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Performing Arts

Polar kicker: Theatrical dance event features exclusive guest appearance by Ted Keegan of Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera."

Yes, you read the headline correctly. The Telluride Dance Academy is not serving up the usual Christmas diet of sugarplums. I am saying Telluride is not succumbing to the tweeness that afflicts the rest of America and mounting yet another production of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker."

What's more, there is no longer a Telluride Dance Academy.

Next thing you know, I'll be saying there is no Santa Claus.

Which is what the little boy in another Christmas classic, Chris Van Allsburg's "The Polar Express" was starting to believe.

This coming weekend, Friday – Sunday, December 10 – December 12, at Telluride's Palm Theatre, the brand new Ames Conservatory presents its inaugural holiday production: "The Polar Express."

08 December, 2010 /

[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Rhonda Muckerman]

 

Darkness-to-Light The thought of it makes some people quake in anticipation and others shiver with angst and cold. Whichever your camp, in Telluride, all over America, you own it. In this country, Christmas belongs to everyone, not just Christians who celebrate the birth stories about Christ, but also Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, even atheists.

The secular holiday is Chipmunks and Charlie Brown, Grinches and Scrooges. It is Rudolph and giant conifers, baked ham and chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and one too many tipples of eggnog. The holiday season is classic movies such as “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street.” But most of all, Christmas is music. Perhaps no other holiday in the world is more closely associated with music than Christmas. Locally, Christmas music means the Telluride Choral Society's WinterSing, one of the premier opening events of the holiday season.

The Telluride Choral Society is under the able direction of Rhonda Muckerman.

07 December, 2010 /

[click "Play" to hear R.J. Rubadeau's conversation with Susan]

 

Gatsby_CVRdj_front_300 Telluride local Bob Rubadeau is familiar with launches. He is, after all, a major league ocean sailor, a Cape Horn veteran. But Rubadeau is also an author of both fiction and non-fiction works of contemporary literature. This time we are talking books – or book – not boats.

On Tuesday, December 7,  6 p.m., in the Program Room of the five-star Wilkinson Public Library, Bob finally shows his hand, revealing the final chapters in his protagonist Wit Thorpe's trials to find the real killer in his latest novel: Gatsby's Last Resort: A Telluride Murder Mystery. Seems Wit, a Telluride native and the local Peeping Tom for hire, has been charged with 1st degree murder of a quick succession of victims, all linked as major shareholders in an attempt to acquire the Valley Floor. And despite what the local Sheriff may think – he describes Wit as "our own Ted Bundy" –  Wit admits that he "probably didn't do it."

Rubadeau's readers across the country have tracked Wit closely over a nine-month publishing odyssey in part on Telluride Inside... and Out, a key partner in the author's premier Community Publishing 101 project. Other partners include the Wilkinson Library, Between the Covers Bookstore, The Telluride Writers Guild, and Beacon Hill Publishers. The latest addition to this stellar lineup is artist Roger Mason, who donated the cover art.

06 December, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear vintage Roger Mason on painting and book covers]

 

Gatsby_CVRdj_front_300 If you live in the R-1 school district, you know the name "Rubadeau." But I am not talking about her. I am talking about him. After a nine month publishing odyssey tracked closely by Telluride Inside... and Out, author Bob Rubadeau just completed his latest mystery, Gatsby’s Last Resort: A Telluride Murder Mystery. And the author picked the work of another Telluride celebrity, Roger Mason, for the cover art.

On Tuesday, December 7, 6 p.m. in the Program Room of the Wilkinson Public Library the final chapters in Wit Thorpe’s trials to find the real killer will be unveiled - along with Mason's deliciously dark image.

04 December, 2010 /

 Jen Julia, director of Telluride's Sheridan Arts Foundation's Young People's Theatre is one twisted sister– and that's a good thing. Generally speaking, when it comes to adapting chestnuts for her actors, Jen goes her own way. This time, she is following the crowd. Sort of...

Take Disney's latest (the 50th) animation,"Tangled," the story of Rapunzel, about an exiled princess who has never been to a hairdresser. In this version, the girl has been shut up in a castle by the evilest of evil stepmoms in the Disney pantheon, Mother Gothel, because her golden hair has the power to heal wounds, cure disease and reverse the aging process. (Hmm, hair as Botox.) Throw Pixar's bravura effects into the mix and voila, everything old is brand spanking new.

02 December, 2010 /

Snapshot 2010-11-28 12-19-01 Telluride’s all-women rock and roll band, The 525s, are taking the stage at the Last Dollar Saloon on Noel Nite, Wednesday, December 1, starting at 10 p.m. Telluride audiences last saw the band in April at the KOTO Street Dance, when The 525s had six members. Since then, the group has slimmed down to a lean, mean quartet.

“We found ourselves getting drawn in too many directions, musically,” said guitarist and songwriter Suzanne Cheavens. “Pulling back to just guitar, drums, bass and vocals helped us define our sound. We’re really excited. We love the dynamic and have had a lot of fun working up our new songs.”

Originally called MachSchau and a graduate of Mark Galbo’s Rock and Roll Academy’s short-lived but fruitful Ladies Rock program, The 525s have been a working band for a little over two years. The four core members of the group, Cheavens, singer Baerbel Hacke, bassist Cindy Eckman and drummer Molly Papier – all Lawson Hill residents – rehearse in Hacke’s basement studio.

30 November, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Peter Decker's conversaton with Susan]

 

Savingthewest Saturday, November 27, 6 – 8 p.m, Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library and Between the Covers bookstore co-host a triple header: authors Peter Decker, Corinne Platt, and SarahLee Lawrence, each with a unique spin on the American West. The readings take place in the Program Room of the Library, followed by a meet-and-greet book signing.

In the comedy hit "City Slickers" about cowboys and mid-life crises, three disillusioned suits decide to participate in a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado in order to "find themselves." All's well that ends well: the guys go home. What happens if they had chosen to stay is more or less Decker's tale of woe –  or whoa.

In "Saving the West," Decker revisits the theme of his non-fiction biography of Ouray County, "Old Fences, New Neighbors": the cultural clash between the all-hat-no-cattle urban ranchers and old-time "dirt-bags." (So named by the interlopers.)

26 November, 2010 /


(w)holeposter Telluride Inside... and Out was on the road again, this time in Denver for a weekend away to celebrate the most recent triumphs of two talented friends: Ivar Zeile of the Plus Gallery and Tracy Shaffer, actress, playwright, founder of the Thriving Artist Alliance (and TIO's popular Denver writer.) Art by two. Art squared.

Located at 2501 Larimer, Plus is Denver's edgiest art emporium and Ivar, a rainmaker among the avant garde. The night we arrived Ivar had teamed up with Win Wear to host an evening of experimental shorts dedicated to the poetic exploration of landscape. (We bagged: Too tired after the winter drive. But later heard the fun lasted into the wee hours of the morning.)

The next evening, en route to Tracy's play, "(W)hole," we stopped for dinner at the Zeiles' – pizza and wings ordered in from Marco's, the best in town –  and to see the latest exhibition at Plus, "Primitives," featuring the work of California sculptor Mike Whiting.

16 November, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with John Jacobs]

 

 

JJacob Telluride Inside... and Out has some sound advice to offer.

Thursday, November 11, 6 p.m., Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library hosts Grammy-nominated producer, engineer, arranger John Jacobs to lead Engineering Live Sound 101. His workshop explores how to set-up and get the most out of a PA system. Find out what EQ is and how to dial it in to your system and what equipment you might need for whatever sound reinforcement you are doing. Jacobs also talks about how to get better sound while you are operating cameras or doing live broadcast work.

Former Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler made the following comment about Jacobs' production of Maria Muldaur's Richland Woman, describing the project as "the best blues album of the century." (Billboard, 2002.)  Jacobs' folk, blues, and jazz projects have included work with Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Dan Hicks, Dave Brubeck, Joe Craven, and John Sebastian. A physics-turned-UCLA music major and a working musician for 20 years, Jacobs has built a reputation for melding production and advanced recording technology with the artistry of a musician.

08 November, 2010 /

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 /