Take a Bow

When the Michael D. Palm Theatre first opened its doors in 2005, it was a unique hybrid: a school building that housed a community’s performing arts center. “These days,” Palm Managing Director Kathy Jepson explains, “you’ll find several towns doing the same, but back then it was a rarity to have a regional facility working collaboratively with a high school.”

As it turned out, such a visionary combination worked on several fronts. First, it allowed the school to offer a top-notch performance space to students. Dancers had access to a sprung floor, protecting them from injury, while actors and actresses had a sophisticated stage with Hollywood-level sound and lighting systems and a fly tower. But the performers weren’t the only ones to benefit. In its 16 years, the Palm has trained dozens of students to be theater technicians, running the lightning and sounds for shows, cultivating “home-grown talent,” as Jepson puts it. “Technician training is the kind of thing you find in larger cities,” Technical Director Michael Wingfield says. “It’s great to be able to offer it to kids in a town of this size.”

By day, the school has access to the theater, but after school and on weekends, the Palm flings open its doors to the wider community, hosting national and international touring companies, as well as Mountainfilm, the Telluride Film Festival, the Bluegrass Festival’s NightGrass series and the Ride, to name just a few. “During non-Covid times, we typically present five to seven major shows in addition to simulcasting events such as the Metropolitan Opera and London’s National Theater,” Jepson says.

That the Palm exists at all is the result of several generous factions. Looking for a way to commemorate Michael D. Palm, a cherished local musician and philanthropist who died from complications related to AIDS in 1998, the Gluckstern family offered both time and some initial funds to build a performing arts center in his name. A bond initiative to build it was approved by the town in 2002 and under the leadership of Ron Gilmer and Mary Wodehouse and with the support of the Johnson Family Foundation, the Michael Palm Foundation and the Lucky Star Foundation, advocates launched a capital campaign, raising nearly $2 million to help make the theatre a state-of-the-art facility.

TAKE A BOW Palm Theatre is a top-notch performing arts hub

THE PALM

CONTINUES TO BY EMILY SHOFF

EVOLVE AS BOTH

ITS NEEDS AND These days, it operates financially without the TECHNOLOGY assistance of tax dollars. Instead, fundraising, CHANGE. grants and rental income help cover operating and programming costs. “We can offer quality shows to the town and garner the funds to help subsidize rental fees for local nonprofits such as Telluride Theatre, Telluride Dance Collective and others,” Jepson notes. The Palm continues to evolve as both its needs and technology change. In 2014, a smaller black-box theater was added, providing a flexible space that can be reconfigured easily depending on need. It was christened the Bob Theatre in honor of “Glider” Bob Saunders, a local, beloved theater and flying enthusiast who passed away in 2016. And, more recently, the theater overhauled its lighting, adding LED lights and undertaking a digital upgrade, making the lighting more environmental and cost-effective. “We want to continue to grow,” Jepson says of the future, while Wingfield adds, “Our hope is to provide high level arts for the region at large as well as Telluride.”