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Performing Arts

[click "Play" for Otis Taylor's conversation with Susan]

A-Otis_Clovis-Photo-by-David-Raccuglia Blues singer/composer, multi-instrumentalist Otis Taylor returns to town for the 17th annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, September 17 – September 19.

Telluride Blues & Brews Festival founder/director Steve Gumble brought Taylor to town for the first time in the late 1990s and wound up becoming his manager.

“There are lots of performers playing the blues out there, but Otis is sort of reinventing it,” said Gumble. “I would describe his style as ‘hip blues.’ I have found the man’s appeal is universal: young people in the crowd like his consistent beat for dancing; older people seem to enjoy the authenticity of his lyrics on subjects ranging from personal to political. By stretching the boundaries of the genre, Otis is keeping blues fresh.”

13 September, 2010 /
IMG_5859 The Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, Friday, September 17 – Sunday, September 19, is synonymous with its founder, impresario Steve Gumble. His event is the first of its kind in the country, combining as it does micro-breweries with the best of blues music. Telluride Blues & Brews Festival was not always about music with a beer back. The event started out as the Telluride Brewers Festival.

The Telluride Brewers Festival opened for business 17 years ago in 1994 as the beer drinker's answer to the Telluride Wine Festival, which catered back then to the Prada (versus Chaco) brigade. Gumble had met many of the vendors who would return year after year back in the days he owned a liquor store. Year 1, the impresario expected 500 diehards and 1200 showed up. Profits were spread among several non-profits. A home run for sure. But not enough for Gumble.
12 September, 2010 /

IMG_7572 Two organizations founded and operated by fans of the rock band Phish, Phish Fans, charity announced today that they have raised and distributed a combined $1,000,000 for charity. The joint announcement was made by The Mimi Fishman Foundation, which raises funds through online auctions, and The Mockingbird Foundation, which publishes historical information about Phish in print and online. Both organizations are operated on an all-volunteer basis, with no salaries, paid staff, or offices.

12 September, 2010 /
IMGP1428 After a five-year hiatus, the Telluride Repertory Theatre at last was able to bring back Shakespeare in the Park. "Merchant of Venice" opened Saturday night. 7:30 p.m. on the Main Stage in Telluride Town Park. Performances continue Wednesday, August 25 – Sunday, August 29. (The performance on Saturday, August 28, however, is a 1 p.m. matinee.)

Local actor-turned-director Jeb Berrier's choice of "The Merchant of Venice" to relaunch one the REP's most popular series was a bit like deciding to run a marathon after an extended illness. The material in this dark comedy is challenging to say the least, dealing as it does with racial profiling in the person of Shylock, whom the Bard portrays in a somewhat grotesque, anti-Semitic caricature. Shakespeare, however, specializes in shades of gray, begging the question: Is Shylock meant to be victim or villain?
23 August, 2010 /
[to hear Erin Neff's conversation with Susan, click "Play"]

And now for something completely different.

Cabaret ad costume party The 37th annual Telluride Chamber Music Festival meets "Cabaret." The event takes place Friday, August 20, 7:30 p.m. at the historic Sheridan Opera House. In keeping with the decadence of the period in Germany before the rise of Hitler, the evening begins with a champagne reception and ends with sweets. Guests are asked to come in costume, although Telluride chic works just fine for the aristos in the crowd.

The culture of Germany's Weimar Republic, 1918-1933, encompassed the political caricature of Otto Dix and George Grosz, the beginnings of the far-reaching Bauhaus movement in architecture and interior design and the decadent cabaret culture of Berlin, documented by Christopher Isherwood in "Goodbye to Berlin," the book that became the musical "Cabaret." Cabarets, concert halls and conservatories performed the atonal and modern music of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Kurt Weill, like the other arts, declared decadent under the Reich.
18 August, 2010 /