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380 Ed. note: TIO's Denver-based contributor Tracy Shaffer muses about the play she has written, which is being performed this week by the Paragon Theatre Ensemble.

After years of living with these characters inside my head and seeing them come to into two-dimensional existence with various staged readings, my play (W)hole is finally on its 3-D feet in Paragon Theatre Ensemble's World Premiere production. I sat down for lunch at Cholon Bistro (more on that) with Telluride Playwrights Festival Director, Jennie Franks, who came to town this week to see my play, discuss our new Colorado playwrights group, Collective 7, and brainstorm about the 2011 Playwrights Festival. As Denver Post Theatre critic, John Moore, wrote in his advance press piece, (W)hole was started years ago and has been the beneficiary of input from various theatre companies along its way.  I wasn't writing or shopping the play around the whole decade, but revising drafts and submitting as time allowed.

30 October, 2010 /

This Halloween weekend at the Nugget you can catch the scary, new vampire flick "Let Me In" that pays homage to the classic Swedish original horror movie "Let the Right One In." The core story is the same in "Let Me In," a young...

28 October, 2010 /

 

 

Above is the trailer for Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, 2005, 85 min. Rated G. The film will be presented by the Telluride Film Festival for the annual Sunday at the Palm Halloween Party, Oct. 24 at 4 p.m., an event for the whole family.

Wallace and Gromit, the Academy Award-winning claymation characters from the U.K., are probably the most lovable, cute things you can imagine—except kids wearing Halloween costumes. And this Sunday at the Palm, you can see both.

21 October, 2010 /

  Some things are just too good to be kept secret. Such as an undergarment decorated like a disco ball, or a brassiere covered with candy. Or the most racy, fun fundraiser of the year: Ah Haa's Bravo Show, where local men (firefighters,...

20 October, 2010 /

Nat at salon
(Left to right, Salon du Musee Founder/Curator Natalie Rekstad-Lynn and Salon Event Director, Carmel Koeltzow. Photo courtesy of Black Tie Colorado.)

I met Natalie Rekstad-Lynn in 2005, she was sitting along the wall of my acting class with the rest of the students at the Denver Center Theatre Academy. She’d only made it to a few classes but did not go unnoticed. Her eyes were clear blue and clearly focused, her ballerina's body and the intensity she brought to her work lifted her above the rest. One night she stayed behind a bit to apologize for her absence, let me know she enjoyed the class and something about driving from Boulder and having a new baby. We chatted for a while in "mom speak" about babes and shifts they made to careers and hips. She offhandedly mentioned an ' annual fundraiser' she did to benefit the arts. I, in my rush and snobbery, thought she was speaking of a hobby; a little like Mommy and Me with Degas. Ha! I had no idea who I was talking to for Natalie Rekstad- Lynn plays on a role far bigger than those I was coaching.

20 October, 2010 /

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By Lisa Barlow

 

Editor's note: This is the first weekly column from new TIO contributor Lisa Barlow. Barlow is a writer and photographer who divides her time between New York, Telluride and San Pancho, Mexico. An enthusiastic omnivore, she specializes in stories about food. The photos above, from left to right: glazed beetroot and apples; poached eggs and radishes; pork neck and bulrushes, violets and malt.  LB2

It’s easy now to imagine how Babette might have coped at the end of Babette’s Feast when she had revealed herself to be a kick ass French chef, but had run out of money and was destined to remain as a cook and housekeeper for two ascetic spinsters in the remote and unforgiving landscape of Jutland in Denmark. Forget the foie gras and the Veuve Cliquot, all she had to do to look for extraordinary ingredients and inspiration was to open her front door.

19 October, 2010 /

Minds of Mountainfilm - Tom Shadyac from Mountainfilm in Telluride on Vimeo.

 

 

This weekend, people enjoying the 2010 Mountainfilm program will be surrounded by skyscrapers instead of mountains—the film festival is screening some of its finest flicks in New York City at the Lincoln Center this Oct. 22-24, including Tom Shadyac's I Am and Reel Thing Productions' Bag It. Mountainfilm is also sharing its message about the extinction crisis (the festival's 2010 theme) by hosting a discussion with a panel of experts at the event.

Over the years, Mountainfilm in Telluride has evolved from its roots as a cinematic collection of outdoor adventures into something even more significant. Today, Mountainfilm offers a broader perspective on the world, a group of films, books and conversations by people who share a love for the natural world and a passion for protecting our place in it. The documentaries presented still portray the pioneering adventurers of the outdoors, but now films like I Am and Bag It also make another type of connection with audiences. They ask tough questions about how over-consumption and greed are affecting our world.

18 October, 2010 /

 

 Above is a snippet of the Popovitch Pet Theater act, which will perform at the Palm Theatre Sunday Oct. 17 at 4 p.m.; the show is for all ages and is a benefit for Wags and Menace Foundation in support of animal shelters.

 

When Gregory Popovitch moved to the U.S. from his Russian homeland, he was a gold medal juggler who had been scouted by the Ringling Brothers Barhum & Bailey Circus. Only a world-class juggler could manage his life these days: Popovitch's act includes 14 cats and 10 dogs, trained to perform with him, that he takes on tour in a special custom trailer when they are not at home in Las Vegas.

How long has he been doing this? "All my life," says Popovitch. "I was born in a circus family. My mom and Dad worked in the circus. For me it was normal, this style of working with the pets."

14 October, 2010 /