Events

[to hear Susan speaking with Kristin Holbrook and Melanie Montoya, click "Play"]

Clutch1final Telluride-based San Miguel Resource Center is the region's only nonprofit serving victims of interpersonal violence Historically, the Resource Center's only public fundraiser has been the Chocolate Lovers Fling, scheduled on or close to Valentine's Day to underline the nonprofit's mission to promote healthy relationships. However, violence and assault are not seasonal occurrences. They do not melt away when the snow stops falling.

San Miguel Resource Center board member Kristin Holbrook owns one of the most popular stores on Main Street. Visit Two Skirts starting Thursday, July 22, 4 – 7 p.m. for a cocktail/appetizer reception to kick off a summer fundraiser in support of the Resource Center: Clutch for the Cause.

Skiis copy Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts celebrates its 18th annual auction this week, on Friday, July 23. The theme is ARTopia.

The centerpiece of the auction evening, a happening that includes art, food, drinks and multi-media, is the live auction. In support, Telluride Inside... and Out plans to post images of the featured items every day this week, starting today, with Wagner Custom Skis with Original Bill Kreutzmann Artwork & Signature.

Bill Kreutzmann, the drummer who played with the Grateful Dead, has created an amazing new piece of his signature psychedelic digital artwork, which means the custom alpine skis from Wagner Custom are unique. Ski Magazine cited Wagner Custom as one of the 28 people, products and inventions that are revolutionizing skiing. Wagner skis are produced in a solar-powered off-the-grid factory outside of Telluride and represent the pinnacle of ski equipment in the 21st century.


When Telluride Inside... and Out first heard the term "Americana" attached to "music," the words were used to describe Grammy-winner and Telluride Bluegrass Festival regular Tim O'Brien's hybrid of country, folk, bluegrass and swing. Americana is music with a comfortable back-porch feel.

Co-producers (Barbed Wire Productions/Sheridan Arts Foundation) of the Telluride Americana mini-Fest, July 21-24 sum up their event this way: "Americana, roots, blues, folk with a kick, and country with a rock ‘n roll heart."

[click "Play" to hear Dr. Philippe Goldin's conversation with Susan]

IMG_5912 Hosting a conference in conjunction with Stanford University, the Telluride Institute was tapping into the zeitgeist. While some people appear ready to storm the barricades, others are turning inward, trying to find ways to play nice in not so nice times: compassion as an antidote to overheated passions. In June, when the Drepung Monks performed at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, they painstakingly created a mandala to generate energies for global healing. Between chants, the message was compassion for oneself and others in equal measure. On July 6, Telluride celebrated His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 75th birthday with events all day at the Wilkinson Public Library and the Sheridan Opera House. The Dalai Lama's message: compassion.

The very next day the Telluride Institute weighed in with its variation on the theme, hosting the first ever "Exploring the Language of Mental Life" conference, July 7 – July 10.

By Jennie Franks, founder/artistic director
 
IMG_4495 While our small band of Telluride Playwrights Festival participants were busy talking, plotting, acting and reading, the Telluride Rep has been quietly rehearsing the third play of the Festival – This Isn’t What It Looks Like, Philip Gerson's zany, political comedy that anyone who lives in today's America can relate to.
 
This year I knew I wanted to do something bold and different for the Telluride Playwrights Festival, and Philip’s play immediately caught my eye. The vitality of This Isn’t What It Looks Like  jumped off the page.
[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Philip Gerson]

IMG_4517 Jennie Franks of the Telluride Playwrights Festival discovered the play in the process of creating her 2010 season. It was Franks who suggested the joint venture with the Telluride Repertory Theatre, the play's producer. "This Isn't What It Looks LIke" is being staged at Telluride's Palm Theatre, July 15 – July 18, with the audience sitting in the round on stage with the action. Show time is 7:30 p.m.

Written by Philip Gerson ( story editor, "Murder She Wrote," co-executive producer of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman")  "This Isn't What It Looks LIke" is billed as a "comedy about  everything you can't talk about at a dinner party: sex, religion and – oh no – politics." Franks experienced the play as "an hour of non-stop hysteria."

The 2010 San Miguel Basin County Fair and Rodeo celebrates 100 years of 4H in Norwood this week - so put on your western wear and prepare yourself for several days of down home, country fun. The annual eight-day event kicked off with...

[click "Play" to hear Lauren Metzger's conversation with Ally Crilly] by Lauren MetzgerMarketing & Exhibition ManagerAh Haa School for the Arts Ally Crilly has made a splash with her dynamic and energy-filled Elephants over the past year in Telluride....

by Tracy Shaffer

One. But he really has to want to share.

For the past seven days, ten writers from around the country and within the Telluride community have been hunkered down at the Sheridan Opera House or gathered in Jennie Franks' living room for a post-supper salon and informal reading. The event is the Telluride Playwrights Festival, a glorious blend of featured playwrights and theatre professionals existing in a fluid blend of rehearsal, response, reflection and rewrites with the goal of making good scripts better. Now in its fourth year, Ms. Franks has made impressive strides, attracting extraordinary talented writers, garnering support of the community and providing an experience unlike any other. As we lean into our public readings, tonight James McLindon's DEAD AND BURIED and tomorrow's offering LOVE ME SOME AMNESIA by James Still, I asked our two Jameses about this Telluride experience: