Marty McGovern was, to put it plainly, “a great human and a great artistic soul,” says his friend, Denver film producer Britta Erickson.

McGovern was both poet and playwright, but he might say he was simply a writer of words – one who influenced and encouraged hundreds of budding writers.  

He was a curious, insatiable lover of life.

McGovern’s varied legacy will include founding the Creative Writing MFA program at Regis University, publishing a book of poems called “Bad Fame,” and paving the way for Curious Theatre Company to have its longtime home at the Acoma Center back in the 1990s.

McGovern and the late James Gale – a larger-than-life actor who would go on to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company – co-founded a fierce but short-lived Denver theater called Ad Hoc, which was the first company to take up residence in the Acoma Center in 1996.  

McGovern and Gale turned the old church into a real theater, including building the stage and installing the lighting grid. Together the duo were fire (Gale) and … well, not ice. More like “calm.”

“If it weren’t for Marty and James, there would be no great performing space at the Acoma Center,” said Erickson, who was its founding executive director. 

He was also an occasional actor, notably appearing in a 1999 production of “Waiting for Godot” for a Denver Irish theater company called Tir Na nOg, performing both at the Mizel Center in Denver and at an international theater festival in Chicago.

Creating something from nothing was more McGovern’s jam. That and a teaching career at Regis that ultimately spanned 2007-21. That and writing poems like “I am Holding a Duckling I Won at the Fair.” That and becoming a devoted first-time father at 51.

McGovern died June 30 after trying to rebound from a ruptured aorta back in April. He was 69.

“He will be powerfully missed,” said his friend, Tameca Coleman.

Most, like me, will likely most remember McGovern as a decent, endless font of random encouragement. Going back 15 years, our text thread is foundationally based on McGovern reaching out of the blue to wish me well on just about anything: A job he might have heard I was going for; kudos for a story I had written, the work I do with my nonprofit. One missive wishes me well on my colonoscopy. The final message offers me unexpected cheer through the isolation of COVID.

There are shamefully few examples of me instigating any of those exchanges.

McGovern must have taught every kind of writing there is at Regis, because I now see that he had me in to speak to all kinds of classes – playwriting, screenwriting, creative writing and “Reviewing the Arts,” to name a few.

After Gale’s death in 2012, McGovern informed me of his intent to honor his friend by writing a chronological compendium of all Denver theater artists who have gone into empty spaces and made them into theaters. “But you should know,” he self-deprecatingly warned me: “My ideas are usually about three-fourths baked!”

McGovern was born Sept. 8, 1954, raised in Pueblo and graduated from Centennial High School back when it was called Circle Pines. He went on to study philosophy at Stanford University and English lit at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. Once he earned his PhD in poetry at the University of Houston, he was forever known as “Doc.”

Kendra Crain, mother of their son, Gabriel Synge Crain McGovern, describes her ex-husband as “a lovable, unusual character” – emphasis on the “lovable.” I can relate. He once reached out to me to suggest that I write an off-the-wall story about actors and their teeth. “Do actors have to have perfect teeth?” he wondered. “Do their teeth make them more distinguishable? I can imagine the whole ‘teeth thing’ with actors is quite a thing. That would be a hoot of an article.”

And it would have been.

Gabriel just graduated from Denver School of the Arts and in August is off to Columbia of Chicago to study cinematography.

“We are both devastated,” said Crain.

I still have a note Marty sent me in 2018, when he was so bursting with pride that he asked me if I would be willing to come watch a then seventh-grade Gabriel star in his middle school’s gigantic fall play, “Super Non-Heroes.”

A play might be made of Marty simply called “Super Heroes.”

McGovern is also survived by a brother, John McGovern. A celebration of life is planned for 7 p.m. Aug. 2 at the Acoma Center, 1080 Acoma St.

40 West is looking for tenants

After the recent departure of Benchmark Theatre from its boutique theater space in Lakewood a month ago, officials from the 40 West Arts District that owns the building at 1560 Teller St. are actively recruiting both artists and performance troupes who might want to rent it.

“We definitely plan to preserve the black-box theater and gallery space for future arts and creative uses,” said Chairman Bill Marino. “We are in early discussions with a few local groups already.”

Benchmark left, in part, because founder Haley Johnson found operating there under an ongoing lease agreement to be financially unsustainable for her company. “But our goal is to keep the space as affordable as possible,” Marino said. “It cannot be free — but we are ready to work with any viable theater troupe that can bring performance arts to 40 West Arts District.

Interested parties are encouraged to email [email protected].

And finally …

To many music fans, the upcoming weekend is simply “Avett Weekend” – three sold-out nights for the Avett Brothers at Red Rocks. At 11 a.m. Saturday, Scott Avett will sit down with Museum of Contemporary Art Denver Director Nora Abrams at the MCA Denver at the Holiday Theatre for a way sold-out conversation about his journey as painter and printmaker. Afterward, an exclusive exhibition of Avett’s artwork will be unveiled at the Hexton Gallery in Aspen.