2017 Presentation: Telluride Theatre Presents: Marcellus Shale

You might think a town as small as Telluride would have a theater troupe corresponding in size and scope. Not so, thanks to Telluride Theatre. The local company, which formed in 2011 when the avante-garde SquidShow Theatre merged with the long-running Telluride Repertory Theatre, produces a year-round slate of theatrical treasures for Telluride audiences: musicals, original works, comedies, educational pieces, Shakespeare plays, holiday performances and its one-and-only burlesque shows. For this special Mountainfilm performance, Telluride Theatre Executive Director Colin Sullivan and Artistic Director Sasha Sullivan partnered with Paul Zimet and Ellen Maddow of the New York City-based company Talking Band for an original play that blends activism with live stage art. In “Marcellus Shale,” a rural community confronts the effects of fracking as it transforms the landscape and divides friends and families. This music-theater work is inspired by interviews with people living on the Marcellus Shale formation as well as Dostoevsky’s “The Demons.”