08 Dec Hysterical at Telluride’s Historical Museum
[click “Play” to hear Susan’s conversation with Beth Roberts and Sasha Cuciniello]
In the early 1870s, miners first came to the Telluride region in search of silver and gold, but the settlement wasn’t called “Telluride.” It was named Columbia. But Columbia’s post office application was turned down on the grounds a town in California with the same name beat the settlers to the punch. The U.S. Postmaster General resolved the problem in 1880: we got our post office, but it came with a new name:”Telluride.”
“Telluride”might have been derived from “tellurium,” an element often associated with gold seams. Was the moniker just a crass marketing ploy to lure prospectors to the region? Some subscribe to the idea “Telluride” was code among outlaws. Was the name simple contraction of the phrase “to hell you ride,” because way back when Telluride was wild and wooly.
Telluride’s name game is still in play. Find out the truth on December 10 (at Fly Me to the Moon Saloon) or December 11 (at the Telluride Historical Museum) when the SquidShow Theatre presents its newest production, “Inaccurate Reenactments Shed Unusual Light on Telluride,” a joint venture of SquidShow and the Telluride Historical Museum. The play was written by SquidShow’s founder/director Sasha Cuciniello and fellow performer/teacher Colin Sullivan.
Bringing history inaccurately to life, alongside Sasha and Colin, is a cast that includes Annie Watt Clare, Dahlia Mertens, Nina Tumbas, and Ethan Hale, a prodigal son recently returned from the West Coast. Ethan also provides the original music, a SquidShow staple.
SquidShow Theatre, which arrived on the Telluride scene in 2006 with the first of many original theatrical extravaganzas, has since cultivated a reputation for often unconventional entertainment.
To learn more, click the “play” button and listen to Sasha and Beth talk about their first joint adventure.
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