Shakespeare in the Park Brings Cross-Dressing Revelry

By Eliza Dunn

Shakespeare in the Park runs on Town Park Stage (photo courtesy of Telluride Theatre)

It’s a warm July evening in Town Park. The skate park is full, softball is in full swing, and kids are kicking a soccer ball around on the grass.

But on the Town Park stage, a storm is brewing, and a ship is going under.

It’s Telluride Theatre’s annual production of Shakespeare in the Park. For the past eight weeks, the cast has been hard at work, memorizing lines and bringing Shakespeare’s words to life. 

This summer’s play is an adaptation of Twelfth Night. As is the movie She’s the Man, if you’ve seen it.

Director Jim Cairl’s take on the story is a balancing act.

“I think Twelfth Night itself is a play that is a tightrope walk between this wonderful romantic comedy and this kind of silly, vulgar clown show,” he says, “We're saying it’s kind of like When Harry Met Sally meets Dumb and Dumber.”

This version of Twelfth Night takes Illyria, the mythical setting of the play, and reimagines it as the quintessential American tradition: summer camp. Cast members have enjoyed transplanting Shakespeare into this new setting.

Ursula Ostrander plays Olivia.

“I think that the summer camp twist really lends itself to the lightness of the play, the fun,” Ostrander says. “Already it is a play that is full of hijinks and lots of silliness and it just heightens it.”

“The summer camp setting is fun,” Cairl agrees. “I think that, you look at things like Meatball, Wet Hot American Summer, there is this almost built in version of Illyria where you have rival summer camps or you have the romantic comedy subplot. I think that we already have his trope built into our own American movie sensibilities, that it made sense to try and reinvent Shakespeare through that lens.”

Photo courtesy of Telluride Theatre/Clarke Dyer Photography

Sasha Cuccinello, Telluride Theater Artistic Director and, in this play, Lady Tobi Belch, says that performing in the physical setting of Town Park makes the production even more special.

“We get to play on the most beautiful setting in the world—we’re on Town Park stage, looking out on the beauty of Telluride. And because we set it at a summer camp, the audience is facing the beauty of Telluride, so you know, every night we have something different—we have a good sunset, a rainstorm, a lightning storm, whatever it is, you just never know,” she says.

Against the backdrop of Telluride’s rocky canyon walls, Shakespeare’s words take on new meanings.

“Viola has a speech that she says to Olivia when they first meet. And there’s a moment where she says ‘halloo your name to the reverberate hills,’ and it’s really fun to get to say that literally yelling out to the reverberate hills in this Box Canyon,” says Julia Caulfield, playing Viola in the production.

She says that with opening day quickly approaching, there’s excitement in the air. “And then think there always gets to be a point where you’re like, oh we’re ready. We need an audience, we need other people to be in the space, people to witness to level up. And I feel like we’re getting there, and that’s always a really exciting thing.”

“Shakespeare… it comes alive when you're in front of an audience, because you get the audience’s reactions,” Ostrander echoes. “There are things that you just don’t—you hope they’ll play well, but you don’t know until you get in front of an audience, and also the audience gives you so much energy.”

As the cast rehearses, they joke around with each other. Cuccinello says the camaraderie among actors is a big piece of what sets this theater company apart. “We have a great crew of locals, I mean that’s what makes Telluride Theater special, is like, we are a local theater doing it for our community.”

Cairl, who is a visiting director at Telluride Theater, agrees. “Well, I’m from New York, so the first week was spent learning how to breathe. But I came into the company, I’ve never worked with Telluride Theater before, and everybody was so welcoming, and so open, and so willing to play, that it made my job much easier.”

The cast is only a few rehearsals away from seeing all their hard work up on stage, facing the reverberate hills.

“I’m feeling great! Why should I be worried? Should I be worried?” Cairl jokes. “No, I feel really good. You know, knock on all of the wood, but it’s going very well.”

Opening night for Shakespeare in the Park is this Saturday, July 20th, and it will run through the 28th. If you haven’t already bought your ticket, you can do so at telluridetheater.org. 

Shakespeare Returns to Town Park with All's Well that Ends Well

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.

"The Jungle Book" Moves Online

By Julia Caulfield

Telluride’s Young People’s Theatre presents “The Jungle Book” via Zoom

If you’ve been to a production from the Sheridan Arts Foundation’s Young People’s Theatre, the sound of an overture is familiar.

But unlike most YPT productions, when the actors arrive on stage, it’s not on the stage of the Sheridan Opera House. It’s in a small screen, on Zoom.

This year, YPT is performing the musical The Jungle Book is based on Rudyard Kiplings 1894 book about a young child – named Mowgli – raised by a pack of wolves in the Jungle. Throughout the musical, Mowgli goes travels through the forest, and comes across a number of animal characters including a black panther named Bagheera, a bear called Baloo, and Queen Louie, queen of the orangutans.

YPT was originally scheduled to produce The Jungle Book in May.

“Unfortunately because of COVID, we had to call that off, because that would have not been safe or smart or legal,” says Leah Heidenreich, Artistic Director for the Young People’s Theatre – a non-competitive children’s theatre company in Telluride.

But COVID or no, Heidenreich was adamant that the show must go on.

“I just didn’t want to completely shut it down. You know, there is so much technology nowadays, where you can make anything work,” she says, “and there’s no wrong way to create art, because it’s subjective.”

So she turned to Zoom.

Heidenreich says, “Zoom has just kind of taken over the world since COVID hit, and I was seeing a lot of theatre companies put together these Zoom productions, and I thought ‘you know, I think we can do that too’”.

It may be hard to envision what a Zoom version of a musical looks like, but in this iteration of The Jungle Book, actors (grades 3 through 5), pull it off flawlessly. Actors pop in and out of their screen in costume, with backdrops hanging behind them to create the ambiance of a jungle.

Musical numbers are scaled back when it comes to chorography, but characters sing and dance their way through the story, finding ways to incorporate the technology into the plot line – picture a cast full of actors peering deeply into their computer camera when they spot Mowgli for the first time.

It’s clear The Jungle Book on Zoom isn’t the same as performing on a stage in front of a live audience.

Evan Strogner is 11 years old and plays Baloo, the bear. He’s been performing with YPT for years, but like everyone else, this is the first time performing YPT over Zoom. Strogner says even he was a little concerned about how performing them musical was going to work over zoom.

“’How are we going to do this. Oh no, what are we going to do?’ Strongner remembers thinking, “and then I got in and Leah started explaining and I thought ‘oh, this is actually really cool.’”

And he says performing over Zoom has helped to show just how much is possible…even during a pandemic.

“Even though there is a pandemic where you can’t get closer to people, you can still do things,” Strogner says, “It’s going to be a little different, but it’s not going to be super super different.”

Ruby Chechu agrees. Chechu is 10-years old and plays Queen Louis. She says even with the constraints of an online platform, the cast – with Heidenreich’s guidance – has been able to create a full production that feels like a proper show – complete with entrances, exits, and blocking.

“That’s kind of the best aspect of the show this year because even though we’re not doing it all together in the same place, we still have that aspect of a real show,” Chechu says.

Strongner adds, traditional stage or no, the trill of acting is still there.

“When you’re in that moment,” he says, “and you’re in there moving, you do feel you’re on stage. Which is really cool.”

YPT’s The Jungle Book will take place Tuesday, July 7th through Thursday, July 9th at 6 p.m. on Facebook Live. Search for Young People’s Theatre Presents: The Jungle Book. The performance is free; however, donations are welcome.