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[click "Play", William Missouri Downs and Susan talk about "Forgiving John Lennon"]

 

Nako and Jennie "Forgiving John Lennon" is the featured production at  the 5th annual Telluride Playwrights Festival, July 13 – July 17, at venues around town. "Forgiving John Lennon" takes place at the historic Sheridan Opera House, Thursday, July 14 – Saturday, July 16, 8 p.m.

The Telluride Playwrights Festival opens with a Play Slam Wednesday night, 9 p.m. at the Steaming Bean, where would-be actors and writers get to strut their stuff.

Three staged readings take place over the weekend. Saturday morning, July 16, 10 a.m., the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art presents "Mrs. Prescott and Mrs. Russell" by Judy GeBauerr. Sunday morning, July 17, 10 a.m., Gallery Room,  the historic Sheridan Opera House hosts "Float," by Gary Leon Hill. (Free pastry and coffee included.) The featured play reading takes place Sunday, July 17, Sheridan Opera House. "American In Hiding" is newest work of returning playwright Tracy Shaffer, whose "(W)hole," workshopped in Telluride at the Playwrights Festival then went to on a critically acclaimed Denver run.

13 July, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Will Thompson's conversation with Susan]

 

Illustrations by top 10 children's book luminaries featured

Sendak drawing
image courtesy of
Animazing Gallery

How do big-time art shows happen in a small town like Telluride? Start with a visionary.

In the winter of 1985, Telluride was beginning to percolate anew: entrepreneurs starting snapping up property; among them, Will Thompson, who bought the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art space the day after he and wife Hilary arrived in town to ski.

13 July, 2011 /

[click "Play" to listen to Susan's interview with Taylor Hicks]

 

Taylor Hicks You'll find the announcement on his website, big and bold: "Taylor Hicks will perform at the 35th Telluride Jazz Celebration in Colorado on August 6, at approximately 7 p.m.!"

In case you've been living under a rock, "American Idol" is the reality TV program that showcases emerging young singing talent, with each season's winner selected by viewers. Season 5, 2006, Taylor Hicks earned the title handily with over 63.4 million votes. And he did it by singing songs people can whistle, proving the legendary producer Simon Cowell wrong – probably for the first time ever in Cowell's storied career. Just ask him. (Cowell famously said Hicks would never make to the final round. Later he had to eat his words.)

10 July, 2011 /

Buddy Guy, B&B, 2009
Buddy Guy, 2009 B & B

The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival single day tickets went on sale Friday, July 1st at 10am (MST). Every September, the bands, the fans, and the barrels of beer roll into Telluride Town Park for the annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. The Festival is a three-day celebration of live blues, funk, rock, gospel and soul performances, hosting over 20 nationally touring bands, and over 50 of the best microbreweries in the country.
 
 
The 18th Annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival lineup is complete, featuring headliners Willie Nelson, The Flaming Lips, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Additional performances include The Robert Cray Band, Zappa Plays Zappa, moe., Marcia Ball, Fitz and the Tantrums, The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, Mavis Staples, Anders Osborne, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and many more.

10 July, 2011 /
[click "Play" to listen to Susan's conversation with Keller Williams]

 

15TH ANNUAL KOTO DOO-DAH Getting tickets to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival can be sketchy at times: the recent 38th annual event sold out virtually overnight. Keller Williams and The Keels performed at the 37th Telluride Bluegrass in 2010. That set breathed new life into old classics, as the trio showcased their hit release "Thief."

Missed the show? It was a doozy, but you are in luck: You get a second chance when Keller and The Keels headline the 15th annual KOTO Doo-Dah, Saturday, July 9, 2011, starting at 4 p.m.

07 July, 2011 /

by Jim Bedford

Bad-Teacher-Thumbnail Super-8-Thumbnail The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride shows movies all year long and screens two films this coming week.

Friday through Thursday, July 8-14, SUPER 8 continues at the Nugget in the best tradition of Steven Spielberg movies, sort of an E.T. meets meets CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. Wonderment abounds!

Also playing all week is Cameron Diaz in BAD TEACHER, showing Justin Timberlake and every student she has that she just doesn't give a F. Very funny and irreverent.

See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews, and below for movie times.

06 July, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan speaks with Rob, Nancy and Renee]  

Magical works by Craft, Schultheis & Swire

Rob image Among Telluride's many talented writers, Rob Schultheis is an alpha male. In his columns in the Watch, and in his many books, Schultheis reclaims that turf over and over again with steady barrage of satiric, muscular, insightful, brash, bold prose. But forget all the you know about Rob. Well, don't forget it. Amplify it. Did you know Rob turned down a an art scholarship to college because he wanted to live in the Rockies? Rob the writer is also Rob the painter. "Roads to Xanadu" features the work of Rob, his wife, Nancy Craft, and their friend, Renee Swire. The show goes up in the Daniel Tucker Gallery at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts the first Thursday of the month, July 7, 5 – 7 p.m. The opening corresponds to Telluride Arts' First Thursday Art Walk, when galleries and other venues around town stay open late to strut their stuff. ( For a list of venues and participating restaurants, go to http://telluridearts.org/?page_id=111.)
05 July, 2011 /

By Elisabeth Gick

Lama2 

What makes the Compassion Festival a festival rather than a conference or symposium? The short answer is that a festival is more fun than a conference. There is art, there is food, there are things to look at, touch, hear, smell and taste.

The Compassion Festival, to be hosted this coming weekend by the Telluride Institute, may not have all those tempting ingredients, but a good number of them.

05 July, 2011 /