SquidShowTheatre/Telluride Historical Museum Joint Production Back by Popular Demand

TELLURIDE – “Friends don’t let friends miss this show,” said Telluride Historical Museum Assistant Director Beth Roberts of Inaccurate Reenactments, an original play from SquidShow Theatre that divulges forgotten tales and sordid secrets from Telluride’s colorful past.

The play’s first two showings saw guests turned away at the door, while the 180-some lucky attendees to this museum-commissioned event beheld Telluride history in the making.

“I laughed until I cried,” said Telluride native Vicki Eidsmo, who saw one of the first showings, of one scene in the play where Italian and Finnish children argue over the presumed ownership of stray donkeys. “They hit upon exactly the kinds of stories my parents would tell about those early days.”

Knowing that there were still Telluriders out there who hadn’t been able to see the play, the Museum and SquidShow have arranged one last curtain call tonight, at the Sheridan Opera House, at 8 p.m.

Local thespians Annie Watt Clare, Dahlia Mertens, Colin Sullivan, Nina Tumbas, Ethan Hale, and SquidShow founder Sasha Cucciniello will bring the colorful characters of Telluride’s past back to life one final time; the show is free.

Cuciniello and co-writer Sullivan had free rein to model a historical play that would both rekindle some of the long-forgotten ghosts of Telluride’s past (like the Pinheads, early Realtors, Tommyknockers, miners, prostitutes, and many more) while slipping in a healthy dose of theatrical hilarity .

“Everyone’s heard about Butch Cassidy,” says Cuciniello. “We wanted to find the great stories about Telluride that nobody really knows about.”

She and Sullivan read eight Telluride history books, picking out the juiciest, albeit unfamiliar nuggets to flavor this unconventional historical play.

Even Telluride’s most noted history buffs walked away from earlier showings of Inaccurate Reenactments with a new perspective on the town they now call home, Cuciniello says. Being able to bring the show back to the stage, this time at the historic Sheridan Opera House, will give those who missed it in December one last opportunity to catch this uproarious local history lesson.

Roberts says the collaboration between the museum and the local nonprofit theatre company was borne of the museum’s desire to reach a wider audience with the storied tales of Telluride’s past. To be able to bring Inaccurate Reenactments back to the big stage at the Opera House for a third and final showing confirms the lurking suspicions that Telluride locals of every creed harbor a hidden thirst for history.

“It went above and beyond our expectations,” Roberts admits of the first two showings, which she says reached an audience spanning both ends of the local community’s spectrum. The 20-something, barhopping crowd laughed alongside the “grownup” museum going crowd at the first two shows, essentially accomplishing the museum’s goal of widening its scope to more members of the community.

“The first two events were such successes. We’re happy to give the community another chance to see it,” says Roberts.

The event is free, but reservations are recommended. Call 970/708-3934 to reserve your seat, and look for upcoming coverage in the Watch of more SquidShow Theatre events on the horizon – like the Charles May play Big Love, coming in late February.