The 12th annual Telluride Comedy Fest begins Thursday night, February 17 and continues through the weekend, ending Sunday, February 20. (Show time is 8 p.m.) Jeb Berrier's Telluride Comedy Fest is four nights of the kind of...
Esperanza Spalding's first Telluride appearance was 2007 for Winter Jazz. Those of us who know Telluride Jazz Celebration's impresario Paul Machado know the man has an eye for the ladies. His special gift is to catch rising stars before they have reached their zenith: violinist Regina Carter, guitarist Badi Assad, chanteuses Diana Krall, Jane Monheit, and Lizz Wright to name a few of Machado’s picks early in their careers.
The story of Esperanza Spalding is a rags-to-riches-tale, an American dream come true, because a smart single mom recognized she had a gifted daughter who thought – and played – out of the box. Years later, the jazz bassist/singer has clearly earned the respect of her peers. And one of her major fans happens to be President Obama. Last night, Sunday, February 13, Esperanza took the Grammys by storm, winning Best Artist, trumping popsters Justin Bieber and Drake, plus bands Mumford & Sons (Telluride Bluegrass Festival, 2010) and Florence & The Machine.
by Tracy Shaffer
It was a brainstorm marketing session seven years ago that launched Curious Theatre Company’s Girls Night Out, as a way to reach out to a broader audience and a niche market. Both have grown a lot since then. Seems a gal can find some thing to do any night of the week with her BFFs, as the girl’s night out concept has spread faster than a hot rumor. Most of these evenings involve a bar, a mani/pedi or a gabfest, and if there’s a bit of theatre involved it’s a fem-centric musical, an inside joke. The wave of “Chick-Plays” has crashed, save for Eve Ensler’s “The Good Body," leaving us to find our commonality solely within our humanity, thank god. This year’s Curious offering breaks from their usual provocative premiere productions and promises a “transformational” evening as Denver femmes cultivées gather to mix, mingle, and enjoy a performance of the hit show Circle Mirror Transformation.
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
(Ed. note: Rosemerry often sends along her poetry for special events to Telluride Inside... and Out. Enjoy her Valentine's Day offering)
Yes I Will
After all this time, we are still
just beginning to fly. Though our hair
is more white, our wings
are still unfolding, still a little wet.
And there is so much sky
we haven’t seen. If I close
my eyes I can feel it, the wind,
how it gathers beneath us
and lifts. How terrifying, love,
to not know what comes next.
And how wondrous to know
we are not bound together
and choose anyway to leap
in unison so we might see, after all these
paths we’ve walked, what
wings and a new song can do.
**
Love is no laughing matter, except in Telluride, where comedy follows the BIg Day for the kid in diapers with the quiver of arrows.
The 12th annual Telluride Comedy Fest begins at the Sheridan Opera House with a Locals' Night on Thursday, February 17 and continues through the weekend, closing Sunday, February 20. Shows, 8 p.m. nightly, are all hosted by Telluride actor/director/producer Jeb Berrier.
When is a "Squid" a Cupid? The answer has nothing to less to do with more arms to hold you and more to do with ties that bind.
Have you been married forever, but it feels like yesterday? Is your crush new and fresh or still hidden? Is your best friend down in the mouth and needing a quicker pick me up? Have Telluride's Squids deliver the perfect Valentine's Day tribute: a Squid Cupidgram. (The nonviolent troupe replaces arrows with wit.)
It's tired but true to say Telluride is a unique corner of our Blue Marble. It follows that it's local institutions are just as unusual. The five-star Wilkinson Public Library acts as a community center and regularly shows documentary and feature films. The Telluride Historical Museum regularly produces special events, including theatrical, on-mountain (Monday morning's Ski Into History), and bar crawls. Christ Church, focuses on sustainability, world religion, and meditation. And now St. Patrick's Church is turning itself into a concert hall for a world-class operatic tenor/musical theatre performer and concert singer.
On Thursday, February 24, 6 p.m., cocktails, and 7 p.m.,concert, tenor Dennis McNeil returns to Telluride for an encore performance at St. Pat's. The evening is a fundraiser for the 115-year-old house of worship in need of restoration. The program includes Broadway tunes, spirituals, and Irish tunes.
by Tracy Shaffer
For the first time in its six year history, Denver Center Theatre Company has included a local theatre company in the upcoming Colorado New Play Summit. Buntport Theatre Company is a zany/brainy collaboration of theatrical inventors, who have consistently delivered Denver’s most original theatre for the past ten years. Taking on Hamlet, Kafka, Ovid and O’Neill, Buntport has proven itself a true mix of the ridiculous and the sublime.
[click "Play" to listen to Tracy Shaffer's conversation with Michele Lowe] by Tracy Shaffer Denver Center Theatre Company is a staunch supporter of new plays, most...
by Tracy Shaffer
It's that time of year again! Writers and artists, actors, directors, agents and theatre buffs from around the country will descend on Denver next week for the Colorado New Play Summit. Denver Center Theatre hosts it's sixth annual playwright lovefest, February 10-12, with staged readings of new works by commissioned playwrights and scripts submitted for inclusion. This year marks the return of two "rock star" writers, Octavio Solis and Michele Lowe, along with Lisa Loomer, Samuel D Hunter, Lloyd Suh and a commissioned piece by Denver's award-winning Buntport Theatre. The white hot Octavio Solis, who brought us the glorious "Lydia" in 2008, brings the much anticipated script, Cecilia Marie, to town for a staged reading and the equally scorching Michelle Lowe has her "Map of Heaven" on the Denver Center boards for its world premiere production. Ms. Lowe won the 2010 Francesca Primus Prize for her previous Denver debut, 2009's Inana.
