Beyond Boulder, Beyond the North Pole: Mrs. Claus as Teacher and Artist
Our newest Boulder Featured Artist is Michelle Grimes. While her art alone justifies her selection to be Featured, she is a woman of many skills and talents. In addition to being an accomplished artist, she is a teacher, a professionally trained Mrs. Claus, a teacher of teachers, an artist, and also teaches summer camps in acting. Some openings are left for the June 10 to June 14, 2024 acting classes, ages 7-12.
Michelle Grimes. Acrylic On Canvas
Michelle Grimes
Through the artful arrangement of language, playwrights, such as Michelle Grimes breathe life into their characters and stories. She invites readers and performers to walk in their characters’ shoes, and to experience their life’s pain, pleasure, and pastimes and as if they were their own. By directing and producing her own work, Michelle helps characters from her imagination leap off the page and become breathing individuals on stage.
Michelle Grimes is an artisan of words. She has been a stage performer in the Denver Metro area for over 45 years 
Michelle in Romeo and Juliet. Her summer acting classes have a few openings left.
and a writer of children’s plays for over 24 years. She sculpts and molds the sentences in her children’s plays by painting vivid landscapes of imagination with her pencil. She believes that writers are artists too. Michelle was the cultural arts coordinator for South Suburban Parks and Recreation for over 5 years and has been teaching elementary school for over 25 years. She is a playwright and director of children’s plays that evoke emotion, teach life lessons, and stir the imaginations of the actors and their audiences. Michelle designs and builds the sets, designs and creates the costumes, as well as tying music and art to the participants experience in producing the play. By working collaboratively, adults and children in her theatre classes and camps work creatively to produce a theatre production that enhance the “inner artist” of each participant. Each play she writes and produces revolves around a central theme that teaches participants and audience members a life lesson, such as compassion, truth, acceptance of differences, and learning to face fears.
This summer Michelle will be teaching two theatre camps in Boulder and one in Fort Collins. Her June 10-14th camp has 5 openings for students age 7-12. Other camps are full at this time, so contact her to be “waiting listed” for those other two. Boulder City Church located on Jay Road has graciously worked with her the last two years for a space to hold her camps. For more camp information please contact: E-mail Michelle!
She is also a professionally trained and experienced Mrs. Claus! In that role she brings joy and fun into each of her visits to hospitals, senior centers, bookstores, restaurants, schools, private parties, home visits, and more. To investigate Mrs Claus more, check out her website .
Michelle feels that writers of all genres such as poets, playwrights, and novelists have the capacity to move, inspire, and provoke thought in ways that are undeniably artistic.
Michelle believes that through the power of words she can help children and adults by giving them the confidence to speak and move in front of an audience. Due to her extensive teaching background and personal experiencing directing shows, she has seen that working with a script helps students to build confidence in reading fluently and enhances comprehension of the text.
Writers are indeed artists, like Michelle. They embrace the pen or pencil as their brush and the blank page of paper or a computer screen as their canvas.
CV, Honors, and Awards:
*Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education (with an emphasis in theatre)
*Bachelor’s degree in Parks and Recreation
*Master’s degree in Arts Integration in Education
* Current Professional Teaching Certification in Elementary Education
* Recognition from Govern Polis during his State of the State address for dedication as a teacher during Covid
* Recently retired from 28 years + teaching
* Professional Santa/Mrs. Claus School Certificate
* Cultural Arts Coordinator for South Suburban Parks and Recreation (6 years)
* 28 years Board Member of CCTC Colorado Community Theatre Coalition
* Nomination for Denver Henry Awards in Theatre
* Actress in the Denver metro area for 45+ years
* 24 years writing and directing children’s plays throughout the state
* Writer of multiple children’s plays with royalties sold
* Designer and builder of costume and sets
* Currently exploring her desire to be a painter
Lenny Lensworth Frieling
Shared Knowledge Is Power!
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