10-Minute Play Festival - Durango

The Durango Arts Center is on the SW corner of E 8th & E 3rd
at: 802 E 2nd Ave, Durango, CO 81301

There is a nice gallery with work by local artists. The gallery owner has a good eye and all the work is unique and interesting. http://durangoarts.org/



About the Ten-Minute Festival
They do an international call to playwrights for short pieces. A 20-person review committee chooses 100 or so which are winnowed down by a dozen or so writers, drama professors, directors and people with backgrounds in live performance.

Performances/rehearsals are held through June & July and are open and free to the public. From the free performances, 6 are chosen for The Festival. (Another cool thing is that from the summer presentations a grand prize winner is awarded $500.00 and another award for $100.00 is given for a script (I think).)

Festival tickets are $12.00 per person. The actors are from diverse backgrounds, some with Broadway (New York) experience; some who were in their high-school drama class and now, after retiring, are looking to return to the stage. All were excellent!!

The pieces were diverse, but the overall "feel" revolved around intimacy and inter-personal interaction. If you're in Durango next summer, I highly commend.

But the incredible experience that made the whole thing was the two people sitting next to me. When we arrived the only remaining seats were in the front row at the base of the stage. In the seat next to me, the guy had gotten the role of the conductor in the upcoming presentation of The Polar Express. The woman behind him, a friend, was conniving to compete with him; she had no stage experience but has lived a dramatic life and felt she'd be a natural.

When we arrived she was saving the seat for The Conductor. I put our coats down and when she leaned forward to let me know the one next to mine was "saved" I asked if she'd keep an eye on our stuff while I went for libations. She agreed and I went off to fetch the wine and beer. Upon returning I thanked her and asked what her fee was. She jokingly replied, "Popcorn." Before she could say more, I turned and hurried back to the concession stand where I got a bowl of popcorn and a bottle of water. After handing them to her I reached down to pick up my coat before sitting down and saw the beer lying on its side.

You would no doubt have gasped in awe at the speed with which my martially-arted reflexes brought up the bottle. Simultaneously, I was astonished to see the cup, wedged between the two chairs, half full of beer. They, the cup & bottle, serendipitously positioned themselves so when the bottle tipped over it poured into the cup. I couldn't believe it and spent the next 43 seconds feeling the chair and checking the floor to confirm that not a drop had escaped!

And that, my friends, is what keeps me going....Numinosity, I call it.


Epilogue:

The Chairs Guardian characterized herself as a WOW - Wise Old Woman. When I asked her the meaning of life she said: Don't worry about it. Just have a good time.

So there yuh go folks.

(But next time I think I'll put the beer someplace safer.)