Performing Arts

Back-of-the-napkin-history of Peter Pan:

Before it was a play, “Peter Pan” was a small story in a book written by Scottish novelist James Matthew Barrie. Later Barrie himself turned “The Little White Bird” into a play, “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.” Initially the script was rejected by producers because the production was thought to be too elaborate: in addition to numerous and elaborate set changes, in 1904, plays generally did not call for special effects such as flying.

Sheridan Arts Foundation’s Young People’s Theatre: then and now

Ten years ago, when a starry-eyed go-getter named Jen Nyman (now Julia) arrived in town to build a young people’s theatre program at the historic Sheridan Opera House, Telluride pulled its Missouri stunt: “Show me, “ we said. Jen did. Big time.

Her response to the skeptics – “Really, we have Mudd Butts, who needs more kid’s theatre” – was to make like the lead of her first ever production, “Peter Pan”: pointing to the second star to the right, Jen led the way into the future.

Curtain up on revitalized Telluride Repertory Theatre

Kicker: 2009 season features “The Sound of Music” and “Taming of the Shrew”

When the New York Shakespeare Festival staged its adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” the director had Petruchio and Kate go toe-to-toe against the backdrop of the Wild West. Coincidently, the misogynistic romp opened on Broadway in July 1990 at almost exactly the same time a new theatre company was born in a small Western town that had long ago shed its chaps and buckskin – save for a few crusty old goats and cowboy wannnabes.

Nineteen years later, in June, 2009, the Telluride Repertory Theatre plans to mount its version of the sassy battles of the sexes, reinserting a linchpin in the town’s summer entertainment calendar: Free Shakespeare in the Park.

In the beginning: a thumbnail sketch about how the Telluride Repertory Theatre got its start

Once upon a long time ago, her former husband, Bunzy Bunworth,
tried to convince his brand new bride to leave the East coast and head West to a ski town in the mountains. Reading up on her prospective new home, Suzan Beraza was pleased to discover that Telluride had a theatre. Being an ambitious and hardworking young actress, she decided to jumpstart her new life by sending along an 8x10 head shot and a resume.

Four Poems: Telluride Suite, Seasons at 8750

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Spring:
Come Closer

Eager to play, spring bumbles in
like a dizzy bee
dazed by yellow exuberance
wondering which tree, which stem,
which blade of new grass to next visit.
Whirrrrr-whoosh hustles in the first hummingbird,
whip-stridently flirting with petal-some red,
sweet hussy of fling,
flippant rush of a thing,
yes! then tides of wings gather
to jostle for nectar,
warm air wears their buzz like a hymn.
And what could be better than today to remember
that we, too, are found in the rush,
this daily detour toward sweetness and thrill,
this unpredictable swerve of a path on which
evening enters on gray glimmer of wing so bright
                        that even the shadows are listening.

Telluride Choral Society and Dance Academy celebrate the seasons at weekend MasterWorks concert

A little canoodling between two local nonprofits is not a bad thing – especially when considering the alternatives, such as more nail-biting over the kerfuffle on Wall Street.

The Telluride Choral Society and the Telluride Dance Academy offer a gentler, more melodic alternative to the drum roll leading up to Tuesday’s presidential election: their upcoming MasterWorks concert, “A Celebration of the Seasons,” should be a refreshing pause from the headlines in general.