By Jeffrey V. Smith
A play experienced under the stars and mountains can be especially engaging, be it comedy or tragedy. Shakespeare in the Sangres offers this unique experience, June 17-July 4, when the classic plays Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are staged in an outdoor amphitheater in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
The annual event is a highlight of the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts’ summer season, and unites a pair of classic Shakespeare plays with a stunning natural setting and Colorado history. Patrons are encouraged to make a night of it by bringing picnics, folding chairs and blankets.
The event features the “greed, vengeance, power and all the trappings of unabashed ambition” in Shakespeare’s dynamic tragedy Macbeth while A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays the adventures of “four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke of Athens, the Queen of the Amazons and the fairies who inhabit a moonlit night.”
The Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts, incorporated in 1992, provides a variety of arts to the region. Its goal is to encourage new playwrights and provide classes and theater training each summer with local university cooperation. In addition to Shakespeare in the Sangres, the group produces plays, music and dance in the summer along with year-round, first run films.
The WCPA is housed in the town’s historic Jones Theater, and the adjoining Studio 2, on Main Street at 2nd Street in Westcliffe. The theater, which is used if rain dampens Shakespeare in the Sangres performances, is an historic relic of the boomtown days of Westcliffe’s silver and gold mining days.
Main Street in Westcliffe today is a collection of unique shops and restaurants. The historic Jones Theater's marquee is visible at the far left end of the commercial district.
The brick building was built by Casper Klutz about 1887 to be a saloon and pool hall. He built his business along “Dutch Row,” a block in Westcliffe on 2nd Street named for the many German-owned businesses. Devastating fires periodically swept through the town, but Klutz’s saloon always escaped a fiery fate.
The Klutz Building was purchased in the 1920s by June Canda, who also owned a grocery store and cold storage business across the street. He converted his new acquisition into a theater, and began showing films.
Several important changes made by Canda over the years included the purchase of a Peerless carbon-arc movie projector in 1938. The antique projector, a type used in most every movie house in the world from the early 1900s to the late 1960s, remained in use at the Jones Theater until 2005. In January 1941, Canda closed the theater for remodeling. New seats were installed and the lobby was completely redecorated.
The grocer ran his Canda Theater until he died in 1963. His wife Catherine took over, but was forced to sell the following year when a heavy snow collapsed a portion of the roof and funds were short.
The Jones Theater continues to screen films in addition to theater and other performances.
Lawrence and Louise Jones, steer ranchers in the valley, were looking for a new source of income, and decided to buy the theater. The building was renamed the Jones Theater, and continued to screen films until 1971, when it again went up for sale.
Iris and Dick Wilson purchased the business and ran it for nine years until dentist Lee Schambach bought it in 1980. He added an office and apartment to the back of the building where he lived and practiced dentistry. At the same time, he continued to show films for the community until 1992 when the Jones Theater was sold to the Relph Family Trust, its current owner.
The new proprietor, summer resident Anne Kimbell Relph of South Laguna, Calif., gave the dilapidated building new life by remodeling it and providing a home for the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts, formed in 1992 as a not-for-profit corporation to maintain the theater as a movie house and live theater venue. Foundation grants and many volunteers have also helped restore and refurbish the theater.
In 2003, Studio 2 was constructed onto the side of the Jones Theater to house sets and costumes, a youth theater for rehearsals and exhibits. It also provides a home for KWMV radio and living quarters for summer interns.
The seats were upgraded in 2005, and the first outdoor production was presented in 2007 when an outdoor stage and park-like seating was provided by the owner of the adjacent Westcliffe Feed Store property.
Shakespeare in the Sangres features Macbeth on June 18, 24, 26, July 1 and 3 at 6 p.m. and June 20 at 2 p.m. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is staged June 17, 19, 25 and July 2 at 6 p.m. and June 27 and July 4 at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for students age 13-16; and $5 for children 12 and younger.
To get to Westcliffe, travel to Colorado Springs, take Hwy. 115 to Florence, turn left on Hwy. 67 to Wetmore, go right on Hwy. 96 and go west to the town. The theater is located at 119 Main Street. Call 719-783-3004 for additional information.
