Dirty Jack's

I found an amusing blog comment at the Planet Jackson Hole website , responding to a post about gallery openings and artist receptions in Jackson. what can I say to this.....no strings attached....other than hanging out with the JH art community........art is not stuck in some gallery, it is in your head as you walk down the street..soaking in the sights of how the old drug store used to look, and remembering the old days when you could buy a colorful polo shirt, definately a work of art....and the visual live art of the Dirty Jack's theater ...how art has come such a long way since then...not to be a critic of the wonderful artistic eye candy of Ripley's... good old art.....I remember the good days of art when you could walk into a tavern for an afternoon sip and end up having a great time with Vivi and Gary. If you want to stay in business in Jackson, art is your ticket....with the town council approving high end condo style hotels knocking down the cheaper low end hotels, ge...

I found an online interview with John Briggs . "In 1971 I became the artistic director of The Jackson Hole Opera House, a summer stock theatre in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The next summer I was artistic director of both the Opera House and Dirty Jack's Theatre. In 1974 I decided to leave Wyoming because there was simply not enough professional theatre to support either my financial need or my need to grow. I toured the United States for two years doing dinner theatre until I moved to NYC." Briggs is back in Jackson as artistic director of the Off Square Theater Company.

I moved to Denver. I plan to be here until after the election in November of 2008. I’ve been here a few weeks, and Denver certainly has differences from California, where I’ve lived for the past 19 years. Denver has beautiful old brick homes and buildings you never see in CA; They would collapse in an earthquake. There is not a mini-mall on every corner. There is not a casual dining restaurant on every other corner. Where I live (the Sloan’s Lake area, around which I ride my bike every day) is not suburban; it is a cool old big city working class neighborhood of mixed ethnicity. Denver does have something of a blues culture, as far as I can tell so far. It is certainly not Memphis (or even Portland) but it does have a couple of venues dedicated to blues music and there are some good blues bands around here. I've already got my eye on one or two regular weekly open mic blues jams I'll investigate. Gotta play, ya know? Maybe I can find a guitarist and form an acoustic blues duo....

[ Note: For some reason, the promotional flyer for DJ's 1978 production of "The Hallelujah Trail" included a photo of Neal Lewing in his demonic role as Very Strange from "Cat Ballou" in 1972. -Rick ] I was in the original Dirty Jack’s company of 1972. The ones I hung out with the most, outside the theatre, were Pat Holt and Jim Loe. Jim was the keeper of Dynamite, a 25-plus-year-old horse that appeared live on stage every night and, frankly, was a better actor than some of the people. He sure got more laughs. He had several expressions, including yawns, head shakes and eye rolls that were often perfectly timed. Ray Edwards, who played the scene with him, was always cracking up when Dynamite was on a roll. We did 101 performances of the show and I only missed one. I’d gone out hunting moose in the swamps with my dog one day and came down with strepp throat. Couldn’t even get out of bed, much less talk, sing or breathe. Jon Stainbrook stepped in for me that nigh...

An ongoing project: A list of everybody we can remember who worked at Dirty Jack's Theater. Abrams, Dave : actor 82-83 Adams, Bob : band/tech 76 Alaio, Rose : actor 72 Bake, Lester : actor 76 Batty, Harry: actor 77 Beasley, Chris : actor 75 Beck, Ken: actor 83-84 Berger, Audrey : actor 92-95 Bess, Debbie: actor 75 Betting, Tom: actor 80-81 Briggs, John : actor 75 Buckart, Bob: actor 88-93 Budge, Kanton : actor 94 Butch : actor 72-79 Callaway, Jill: actor 88, 95 Camp, Richard : actor 72 Coover, Paul : band 76 Cullum, Tupper: actor 82, 90 Curtis, Corey : tech 92-95 Davis, Jenny Joyce : actor 76 DeWester, Alveria: actor 82 DeWester, Tom: actor 81-95 Dobbs, Jay : actor 72 Dorish, John : actor 75-76 Dunham, Tom : band 76-77 Dynamite : actor 72 Dyson. Lisa : actor 94 Eagle, John : actor 76 Edwards, Ray : actor 72 Ernst, Glen: actor 83-84 Farrell, Gary : actor 76 Finn, David: tech/actor 77 Fitzgerald, Kathy : actor 76-79 Fleming, Marco : band 76 Forest, Cliff : actor 72 Fox, Paul : acto...

What ever happened to David Turner ? He was such an important part of Dirty Jack’s Theater and he was a great guy. He and I got to be buddies – after each of us overcame doubts about the other – and he was even the best man in my wedding to Prudence during the 1979 season. David bridged the gap at Dirty Jacks, from the “early” period (the 70s with Jon) to the “later” period (the 80s and 90s without Jon). I knew him to be an immensely talented actor and entertainer, and I hear he was a good composer too, writing the music for some of the shows in the 1990's. David was also a rabid North Carolina hoops fan. Every time I watched the Tarheels play in all the years since 1979, I could not help but think of David Turner and smile. Nothing animated David like talking about NC, with his Carolina accent thickening. This blog is about Dirty Jack’s, and it does not feel complete without a big shout out to David Turner. I would love it if he would come by and sweeten all our lives, just as he ...

[Image courtesy Scott Graham]