A study by the National Endowment for the Arts has determined that between July 2021 and July 2022, when much of the performing arts were just coming out of the COVID-19 shutdown, 48% of all adults attended an in-person arts event. That’s down from 54% in 2017, the last time the survey was conducted.

A separate survey showed that 82 percent watched or listened to arts activities through a digital platform during that time.

The survey also claims that more than half of all U.S. adults participated somehow in the making of art during that year, which is almost identical to 2017. Although, to be transparent, the survey considered social dancing to be “making art,” as well as singing – whether in a choir or a shower. You can read more at arts.gov.

Three deaths in theater community

Three longstanding members of the local theater community were reported to have died this week.

• Actor and director Kenneth Grimes was president of Colorado Dramatists and a member of the Denver Center Playwrights Workshop. Grimes was a staple at the late Eulipions Theatre. When he directed and starred in Jeff Stetson’s 1994 play “The Meeting,” The Denver Post’s Sandra C. Dillard wrote: “With his short-cropped hair and beard dyed red for the part, heavy black spectacles and tall, slender appearance, Kenneth Grimes looks and sounds the part of Malcolm X.”

Another triumph was “Mama, I Want to Sing,” which Grimes directed with “a complete understanding of the church culture that gave rise to such popular music greats as Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Gladys Knight and Whitney Houston – all of whom had to decide in which direction to take their talent,” Dillard wrote.

Grimes also developed the original musical “Ain’t No Grave,” the story of frontier heroine Justina Ford, Denver’s first Black female doctor, through a year-long series of workshops involving both Manual High School students and arts professionals from the Black community.

Grimes was simply a giant, said Jawana Norris. “Black Excellence was his walk.”

• Actor Cynthia Voigt, who appeared in the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 1985 production of the play “They Knew What They Wanted,” died Oct. 14 at age 77. Voigt, a grad of George Washington High School, was active in the local community from the 1960s, also appearing at the Changing Scene (“Last Slumber Party”), Germinal Stage Denver (“The Loves of Cass McGuire,” “Hedda Gabler”), Rivertree (“Fifth Wall”) and Arvada Center. She was also a stock broker, Realtor and librarian. Her daughter, Hero Montilla Trusler, suggests memorial gifts be made to the Denver Actors Fund’s PAWS Fund …

• Stan Heller was a longtime director with Denver’s Third Eye and Touchstone theaters. “Stan had a way of getting the best out of a script and a cast,” said his friend, Gary Wallace.

COVID again closing shows

Make no mistake: COVID is still wreaking havoc on local performing arts groups. Town Hall Arts Center scrapped its final two performances of the Elvis Presley audience favorite “All Shook Up” after no less than six members of the cast, crew and band tested positive. Other performances have been canceled from Denver to Fort Collins, but tracking them is more difficult now given the lack of reporting mandates.

Still no Arts & Venues leader

It’s been three weeks since Denver Arts & Venus Executive Director Ginger White Brunetti was told she would not be re-upped in the new Mike Johnston administration – prompting a wave of past and present city leaders to urge the mayor to reconsider. But an interim has been assigned – Gretchen Hollrah, one of two deputy Chief Operating Officers. The former Denver Center for the Performing Arts COO is, for now, essentially doing two jobs. Meanwhile, a research group just released a report saying concerts at Red Rocks, which is managed by Arts & venues, generated $717 million for the region’s economy in 2022 alone.

Briefly …

TV and film star Billy Porter (“Pose”) was among the 640 who attended the Matthew Shepard Foundation’s annual fundraising gala Oct. 14 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. The event raised $579,000 for the foundation’s “Erase Hate” initiative. Shepard’s parents, Judy and Dennis, will be speaking at the Arvada Center at 5 p.m. Oct. 28 and 29, following matinee performances of “The Laramie Project.” Free to attend. For info, go to arvadacenter.org …

University of Colorado Boulder grad Heather Hach, who wrote the book for the Broadway musical “Legally Blonde,” is coming home to speak about her new novel, “The Trouble with Drowning.” But because of the tumult at the Tattered Cover this week, her reading will now take place at 6 p.m. Nov. 2 at the Aspen Grove location, 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive. Info at tatteredcover.com …

In August, we told you the locally made film “Publish or Perish” (a dark comedy about a professor who accidentally kills a student and then tries to cover it up) would not be eligible for a spot at the upcoming Denver Film Festival because it only features titles that have not yet been streamed or distributed. (“Publish or Perish” is available pretty much everywhere.) But they’re not monsters at the DFF. Actually, they are all pretty nice. And they have granted an exception that will allow “Publish or Perish” to be screened twice on closing weekend – at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 and 1:45 p.m. Nov. 12 at the AMC 9 at 826 Albion St. The film is not in competition for awards, but it is being billed as a “special screening” because it is a local film that has been very well-received over the past year at film festivals around the country …

And in August, we told you that local actor and watercolor artist Rick Long had created a unique portrait of John Popper that was discovered by the Blues Traveler frontman on social media. Popper bought a print for himself. And this past weekend, the autographed original was sold at a charity auction, raising $1,325 for We Rock Cancer …

Joy Armstrong starts Nov. 1 as the next director of the Galleries of Contemporary Art at the Ent Center in Colorado Springs. She recently served as curator of modern and contemporary art at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.

I’d stake my reputation on it …

After watching True West Award winner Mica Garcia de Benavidez quietly and consistently fire the engine behind the scenes at Su Teatro over the course of her adult lifetime, it was a thrill to see her take center stage last weekend with her directorial debut for Denver’s 50-year-old Chicano theater.

“Wolf at the Door,” by Marisela Trevino Orta, is both a chilling metaphor for systemic, generational domestic violence, and a restorative testament to the power of women to band together and overcome. It’s a disturbing and challenging play but also utterly fearless under Garcia’s fresh yet knowing directorial hands. She’s the daughter of (and presumed eventual successor to) longtime Su Teatro Artistic Director Tony Garcia.

This special play runs only through Oct. 29 at 721 Santa Fe Drive. Info at suteatro.org.