Kids who visit the Cortez Public Library on June 22 will magically be transported to Paris, France; Cairo, Egypt; Antarctica, and to Fruitas Dinosaur Museum courtesy of the Telluride Repertory Theatre Companys ACTion Tour. The tours actors used to be familiar faces in Cortez elementary schools until drastic cutbacks affected the arts and assemblies.
Local principals have had to turn them down the past two years for lack of funding for the performances.
Its been really tragic, performer Ashley Boling said. We used to do 30 shows around the Four Corners area and be on the road for two weeks.
Now the tour is limited to only a few shows here and there with the performance at the Cortez Public Library. Childrens Librarian Laura McHenry contacted The Rep after hearing their show was widely recommended.
Im really excited to have them here, to have a different representation, especially for our theme One World Many Stories, McHenry said. Having a theater experience for the kids, I think, will be great. We really havent had that before.
The three performers from The Rep Boling, Jeb Berrier and Sally Davis will play a substitute teacher and two students who use a magical map to travel across the world. Field Trip is an original play written by Boling, Davis and Berrier. Besides the six characters already mentioned, the 45-minute interactive show also features clowns, a camel, a penguin, a Tyrannosaurus rex, Mona Lisa, and King Tut.
Weve gotten really good feedback, Boling said of the show.
The ACTion Tour started out in 1992 with a shoestring budget and the traveling actors, five of them at the time, would sleep in the back of a pickup with a camper shell. As the tour became more popular, they were able to acquire around $15,000 as their yearly budget for production and traveling costs, according to Boling, who added at that time the actors were even paid a small amount for their talents. This year the tours budget is $4,800, and its not for lack of popularity or talent.
Over the years, weve taken the tour, with different cast and different shows, to Boulder and Nederland, and performed outdoors at the Denver Center for a big weekend, Boling said.
Its been tough though, definitely a changing climate, said Boling, adding that higher gas prices have limited their travels.
Boling said The ACTion Tour, even with limited funds, will struggle onward.
I think its a meaningful program, and The Rep board thinks its a really meaningful program, Boling said.
The Field Trip performance, geared for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, will take place at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, at the Cortez Public Library, 202 N. Park St. For more information, call the library at 565-8117.
Reach Paula Bostrom at [email protected].
