Honoring the Life of Emerging Denver Artist Krystyna Anne Pinel

Krystyna Anne Pinel, who was 23 and working at Curious Theatre Company, passed away in Denver on November 19. She was born in Flemington, New Jersey, to Robert and Janine (Kalescky) Pinel, and her life was a vibrant tapestry woven with the threads of ballet, Broadway, Greek mythology and horror films.

"She was a difficult birth on February 3, [2000], in Flemington, NJ," her father shared in a public Facebook post on November 23. "She died unusually on November 19, 2023, in Denver, CO. She was intellectually brilliant. She had an analytic and mathematic genius. She saw things that nobody else saw, brilliantly so. She was an unbelievably talented singer and actress. She loved singing – theatre especially – and musical theatre. She loved her cats. And Percy Jackson. I mean, she loved a lot of things and it’s impossible to list them all, but these stood out. She started life as a bright star. Laughing and joyful and excited about everything. But, as happens, she got beaten down."

Krystyna's early life in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, was a prelude to her journey into the world of performing arts. She made her first appearance on the stage in Nazareth High School's production of Evita. This experience, combined with her years of dancing at Jennifer Haltzman's Repertory Dance Theatre, planted the seeds for a blossoming career in the arts.


To get more specialized training, Krystyna worked closely with her aunt, Marianne Farrington, to prepare a dance piece so she could audition for the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts.

"I live in Oregon and she in Pennsylvania at the time," Farrington says. "She needed a dance piece to audition for a performing arts school, so we worked on it across the miles. I am a dancer, choreographer [and] teacher, so I was more than delighted she asked me to help her. We worked through YouTube, and it was an experience I shall never forget. She took that choreography and absolutely made it come alive. She did get accepted into the school, where she continued to leave her mark on the world and work on her craft in the living arts. ... We shall all miss her so much, and thankfully we have footage of her dance so we can look at it when we miss her."
At Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, she excelled academically and graduated at the top of her class in 2018. Her teachers shared that she had an impressive stage presence and an abundance of talent.

"She had an unwavering commitment and enthusiasm for the art of theater," says Lehigh Valley's artistic director of theater, Kelly Bickert, on behalf of the entire faculty. "As a student, she was hungry to learn all she could about this art form and to apply that to her performance work. She took advantage of all our program had to offer in the classroom, on the stage and in the community. She lit up when she was immersed in what she loved to do, and she shared her talents and her passions openly with her fellow collaborators and audiences. We feel so grateful to have been part of her artistic journey, and we are so proud of all the many great things she accomplished. Krystyna was truly loved by the theater faculty and by her classmates at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts. She will be so deeply missed!"

Next, Krystyna's academic journey took her to Pace University, where she worked toward her BA in liberal studies with concentrations in acting and literature. She graduated summa cum laude with a cumulative GPA of 3.94 in 2022. Following her graduation, she moved to Denver to begin her career in the theater industry. Her first production in the area was on the run crew for Curious Theatre's Heroes of the Fourth Turning.
"Krystyna had been recommended to me by a longtime subscriber named Patt Paul," recalls Curious managing director Jeannene Bragg. "Patt told me, 'A young woman who I am a dear friend with is coming to Denver, and you need to meet her,' so that's how I first met Krystyna. I passed her information on to the production team, and they hired her for Heroes and enjoyed having her around, so we started looking for other positions for her. Krystyna was a young person recently out of college who was excited to start her professional career in theater. Her enthusiasm for theater was infectious, and made me remember why I got into theater in the first place."

Wayne Breyer, Curious Theatre's resident stage manager and production manager, says Krystyna was a pleasure to work with because of her excitement for original stories and social justice. "She was incredibly dedicated and hardworking; she never batted an eye at some of the silly things we have to do or the long hours and stress of doing this kind of work," Breyer says. "I think my favorite memory with her was during our production of Heroes of the Fourth Turning. We had a prop taxidermied deer that needed to be struck quickly, and working through the logistics of how to get that deer off stage — how the legs should be trussed, careful of skewering anybody with the antlers, here's how you fold a taxidermy deer into its box in the dark — was ridiculous. I remember thinking, 'I hope this doesn't turn her off from working here.' I'm glad to say it did not." She then went on to assistant stage-manage Small Ball for the Catamounts at Buntport Theater in late 2022. Krystyna worked closely with director Jessica Jackson on the production, who remembers their time together fondly. "Krystyna was the energetic glue that held Small Ball together," Jackson says. "I don't know how she did it, but she fit a six-foot-diameter basketball into a backstage space that barely had room for a regulation one. She championed the safety and well-being of the cast and crew and knew every line and lyric. Her passion for theater was like a shot of caffeine for our tired souls. If we dropped the ball, Krystyna would be there to pass it back."

Over the holiday season, she worked with Wheat Ridge Theatre Company as the stage manager for The Eight: Reindeer Monologues. Executive producer and director Maru Garcia says that she is "still in shock, as well as my cast of The Eight. [Krystyna] was an amazing stage manager, responsible and fun to be around. She kept everyone in check, including me. ... I was looking forward to working with her again at some point, but, at least in this life, it won't happen; maybe in the next one."

In March 2023, she served as the assistant stage manager for Local Theater Company's production of UNDONE: The Lady M Project at the Savoy and returned to Curious Theatre as the assistant stage manager for The Minutes in the fall. Following her work on The Minutes, Krystyna moved into a new role at the company, working as one of Curious Theatre's box office and front-of-house team members.

"During The Minutes, we came in one day, and she was so excited to share that she had finished writing an essay as practice for writing her grad school application essay," Breyer recalls. "She was also moving into our front-of-house team after The Minutes, and in that short time between shows, she had gained more confidence in herself and was really looking forward to doing a job that would have been uncomfortable for her a few months prior. My last memory of her was the opening night for Letters of Suresh. She was working the bar and gave me a post-show treat; we chatted for a bit and said we'd see each other soon. I think we still will!"

When she was not in a theater, Krystyna was a lover of show tunes, reality TV, her cherished cats, reading and fashion; her multifaceted interests reflected the same passion and dedication she brought to her creative work. Her love of dance never left, and can be seen through her touching performance of ‘Fairy Variation' on the back porch of the Pinels' home in Denver. 

She leaves behind a loving family — parents Robert and Janine, sister Victoria, brother Benjamin, maternal grandmother Dorisann — along with a number of relatives and friends who admired her deeply. A service celebrating Krystyna's life was held on December 4 at Cantelmi Long Funeral Home in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Eulogies delivered by her family members, including Janine and Victoria, highlighted her fierce, passionate spirit as well as her struggles with mental health. Janine described her daughter as a "warrior," and she wished she had seen herself the way the rest of the world did. Her sister, Victoria, discussed the difficulties of losing her best friend and how their shared interests, such as The Bachelor, no longer feel the same without her. The family vows to keep Krystyna's memory alive and love her "every second of every day, because we are the 5 Mighty Pinels."

In lieu of flowers, Krystyna's loved ones suggest sending contributions to the Autism Society Lehigh Valley or the Angel Shine Foundation, causes close to her heart. Locally, Curious Theatre Company is working on erecting a memorial, like a sign or a plaque, in honor of Krystyna. In the words of her father, "Wherever you are, Babina, I hope it is better than it was for you here. I love you."