Annaleigh Ashford, Hollywood’s leading Colorado-connected actor of the moment, just had three new projects announced this past week alone – one on TV, one on film and one on stage. And that doesn’t even count her Emmy Award nomination earlier this month.

Ashford, a graduate of Wheat Ridge High School, will next star in the true crime drama series “Happy Face” for Paramount+. Ashford will play a woman named Melissa Jesperson Moore who, at age 15, discovered that her father was a prolific serial murderer known as the Happy Face Killer. It’s inspired by a podcast of the same name. The eight-episode first season will air sometime in 2025.

Ashford, who just completed a triumphant Broadway run of “Sweeney Todd,” also will star in the horror thriller “Dust” opposite Sarah Paulson. The film follows a woman who is trapped by increasingly perilous dust storms and is haunted by her past encounters with a threatening presence and takes extraordinary measures to protect her family.

In addition, Ashford will perform in an off-Broadway reading of Molière’s “The Imaginary Invalid” (adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher) on Feb. 19. The play, directed by Colorado Shakespeare Festival alum Jesse Berger (“Richard III”), will then be available for all to view online from Feb. 20-25. It’s a classic comedy centering on a notorious hypochondriac and the criminals who prey on his fears to fatten their purse.

Ashford is also co-producing an off-Broadway play called “The White Chip” starring her husband, Joe Tapper. Sean Daniels’ addiction comedy follows a man’s wild journey from first sip to rock bottom to recovery. It plays at New York’s MCC Theater Space from Feb. 1-March 9.

NEA grants for Colorado

The National Endowment for the Arts’ latest round of awards includes 1,288 grants totaling $32.2 million – 14 for Colorado organizations amounting to $170,000. The grants will be used for everything from pop-up arts events to poetry to an after-school dance program for deaf students, with most awards somehow benefiting youth or Indigenous artists:

• $25,000: Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
• $20,000: Creede Repertory Theatre
• $15,000: Center for Literary Publishing (Fort Collins)
• $10,000: Athena Project (Denver); Chicano Humanities and Arts Council (Lakewood); Colorado Conservatory of Dance (Broomfield); Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (Wheat Ridge); David Taylor’s Zikr Dance Ensemble (Erie); Feel the Beat (Englewood); Northglenn Arts & Humanities Foundation; Performing Arts Academy (Highlands Ranch); Sangre de Cristo Arts Center (Pueblo); and the Vilar Performing Arts Center (Beaver Creek)

Calling all Colfax artists

After years of talk talk talk, the city of Denver is implementing a new bus line from Broadway to Yosemite Street with dedicated transit lanes running in each direction. And Denver Arts & Venues is determined to make it pretty. The overseers of the city’s public art program are now accepting applications for artist projects for all 15 stations along the line. Five selected artists or artist teams will be chosen to design artworks for three stations each.

The challenge will be to integrate two-dimensional artwork into the glass canopies above each station platform. No previous experience with public-art fabrication or installation is required. Best news: Each artist or team will be paid approximately $90,000 each. The details are spelled out at artist.callforentry.org, with a deadline to apply of Feb. 12.

Violin great coming to Colorado

The Colorado Music Festival’s 2024 summer chamber concert season (July 5-Aug. 4 at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder) will include Augustin Hadelich, one of the greatest violinists of all time, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto (Aug. 1-2).

This season also honors three generations of women composers with the world premiere of a concerto by Gabriela Lena Frank with Boulder’s Grammy-winning Takács Quartet (July 21); Florence Price’s “Adoration” and Joan Tower’s Concerto for Orchestra. The 200th birthday of composer Anton Bruckner and the 150th birthday of composer Arnold Schoenberg will be marked on July 14. The Danish String Quartet performs July 30. For the full announcement, go to ColoradoMusicFestival.org.

Joshua Bess resurrected

The last time Littleton’s Joshua Bess performed on the Buell Theatre stage, the world came to an abrupt stop. Hometown audiences got to see Bess sing, dance, act and even skateboard for all of three performances of “The SpongeBob Musical” before a certain pandemic shut down the Denver Center for the Performing Arts for the next 18 months.

Surely there was no direct correlation, but Bess is back and tempting fate once again. But this time, he has Jesus on his side. Bess is an ensemble player in the 50^th anniversary tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar” playing at the Buell through Sunday (Jan. 28). He’s even playing Jesus’ stand-in should anyone maybe be plotting some, I don’t know … devious plot against him.

As a theater geek growing up, Bess saw many shows at the Denver Center. “I used to go every year – like, multiple times a year,” he said back in 2020, his favorite probably being “Wicked.”

Bess truly grew up on our area stages. As a teenager, he performed in many shows with the Performance Now Theatre Company in Lakewood, Littleton Town Hall Arts Center, Vintage Theatre in Aurora and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

Bess attended a charter school called Collegiate Academy of Colorado in Jefferson County and later graduated from Columbine High School.

Briefly …

On Jan. 25, the History Colorado Center opened “Flow: On the River with John Fielder,” an exhibition focusing on the many uses and importance of the Colorado River. It’s the first in a five-year run of rotating exhibitions in the newly renamed John Fielder Mezzanine Gallery honoring Fielder’s photography and conservation work. Info at historycolorado.org …

Noted jazz pianist Dave Hanson, who recently retired after 36 years of teaching at DU’s Lamont School of Music, will hold court for a residency at Dazzle Denver from Feb. 18-21. Special programs will include a set with Colorado Symphony violinist Claude Sim and a special tribute to trumpet player Al Hood. Details at dazzledenver.com …

Rocky Mountain National Park’s artist-in-residence program, which spans 200 artists dating back to 1984, will return in 2024 after a seven-year hiatus. Painters, authors, poets, composers, quilters, musicians and more are invited to apply through Feb. 9 at go.nps.gov.