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Mrs R 6 Editor's note: Telluride Inside... and Out welcomes a new writer to our pages. Tracy Shaffer is an award-winning playwright and actress, realtor and ass-kicker, who has worked in New York, Los Angeles, and the Denver Metro area. Founder of Thriving Artist Alliance, a member of the Denver Center Theatre Company, a Chameleon’s Stage Playwright, and mother to sons, August & Gabriel. Tracy has been to town to participate in Jennie Franks/Sparky Productions Telluride Playwright's Festival. She is about to star as Mrs. Robinson in an upcoming production of "The Graduate"  at Denver's Aurora Fox Theatre, 9900 E Colfax Ave, six miles east of the State Capitol in Aurora, Colorado. The show runs from February 12 – March 14. Show time on the weekends are Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call (303) 739-1972 or visit www.aurorafox.org

Look for Tracy Shaffer on TIO for whatup in Denver.

A Cougar and Her Spots

by Tracy Shaffer

I’m in rehearsal, which is usually no big thing, but this time it’s for the iconic role of Mrs. Robinson in the upcoming production of The Graduate.

24 January, 2010 /
The Telluride Nordic Association: Fun Tour and Ski Race on the Valley Floor, Sunday, January 24.

File The 15km “Flat and Fast Race” starts at noon, Sunday. A team race also starts at noon: two skiers are invited to pair up and each ski one 7.5km loop. The “Flat and Fun Tour” begins immediately after those two races. The course is 7.5km.

The Fun Tour is a new addition to Telluride Nordic Challenge Race Series. The event is for skiers who want to enjoy a relaxed day skiing and socializing with other free-heelers without the pressure of a race. As TNA’s Nordic Director Midnite Scholtes explains:

 “I’ve had a lot of people over the years tell me they want to come out and race, but are intimidated by the idea of racing. Lots of communities have Fun Tours in which people can ski at their own pace and not worry too much about a race result. We hope the Tour will appeal to all of the region’s Nordic lovers, and become social, community event. At the same time, Flat and Fast is a great way for skiers to challenge themselves and compete. I know we’ll have racers in Telluride from out of town, so the competition should be strong.”
23 January, 2010 /


The now-famous, extravagantly talented redheaded/adopted son, Tim O'Brien, returns to Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House on Thursday, January 21, for an encore winter concert. The 2006 Grammy winner and singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist – he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and mandocello – will be performing solo acoustic. Showtime is 6 p.m.

Whether it's a reinterpretation of an old fiddle tune, a revitalized honky-tonk shuffle from the 1950s or an original bluegrass-inflected folk tune, O'Brien's sound is always at once familiar and fresh. He describes his job as taking old music and serving it up in ways people can understand and relate to.
21 January, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Sasha Cucciniello]

Holmes
Julia Archibald Holmes

The Telluride Historical Museum's Fireside Chat series continues this winter with "Women in Their Words." The event takes place Thursday, January 21, 5 p.m., in the Great Room at The Peaks Hotel & Spa. SquidShow Theatre's Sasha Cucciniello brings historical women to life, with narration by Colin Sullivan.

The list the Telluride Historical Museum came up with is the tip of the iceberg but nonetheless impressive: Chipeta, wife of the paramount Ute chief Ouray, the "Tomboy Bride" Harriet Backus, early skier Marjorie Perry, homesteader Katherine Garetson, botanist Ruth Aston, Julia Archibald Holmes, the first woman to climb Pike's Peak, and all the "Soiled Doves," the prostitutes of the Old West. 

21 January, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hlisten to Bunny Friedus-Steel speak about "Carmen"]

116 In one scene, the lovers are hitting high notes while coupling on the floor. Coming soon to your local theater in Telluride: Sex, rebellion, and violence.


Are we talking about the subject of the latest country & western hit or one of The Nugget's nuggets, a Tinseltown bodice ripper starring the babe du jour. Answer: neither of the above. On January 22, 6 p.m., New York's Metropolitan Opera, live in HD, is coming to Telluride's Palm Theatre. And not just any opera, Bizet's 1875 masterpiece "Carmen," reputed to be the most famous opera in the world.

19 January, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Lawry de Bivort speak about his lecture series]

DSCN0693 Ldb stream Tride CROP When this part-time Telluride local opens his emails in the morning he finds the same daily reminders, sales, Oxfam, Moveon.org, we all find. There might also be a message from someone on the Obama team asking him to rethink an aspect of our government's policy towards Israel and Palestine. Welcome to the world of Lawry de Bivort, PhD., whose mission is life is to give CPR to those magical elements of human existence that have temporarily succumbed to darkness.


Scott Doser, program coordinator at Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library, managed to convince de Bivort to do a series of lectures on his current obsession: the future of the human species and how we can ensure a beneficial future for it.

19 January, 2010 /


Legendary guitarist and gypsy Tim Reynolds is in Telluride to perform with his trio,TR3, at the historic Sheridan Opera House on Wednesday, January 20. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.

Out of the gate, Reynolds got spoiled by adoring fans. As the child of pious, fiercely conservative parents, he began playing electric bass in a gospel band at age 12 before writhing congregations of ecstatic worshippers. Reynolds performed at church three times a week  – over 1000 times – until his high school graduation.

19 January, 2010 /


When I got to the Mountain Village Thursday morning the big blocks of compacted snow had already been delivered. Telluride's CoolSculpt was underway. On Saturday afternoon, January 16, I went back to see what the artists were up to.

I spoke to Colin Sullivan, who was on hand to turn the Ah Haa School's block of ice into a giant Space Invader, complete with a girl with a handheld controller.

18 January, 2010 /

6a00e553ed7fe18833011570134a4b970c-120wi Jennie Franks' Telluride Playwrights' Festival owes a debt to the Bard. Four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare is still the most popular playwright in the world because his every word, every phrase offers dozens of possibilities for the pace, rhythm and trajectory of every scene. Directors and actors only have to get out of the way for the structure of the whole play to reveal itself. The Telluride Playwrights' Festival is all about words, not the production.

18 January, 2010 /

Tuesday evening, January 12, it was the Wailers filling the Telluride Conference Center . There were people waiting outside in case anyone left early. And the Wailers kept everyone moving until time to turn out the lights.  The Sheridan Arts Foundation and the Telluride...

17 January, 2010 /