Noticias

By Gavin McGough

Telluride Theater’s headlining summer project, Shakespeare in the Park, opens this Friday with a production of All’s Well that End’s Well. Featuring a cast of community members, KOTO’s Gavin McGough reports, this comedy is known as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays for its lack of a clear moral lesson.

On a recent evening, Telluride Town Park was busy with its usual crowd of softball players and dog walkers. Few noticed that up on the Telluride Town Stage was a mix of locals dancing, stomping, and sparing in perfect iambic pentameter. Surrounded by plywood set pieces and fueled by sugar cookies and take-out, it is one of the final rehearsals for Telluride Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park.

The San Francisco based director Becca Wolff says this year’s show, All’s Well that Ends Well, follows a woman as she pursues a man who resists her advances.

“All’s Well that Ends Well is about a young woman who is wanting to marry this guy who is above her station. He doesn’t want her, and so he is forced by the king into marriage,” Wolff says.

The misadventures of the young couple-to-be forms the backdrop for the show’s humor. Tom Shane, a Telluridian who has trained and toured professionally, plays both the king and the fool, and describes the comedy of this particular work.

“It’s a funny show. It’s really silly and ridiculous; it’s not stodgy at all in terms of Shakespeare,” he says. Shane has performed with Shakespeare in the Park for years. He got started when he came to town decades ago.

“In terms of the theater community, it’s changed, certainly, considerably,” Shane says. “None of those people that I was in those shows with are here doing these performances. One of the themes of the show is age and youth and certainly being here with all these other actors who are in their twenties – a lot of them are in their twenties – it’s sort of like ‘oh, yeah…’ I have this line in the show, ‘would I had that corporal soundness now,’” Shane reflects.

Director Becca Wolff agrees that those themes of aging and change are central. As Shane plays the character of the king, a conflict forms between the generations in the play.

“The king, as the strong patriarchal leader enforcing the law, is keeping these two young people in the conflict that they are in,” Wolff says.

Wolff finds that messages about class and power are related to themes of generational conflict. In the show, the elder characters hold power, but oftentimes that power becomes a sort of trap for themselves.

“When we have an idea of ourselves, especially when we have power, we may make dumb decisions. You almost get addicted to the way you act and then you stop being able to respond to how things are sometimes,” Wolff says.

So how do the conflicts work out at the end of the play? Is all well that ends well? Unlike other Shakespearean works, the answers are not crystal clear.

“In the end there is a moral gray area, which is vast,” Wolff says.

Wolff says that for the production team itself, the answers were more clear cut. The diversity of ages amongst the cast members led not to conflict, but camaraderie and creativity.

“There is such a rich mix of experience, of training, and outlook, and age; that is not common. The truth of the ensemble process – that coming together as a group – is so deep. It’s such a joy,” Wolff says.

James Van Hooser, who has performed in Shakespeare in the Park since coming to Telluride in 2013, agrees that relationships amongst cast members is the highlight every time.

“It’s my home in Telluride, as far as artistic expression; I’ve made a lot of friends,” Van Hooser says.

His message for fans this year?

“Come see the show, gang! It’s gonna be a lot of fun and the views are always killer in town park,” Van Hooser says.

In the park, it’s sunset, around 8 o’clock. Way down the valley, the small strip of horizon is glowing pink and orange. Picnickers and frisbee throwers are still out, seemingly ignorant of the small crew tucked away on the town stage. Come opening night, this Friday July 22nd, that much is sure to change.

You can get your tickets at telluridetheater.org. After Friday’s opening, the show runs at 8 PM nightly through July 31. There is no show Thursday the 28th.