Two Mudd Butts Stars Tell It Like It is

06 Aug Two Mudd Butts Stars Tell It Like It is

Mudd Butts, Initiation Day, with Zach and Jolie in the crowd.

Ask anyone who has ever attended the Telluride Academy‘s Mudd Butts Mystery Drama Troupe and they will tell you that theater is the ultimate learning tool – and not just because drama impacts all the senses.

For 27 years and counting, in the Telluride Academy’s month-long theater intensive, kids learn about script and song writing, improvisation, clowning, movement/dance, voice projection, even marketing. They also tap into life lessons such as learning not to take yourself too seriously and how to interact effectively in a group.

For everyone involved, the collaborative process of creating an annual show is transformational. Kids, ages 10 – 13, become enlightened about themselves – and the world around them. The objective of the adult team who leads the young people – heading the team of enlighteners extraordinaire are co-directors Sally Davis and Kim Epifano, prop master, artist, and teacher Mike Stasiuk – is to affect a shift in perspective from a focus on the personal and local to global.

This year’s production is loosely based on Miguel de Cervantes’ revered novel “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.” The story was updated by Sally, Kim, Clay Frohman and the kids from an interpretation by Emily Klion and Danny Duncan, two San Francisco-based artists. The production takes place at the Michael D. Palm Theater Friday, August 9, 6 p.m. and Saturday, August 10, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. (The annual fundraising auction of amazing handmade props created by artist Mike Stasiuk –  masks, puppets, wind mills, horses, donkeys, giant loaves of bread and more – happens Saturday evening after the final performance.) The show is for all ages.

Two of this year’s stars – all the kids are stars – are Zachary Davis, who plays Don Quixote and Jolie Tanner, who plays the family priest, Padre Pozole.

“Zach has grown a lot as an actor and a person in the last three years. We felt that he was ready for this role. He has been in Moving Mountain Theater, Circus Holus Bolus and has acted in two of Telluride Theater’s Shakespeare productions. He brings true fire and spirit to the role of Don Quixote,” said Sally and Kim.“Jolie is a very talented and kind person who has been in Mudd Butts for three years. She has also been a real star in Circus Holus Bolus. Jolie is someone who is always ready to help out and is comfortable and confident on stage and in the world. She can hula while on a balance ball and that’s not all.”

What to Zach and Jolie have to say about Mudd Butts? Click the “play” button and find out.