You have to root for any community theater that repeatedly stacks the deck against itself and plays on. For 38 years, founders Richard and Joan Bell played on, caring less than zero about prevailing trends in the theater. Their Upstart Crow theater company had a mission – and it still does: To present (uncut) classics that, as Bell put it, “emphasize respect for the playwright’s intentions, the actor’s craft and the audience’s intellect.”

And, devil may care, the Bells stuck to it. 

The Upstart Crow has dedicated the remainder of its 2024-25 season to the memory of Richard Bell, one of the giants of the local theater community. He retired in 2018 and died Aug. 27 at age 91.

But the Crow plays on, next presenting the live radio-play version of “A Christmas Carol” in Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center from Dec. 6-15.

The Upstart Crow remains perhaps the best-named theater company in Colorado. In choosing that name, the Bells were referencing a pejorative that a bitter rival named Thomas Green infamously used against Shakespeare. Green called The Bard “an upstart crow, beautified in our feathers.” Basically, he was accusing him of plagiarism. (Other people’s stuff is their feathers.)

“We picked that name because we thought using a pejorative reference to Shakespeare was both humble and arrogant,” Bell once told me. “So we decided that humble arrogance was going to be our trademark.”

The Upstart Crow was started in 1980 by three Boulder families – the Bells, the Reeds and the Fogelbergs. Their initial home was the Bells’ living room, the first of nine in the first five years. The company was, and remains, an all-comers and all-ages community theater with an ensemble that does all the work onstage and off together.

“Our actors come from all parts of society,” Joan Bell told me. “They come from Ball Aerospace. They work at Barnes and Noble. We have students who are in high school and college. I’m a database administrator.” At that, her husband interjected, “I work in the aisle of McGuckin’s,” he said of a temp job that he kept for 21 years in the iconic Boulder hardware store.

Richard Beliel was born June 30, 1933, and grew up in Hutchinson, Kan. (The family simplified the name to Bell by the time Richard graduated high school in 1951.) He was irregularly attending the University of Colorado and performing in its summer Shakespeare production when he was drafted in 1953. He was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., where, naturally, he joined the Fort Bragg Players. After his discharge in 1955, he returned to Boulder, finally earning his degree in 1959, then an MFA from Ohio University in 1962.

After teaching for several years, Bell moved back to Boulder in the early 1970s and married his second wife, Joan Lee Kuder. They started the Upstart Crow in 1980, acting, directing or designing virtually every show until 2018.

The couple compiled and published “Auditions and Scenes from Shakespeare,” a directory of 700 audition pieces from Shakespeare plays. In 2018. Richard completed “Speak the Speech,” a Shakespearean glossary designed for actors.

Richard is survived by Joan Kuder Bell and two daughters, Alexis Teresa Bell and Vivian Elizabeth Sutherland.

The company has come up with an endearing way to honor Bell with its “A Christmas Carol” production running Dec. 5-15 at the Dairy Arts Center. The on-air radio announcer has his own name, and for this staging, it will be Richard Bell.

Denver actor heading back to Broadway

A remarkable roll by Colorado actors on Broadway continues. Colorado Springs native Gene Gillette, who lost his mother at 5 and beat cancer at 40, has been cast in the high-profile Broadway revival of “Othello” that will star, ho hum, Denzel Washington in the title role and Jake Gyllenhaal as Iago. Director Kenny Leon has also cast Gillette as Gratiano (Desdemona’s uncle). Gillette previously played several roles in the Tony Award-winning 2018 revival of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Gillette was born in Evergreen in 1974 and moved with his father and sister to Franktown after his mother died. Gillette attended three area high schools, but never fit in at any of them. His life started to turn around when he made his way to Denver and began performing.  He played the lead in “Hamlet” at the Denver Civic Theatre (now Su Teatro), followed by the play that landed him on the Denver theater map – Curious Theatre’s Coyote on a Fence in 2001.“I absolutely believe that theater saved my life,” he said. “It’s so stupid and cliché to say it, but the way I was going, I didn’t think there was any way I would make it to 30.”

“Othello” opens March 23 at the Barrymore Theatre.

“I don’t think I’m able to truly convey how deeply grateful I am for this opportunity,” said Gillette. “This is everything I’ve dreamed of, trained for and worked toward since I first stepped on that stage at Arapahoe Community College 31 years ago in a production of ‘Macbeth’ and I fell in love with Shakespeare.”

New direction for Lakewood space

There is a small new, female-run theater company called Unleashed that is unleashing with the comedy “Matt & Ben” (yes, that Matt & Ben) at the former Benchmark Theatre, which is now called the Three Leaches Theatre at 1560 Teller St. in Lakewood. This absurd comedy, written by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers, imagines the complete screenplay for “Good Will Hunting” falling from the sky to a young Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. It runs through Nov. 30. Info at unleashedtheatre.com.

As of Sept. 21, The Three Leaches Theater is now a cooperative space co-managed in partnership by yes, The Three Leaches, along with Jon Marcantoni’s Flamboyán Theatre.

“Aside from our productions and events, we rent the theater out to other companies to support the community at a time of dwindling venue opportunities,” Marcantoni said. “Together, we seek to bring Denverites from all metro neighborhoods and communities together.”

So far, the two partnering companies have hosted karaoke nights, an election watch party, community events, a dance show and more. “We have comedy shows coming up, a new Three Leaches production in December, a Puerto Rican Christmas celebration and a Winter Market,” he said. Info at thethreeleaches.com. 

Colorado’s rarified ‘Elevation’

There’s a major motion picture out now, and it stars … Colorado. Well, and Anthony Mackie. Plenty of movies are set in Colorado; very few of them are actually filmed here. An exception is “Elevation,” a story that imagines a world where scary monsters grew up out of the ground and wiped out 95% of the Earth’s population. The only ones who survived moved to higher ground after somehow figuring out that the creatures can’t go above 8,000 feet. The film gave the Colorado film industry a big boost and is now playing widely, but probably not for long. So do your civic duty and see it while you can. And prepare to be frightened! (And proud of your state.) 

Buntport adds performance

Buntport Theater,  a singular Denver theater company that only presents original, clever works of their own invention, has added a Nov. 21 performance of its newest story, “Eyes Up, Mouth Agape,” which they swear is based on an apparently true (and truly horrible) incident: On Aug. 8, 2004, a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band dumped an estimated 800 pounds of human waste onto a Chicago bridge. Find out why that is so funny through Nov. 23 at 717 Lipan St. Tickets at 720-946-1388 or buntport.com …

This just in!

Jack White will play the Mission Ballroom on May 8-9. Tickets on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at axs.com.