Culture

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Ralph]  Sometimes life in Telluride is such a drag – especially when dragster extraordinaire Ralph Dinosaur takes to the stage. The cross-dressing Ralph and his band of renown headline KOTO's end-of-season...

Telluride's Nugget Theatre is showing "Duplicity" (Rated PG-13), Friday, April 3 through Thursday, April 9. Friday screenings are at 8:30 pm, the rest of the week at 7:00 pm.Claire (Julia Roberts), ex CIA, and Ray (Clive Owen), ex MI6, are re-united as rivals in industrial...

[Click the "play" button and listen to Telluride Film Fest's education coordinator/local liaison Erika Gordon discussing the importance of "The Real Dirt"]

Farmer.john11x17 The image on the cover of his cookbook, "The Real Dirt on Vegetables," says it all: Farmer John Peterson is posed with a pitchfork like the man in Grant Wood's signature portrait "American Gothic" –  only Farmer John is also wearing a bright red boa.

Farmer John, who, by his own admission, is also Farmer " Elton" John, is a wise and wacky human being working to change the world one seed at a time with Angelic Organics, his Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in rural Illinois.

Filmmaker Taggert Siegel's award-winning docudrama (over 30 festival honors), "The Real Dirt on Farmer John,"  spans 55 years, beginning with Farmer John's childhood, and then covering the failure of his conventional farming operation, the dark period that followed, and finally the farm's – and farmer's – rebirth.

Watchmen_200810241502 This week at Telluride's  Nugget Theatre, the new movie is "Watchmen." In an alternate universe 1985 America, with the Cold War still a reality, Superheroes are very much a part of everyday experience. But there appears to be a plot to kill and discredit this band of stalwarts, and one of their number, Rorschach must rally his fellows to thwart the plot.

To read more and to view a preview, see apple.com/trailers.

"Watchmen" plays Friday, March 27 through Thursday, April 2. Movie times are:


37 Allergies? Dust? Something in the air at Telluride's  Palm Theatre was making me tear up while watching Tuesday's dress rehearsal of the Telluride Repertory Theatre/Telluride Choral Society's cosy and warm production of the terminal blockbuster, "The Sound of Music." Surrender. Cry uncle. Guaranteed you, like Clint and I, will succumb to the charm of this Rogers and Hammerstein classic.

True the book is sugar-coated, enough to cause a toothache, but nowadays the blowsy optimism seems to work to the play's advantage: how nice to be able to take a time out from the long shadows cast by today's headlines to bask in the musical's sunshine and light. True the music itself is unapologetically melodic, but that melody creates a structure as solid and reassuring as the convent walls that try – but fail – to contain the moonbeam known as Maria, the novitiate.

Directed by the feisty, focused, uber  talented L.A. import, Cate Caplin – a newbie to town  but with over 100 productions to her credit as director/choreographer and an international dance champion – The Rep's adaptation of the Broadway show is marvel of restraint. She and partner in crime Dr. David Lingle, the equally but quietly gifted artistic director of the Choral Society, clearly made a decision to focus on the business end of the musical: they tell their story of courage and the power of love  – and song – to triumph over evil with few frills. In lock step with the two directors, the producer, Lutz Florczak and crew of about 20 deliver the goods: the sets, costumes/make-up, lighting, sound, are wonderful, but never upstage the actors, the heart of the matter.

37 Based on a sneak peak, Telluride Inside...and Out is prepared to go out on a limb: when the cast of the Telluride Repertory Theatre Company's production of "The Sound of Music" says its final "So long, Farewell, Auf Wiederzehn, Goodbye," the crowd at the Palm will be shouting for more. This is one boffo show, arguably one of the biggest and best in The Rep's 18-year history. When the inevitable occurs, much credit must go to its director, Cate Caplin, and her musical director, Dr. David Lingle, who lead a cast of 50 and a crew of 20.

Their resumes not only establish their street cred, they underscore their respective and complementary strengths.

Over forty years after the film captured the hearts of millions, the legacy of "The Sound of Music," The Telluride Repertory Theatre's latest production,  lives on in the great grandchildren of Captain and Maria von Trapp – Justin, Amanda, Melanie and Sofia –  who...