Denver standup comedian Adam Cayton-Holland, who won a 2019 Denver Gazette True West Award for adapting his prize-winning memoir into a stage play, has hit on a monumental trifecta. His story, one born of grief and helplessness, is now being made into a film.

The book was “Tragedy Plus Time.” The play was “Happy Place.” The film will be called “See You When I See You,” a comedic family drama to be filmed in Atlanta and directed by Jay Duplass.

It will star Cooper Raiff (“Cha Cha Real Smooth”), David Duchovny (“Californication”), Hope Davis (“Succession”), Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart”), Lucy Boynton (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), and Ariela Barer (Denver’s own “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”).

“I couldn’t be more excited that this is happening,” Cayton-Holland wrote in announcing the news. “I am absolutely thrilled to be working on this, and floored by the level of talent I get to work with.”

In any format, Cayton-Holland’s story creates a safe space for audiences to try navigating the wrenchingly choppy waters of suicide. Maybe even laugh. That it is now being made into a third iteration is proof positive of the enormous potential not only in Cayton-Holland’s story but how he tells it, to reach people who are seeking some sort of catharsis post-suicide.

Cayton-Holland considered his sister, Lydia, to be his best friend and earliest comedy collaborator. When he wrote his darkly funny book about her suicide, it was hailed as “an unforgettable work of genius” by Booklist. It won the 2019 Colorado Book Award for Creative Non-Fiction. That same year, he began developing the story into a play and he has been honing it ever since.

Local audiences will get perhaps their last chance to see the play for a while when Cayton-Holland performs “Happy Place” Nov. 29 at Buntport Theater.

Cayton-Holland, a graduate of Denver East High School, has been a leading standup on the Denver scene for 20 years and is the co-founder of the community-building High Plains Comedy Festival. He’s known nationally as a writer and star on the truTV sitcom “Those Who Can’t.”

Ben Roy, one of Cayton-Holland’s partners in a comedy supertrio called The Grawlix, said the news of the film brought him “absolute and complete joy.”

“Adam wrote something very beautiful that deserves to be seen by a lot of people because it resonates,” Roy said. “I have seen Adam’s pain and what he fought through, and it is incredibly hard to do that. But what he wrote is so raw and so powerful and real, and it is such a poignant and accurate portrayal of who his sister was. Depression and mental illness have affected all of us in different ways, and I have no doubt that this film will be very powerful and very cathartic to watch. It’s a huge accomplishment.”

Two theater companies going dark

Two distressing social announcements this week illustrate the ongoing existential crisis faced by our local performing-arts organizations still trying to recover from the pandemic, both economically and at the box office.

The small but once creatively mighty Cherry Creek Theatre, which was started in 2010 by Mark and Maxine Rossman out of a rug store in the Cherry Creek North shopping district before finding a permanent home in the quirky little Pluss Theatre at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, announced that its production of the MLK drama “The Mountaintop,” which had been set to open Oct. 25, has been “indefinitely postponed.” Which is really just a softer way of saying “canceled.”

“We are taking a pause to regroup, fundraise and plan programming for the 2025 season,” board representative Meghan Dougherty announced.

The theater, which managed to stage only one play in 2024 – the locally written (and Henry Award-winning “Heartbeat of the Sun” by Melissa Lucero McCarl” – has lost two artistic directors in the past five months.

Susie Snodgrass, who took over after the Rossmans’ retirement, put out a $50,000 SOS in July 2023. In April, commenting for this newspaper about the crisis nonprofit theater companies across America are facing, she said flatly, “Ticket sales alone cannot support live theater. The sheer economics of producing live theater simply doesn’t add up.”

Within weeks, Snodgrass was gone. It was then announced that Jeffry Denman would take up the cause, but he says he stepped aside in August when the board told him that the company could not afford to go forward with “The Mountaintop,” which was supposed to run Oct. 25-Nov. 17. It was then suggested Denman instead present a one-night staged reading of the play as a fundraiser for the theater.

“That’s when I resigned,” Denman said. “Once it was determined that ‘The Mountaintop’ was not going forward, I did not feel as though I was being helpful to them in any way. I told them, ‘If you are not producing a show, then a producing artistic director is not a role that you need.’”

A call to Dougherty for clarity was not immediately returned. Denman said the board’s intention “is definitely to come back in 2025” – but in what form is anyone’s guess.

(I only know from following these stories for years that when a company says it is going into dormancy – very few of them ever come back.)

In Wheat Ridge, the curtain closes

Meanwhile, Maru Garcia has announced that her Wheat Ridge Theatre Company will close its doors at the end of the year. The 30-year local theater veteran said her company has fallen $16,000 behind on its rent at 5455 W. 38th Ave. The landlord has said the space will be held for Garcia until either she comes up with the money, or another tenant comes forward. Whichever comes first.

Garcia launched her latest small company in 2022 with a commitment to producing theater in alternative spaces before landing that most elusive of prizes: An actual permanent home. “The problem is, you have to be a nonprofit for five years before a you qualify for public funding like the SCFD and Colorado Gives Day,” Garcia said. “We won’t become eligible for two years and two months.”

Meantime, Garcia has been funding her company off profits from her real-world business, called Early Childhood Hourly Teachers. In short, she said, “I send preschool teachers to schools, and I donate all my profits to the theater. So the business funds the company.”

There’s a little window into what it takes to produce art in this society.

Wheat Ridge is moving forward with its final two announced offerings: “Mindgame” (now through Nov. 10) and “Scrooge in Rouge” from Dec. 6-22. Tickets at wheatridgetheatre.com.

After that? “We’ll see,” she said. “It’s a lot of stress. I cannot deal with this any longer.”

For those willing to help work down the debt, the company’s Venmo is @wheatridgetheatre.

Introducing the Denver Jazz Fest

Five-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist Dianne Reeves and guitarist Bill Frisell, two Colorado treasures, will headline the inaugural Denver Jazz Fest next April 3-6. It’s being presented by Denver Jazz, a newly formed nonprofit as a celebration of KUVO Radio’s 40th anniversary.

This will be Reeves’ first Denver public concert (outside of appearing with the Colorado Symphony) since 2018.

Upward of 30 performances will take place in 10 venues with a still-formulating lineup that includes Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos, Ghost-Note, The Headhunters, Isaiah Collier, Garaj Mahal and Rico Jones. Locales include the Newman Center at the University of Denver, Dazzle Jazz, Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom and The Other Side, Spangalang Brewery, Nocturne, and the Denver Center’s Galleria at Theatre. Up north: Both the Boulder and Fox theaters, and the Muse Performance Space in Lafayette. Tickets on sale Friday at denverjazz.org.

Briefly …

“Raised on Ronstadt,” a heartfelt musical memoir written and performed by GerRee Hinshaw, was a huge hit for Local Theater Company in 2023. So it’s coming back to eTown Hall in Boulder for two nights only, Nov. 10 and 17. Go to localtheaterco.org/ronstadt …

A date has been set for unionizing the entertainment workers at Casa Bonita. The National Labor Relations Board will conduct the election for union recognition on Nov. 22.