Telluride local Mark Berenson will be performing at the Wilkinson Public Library in a free concert Wednesday, April 15 at 6:00 pm. Mark's performance is another in an ongoing series of public events in the program room hosted by Scott Doser, Program Director at...
[click "Play" button to listen to Susan's conversation with film MC Seth Cagin]
Telluride Film Festival and Wilkinson Public Library: Chabrol's "Les Bonnes Femmes"
Though less famous than sidekicks Godard and Truffaut, Claude Chabrol may be the most prolific of the French New Wave directors, having averaged almost one film a year since 1958.
"Les Bonnes Femmes" is early Chabrol. The film is a biting social drama with a Hitchcockian ending that presages the director's reputation as a master of mystery thrillers . (Chabrol co-authored with colleague Eric Rohmer a book on their film idol/mentor Alfred Hitchcock.)
"Femmes" covers three days in the lives of four Parisian shopgirls doing their best to escape their likely fate: marital ennui and tedious work lives. One is a party girl; another a mouse ready to sacrifice her hazy identity to secure a mate; an aspiring singer so insecure she hides her ambitions from her hanging buddies; and a day-dreamer yearning for a Prince Charming to rescue her from a vacant existence.
Bottom line: "Femmes" is a valentine to working class women – written with a poison pen
[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...
[Click the "play" button and listen to Telluride Film Fest's education coordinator/local liaison Erika Gordon discussing the importance of "The Real Dirt"]
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.
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.
Telluride Repertory Theatre Company's "The Sound of Music" opens March 26 at the PalmPopular songs about sweet 16 abound: Johnny Burnette's ","You're Sixteen You're Beautiful," Ronnie Milsap's "Happy Happy Birthday Baby," The Crests' "Sixteen Candles," Neil Sedaka's "Happy Birthday Sweet 16," Billy Ray Cyrus' "Always...
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.
[Listen to director Sasha Cuciniello of Telluride's SquidShow Theatre, talk about her next theatrical event, a reading of "Lyistrata," by clicking the "play" button on her podcast] About 2,400 years ago, in 411 BC, when an unknown altogether forgotten...
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...
[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with the Westman family] When the Telluride Repertory Theatre's production of "The Sound of Music" opens next Thursday, March 26, at The Palm, this musical about a singing family with lots of...
