Where are they now? - 2005 Niwot High grad Dustin Bell

Dustin Bell found his passion at an early age and he's done nothing but run with it.

A 2005 Niwot High graduate, Bell was constantly surrounded by creativity growing up in an arts-friendly area. His passion for theater grew the quickest, though, with the help of family members taking him to shows in New York City.

Bell then began acting at Jesters Dinner Theatre in Longmont and the Rocky Mountain Theatre For Kids in Boulder.

"I had a family who was so supportive," said Bell, who was especially appreciative of his fellow "theater nerd," Aunt Pat. Bell said about his family, "They were like, 'You can do anything,' and I thought, if I was going to do anything, I was going to do theater."

At Niwot High School, he joined Teen Theatre on the Green and built a "foundation of competence" that ultimately gave him the confidence to take his talents to Marymount Manhattan, a liberal arts college in New York City. Bell's Colorado upbringing had him missing the outdoors, so he transferred to the comparatively more rural Ithaca College in New York.

Five changes in his major later, he graduated from Ithaca with a bachelor's degree in drama (emphasis in directing) and minors in music and history. Bell also learned that he wanted to pursue directing.

"I loved collaborating creatively, but I also was awed by the brilliance that I was surrounded by," Bell said. "Where I found I had a really good sensibility was in directing because I got to play with everybody. I didn't have to be a singular point of artistic brilliance; I just had to simply recognize it and hopefully try to put it in the right places, or encourage it to find its way to the right places."

Bell then used the power of Facebook - and the power of the connections he made throughout college - to pull people across Ithaca together for a cabaret group. He was able to get about 20 people to commit and secured a venue in a cafe in Ithaca.

"We rehearsed people and got the show together and we put that on and it was amazing," Bell said. "I had some traction and I had some funding and I was like, 'Oh my god, I think I can do this thing.'"

Later, Bell decided to leave Ithaca and move to Boston, where he used his connections once again to begin the Open Theatre Project. Bell's new group welcomed people with any level of theater experience to put together professional shows.

"You could come in and you could create professional theater, which meant people were paid as best I could and we really put bells and whistles behind the production," he said.

The Open Theatre Project began with a New Works Festival that Bell still looks back on fondly.

"We had a marimba piece, we had a rock band, we had monologues, we had short scenes, we had some workshopped small 10-minute plays, we had poetry and it was just this smorgasbord of creativity and performance art," Bell said. "That was I think still one of my favorite things we've ever done and was the first thing we ever did."

Now almost 15 years later, Bell maintains his role as the Open Theatre Project's artistic producing director. He believes the organization has evolved in all the right ways from bringing the community together to giving voices to people with a wide range of backgrounds.

"I'm kind of most proud of the fact that it hasn't grown too much, that it's only better understood its base and its capabilities to do the most impactful work."