The most honored musical of the year was actually the Arvada Center’s “Beauty and the Beast,” with four awards, followed by three for “Footloose.” The DCPA’s play “Quixote Nuevo” was the only other production to win at least three.

See a complete list of the nominees here

The biggest name among this year’s winners was Hunter Foster, who won the directing honor for his production of “Jersey Boys” at Theatre Aspen. Foster will forever be known to theater fans for originating the role of Bobby Strong in “Urinetown” and for playing Seymour in the 2003 Broadway revival of “Little Shop of Horrors.” He now runs the  Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, N.Y., and directed the off-Broadway hit “The Other Josh Cohen.” (And yes, he is the brother of Broadway legend Sutton Foster.)

One of the many emotional moments of the evening came when ShaShauna Staton accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her father, Jeffrey Nickelson, who founded the Shadow Theatre Company in 1997 and died in 2009. Her father, Staton said, projected an image of public confidence but struggled in a community he loved, though at times he felt didn’t always love him back.

“There is still so much to learn from daddy’s struggles; so many lessons the entire community would benefit from,” she said. “He was brilliant and he believed in togetherness, but he was so tired of the separation.” She called on the Colorado Theatre Guild and the theater community as a whole to continue to work toward his unfinished goal to make this state a destination attraction for all artists who want to work. “A great, multicultural – and cultural – Colorado,” she said.

Another was when Young, who also co-directs the Henry Awards program,  accepted her award for “The Royale.” “This one’s for my daddy,” she said, explaining that the Rev. Dr. Jules E. Smith died just 10 days before the play opened. One of his last requests was that she stay in the show, Young said. “Do your work. You love this,” he told her.

And also when Addison and his wife, Brittni Shambaugh Addison, introduced the annual memoriam video as a tribute to the local Denver Actors Fund, which helped the couple pay down their medical bills by more than $13,000 through consecutive harrowing pregnancies.

“I wish so desperately that we lived in a country where we didn’t need an organization like the Denver Actors Fund,” said Brittni Addison, the education director at Creede Repertory Theatre. “But as that isn’t our current reality, all we can do is spend the rest of our lives attempting to say thank you.”

In all, 51 theater companies and 159 shows were eligible for this year’s awards consideration, and they were ultimately shared between 15 companies and 20 productions. Shows had to have opened between May 16, 2022, and May 15, 2023, to be eligible.

The night was filled with both fun and meaningful twists. Geoffrey Kent and Dana Green, who sparred as the inevitable witty lovers Beatrice and Benedick in the DCPA Theatre Company’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” won as outstanding actor and actress in a big-budget play. Brian Mallgrave’s win for designing Arvada Center’s set for “Beauty and the Beast” was his fifth overall – but it came with no “Saturday Night Live”-like smoker’s jacket.

The evening featured two repeat winners. Jeffrey Parker was named outstanding supporting actor in a musical for the second straight year, this time for playing Black Stache in Cherry Creek Theatre’s “Peter and the Starcatcher.” (Last year, it was for playing Adolpho in Performance Now’s “The Drowsy Chaperone.”) That category was a tie, with a Henry also going to Carter Edward Smith of “Footloose.” Two things: Both winners performed in shows directed by Kelly Van Oosbree. And Smith was in both shows himself. He played Smee in “Starcatcher.”

And Efren Degadillo Jr. won for scenic design (DCPA Theatre Company’s “Quixote Nuevo”) after winning last year for “In the Upper Room.”

Despite the preponderance of ties, there were two sweet double-nods to castmates. Miracle Myles and Jeremy Rill, both from Give 5’s “Footloose,” shared the nod for Actor in a Musical. Sammy Gleason and Michael Lee from the Fine Arts Center at Colorado College’s “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” shared the award for Supporting Actor in a Play. That holiday chestnut set in the 1940s turned into a surprisingly special experience for audiences and actors alike, coming right after the Club Q shootings.

“This is a classic story that everyone knows and has been told a particular way for years and years and years, so we said, ‘Why don’t we flip it on its head?’ And so we did,” said Gleason, a 20-year Colorado Springs theater veteran.   He credited director Marisa D. Hebert for allowing the cast to play their roles authentically, the way they are as people living in the world. “I was so grateful to go on stage and play a gay little angel with my nails and my bald head and my high heels and live my life,” said Gleason, adding at the end: “I want to say trans people deserve to live.”

The Henry Awards generally spread the wealth liberally to companies across the state but besides the Fine Arts Center, the only companies outside the metro earning even one award this year were Theatre Aspen, Thunder River of Carbondale, Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre of Grand Lake and the (Colorado) Springs Ensemble Theatre, with one each.

Sarah Sheppard Shaver’s Supporting Actress award for “The Revolutionists” was SET’s first-ever Henry Award. A now 2-year-old category honoring the Outstanding Youth Performance produced a three-way tie, sending Henrys to Pueblo (Jackson Baldwin, Steel City Theatre Company) and Breckenridge (Jacob L. Johnson, Backstage Theatre). The third award went to Nolan McDowell of Denver’s Sasquatch Productions (“The Addams Family”).

For the second straight year, co-directers Young and Samwell Rose made an intentional programming statement acknowledging rapid changes that are happening within the Colorado theater community by having nearly all 54 awards presenters be members of traditionally underrepresented communities.

For the first time in many years, increased representation seemed to be showing up big in the award winners themselves, including Myles, who played Ren in “Footloose”; the casts and crews of “The Royale” and “Quixote Nuevo”; first-time winner for sound design, CeCe Smith; and Young, who also heads a grassroots group called IDEA stages that is committed to increasing diversity and equity on local stages.

“To the little girls and the little boys who look like me, when people tell you there is no room in this space for you, it’s not true. You have a space, and we’re going to make sure that this space stays there for you,” Young said.

In his speech, Myles acknowledged Van Oosbree and Tobey for seeing a Black man in the role played in the famous film by Kevin Bacon. “Thank you for being leaders in a year of theatrical change,” he said.

We reported last month that this year’s nominations made history when eden, a single-named and intentionally lower-cased Denver actor, became the first openly nonbinary performer to be nominated for a Henry Award for her performance in the Aurora Fox’s “Toni Stone,” the story of the first female baseball player in the Negro Leagues. The award, for Supporting Actress in a Play, went to Alexis B. Santiago of “Quixote Nuevo.”

Also for the second year, the program took moments to specifically acknowledge the work some of of live theater’s often unsung heroes: Stage managers; intimacy and fight choreographers; and ushers, volunteers and front-of-house workers.

As always, the Henry Awards left some tears and head-scratching behind. Among the many top-level companies that were left wanting Monday were Curious Theatre Company, Buntport Theater, Denver’s disability-affirmative Phamaly Theater Company, BDT Stage, The Catamounts, Miners Alley Playhouse, Vintage, Town Hall Arts Center, the Aurora Fox, Performance Now, Colorado Springs TheatreWorks, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and the Creede Repertory Theatre. Among the companies that withdrew from 2022-23 Henry Awards consideration were Theatre SilCo (formerly Lake Dillon Theatre Company), Su Teatro and the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse.

The Henry Awards are named after the late, legendary producer Henry Lowenstein. This was the first time they have been hosted by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts since 2010. About 360 attended the event.

2022-23 HENRY AWARD WINNERS

See a complete list of the nominees here

OUTSTANDING PLAY

• “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

OUTSTANDING MUSICAL

• “Into the Woods,” Arvada Center

DIRECTION OF A PLAY

• Jada Suzanne Dixon, “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL

• Hunter Foster, “Jersey Boys,” Theatre Aspen

MUSICAL DIRECTION

• Jordan Ortman, “Beauty and the Beast,” Arvada Center

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY, TIER 1

• Geoffrey Kent, “Much Ado About Nothing,” DCPA Theatre Company

ACTOR IN A PLAY, TIER 2

• Lavour Addison, “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

ACTRESS IN A PLAY, TIER 1

• Dana Green, “Much Ado About Nothing,” DCPA Theatre Company

ACTRESS IN A PLAY, TIER 2

• Jessica Robblee, “The Belle of Amherst,” Clover & Bee Productions

ACTOR IN A MUSICAL, TIER 1

• Mitchell Lewis, “Jersey Boys,” Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre

ACTOR IN A MUSICAL, TIER 2 (TIE)

• Miracle Myles, “Footloose,” Give 5 Productions and Parker Arts

• Jeremy Rill, “Footloose,” Give 5 Productions and Parker Arts

ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL, TIER 1

• Maiesha McQueen, “The Color Purple,” DCPA Theatre Company

ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL, TIER 2

• GerRee Hinshaw, “Raised on Ronstadt,” Local Theater Company

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY, TIER 1 (TIE)

• Sammy Gleason, “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play,” Fine Arts Center Theatre Company at Colorado College

• Michael Lee, “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play,” Fine Arts Center Theatre Company at Colorado College

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY, TIER 2

• Cris Davenport, “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY, TIER 1

• Alexis B. Santiago, “Quixote Nuevo,” DCPA Theatre Company

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY, TIER 2 (TIE)

• Sarah Sheppard Shaver, “The Revolutionists,” Springs Ensemble Theatre

• Alicia “Lisa” Young, “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL, TIER 1

• Colin Alexander, “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” Arvada Center

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL, TIER 2 (TIE)

• Jeffrey Parker, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” Cherry Creek Theatre

• Carter Edward Smith, “Footloose,” Give 5 Productions and Parker Arts

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL, TIER 1

• Adriane Leigh Robinson, “Damn Yankees,” Arvada Center

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL, TIER 2

• Danielle Hermon, “Sound of Music,” Sasquatch Productions

ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE

• “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

CHOREOGRAPHY

• Jessica Hindsley, “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” Arvada Center

OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY OR MUSICAL

• “Hotter Than Egypt,” Written by Yussef El Guindi, DCPA Theatre Company

COSTUME, DESIGN TIER 1

• Helen Q. Huang, “Quixote Nuevo,” DCPA Theatre Company

COSTUME DESIGN, TIER 2

• Sarah Zinn, “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

LIGHTING DESIGN, TIER 1

• Pablo Santiago, “Quixote Nuevo,” DCPA Theatre Company

LIGHTING DESIGN, TIER 2

• Emily A. Maddox, “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

SCENIC DESIGN, TIER 1 (TIE)

• Efren Degadillo Jr., “Quixote Nuevo,” DCPA Theatre Company

• Brian Mallgrave, “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” Arvada Center

SCENIC DESIGN, TIER 2

• Colin Tugwell, “You Can’t Take It With You,” Thunder River Theatre Company

SOUND DESIGN, TIER 1

• David R. Molina, “Hotter Than Egypt,” DCPA Theatre Company

SOUND DESIGN, TIER 2

• CeCe Smith, “The Royale,” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

YOUTH PERFORMER (TIE)

• Jackson Baldwin, “A Fairy Tale Christmas Carol,” Steel City Theatre Company

• Jacob L. Johnson, “A Christmas Story,” Breckenridge Backstage Theatre

• Nolan McDowell, “The Addams Family,” Sasquatch Productions

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

• Jeffrey Nickelson, founder, Shadow Theatre