The Denver Actors Fund reached a monumental goal this week when the grassroots, all-volunteer nonprofit surpassed $1 million in financial assistance to members of the Colorado theater community since 2014.
To celebrate, the DAF is partnering with the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse to host a benefit concert starring Colorado native and Tony Award-nominated Broadway star Beth Malone on Monday, Aug. 15.
Malone, who attended Douglas County High School and the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, began her professional career at age 16 at the Country Dinner Playhouse. She received a 2015 Tony Award nomination for originating the role of Alison in the groundbreaking Broadway musical “Fun Home.” She recently appeared as the Angel in the off-Broadway revival of “Angels in America,” and originated the role of Molly Brown in the recent reimagination of the classic Broadway musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” which began at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and later was performed in New York. Malone is currently a series regular on Apple TV’s new series “City On Fire.”
For Malone, it’s personal. She is a cousin of Bryanna Scott, who was the resident stage manager at the Miners Alley Playhouse from 2010-20. Scott, at just age 29, was diagnosed with Stage 3C ovarian cancer in 2021 and, to date, the Denver Actors Fund has picked up all of her out-of-pocket medical expenses. Malone wanted to stage this concert as a way of acknowledging the work the Denver Actors Fund does for the entire community, and to help it replenish. She is calling her special concert on Aug. 15 “Thanks a Million.”
The Denver Actors Fund was founded by Denver Gazette Senior Arts Journalist John Moore and local attorney Christopher Boeckx to help Colorado theater artists, who are often among our most vulnerable when it comes to health-care protections, pay their medical bills. More than $600,000 of the $1 million the nonprofit has distributed to date has gone out since the worldwide performance shutdown caused by the pandemic in March 2020. At that time, the DAF created additional funding sources to help affected artists with emergency living expenses.
The DAF also provides access to affordable mental-health care, emergency dental care, free tele-doctoring and neighborly assistance from 100 volunteer angels. Any Colorado resident who has been involved with the making of a theater production for a credible Colorado theater production becomes eligible for financial assistance for the next five years.
The Denver Actors Fund hit the $1 million milestone this week when it sent out $4,500 to pay off the out-of-pocket medical expenses incurred by Luke and Susan Rahmsdorf-Terry, whose daughter necessitated back-to-back trips to the emergency room for what was eventually diagnosed as pleural pneumonia. He is an actor and sound designer; she is a costume designer. The DAF previously helped Luke to purchase custom-made hearing aids.
“We are overwhelmed with this incredibly generous action by the Denver Actors Fund,” Luke Rahmsdorf-Terry said. “Having this massive weight lifted from not having to worry about medical debt hanging over our heads is far beyond anything we might have imagined.”
For more information, or to apply for assistance, go to denveractorsfund.org
“Thanks a Million” promises to be a nostalgic look back at Malone’s life and career, with personal favorites along the way. She will be performing one new song from a new musical she is writing with Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls called “Star Struck.” Henry Award-winning actor Jalyn Courteney Webb, also of the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, will join Malone onstage for a number from “Chess.”
All proceeds from this special concert will benefit the Denver Actors Fund. Candlelight is a proud partner of the nonprofit, having raised more than $40,000 to support the Denver Actors Fund’s efforts over the years. In turn, the Denver Actors Fund has helped at least 41 Candlelight employees through everything from COVID to cancer, paying down more than $67,000 in their personal medical bills.
