LETTER #48
GerRee Hinshaw, Singer, Actor, Director, Host of Freak Train, Mom & Former Roommate
I used to tell Ethan’s dad, Joel, that he held half of my brain. And I think that is still true for the Denver years. We moved there in 1999 right after I finished grad school at UO (the Oregon one) and we both did summer theatre in Wyoming. It was a big adventure. The idea was to start a theatre company there. GerRee was one of the first young performers we met—well, Joel met and then introduced me. I don’t remember what show they were doing together.
She was a bright light with a huge smile and a warm laugh. When she introduced herself she said: “My name’s GerRee. It rhymes with ‘Do ya read?’ if you say it fast without the ‘d’.” Or something like that. I don’t remember exactly. I’ll have to check with Joel.
She instantly became intertwined with our Denver experience. Not only was she one of the actors in Promethean Theatre, the company we started, and The Bug Children’s Theatre, another company I founded, she also became our roommate.
And then, on the night Ethan was born, she was there.
After Joel and my mom, GerRee was the first person to hold him. She was at the hospital and quietly taking charge of the room in the way that only certain people know how to do—making sure I was taken care of, managing the flow of visitors, holding the space so that Joel and I could just be inside that enormous, terrifying, beautiful moment. She wasn’t family by blood. She just showed up like she was.
That’s a thing you don’t forget about a person—and that’s the kind of person she is.
After Joel and I left Denver in the early 2000s, GerRee and I drifted into that particular kind of friendship that goes quiet without going away. I’d think of her and smile. I’d remember the time we were rehearsing some show—I really don’t remember which one, but I think I directed it. I picked up a fan that was still plugged in and without thinking, I moved it. When the blades cut into my finger, GerRee was right there taking care of me when I went into shock like the nurturer that she is.
Over time, I’d get glimpses of what she was up to through Facebook. One of those glimpses was ‘Freak Train’.
Joel and I were part of starting ‘Freak Train’ in Denver in the late 1990s with a group of theatre friends including the Managing Director and Sound Guy Extraordinaire of The Bug Theatre, Alex Weimer. We hosted this monthly open stage where performers got five minutes to try anything in front of a live audience. Chaos. Joy. The occasional beautiful disaster. GerRee eventually became its host, and then its heart. Every last Monday of the month at The Bug Theatre, she’s up there with her booming voice and welcoming presence, making the room feel safe enough for people to be weird and brave and fully themselves.
She and Alex have built something out of what we were a part of starting. That feels so good!
In 2019, I was touring ‘Sexology: The Musical!’ through Denver—Diane the Van and I rolled into town on the same kind of big adventure that brought me there twenty years before. GerRee was married and had a kid by then. We were different people with the same laughs and when I met her at a coffee shop I felt that familiarity of her warmth and fell into a joyful hug. And on that last Monday of the month, I got to stand on that ‘Freak Train’ stage with her and sing the opening song.
I don’t have a tidy way to wrap that up. It was just one of those moments where your past and your present stand in the same room and harmonize.
GerRee held my newborn son. She held a thing that Joel and I were part of creating and made it her own. She shows up—for the performers who need five minutes and a safe room, for the friends who need someone to monitor the door, for an old roommate who happens to be blowing through town.
She just shows up.
Do you have someone in your life you’d like to get back in touch with?
Join the Love Lab for our Current Playshop: The Analog Letters Journey!
Start 2026 with intention and gratitude—drop in online to the Love Lab for one or more of the next Tuesday evenings of letters, art, and community.
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Drop-in rate: $25/session.
A loving and constant friend is such a gift. 💝