Jeb Nolan, who shepherded thousands of kids across the stage, took his own life Aug. 3.
A memorial service for Nolan, who was 60, will be 1 p.m. Aug. 28 at South Broadway Christian Church, 23 Lincoln St.
Nolan and his ex-wife, Margaret Baumer, founded Kidskits in 1986, and it continued until 2003.
During the years, thousands of kids, most of them ages 8 to 18, learned how to perform musical comedies at schools and theaters, including the now-closed Elitch Gardens Theater, Denver Civic Theater and Vogue Theater.
His “booming voice and droll sense of humor” helped inspire young performers, “often pushing them hard to meet his high expectations for excellence,” said Baumer.
“He was a stern taskmaster, but he taught us how to be professional, independent, self confident and prompt,” said Elizabeth Poyer, who was the youngest member of Kidskits when she started at age 6.
She saw a performance before joining “and I think I stood the whole time, bouncing up and down,” from the excitement.
Poyer went on to do commercials and voice-overs and to moderate a kids’ segment of a local evening news broadcast.
But after college she decided she “didn’t want to spend my life pounding the pavement and eating ramen noodles” while searching for acting jobs.
She is an adjunct professor of Greek history and Latin at the University of Rochester.
Poyer’s mother, Lynn, of Erie, Pa., said Nolan “was no-nonsense but supportive.”
In addition to building sets and props, Jeb Nolan played piano and guitar and composed about one-third of the 110 Kid skits songs. Baumer wrote the lyrics. Jeb Nolan taught kids “comedy, drama, dance, rhythm, melody and harmony,” said Erin Jo Harris, former Kidskits member and now a local singer.
“He taught me how to win an audience,” Harris said.
In all her performing experience since, Harris said, she has yet to find anyone who could direct and stage shows as well as Nolan and Baumer did.
Kidskits usually did one-hour shows that included skits, dancing and singing.
Jerome “Jeb” Nolan was born in Fort Morgan on Aug. 14, 1949, and moved to Denver with his parents when he was an infant. He graduated from South High School and earned his B.A. at the University of Colorado.
He married Margaret “Maggie” Schumacher in 1974, and they remained friends and business partners until his death.
For several years, he was stage manager of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble.
In addition to Baumer, he is survived by his stepdaughter, Leslie Borrase of Costa Rica; his stepson, Leland Doane of Denver; and two stepgrandchildren.
Inside.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
