Dirty Jack's

Tim O’Reilly, my buddy from the 1976 season at Dirty Jack’s theater, came to Denver on business last week and we were able to hook up for dinner and a long visit. It was the first time we’d seen each other since ’76, so we had a lot to talk about. Good thing, too, because we spent most of the time driving rather aimlessly around Denver, since my place is rather spare with no place for guests to sit. We talked and talked for hours as we wandered lost on the streets of the city. Tim and I were members of the band at Dirty Jack’s in 1976, an eclectic (if not oddball) set of musicians that gelled magically to produce a kick-ass high-energy score for the show Paint Your Wagon. It was some of the best music I ever made. Tim is still at it, composing, playing, and recording great music. He is embarking on a venture with his son – a student at the Berklee College of Music – to market their creations. I think that is wonderful in so many ways. An odd thing… Tim and I did not talk much about Di...

I caught only the merest glance of her as she walked by the batwing doors of the lobby, heading south toward the town square on the wooden plank sidewalk that fronted the theater. She was past the door, really, and from inside the lobby it was only a three-quarters glimpse of her back. But I knew it was her. It was early in the summer of 1979, and I had not seen or thought of her for three years, since the spring three years earlier just before my first stint at the theater. She had been a classmate of my girlfriend back then, Lynda, in their horse training curriculum at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. I stepped out onto the boardwalk and called her name. She was tall and slender, with short sandy hair held by a small barrette. I had not really known her at all in college. I had seen her around. But at that moment in front of the theater I turned on all the oily charm I had learned in three years of honkytonk nights. Lynda and I did not last long after the 1976 season at Dirty Ja...

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...