Sopris Theatre Company at Colorado Mountain College will open the 2021-22 season Nov. 12 and will feature four in-person and streamed productions in November, February and April. Here, during a previous season, the company performs in “The Glorious Ones.” Photo by Scot Gerdes

Performing arts in all its forms

Sopris Theatre Company offers in-person and online performances for the 2021-22 season

By Carrie Click

Last year, figuring out how to present college and community theater during a pandemic was a new adventure. This year, Sopris Theatre Company at Colorado Mountain College, with a season of innovative performances to its credit, is planning for in-person theatrical experiences, as well as streamed online performances, too. In other words, flexibility is the name of the game for the 2021-22 season.

Sopris Theatre Company will invite audiences, dependent on public health mandates, to the New Space Theatre, the 100-seat auditorium in the Calaway Academic Building at CMC Spring Valley. The company will also stream performances during the week of each play, making the productions available to anyone, anywhere with internet access.

From FastHorse to Steve Martin

Three remarkable playwrights are at the center of Sopris Theatre’s offerings. Leading off the season from Nov. 12 to 21 is the satire, “The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. The play is about a group of white teachers and actors writing and producing a socially and racially aware Thanksgiving production – without one Indigenous person consulted or involved. Since FastHorse wrote it in 2018, “The Thanksgiving Play” has been one of the top 10 plays produced in the United States.

Lauren Gunderson’s “Silent Sky” is next up on Feb. 11-27. Like FastHorse, Gunderson’s work is widely produced; in 2018 and 2019, American Theatre magazine named her the most produced playwright in the country. This play is historical fiction, and is a dramatic account of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, whose scientific discoveries during the early 1900s were dismissed by her male counterparts, and often attributed as their own.

Steve Martin is a comedian, banjo player, actor, author, screenwriter and playwright. “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” is the third offering in Sopris Theatre’s season, April 8-24. Martin’s play has enjoyed a long Off-Broadway run and is set in 1904 at the Lapin Agile (Nimble Rabbit), a bar still in existence in the Montmartre section of Paris. Here, two 20-somethings named Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso wax enthusiastically about physics, art and everything in between with the bar’s other characters and patrons.

The season will wind down on April 28 with the CMC theatre program’s student workshop productions. Additionally, the company will tour a production to the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen early winter of 2022 and will perform at the Ute Theater in Rifle, at The Grand Mesa Center for the Arts in Cedaredge and at the Colorado Theatre Festival this year.

All live in-person performances, COVID-19 precautions dependent, will be held at the New Space Theatre, Calaway Academic Building, Colorado Mountain College Spring Valley, 3000 County Road 114, Glenwood Springs. Tickets are $20 for adults, and $15 for seniors, students, CMC employees and graduates. To purchase tickets visit https://coloradomtn.edu/theatre or email svticketsales@coloradomtn.edu.

For more information, contact Brad Moore at 970-947-8187 or bmoore@coloradomtn.edu. To learn more about CMC’s theatre program visit https://coloradomtn.edu/theatre.

2021-22 Sopris Theatre Company at Colorado Mountain College season schedule
The 2021-22 season is presented by US Bank.
“The Thanksgiving Play” by Larissa FastHorse is an ironically funny satire about a pageant attempting to both reconcile and celebrate Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month.
7 p.m. on Nov. 12, 13, 19 and 20
2 p.m. on Nov. 14 and 21

“Silent Sky” by Lauren Gunderson explores the true story of 19^th century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt and her work to elevate women’s participation in science, and specifically, the study of the skies.
7 p.m. on Feb. 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26
2 p.m. on Feb. 13, 20 and 27

“Picasso at the Lapin Agile” by Steve Martin puts 20-somethings Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso together in a 1904 Parisian bar with other characters as they passionately debate physics and art, among other worldly ideas.
7 p.m. on April 8, 9, 15, 16, 22 and 23
2 p.m. on April 10, 17 and 24

Student Workshop Productions
Original works by CMC theatre students
April 28 at 7 p.m.

The Kesner Memorial Building is the new home of Colorado Mountain College Salida.

CMC Salida will host open house event Nov. 1

Colorado Mountain College Salida will host an open house event on Monday, Nov. 1 to unveil its new home at the Kesner Memorial Building.

This event will include the opportunity to tour the building to see how the college has renovated the space to meet its needs. Visitors can meet staff and faculty including CMC President & CEO Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, Chief Operating Officer & Chief of Staff Dr. Matt Gianneschi and Vice President and Campus Dean for the Leadville and Salida campuses Ben Cairns.

Additional staff scheduled to be in attendance: Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Kathryn Regjo, Vice President of Student Affairs Shane Larson and CMC Salida Associate Dean of Academic and Student Services Rob Simpson.

Art from local photographers Chris Kassar and Ryan Kempfer of Elk Raven Photography will also be on display.

“We are excited to welcome the community to the new home of CMC Salida,” said Simpson. “The college has so much to offer and we can’t wait to share all the great things we are doing at CMC.”

The open house event will take place between 4-5:30 p.m. on Nov. 1 at the Kesner Building, 349 E. Ninth St. Salida. This event is open to the public and is free to attend. Masks will be required.

For more information, email Rachel Brunetti at rbrunetti@coloradomtn.edu or call 719-486-4206. Visit Colorado Mountain College Salida for general information about CMC Salida's course offerings and activities.

Get ready, get set … get scared! (Except for the younger set, of course.) Costumes are encouraged at the fifth annual Haunted Hills mountain bike, foot and kids races on Oct. 23 at Colorado Mountain College Leadville. At left, Darren Brungardt, CMC math faculty and cross-country coach, points racers to the “haunted” trails at the 2019 event. Photo by Brooke Larson

Haunted Hills Race at CMC Leadville promises terror at every turn

All proceeds benefit the college’s cross-country team

Come run or bike the scariest race in the Colorado Rockies at the fifth annual Haunted Hills Race presented by On running.

Racers will move through the “haunted” CMC Leadville trails on their bikes, feet or both. The event will feature a 5K mountain bike race, 5K haunted hills foot race and a 2K boo-friendly event for kids.

Participants are encouraged to wear costumes. The best dressed racers will receive a prize.

The Haunted Hills racing events will take place on Saturday, Oct. 23, from 3-5 p.m. at CMC Leadville, 901 S. Highway 24. Entry fees for the 5K bike and the 5K run are $30, but if you want to race both, the fee is $45. The kids 2K race is $15. All proceeds benefit the CMC cross-country team.

For more information and to register, go to Haunted Hills 2021 or contact head coach Darren Brungardt at dbrungardt@coloradomtn.edu or 719-486-4296.

"Valley & Cliff" by Bruce Price is one of the pieces slated to be on display at the “Polychrome: Paintings and Objects” exhibit at CMC Aspen.

Bruce Price to exhibit paintings, sculptures at CMC Aspen Art Gallery

The Colorado Mountain College Foundation and Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel present “Polychrome: Paintings and Objects” by Bruce Price, an exhibit of geometric oil paintings and ceramic and paper sculptures.

Price is a Denver painter and object maker, known for pushing the boundary of knowing and intuition. The CMC ArtShare exhibit opens Oct. 21 and will run through Nov. 19 at the CMC Aspen campus.

Alexandria Knipe, CMC assistant professor of art, noted that Price’s “acrylic and oil paintings and sculptures, with their rich depth of color relations, visual textures and distorted patterns, seem to be in conversation about the emergence of their ordered chaos.”

Price has exhibited at the Denver Art Museum, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and the Emmanuel Gallery.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Oct. 21 from 4-7 p.m. at the CMC Aspen campus, which is located at 255 Sage Way. Admission is free and open to the public. No RSVP is required. Masks will be required.

For more information, call the CMC Aspen Art Gallery at 970-925-7740 or email asgallery@coloradomtn.edu.