Absurd Hero nominated for multiple Broadway World Awards

Our Summer performance of Absurd Hero received a bunch of Broadway World Award nominations recently. The media outlet asks Denver theater goers to nominate their favorite shows for the year so you might say it's a "People's Choice" award; in any case, it's nice to be selected by your peers and we would appreciate your support. Here are the categories we've been nominated in: 

Musical: Absurd Hero 

Director: Kelly McAllister 

Choreography: Heather Westenskow 

Music Direction: Tanner Kelly 

Performer: Gunnar Bettis 

Supporting Performer: Antigone Biddle 

Ensemble: Absurd Hero 

 Here's the link if you'd like to vote: 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/denver/awards

Absurd Hero Prologue

When It’s Just You and the Ghost Light

Jeremy Bullmore once said brands are built the way birds build nests, little twigs and scraps gathered over time. That rings true. Branding isn’t one big move. It’s lots of tiny choices that quietly add up to something that feels inevitable. When I began shaping the identity for Broadside, it felt exactly like that. I didn’t start with colors or layouts, I started by trying to feel the world of the show. It was like stepping into a print shop after midnight: ink still tacky on metal plates, lantern light catching the edges, the hum of something dangerous and hopeful in the air. There was smoke, and whispers, and the sense that anyone who walked through the door might change history, or disappear.

Read Broadside's Creative Identity Manifesto

That feeling, that pulse, becomes the guide and the designs will follow. This show is not about historical wallpaper; it's about urgency and humanity and the grit it takes to tell the truth when the world would rather you didn’t. That’s really all a manifesto is. It’s not a dramatic proclamation. It’s just saying, here’s who we are and what we believe. It happens before the world starts chiming in with opinions, algorithms, and mood boards. Once you find that center, the rest isn’t easier… but it is clearer. And if you do it right, people start picking up those little scraps, the way Bullmore described, and suddenly there’s a nest, a home for the idea you’ve been building all along.

Here's a link to the Broadside Identity Manifesto

Introducing Broadside: A New Musical in the Making

A few years ago I started working on a new musical called "Broadside." It started with a simple idea, a fascination with how words and music once shaped a revolution and the spark to celebrate the 250th birthday of the country I love. Over time that spark grew into something much larger, and the project has quietly been gaining momentum ever since. In the past few months, I’ve had the joy of sitting down with the rhythm section to play through the songs for the first time, connected with key collaborators and even reviewed the libretto with historians and content experts to help keep the story grounded in the real events and people of the Revolutionary era. This process, these insights have been invaluable in shaping both the accuracy and emotional texture of the show.

Awaken the Revolution Within

Now that the songs are breathing, the script is finding its rhythm, and the spectacle of the show is truly emerging, it feels like the perfect time to begin sharing more. Over the last month, we've started exploring performance opportunities in Colorado and New England and have already been confirmed at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe (Aug 5th through 15th.) It's going to be an exciting Summer. Want to get involved? This website blog is a good place to go to stay tuned to our progress and any upcoming audition dates, but Facebook and Instagram offer more immediate notification, it's all comes in due time.

Here's a link to the website: https://www.broadsidemusical.com

Voyage Denver Interview Life, Values & Legacy

Here's a link to a short interview that features me in Voyage Denver. The online agency sends a bunch of questions and asks you to answer them over the course of a few weeks, There's usually some back and forth communications on the content and I'm grateful they used the Camus references in this one. The timing seemed pretty good too since we've just come home from a successful run of Absurd Hero at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival 

FEATURE ARTICLE: Life, Values & Legacy

This article reflects on: life, values and legacy and offers some of my thoughts for people in the musical theatre community. The interview actually took place in late July right after our previews of Absurd Hero at Vintage Theatre.

We pushed the Website up the hill (and hit Refresh)

We’ve updated our Absurd Hero website!

🎥 Full-length video of the show (in 4K) 
🎶 Stream our Fringe cast album — the absurd sounds as good as it looks.
📖 Flip through our Summer Scrapbook packed with behind-the-scenes memories.
⭐️ Read the glowing reviews that made us laugh, cry, and blush.

Absurd Hero has always been about more than just theatre—it’s comedy, chaos, and Camus rolled into one. Now you can experience (or re-experience) it all from wherever you are.

Absurd Hero Website

👉 Visit the site, relive the madness, and let us know your favorite absurd moment.

2025 Absurd Hero Scrapbook

Creating Absurd Hero began in late 2024, when a small idea about Sisyphus, Camus, and modern-day politics started rolling, like a certain boulder. Less than a year later, we debuted the show at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, opening the festival at the Greenside Gala before settling into our run at Greenside @ Riddles Court. Over the course of two weeks, we delivered nine performances. Use the link below to flip through our scrapbook, it’s a collection of photos, moments, and memories that trace the journey from those first late-night writing sessions to opening night in Edinburgh.

2025 Absurd Hero Scrapbook

Everyone enjoyed the show, perhaps our small troupe from Denver most of all. For many, it was their first trip abroad, but everyone dove in with enthusiasm. After all, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest performing arts festival in the world. Standing up a brand-new musical in less than a year takes more than talent; it takes people who can work together, trust each other, and push in the same direction. We became a tight-knit team, proving that there’s always more we can do together than alone. Musical theatre may be fleeting by nature, but it’s worth pausing to look back at the milestones along the way, each one a reminder of why we roll the boulder in the first place.

April joins Bernie at The Bar (Piano Edition)

We’ve used Vintage Theatre for the last few years to preview our shows before heading off to Edinburgh, and in that time, I’ve gotten to know Denver’s one and only Bernie Cardell. So you can imagine how excited I was to catch up and talk all things musical theatre on Bernie at the Bar.

It was a hot day, but with Bernie, the conversation could’ve gone on forever. I love that! We covered everything from my background and the winding road that led me here, to the various shows I’ve created along the way. And of course, we did a deep dive on Absurd Hero. Thanks Bernie!

Celebrate the Theatre Makers

I chose “Celebrate the Theatre Makers” as a campaign slogan for Absurd Hero because that’s exactly what the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is: a celebration—not just of shows, but of the people behind them. Every year, this gathering asks writers, actors, designers, and dreamers to come together and take an empty stage and turn it into something unforgettable. We know the odds, we know the absurdity of it all and like Camus’ hero, we lean into it anyway.

For me, the caricatures on the walls of many theater restaurants capture that spirit. Each one a little distorted, a little exaggerated, but undeniably part of the same brilliant, chaotic whole. They're not just portraits, they’re affirmations that everyone has a place in this strange, wonderful world we’ve chosen. We’re not here to polish the perfect version of ourselves. We’re here to be real, to be bold, to belong. That’s what we’re celebrating.

Outdoor marketing for the Edinburgh fringe festival

I once had a career in marketing communications. My company was called "Viewmark" and we opened our doors in 1992. We mostly designed, built and maintained websites for large companies. We specialized in strategy, branding and business analytics, particularly in how online and offline marketing opportunities effect each other. It was a long time ago and the short answer is, it's important to use both vehicles when trying to build awareness and brand image. 

Festival Banner

I’m retired now and have been dedicating my time to my shows and giving young actors a taste of the international theatre scene. Developing and staging a new production involves many moving parts, and my aim is to produce at least one original show each year. You could say I’m a bit "old school" when it comes to marketing. I still find great joy in creating traditional marketing collateral. Here are a few design mockups from our Absurd Hero outdoor advertising campaign in Edinburgh. The designs were crafted by my talented friend, Melissa Rick.

Quad Rail Banner

Outdoor advertising can be expensive, but with over 3,600 shows participating in the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival it's important to include it in your marketing mix if you want to be heard above all the competitive noise in Scotland.

AI, a creative director's wet dream

Before I retired I ran a small marketing communications company. We were actually the first web design firm in Colorado, an e-boutique of sorts, it's a long story, but the company was called Viewmark and we designed websites for several fortune 500 companies. I had come out of the engineering software market and had plenty of expert knowledge on 3D modeling and CD/ROM development before I started the company, but the web changed everything.

April Alsup on the nose of a B-17

I hooked up with some really talented software engineers and the next thing I knew we became one of the most successful web design firms in Colorado. I was the President/Creative Director and managed a team of a dozen graphic designers. We worked with Ogilvy, Leo Burnett and several large management consulting companies so they mostly managed the client side and provided us with high level creative strategy documents. I'd use the documents with designers on the execution of their websites and it was a match made in heaven.

Now, some twenty years later I use ChatGPT in a similar way, but these days it's just for my personal projects. I write my own creative strategy documents and use them when discussing designs with ChatGPT. I admit I miss the human interaction and there are plenty of things AI isn't very good at yet, but the process is fast and we work well together as a team. The promise of technology has always been to make life better and I'm sure this technology will make a profound contribution to the creative process.