Josh Hartwell is an Artistic Company Member at Curious Theatre Company where he has written five full length Denver Stories, and is an instructor /mentor for young playwrights with Curious New Voices. Josh was seen on this very stage in Detroit and Clybourne Park (Denver Post Ovation Award for “Best Actor in a Comic Role”). He is also an Ensemble Member at Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC). As an award-winning and internationally produced playwright (2017 True West Award), Hartwell is represented by Abrams Artists Agency in New York. His Contrived Ending (Ovation and Henry Award nominees) originally directed by Jim Hunt, earned feature film and Off-Broadway contracts with Starry Night Entertainment. The Rank and the Bloodrush was a semi-finalist for The O’Neill Festival New Play Competition. His plays A Christmas Carol, Dylan Went Electric and Queen of Conspiracy all premiered at Miners Alley Playhouse, and his latest Home, Oblivion had a workshop at Curious in 2018. Josh is currently a writer with The Playwrights Group at the Denver Center for Performing Arts Theatre Company, and is the first Colorado Regional Rep for the Dramatists Guild of America.

Betty Hart is an actor, director, and facilitator who moved from Atlanta to Denver in fall 2013. Betty has acted in Local Lab, and has facilitated audience conversations and salons for Local Theater Company since 2015. In 2020, Betty directed Josh Kroenig’s Vroom Vroom for Local Lab, which audiences never saw due to the theatre wide shut down. In 2021-22, Betty became co-director of Local Lab 11, Local Theater Company’s new play festival. In 2022, Betty was the assistant director of the world premiere of a new immersive theatrical production called Theater of the Mind in collaboration with co-creators David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar and co-produced by the Denver Center’s Off-Center.In November of 2020, Betty gave a Ted Talk on compassion culture instead of cancel culture. You can view the talk here: go.ted.com/bettyhart. In the 2021-22 season, Betty directed Blackademics (Vintage Theatre), Once on this Island (Town Hall Arts Center), By the way, Meet Vera Stark (Fine Arts Center at Colorado College), Polaroid Stories (Metropolitan State University), and the one person play, An Iliad (Creede Repertory Theatre). Special/Awards/Training: 2022 Henry Award nominee for outstanding direction of a musical (Once on this Island), 2018 & 2021 True West Award winner and 2021 BroadwayWorld Denver Award for Best direction of a stream for Creede Repertory’s online production of Beth Kander’s To the Moon.