A poem written by a settler in Yellow Jacket inspired a compilation of local stories from the past that will soon take the stage in Cortez.
“The minute I read it, I said, ‘Oh we’ve got to do a program on this,’” said Barbara Stagg of the Montezuma Heritage Museum, who spearheaded this project. “I imagined 40 people, something in our meeting room.”
But “one thing led to another,” it grew into a play detailing local history – Stagg related it to a history lesson – that’ll play at the Sunflower Theatre on Saturday, May 3.
There’s a matinee at 2 p.m., and another show at 7 p.m.
“People will probably leave and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that,’” Stagg said. “And it’s all real people from the past.”
With the help of Donna Peacock and Terri Helm, Stagg pieced together bits and pieces of historic writings, letters and oral histories to create the play.
And besides a few transitions and edits – plus music that ties it all together – “this is all their own words,” she said.
If you go
What: “Voices from the Past,” a play sponsored by Montezuma Heritage Museum
Where: Sunflower Theatre, 8 E. Main St., Cortez
When: Saturday, May 3, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Tickets: $20, at sunflowertheatre.org.
What’s more, all but a few stories are Montezuma County ones; a few are from Dolores County.
Stagg said they struggled to find Ute stories – though they do “touch on it.”
They were, however, successful in finding a Navajo story, about a woman named Mary Jelly who lived in the lower McElmo Canyon area and successfully resecured her land by naming all its plants, thus proving it was hers.
Altogether, 15 characters and their stories make up the play. All the roles are “played by amateurs,” and four actors are kids.
Stagg said she and her fellow co-organizes recruited people, who, in extension, knew of people who might be interested to perform and recruited them.
“It wasn’t your classic casting call,” she said.
Without giving anything away, the stories span a spectrum of local history.
One is set in Parrot City, which was a mining town in La Plata Canyon that many don’t realize existed. Another takes place in Disappointment Valley in the wintertime, where a soon-to-be husband and wife lived in the 1880s and walked on snowshoes to Durango to marry.
All Stagg would say about “pranking cowboys” is that it’s a “high point.”
“We’re always trying to imagine how to put on programs that reinforce the vision and mission of the museum, which is to save our history and tell our stories,” Stagg said. “This is just another way to reach the audience.”
The play will be recorded, too, and the video “will be made available to enhance the benefit of the whole thing,” she said.
Stagg went on to say how there are people who still don’t know there’s a museum right here, in Montezuma County.
“No museum can survive in a small town without deep interest from those in the area,” she said.
Much of the ticket proceeds will benefit the museum; “We’re hoping we’ll sell out,” said Stagg.
Tickets are available for $20 online at sunflowertheatre.org.
