Telluride’s SquidShow Theatre presents “The Typists” and “The Tiger”

08 Mar Telluride’s SquidShow Theatre presents “The Typists” and “The Tiger”

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Sasha Cucciniello]

Telluride. Typist. Tiger. What links these three words beside some neat alliteration is an upcoming theatrical event produced by SquidShow Theatre, and directed by company founder Sasha Cucciniello. FREE performances, March 8 – 11, 7 p.m., begin at The Telluride Community Room, in the Old Library, right next to the Marshall's Department, 231 East Pacific Street. (Audiences will be moved to a second as yet unannounced location for part of the evening.)

"The Typists" and "The Tiger" are two one-act plays by playwright Murray Schisgal. While not exactly a household name, over a long career Schisgal accumulated a pile of awards for the words that  leaked out of his prolific pen. Do you remember the hopelessly straight starving actor in a dynamite red sequined dress? Schisgal co-wrote the 1982 hit flick "Tootsie," starring a young Dustin Hoffman.

Schisgal's plays give voice to Everyman, focusing especially on people who received the short end of the stick, and react, shall we say "creatively," to their lot in life. "The Typists" and "The Tiger, " a 1963 off-Broadway double bill, are examples of Schisgal's gift for tragi-comedy.

"The Typists" are Paul Cunningham (Jeb Berrier) and Sylvia Payton (Sasha). Paul is a married man studying law at night, sure he will one day walk into his uncle's happening practice. Sylvia,  his "supervisor," has a few dreams of her own, mostly romantic, but she is saddled with a widowed mother. The two meet addressing postcards for a mail order house, a kind of purgatory where their hopes for a brighter future are buoyed by  endless chatter.

"The Tiger" is Ben, (Tom Shane) a natively intelligent guy with a screw or two loose. In an act of defiance against the system, this frustrated mail carrier kidnaps a woman named Gloria (Dahlia Mertens), bringing her to his lair to do dastardly deeds. Much to his surprise, Ben finds his victim also hates the world and they bond.

Sasha, SquidShow's founder, director, writer, producer, and actor, moved to Telluride from the Big Apple, where she was a founding member of CuriousNoise Theatre and a company actor with Red Metal Mailbox. In addition to working on stage and on film, Sasha did stints with The San Francisco Mime Troupe and Philip Arnoult's Center for International Theatre Development.

For more on "The Typist" and "The Tiger," click the "play" button and listen to Sasha's podcast.

For reservations, contact Sasha at 970-708-3934.