Telluride Arts Council Mines Local Talent

With a yard-long list of well-known festivals, Telluride, Colorado, is famous for importing some of the world’s best artists and performers. Over the last ten years, one area program has been working to help local talent share some of the spotlight: the Homegrown Performance Series.

Supported by the Colorado Council on the Arts and directed by the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities, the Homegrown Performance Series will support eleven Telluride-area arts groups this year, creating a yearlong line up of programming with a focus on community participation. Offerings span a variety of disciplines, including theatre, music, literature, and dance. Each arts group has a performance component and gives both existing and emerging local artists the chance to take part in productions.

Among the most unique programs in the series is the Show ‘n’ Tell Play Reading Series, a creative way for would-be actors and audience members to experience theatre. Rather than put on a full production, participants spend a week in rehearsal and then perform readings of the play at the public library and over brunch and dinner at area restaurants.

“These readings allow the cultivation of new talent,” says Liz Lance, Executive Director of the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities. “Actors don’t have to be off book; there are no costumes to create or sets to design. And the non-traditional setting is conducive to interaction and discussion during intermission. This is not a passive theatre-going experience.”

At some level, all of the projects supported by the Homegrown Performance Series seem to possess a similarly innovative and inclusive approach to the performing arts. One program, Radio Futures, invites local writers to create radio dramas that engage the theme of utopias and dystopias; selected dramas are performed and aired locally.

Along with cultivating new talent and showcasing performing artists, the Homegrown Performance Series also seeks to reach out to Telluride’s varying cultural populations. For example, the Telluride Choral Society will sing the Misa Criolla this year, a folk mass in the Spanish language; this piece was selected in part to encourage participation from the Hispanic community in and around Telluride.

Programs also reach out to the world at large, creating a foundation for international arts collaboration. Telluride Academy’s Global Mountain and Mudd Butts International theatre programs offer amazing experiences for young people, alternately immersing Telluride-area students in foreign cultures and bringing foreign students to Telluride. For more than ten years, the academy has arranged student exchanges with Slovakia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Bali, and other nations. This year, approximately 15 students will travel to Telluride from Viet Nam and Bhutan to forge cultural connections and to create an interactive, bi-lingual theater production.

“TCAH serves as an umbrella for these and other arts groups,” Lance asserts. “We write and administer the grant and facilitate ideas. We keep our finger on the pulse of the arts and remind community members of the economic, educational, and social impact of the arts.”

So how does local talent compete with the international festivals? Lance would say it’s not about competition. “It’s pretty remarkable; we have a lot of talent in this town. The Telluride arts community is really supportive and non-competitive. The Homegrown Performance Series aims to create opportunities for everyone to have a meaningful experience with the arts. If we do it right, creating a community of artists can only fuel our interest in and support of the arts.”