by Jane Minarovic Over the years, the Mudd Butts Mystery Theatre Troupe has grown from a small, all-girl cast at the Nugget Theatre, to a cast of 28 boys and girls who perform at the state-of-the-art Michael D. Palm Theatre for the Performing Arts. ...
The Telluride Chamber Music Festival opens this week for the 38th year in a row, joining Telluride Bluegrass and the Telluride Film Festival on the list of oldies but goodies on our town's summer cultural calendar.
The fun begins Thursday night, August 11, 5 p.m. with a FREE concert n Town Park. (Bring your own picnic.) Regular Telluride Chamber Music programming starts Friday, August 12. The two Sunday concerts, August 14 and August 21 are 2:30 matinees. Friday, August 19, is a double bill, including an 11 a.m. FREE concert for kiddos. All evening concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. The series takes place at the historic Sheridan Opera House. Tickets are $25.
Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House welcomes singer/songwriters Eric Brace and Peter Cooper, with Phil Lee and Tom Mason. The concert, billed as Americana/folk sounds, takes place Saturday, August 13, 8 p.m.
What's Americana? A hybrid of country, folk, bluegrass and swing. Who are Eric and Peter? Two of Nashville's hottest musicians, but Telluride virgins. (We promise to be gentle.)
For his band, Last Train Home, and for his duo with Peter Cooper, singer/songwriter Eric Brace is one of the most acclaimed artists in the Americana world. One critic described Eric's warm tenor voice this way:
By Jane Minarovic As the Mom of a first year Mudd Butt, I was surprised to discover that the kids were not given a full script until two weeks into the session. Instead, they used props and improvisation to work on different aspects of the...
About one month ago, certain very lucky kids in Telluride got to do what other lucky kids have done for 25 silvery years: slide down muddy Coronet Creek into the experience of a lifetime. It's time for the Mudd Butts Mystery Theater Troupe's annual performance. Yes, you read me correctly. The Mudd Butts just turned 25.
Come help the Mudd Butts celebrate by attending this year's production, August 12 – August 14. "A Day When Nothing Was Supposed to Happen" is a Telluride story that begins with the Nothing Festival 2012 and find its way down to the center of earth and back through a prairie dog hole.
The word "jazz," originally "jass" was slang for love-making, what you did when you went to brothels at the turn of the 20th century. Then it became the kind of music played in brothels to accompany such activities. For Telluride Jazz Celebration impresario Paul Machado, "jazz" means a certain kind of spontaneous interaction on stage and off, when the chemistry created by music, the mountains, the food and wine, and the people kicks in as it inevitably does every year over the Telluride Jazz Celebration weekend. The 35th annual musical happening featuring classical, mainstream, blues Brazilian, African, Latin and more, takes place this year Friday, August 5 – Sunday, August 7.
by Cicily Janus
Susan Gatschet-Reese
Clint Viebrock photo
Editor's note: Susan Gatschet-Reese is a dear friend, recently been let go by KUVO. We met at the Telluride Jazz Celebration, – coming up this weekend in Telluride – where we vowed to deepen our friendship by heading out for evenings of music together in Denver, Telluride Inside... and Out's second home. When we walked into Dazzle, perhaps the premiere jazz venue in the city, with Susan the waters parted. Clint and I were treated like royalty because we were part of Susan's crowd. The respect for her in the jazz world was always palpable. We met Cicily Janus and Jim Bailey, two of Susan's friends and advocates, through TIO. Cicily has agreed to contribute to Telluride Inside.... and Out, beginning with this story in support of our friend and a friend of jazz.
For close to 35 years, thousands have gathered in the middle of the mountainous paradise known as Telluride to hear the very best of the best in the jazz community perform at the Telluride Jazz Celebration. For many of those years, the Denver-based radio station KUVO has been a mainstay sponsor and event MC. But this year, KUVO , instead of leaving a mark on the stage, will only be leaving a hole: their most notable on-air voice, Susan Gatschet-Reese, who has MC'd Telluride for the previous 16 years, was recently "let go" from the station. Although her absence at the Festival this year is not entirely due to her release at KUVO, this is a loss the jazz community should take note of.
Art Walk is a meet and greet for art lovers and friends and a chance for artists, galleries, studios, and nonconventional arts venues such as restaurants to showcase Telluride's fine arts scene. And some restaurants even feature Art Walk specials.
New this year is a Kids Walk, 4 – 6 p.m. including a self-guided map and hands on activities for families designed to teach basic principles of art through observation.
One venue on the Walk should appeal to both kids and adults. The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, 130 East Colorado features a show, “From Beasts to Babar: Ten Children’s Illustrators,” which opened July 28 and runs through the Telluride Film Fest weekend in early September. The exhibition of original drawings includes the work of Maurice Sendak, Etienne Delessert, Bernie Fuchs, Henrik Drescher, Laurent de Brunhoff, Peter Sis, Gennady Spirin, Peter McCarty, Tomie De Paola, and Jeanne de Sainte Marie.
(For interviews and videos with Delessert, Drescher, Sis, McCarty and de Sainte Marie, type their full names into Search on the Home page of www.tellurideinside.com.)
by Jim Bedford
The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride shows movies all year long and screens two films this coming week.
Friday through Thursday, Aug 5-11, in Disney's new WINNIE THE POOH (2011), Eyeore has lost his tail, and Winnie the Pooh and his friends hold a contest to get him a new one.
Continuing all week is also HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Part 2, where the fabulous eight movie series of J.K. Rowling's not-just-for-kids books comes to an end -- and a beginning. Long live Harry Potter!
See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews, and below for movie times.
Telluride Arts' First Thursday Art Walk showcases the best of the best of the region's fine arts and crafts scene at galleries, studios, even retail outlets, including restaurants. This month the event is scheduled for Thursday, August 4, 5 8 p.m., with a must-see stop at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts, 300 South Townsend. On display in Ah Haa's Daniel Tucker Gallery is the latest work by county commissioner and painter, Elaine Fischer.
"Broken Ground," Elaine's images of uncensored landscape, appear to have been created in a seizure of inspiration, suggesting the evolution of an ever more adept artist who s expressing herself with a greater and greater sense of spontaneity and honesty.
