Sarah Sheppard Shaver isn’t radioactive. She’s simply on fire.

Sheppard Shaver did something perhaps unprecedented in Colorado theater history this year. And it was only half-planned.

In March, Sheppard Shaver directed Lauren Gunderson’s two-actor play “The Half-Life of Marie Curie” for Colorado Springs’ Theatreworks. It’s a piece of historical fiction that imagines the private life of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist most remembered for her pioneering research on radioactivity – specifically, her 1898 discovery of the elements radium and polonium.

But, like all pop-culture superstars of any era, Curie was the object of ruthless gossip when word of an extramarital affair came to light in 1912. In the play, Curie withdraws to a friend’s seaside retreat to recover from the scandal. Sheppard Shaver, who doubled up as her own costume designer, describes the story as “feminism meets hard science.”

It was, by all accounts, a solid and successful production starring Prentiss Benjamin and Leslie O’Carroll, who was a mainstay member of the Denver Center’s former resident theater company for more than 25 years.

Fast-forward four months and 135 miles to Silverthorne, where the newly renamed Theatre SilCo (formerly the Lake Dillon Theatre Company) was in big trouble. SilCo was preparing its own production of the very same Gunderson play, with a different cast and creative team. Actors Claire Kennedy and Emma Messenger arrived on a Sunday (July 16), but their original director did not.

By Wednesday morning, three days into what only was scheduled to be a 10-day rehearsal process anyway, Artistic Director Christopher Alleman called in Sheppard Shaver to save the day. She signed on and was in Silverthorne working by Friday. But that was only one week before the original scheduled opening night (July 28). So that was pushed to the following Tuesday (Aug. 2), and the show ran for three weeks – another solid and successful production.

“We were a couple of women in distress,” Messenger said with a laugh. “We didn’t have a director, and Sarah stepped in and absolutely saved the day.”

O’Carroll and Messenger, who both played Curie’s buddy, Hertha Ayerton – an electromechanical engineer and fellow suffragette – had very different creative experiences, both anchored by Sheppard Shaver. O’Carroll had the luxury of a normal, nearly four-week rehearsal process and came away a Sheppard Shaver acolyte.

“She is a very collaborative director who is all about empowering women,” said O’Carroll, who was tickled when she heard Sheppard Shaver would be riding to the rescue of Theatre SilCo “because I knew they were in good hands. Nobody knows the play better than Sarah other than the playwright.”

It was a far more heightened, deadline-driven experience for Messenger, who also came away a Sheppard Shaver acolyte. She did not panic. She tugged on Superman’s cape.

“Sarah is so for women,” Messenger said. “She has this quality of looking out for women, taking care of women, nourishing women – and that made her the perfect person for us. All the stars were pointing at her. She was everything we needed.”

Not that it was always a breeze. But thankfully, running a few steps behind picturesque Theatre SilCo about 60 miles west of Denver are the soothing waters of the majestic Blue River.

“There were times when we would be so stressed out, Sarah would say, ’Let’s go down to the river,’” Messenger said. “We would all stand in the water and breathe in all the beauty that is Silverthorne, and then go back into rehearsal with renewed energy and a belief that we could actually do this crazy thing.”

And do it, they did. Onstage Colorado’s Karen Mason called the play “a truly captivating theatrical experience and a testament to the impact of skilled actors fully immersing themselves in their roles.”

In the end, two “Halfs” made a whole.

In between those two plays, Sheppard Shaver made a little history when she won the first-ever Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Award for a Colorado Springs company called Springs Ensemble Theatre. She was honored  for her 2022 portrayal of Marie Antoinette in “The Revolutionists,” also written by (who else?) Gunderson.

Sheppard Shaver, who grew up in Los Alamos, N.M. (yep!) is a founding member of the 13-year-old SET and has been chair of the theater department at Pikes Peak State College since 2013.

Note: The True West Awards, now in their 23rd 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 good stories from the past year without categories or nominations.