by Mark Smiley | Jul 23, 2026 | Editorials
Best in the World: Bull & Bush Brewery team members celebrate their award-winning performance at the 2026 World Beer Cup in Philadelphia, along with David Lin, owner of Comrade Brewing (second from left). The Glendale brewery earned a gold medal for Ghoul Fuel: Rum Diaries Edition and a silver medal for Kauai Pie, adding two more international honors to Colorado’s rich brewing legacy.
Bull & Bush Brewery is celebrating 55 years of serving award-winning craft beer, classic pub fare, and unforgettable memories with a full day of festivities on Saturday, August 8. The anniversary celebration will feature exclusive beer releases, special whiskey selections, brunch with DJ High Deaf, an evening performance by Colorado favorite DeVotchKa, and commemorative merchandise honoring Glendale’s most beloved family-owned brewpubs.
Bull & Bush Brewery, one of Colorado’s most iconic family-owned brewpubs, is proud to celebrate its 55th Anniversary, marking more than five decades of serving exceptional handcrafted beer, classic pub fare, and elevated hospitality located in the heart of Glendale.
The 55th Anniversary celebration will take place on Saturday, August 8, 2026, featuring a full day of festivities, including an evening celebration with live music from Colorado’s very own DeVotchKa.
Guests attending the anniversary celebration can look forward to:
- Exclusive 55th Anniversary beer releases
- Special anniversary whiskey selections
- Brunch with DJ High Deaf
- Evening live music with DeVotchKa
- Commemorative merchandise
“For 55 years, Bull & Bush Brewery has been more than a restaurant or brewery hub where friendships are made, milestones are celebrated, and traditions are passed from one generation to the next,” said Erik Peterson, Minister of Progress at Bull & Bush Brewery. “We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported us over the years, and we’re excited to celebrate this milestone with the community that has made it all possible.”
Since adding its brewery in 1996, Bull & Bush Brewery has earned numerous awards at prestigious competitions, most recently:
- Gold Medal, 2 Silver Medals, and 3 Bronze Medals 2026 US Open Beer Championship
- Gold Award and Silver Award 2026 World Beer Cup
- Gold Medal 2025 Great American Beer Festival
- 2025 Grand National Champion and Brewery of the Year at the US Open Beer Championship
Bull and Bush Brewery is located at 4700 Cherry Creek Drive South in Glendale. For more information, visit www.bullandbush.com.
by Editorial Board | Jun 29, 2026 | Editorials
Editorial —
New Colorado Republican Party Chairman Craig Steiner
As everyone is aware, Colorado is a one-party state (i.e., the Democratic Party), much like California and New York, but even more so. There are no Republicans holding any statewide office and there haven’t been since ballot harvesting was legalized in 2016. Democrats have overwhelming majorities in the State House and Senate. There is not a single judge at any level in the state who is not a Democrat.
But the state’s top Democrats recognize that for Colorado to be literally a single-party state like the Stalinist U.S.S.R. is not really a good look. Better for the Democrats to be like the old Harlem Globetrotters and the Republican Party to be like the plucky Washington Generals. The Generals almost never won a game, but it was, in theory, possible.
The Republican Party at the end of May elected a new chair, Craig Steiner of Douglas County. The position had become available due to the resignation of Brita Horn, the former Routt County Treasurer. She is almost universally recognized as the worst party chair in the 150 years since Colorado became a state in 1876.
The present Colorado Republican Party is split into two factions, and the essential battle is over how the party should pick its candidates for the general election. In 2016, the Democrats, with money from so-called independent Kent Thiry, put Proposition 108 on the ballot. It overturned past precedent and forced both parties to have semi-open primaries.
Under this scheme, unaffiliated voters were mailed primary ballots from both parties, and they could choose which party’s primary they wanted to vote in. It greatly weakened the rationale for a person to be affiliated with a party.
Today, approximately 54% of all registered voters are unaffiliated, swamping the Democrats at 24% and Republicans at 22%. Because Democrats, far more than Republicans, generally do not have contested primaries (with this year being an exception), many Democratic-leaning unaffiliated voters cast ballots in Republican primaries, choosing the more moderate or liberal candidate. As a result, many Republicans in the State House and Senate are little more than Democrat-lite politically.
For example, Cleave Simpson, the Republican leader in the Senate, has an “F” rating from the Liberty Scorecard, a leading conservative rating organization. His colleague in the State Senate and leading candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Barb Kirkmeyer, has a similarly dismal (from a conservative perspective) “F” rating. If you are a conservative Republican, there is often little reason to vote in a general election in Colorado.
Proposition 108 barely passed in Colorado, with a majority of Republicans believed to have voted against it. To pass constitutional muster, Proposition 108 provided that a party could opt out of the semi-open primary system only if an impossibly high percentage of its governing committee (75% of all members) approved. A federal district court judge recently ruled that the threshold was unconstitutionally high.
While the moderate/liberal wing of the party is in the minority, it does constitute more than 25% of the membership and has therefore been successful in keeping the Republican Party in the highly disadvantageous semi-open primary system that greatly favors moderate/liberal Republicans.
They have been able to do so by playing a deception game in which they pretend to support opting out while doing everything they can to prevent it. Every Republican chair since 2018 has played that game except one, Dave Williams (chair from 2023 to 2025), who is now in Washington, D.C.
The newest chair got elected by pretending he was for the opt-out, but since being elected has shown himself to be what they call a “DeceptiCon.”
The previous chair, Brita Horn, had to resign when it was discovered that she had allowed her attorney to loot the party of all its funds. Craig Steiner, since becoming chair, has done nothing to prevent all cash funds from being scooped up by the attorney, making it impossible to raise new funds.
Why in the world would Republican chairs like Horn and Steiner want to destroy the organization they head? It’s simple. The big donors to the Republican Party, who long propped up the moderate/liberal wing, no longer want a Republican Party to choose candidates at all. They and Kent Thiry want Colorado to move to jungle primaries, where candidates petition and/or pay to get on the ballot and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation or lack thereof, advance to the general election, just like California.
It is a system dominated by multi-millionaires and billionaires, and no one else need apply.
Perhaps it is all for the best. Instead of the present one-party state, we will become a no-party state where the very wealthy control all.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | May 19, 2026 | Editorials
by Mark Smiley
The Denver Center Theatre Company (DCTC) has unveiled an expansive lineup for its 2026/27 season, featuring a mix of classic works, world premieres, and audience favorites that promise to deliver a dynamic year of live theatre.
Artistic Director Chris Coleman described the upcoming season as “a vibrant celebration of theatrical imagination,” highlighting a slate that blends reimagined classics with bold new storytelling.
The season opens September 11, 2026, and includes eight mainstage productions staged across the Denver Performing Arts Complex.
A Season Of Variety And Innovation
The lineup kicks off with Destiny of Desire, a lively telenovela-inspired play with music, running September 11 through October 4 at the Wolf Theatre. The comedic story follows two girls switched at birth, weaving melodrama, humor, and live music into a high-energy theatrical experience.
Shortly after, Shakespeare’s The Tempest takes the stage from October 2 to November 1. Directed by Coleman, the production explores themes of revenge, forgiveness, and identity through one of the Bard’s most magical works.
The new year brings fresh voices to the forefront with two world premieres. Bogfriends (January 15-February 21, 2027) delves into connections across time and memory, while How to Conquer America: A Mostly True History of Yogurt (February 5-28, 2027) offers a humorous yet heartfelt look at culture and identity through the lens of a 1970s marketing campaign.
Music, Memory, And Mystery
Spring programming includes the Tony Award-winning musical Once (April 2-May 2), known for its emotionally resonant folk-rock score and intimate storytelling.
Also featured is And So We Walked (April 16-May 23), a powerful solo performance by Cherokee artist DeLanna Studi chronicling a personal journey along the Trail of Tears.
Closing out the mainstage season is Dial M for Murder (April 30-May 30), a suspenseful adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller, promising intrigue and unexpected twists.
Holiday Tradition And New Works
In addition to the subscription series, DCTC will present its annual holiday favorite, A Christmas Carol, running November 25 through December 27. The production remains a staple of Denver’s seasonal celebrations.
The 21st annual Colorado New Play Summit, scheduled for February 20-21, 2027, will once again offer audiences a behind-the-scenes look at new theatrical works in development.
Tickets And Subscriptions
Season subscriptions are now available through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, offering benefits such as discounted pricing, priority seating, and flexible exchanges. Single tickets will be released at a later date.
With its blend of beloved classics, innovative premieres, and culturally resonant stories, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2026/27 season is poised to be one of its most compelling yet, inviting audiences across the region, including Glendale Cherry Creek residents, to experience the transformative power of live theatre.
by Editorial Board | Apr 17, 2026 | Editorials
Editorial —
Increasingly progressive Westword recently declared “good riddance” to Colorado’s largest company (based on market capitalization), Palantir Technologies, after announcing it was moving to Miami. The data-processing giant moved to Denver in 2020 from Silicon Valley in California.
With the company and its highly paid employees — including co-founder Alex Karp — leaving town for the Sunshine State, Westword informs us that “we” won’t miss them. Why? Apparently because the company does work for the federal “military-industrial complex,” including the hated ICE and Department of Homeland Security.
By similar logic, “we” are lucky that the relatively recently formed federal Space Force was moved by Trump from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama, with the loss of hundreds of jobs. In the same vein, hopefully any remaining mining and oil and gas operations in Colorado can be quashed in the name of saving the planet from climate change.
It is not clear whether or not Westword is equally happy about Trump shutting down and dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, with the likely loss of 800 well-paying jobs. NCAR is part of the now-hated federal government under Trump but is not, per se, part of the military-industrial complex.
Exactly what jobs in Colorado Westword does deem acceptable is also unclear, but it is no secret that Westword itself is up for sale, with titular head Patty Calhoun leaving a post she has occupied since 1978.
Westword has its share of challenges, like most print publications in Colorado. The staff, however, is being proactive in ensuring that the publication does not go to the wrong kind of person. It recently featured an article by Hanna Metzger with the headline “Racist, Abusive Son of Former Broncos Owner Offers to Buy Westword.”
It is assumed that John Bowlen was being facetious about an offer, but the publication went out of its way to delineate all of Bowlen’s many faults and failures, with the article’s writer declaring at the end that “Westword is not interested.”
Of course, that leaves open whether someone with the right pedigree is willing to buy the publication and keep the staff employed. Westword, like most publications, is largely dependent on advertising revenue. That revenue is, in turn, dependent on successful private businesses looking for customers they hope ads in the publication will bring them.
Westword’s staffers may be “happy” that various companies are leaving Denver but may find, to their chagrin, that some of the departing jobs may include their own. In case they are not aware, good jobs in journalism these days are very scarce. Perhaps Westword will one day find that Colorado’s largest company leaving Denver was not necessarily a cause for “celebration.”
— Editorial Board
by Amber Wyatt | Apr 1, 2026 | Editorials
by Amber Wyatt
The cast as Jimmy learns the importance of honesty.
At the Denver Children’s Theatre, whimsy is not simply a stylistic choice, it is a philosophy. This spirit was on full display in the recent production of Pete the Cat, a vibrant, 50-minute musical that blended imagination, mentorship, and community into a singular theatrical experience. Presented under the umbrella of the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, the show exemplifies how youth-focused performance can be both playful and profoundly impactful.
Directed by Matthew Zambrano, Pete the Cat leaned into creative minimalism. In a bold artistic decision, the production featured limited physical props. Many times, actors relied entirely on pantomime, miming instruments, books, and even telephones, inviting young audiences to co-create the world unfolding before them. “Theatre for Young Audiences is some of the bravest
Guzman and Enriquez in one of the show’s final scenes.
work being done,” Zambrano noted, emphasizing that when the goal is to inspire empathy rather than chase reviews, the results can be transformative.
That transformation begins with the performers themselves. Brandon Guzman, who plays Pete in the production, brings both technical precision and heartfelt enthusiasm to the stage. Guzman’s journey into theater began at Florida’s Manatee School for the Arts, where an encouraging teacher first recognized his potential. From portraying Bernardo in West Side Story to earning a BFA in musical theater from the University of Tampa, his path has been marked by dedication and adaptability from the start.
After an early stint in New York was interrupted by the pandemic, Guzman found renewed momentum in Denver. Since arriving in 2025, he has built an impressive résumé, with performances ranging from On Your Feet! at Town Hall Arts Center to Frozen at the Arvada Center. Yet it is his work in Theatre for Young Audiences that seems to resonate most deeply. Having toured bilingual productions across multiple states, Guzman understands the importance of representation. “It allows kids to see themselves in the story,” he shared, underscoring the inclusive power of performance.
Equally compelling is the journey of Izzy Enriquez, who plays Olive, a warm and supportive sibling character in Pete the Cat. A recent graduate of Texas State University, Izzy discovered her passion for theater through a blend of storytelling and visual art. Initially hesitant about the vulnerability required in dramatic acting, she found confidence through musical theater’s structure and discipline.
Her move to Denver marked a turning point. While working as a stagehand at Elitch Gardens, she discovered the audition for Pete the Cat through the Colorado Theatre Guild. For Izzy, Theatre for Young Audiences is more than performance, it is access to profound influence. “It’s about meeting audiences where they are,” she explained, reflecting on the importance of making theater approachable and meaningful for all children. Her portrayal of Olive captures the show’s central themes of belonging and acceptance, offering young viewers a character who embodies kindness and encouragement.
Behind the scenes, the production is part of a larger mission driven by leaders in the community like Tim Campbell. Through his work with the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, Campbell helps bring cultural programming to nearly 100,000 people each year. His vision is rooted in connection: creating spaces where diverse communities can come together through shared artistic experiences.
Entire cast of Pete the Cat at Mizel’s Denver Children’s Theatre.
“Live theatre invites audiences into something communal and alive,” Campbell said. “For children especially, it opens the door to creativity, learning, and confidence.” With programs like Pete the Cat, that door is flung wide open, welcoming first-time theatergoers and seasoned patrons alike to a crash course in performance art.
What makes this production particularly memorable is its ability to balance entertainment with intention. From pre-show activities that encourage children to guess mimed objects, to post-show “encore talks” that demystify lighting and sound design, the experience extends beyond the stage. It becomes educational, interactive, and deeply human.
At its heart, Pete the Cat is a story about friendship, courage, and saying “yes” to new experiences. But in the hands of this talented cast and creative team, it becomes something more: a celebration of imagination and a testament to the enduring power of live performance.
In a city rich with artistic offerings, productions like this remind us that sometimes the most meaningful stories are the simplest ones, told with heart, creativity, and just a touch of whimsy where all generations can meet with a smile.
by Amber Wyatt | Feb 18, 2026 | Editorials
by Amber Wyatt
Second from left, Susan McCullough playing French Horn.
By any measure, Rhythms of the Cosmos is not your typical brass concert. Presented by the Denver Brass, the multimedia performance blends bold brass sonorities, percussion, lighting, and cosmic imagery into an immersive experience that feels as much like a journey as it does a concert. For a group celebrating more than four decades of music-making, the show is a striking reminder of why Denver Brass continues to captivate audiences across the Front Range.
Founded in 1981 by Kathy Brantigan and her husband, both tuba players, the ensemble was born from a simple desire to make music together. “We founded Denver Brass because we both played tuba,” Brantigan recalled with a laugh. “We wanted to play together. So we had to multiply out from two tubas, how many trumpets do you need to balance out? How many trombones? How many horns?” That playful curiosity ultimately grew into one of the region’s most distinctive musical organizations.
Brantigan believes the ensemble’s longevity stems from both its sound and its spirit. “Brass players have kind of a unique fraternity,” she said. “We all have similar personalities, and we love the power and the heroic sounds that brass makes. It’s really special to play with all brass, it’s a unique sound.” Far from being one-dimensional, she emphasizes that the ensemble 
can move seamlessly from delicate and romantic to bold and triumphant. “I’ve always said goosebumps are guaranteed,” she added. “There are moments at our shows you don’t forget when you go home.”
One of the musicians who has experienced the entire arc of the ensemble’s history is French horn player Susan McCullough, the only remaining original member. “As long as we’ve been in existence, around 45 years,” she said when asked how long she’s played with the group. McCullough describes Denver Brass concerts as constantly evolving. “Everything we do is completely different from the last. One show it’s classical, the next time it’s jazz, then funk. What style is your show? Everything,” she shrugs.
That stylistic freedom is on full display in Rhythms of the Cosmos, which features music inspired by space, time, and motion. Trumpeter and composer Sean Schaffer Hennessey contributed original works to the program, including Guardians of Time. “It’s a tough show,” he admitted. “Brass players get tired, but it went really well.” For Hennessey, the appeal of Denver Brass lies in its emotional breadth. “Each show is kind of a roller coaster through emotion,” he said. “There’s a heart to this group. We take music that’s often orchestral and bring it into a whole different realm.”
The concert’s cohesion owe
s much to conductor Warren Deck, former principal tubist of the New York Philharmonic, who joined Denver Brass after moving to Denver in 2002. Deck’s path to conducting was unconventional. “I never conducted anything,” he said. “I just sat in orchestras and watc
hed my conductors. One day these guys said, ‘Why don’t you conduct?’ and I heard ‘yes’ come out of my mouth.” His approach reflects the ensemble’s adventurous spirit. “You never know what you’re going to get,” Deck said. “That versatility is worth checking out.”
Behind the scenes, Executive Director Becky Wilkins helps shape the show’s narrative arc with Kabin Thomas and Andy Wolfe. “It starts with the theme,” she explained. “For this one, we were talking about rhythm, and we added space.” From there, she works on sequencing the music and layering theatrical elements that curate an experience, lighting, imagery, and sound design, support the audience’s emotional journey. “It’s more than just a concert,” Wilkins said. “It’s a show. You experience all these elements and let the music really sink in, it becomes an almost spiritual event.”
One of the most striking moments features ambient sound recordings from Mars, paired with imagery that evokes isolation and discovery. “The images really took me there,” Wilkins said. “They’re the frosting on the cake, helping convey the story.” Kabin Thomas, narrator of Rhythm of the Cosmos and on-air morning show host and producer at Colorado Public Radio’s Classical station, drives each work to the next, “Space,” Thomas leads, “The final frontier.”
As Denver Brass looks ahead, that spirit of innovation continues with their fans that follow every show. One attendee I spoke with during intermission named Ginny, remarked “I can’t wait for Celtic Mania! The Cosmos is quite different for Denver Brass.” “Rhythms of the Cosmos stands as a powerful reminder of what the ensemble does best,” attendee Richard tells me, “Challenges expectation, stirs emotion, and invites audiences into unforgettable moments.”
If you missed Rhythms of the Cosmos, there’s still plenty to look forward to. Denver Brass continues its season with Celtic Mania on March 7th and 8th at 2:30 p.m. at the Newman Center, followed by Pulse of America on May 17th at 2:30 p.m. at Bethany Lutheran Church. Each performance offers a distinct musical experience, showcasing the ensemble’s precision, and unmistakable energy.
As Brantigan put it simply, “There are magical moments you remember from our shows, and they last.”
