Culture

Ride the Divide Logo-3 Thetwilightsagaeclipse_smallposter If you missed "Toy Story 3" or "Knight and Day" at Telluride's Nugget Theatre last week, you have another chance. See last week's post.

New at the Nugget this week is "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse", rated PG13. Set in Seattle, this third film in a  series pits a 109-year-old vampire against a werewolf for the affections of a young woman. Lots of vampires around the past few seasons, and some werewolves to add a little heat to the chill of the undead probably is a good idea.

On Thursday, July 29,  Paragon/Bootdoctors presents "Ride the Divide", a feature length documentary about the longest mountain bike race.

See below for movietimes, and the Nugget website for trailers and reviews.

[click "Play" to listen to Toshiko Akiyoshi's conversation with Susan]

Akiyoshi The 34th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration welcomes Guest of Honor, award-winnning (Downbeat polls, Grammy nominations, etc.) arranger-pianist-bandleader Toshiko Akiyoshi.

Manchurian born Akiyoshi began her piano training at  the age of seven. Her career as a jazz pianist was launched in Japan in 1946. Be-bop pianist Akiyoshi made her first U.S. appearance over 50 years ago: in 1956 she appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival before touring top jazz clubs across the country.


When Telluride Inside... and Out first heard the term "Americana" attached to "music," the words were used to describe Grammy-winner and Telluride Bluegrass Festival regular Tim O'Brien's hybrid of country, folk, bluegrass and swing. Americana is music with a comfortable back-porch feel.

Co-producers (Barbed Wire Productions/Sheridan Arts Foundation) of the Telluride Americana mini-Fest, July 21-24 sum up their event this way: "Americana, roots, blues, folk with a kick, and country with a rock ‘n roll heart."

By Jennie Franks, founder/artistic director
 
IMG_4495 While our small band of Telluride Playwrights Festival participants were busy talking, plotting, acting and reading, the Telluride Rep has been quietly rehearsing the third play of the Festival – This Isn’t What It Looks Like, Philip Gerson's zany, political comedy that anyone who lives in today's America can relate to.
 
This year I knew I wanted to do something bold and different for the Telluride Playwrights Festival, and Philip’s play immediately caught my eye. The vitality of This Isn’t What It Looks Like  jumped off the page.
[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Philip Gerson]

IMG_4517 Jennie Franks of the Telluride Playwrights Festival discovered the play in the process of creating her 2010 season. It was Franks who suggested the joint venture with the Telluride Repertory Theatre, the play's producer. "This Isn't What It Looks LIke" is being staged at Telluride's Palm Theatre, July 15 – July 18, with the audience sitting in the round on stage with the action. Show time is 7:30 p.m.

Written by Philip Gerson ( story editor, "Murder She Wrote," co-executive producer of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman")  "This Isn't What It Looks LIke" is billed as a "comedy about  everything you can't talk about at a dinner party: sex, religion and – oh no – politics." Franks experienced the play as "an hour of non-stop hysteria."

Thekaratekid_smallposter The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride is busy this week, primarily because Nothing is happening. The Nothing Festival, that is. To celebrate Nothing, the Nugget is showing "Karate Kid" 5 times for nothing on Friday and Saturday, July 16, 17, including a Saturday matinee. Boy, that takes me back; I mean the Saturday matinee!

Because the schedule is a bit complicated, be sure to check below the fold for movietimes and the Nugget website for reviews and trailers.

"Karate Kid" is a remake of the 1984 classic, and largely follows the plot line of the original: displaced kid, young love, a bully, a kindly maintenance man with a secret. This time KK is set in China, but apparently the on-location shooting is an enhancement to the film, Jackie Chan is appropriate as the kung-fu master, and according to Roger Ebert, the movie can stand on its own. Rated R.

[click "Play" to hear Lauren Metzger's conversation with Ally Crilly] by Lauren MetzgerMarketing & Exhibition ManagerAh Haa School for the Arts Ally Crilly has made a splash with her dynamic and energy-filled Elephants over the past year in Telluride....

by Tracy Shaffer

One. But he really has to want to share.

For the past seven days, ten writers from around the country and within the Telluride community have been hunkered down at the Sheridan Opera House or gathered in Jennie Franks' living room for a post-supper salon and informal reading. The event is the Telluride Playwrights Festival, a glorious blend of featured playwrights and theatre professionals existing in a fluid blend of rehearsal, response, reflection and rewrites with the goal of making good scripts better. Now in its fourth year, Ms. Franks has made impressive strides, attracting extraordinary talented writers, garnering support of the community and providing an experience unlike any other. As we lean into our public readings, tonight James McLindon's DEAD AND BURIED and tomorrow's offering LOVE ME SOME AMNESIA by James Still, I asked our two Jameses about this Telluride experience: