Skip to content

Salida Theater Festival

Quality, sustainable, and inspirational theater for our community.

Curtains Up!

A Revival of Live Theater in Chaffee County

5 Shows
3 Venues
3 Companies

Coming this summer!
July 14th-30th

tickets available today

Summer 2023 Lineup

Every Brilliant Thing

“Every Brilliant Thing”

By Duncan Macmillan

July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30

Directed by Brade Bradsha

Starring Kelsey Elyse Rodriquez (from Chicago) 

buy tickets
2 Across

“2 Across”

By Jerry Mayer

July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30

Directed by Allen Lane

Assistant Director Leslie Matthews

Starring Justin Critelli and Devon Jencks (from Salida)

buy tickets

“A Destination of My Own”

By Mike Broemmel

July 21, 22

Directed by Mike Broemmel

Starring Denver actor TGKAFG

buy tickets

“I'm Harvey Milk”

By Mike Broemmel

July 20, 27, 28

Directed by Greg West

Starring Ben Beasely

buy tickets
Into the Woods

“Into the Woods”

By James Lapine
Music by Stephen Sondheim

July 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23

Directed by Kyria Stange

Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez

buy tickets
Detailed Information and Show Descriptions

Attend all 5 shows with a Golden Ticket

Your All Access Pass

Want to REALLY experience the Festival? 
THEN YOU WANT A GOLDEN TICKET!

Jump in and support local theater by attending all 5 shows and the Red Carpet Festival Party!

buy your golden ticket

Red Carpet Festival Party

Golden ticket holders will have exclusive access to the Red Carpet Festival Party on July 30th at 5:30pm! 

The Red Carpet Event will be at the Velveteen Lounge in downtown Salida.  You will have the chance to rub elbows with the producers, writers, directors, and lead actors.  This event will include hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.

Outdoor and indoor space will give us an opportunity to hold a Q&A rain or shine.

We encourage you to dress up and show your sparkle!

Salida Theater Festival Producers

Salida Theater Festival Producer Salida Theater Project
Salida Theater Festival Producer Sventastik Productions
Salida Theater Festival Producer TINTS
Salida Theater project is dedicated to the following core values: Community, relevance, accessibility, quality, sustainability, and inclusivity.

Producers Jennifer Demspey, Kyria Stange, Leslie Matthews (Festival Director) and Devon Kasper

Community Theater That Excites Us

Collaborating with artists based locally and beyond to foster a safe artistic platform for growth, conversation, and innovation. Salida Theater Festival is bringing quality, sustainable, and inspirational theatre to our community that celebrates the humanity in us all.

Sponsors

Festival Interns

Salida Theater Project is proud to announce we received a generous grant from FYI, (Family Youth Initiatives in Salida). This grant allows us to award paid technical theater internships to four very talented and deserving theater arts students from Salida High School. Each theater production company has been assigned at least one intern.

Something's Happening Here

Festival Director, Leslie Matthews, hosts interviews and discussions with cast, crew, producers, and supporters of the Salida Theater Festival.

July 6th, 2023-Something's Happening Here-Devon Kasper and the Theater Internship Program.

Devon is the Founder of the Salida Theater Project

July 6th, 2023-Something's Happening Here-Devon Kasper and the Theater Internship Program.

Stream from KHEN
Listen Now

June 22nd 2023-Something's Happening Here-Jennifer Dempsey and TINTS Productions.

Jennifer is the creator of Salida CIrcus but she also has a theater production company called TINTS

June 22nd 2023-Something's Happening Here-Jennifer Dempsey and TINTS Productions.

Stream from KHEN
Listen Now

June 14th 2023-Something's Happening Here-Kyria Stange and Sventastik Productions

Kyria is the founder of the Sventastik Productions theater group in Chaffee County

June 14th 2023-Something's Happening Here-Kyria Stange and Sventastik Productions

Stream from KHEN
Listen Now

May 25th, 2023-Something's Happening Here-Devon Kasper and the Salida Theater Festival

Devon and her partner Brade Bradshaw run the new Salida Theater Company: The Salida Theater Project

May 25th, 2023-Something's Happening Here-Devon Kasper and the Salida Theater Festival

Stream from KHEN
Listen Now
“Every Brilliant Thing”
Directed by Brade Bradshaw
Starring Kelsey Elyse Rodriquez (from Chicago)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

You're six years old. Mom's in the hospital. Dad says “she’s done something stupid”. She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV. 4. The color yellow. These are the first four items on a list of every brilliant thing in the world worth living for. Every Brilliant Thing is a life-affirming story of how to achieve hope through focusing on the smallest miracles of life.

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

​
Buy TIckets
“2 Across”
By Jerry Mayer
Directed by Allen Lane, Assistant Director Leslie Matthews
Starring Justin Critelli and Devon Jencks (from Salida)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

Two strangers, a man and a woman, board a San Francisco BART train at 4:30am. They're alone in the car, each is married, both are doing the New York Times crossword. She's an organized, sensible psychologist. He's a free-spirited, unemployed ad exec. She is a crossword pro, he always quits. When he tosses the puzzle away, she snaps, "Crosswords are a metaphor for life, those who finish, succeed, those who don't fail." now he vows to finish. Described by critics as "Hilarious", "Witty", "Romantic" and "Wonderfully entertaining".

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

Buy TIckets
“A Destination of My Own”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Mike Broemmel
Starring Denver actor TGKAFG
Produced by TINTS

Colorado TINTS is proud to present "A Destination of My Own, the story of Richard Durham." A one man show about the life of an African American radio journalist who, in the 1940s, broke through the racial barriers of the "lily white industry of radio." Richard Durham was the creator and writer of Destination Freedom, a weekly radio drama that aired for two years in the 1940s. The radio serial dramatized the lives of important Black American historical figures and is described as “nothing ever before heard on radio.” The radio program strove to defeat commonplace stereotypes routinely attached to Black Americans. Richard Durham’s work has been described as an important precursor to the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
“I'm Harvey Milk”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Greg West
Starring Ben Beasely
Produced by TINTS

"I'm Harvey Milk" tells the story of the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Called "the most famous and most significant openly LGBT official ever elected in the United States,” Harvey Milk was described as a “visionary (who) imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk battled against anti-gay initiatives and was elected San Francisco city supervisor in 1977, sponsoring bills banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

SHOW DATES: July 20, 27, 28
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
“Into the Woods”
By James Lapine
Music by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Kyria Stange
Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez
Produced by Sventastik Productions

Join Sventastik Productions for the incredible production of “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim! Follow some beloved fairytale characters through the woods and discover that sometimes wishes are not all that they appear to be. Directed by Kyria Stange and Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez, this all adult cast production promises to be Sventastik’s best show yet!

SHOW DATES: July 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23
LOCATION: The SteamPlant Theater and Event Center

Buy TIckets
Previous slide
Next slide
“Into the Woods”
By James Lapine
Music by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Kyria Stange
Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez
Produced by Sventastik Productions

Join Sventastik Productions for the incredible production of “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim! Follow some beloved fairytale characters through the woods and discover that sometimes wishes are not all that they appear to be. Directed by Kyria Stange and Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez, this all adult cast production promises to be Sventastik’s best show yet!

SHOW DATES: July 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23
LOCATION: The SteamPlant Theater and Event Center

Buy TIckets
“Every Brilliant Thing”
Directed by Brade Bradshaw
Starring Kelsey Elyse Rodriquez (from Chicago)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

You're six years old. Mom's in the hospital. Dad says “she’s done something stupid”. She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV. 4. The color yellow. These are the first four items on a list of every brilliant thing in the world worth living for. Every Brilliant Thing is a life-affirming story of how to achieve hope through focusing on the smallest miracles of life.

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

​
Buy TIckets
“2 Across”
By Jerry Mayer
Directed by Allen Lane, Assistant Director Leslie Matthews
Starring Justin Critelli and Devon Jencks (from Salida)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

Two strangers, a man and a woman, board a San Francisco BART train at 4:30am. They're alone in the car, each is married, both are doing the New York Times crossword. She's an organized, sensible psychologist. He's a free-spirited, unemployed ad exec. She is a crossword pro, he always quits. When he tosses the puzzle away, she snaps, "Crosswords are a metaphor for life, those who finish, succeed, those who don't fail." now he vows to finish. Described by critics as "Hilarious", "Witty", "Romantic" and "Wonderfully entertaining".

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

Buy TIckets
“A Destination of My Own”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Mike Broemmel
Starring Denver actor TGKAFG
Produced by TINTS

Colorado TINTS is proud to present "A Destination of My Own, the story of Richard Durham." A one man show about the life of an African American radio journalist who, in the 1940s, broke through the racial barriers of the "lily white industry of radio." Richard Durham was the creator and writer of Destination Freedom, a weekly radio drama that aired for two years in the 1940s. The radio serial dramatized the lives of important Black American historical figures and is described as “nothing ever before heard on radio.” The radio program strove to defeat commonplace stereotypes routinely attached to Black Americans. Richard Durham’s work has been described as an important precursor to the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
“I'm Harvey Milk”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Greg West
Starring Ben Beasely
Produced by TINTS

"I'm Harvey Milk" tells the story of the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Called "the most famous and most significant openly LGBT official ever elected in the United States,” Harvey Milk was described as a “visionary (who) imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk battled against anti-gay initiatives and was elected San Francisco city supervisor in 1977, sponsoring bills banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

SHOW DATES: July 20, 27, 28
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
Previous slide
Next slide
“I'm Harvey Milk”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Greg West
Starring Ben Beasely
Produced by TINTS

"I'm Harvey Milk" tells the story of the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Called "the most famous and most significant openly LGBT official ever elected in the United States,” Harvey Milk was described as a “visionary (who) imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk battled against anti-gay initiatives and was elected San Francisco city supervisor in 1977, sponsoring bills banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

SHOW DATES: July 20, 27, 28
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
“Into the Woods”
By James Lapine
Music by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Kyria Stange
Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez
Produced by Sventastik Productions

Join Sventastik Productions for the incredible production of “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim! Follow some beloved fairytale characters through the woods and discover that sometimes wishes are not all that they appear to be. Directed by Kyria Stange and Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez, this all adult cast production promises to be Sventastik’s best show yet!

SHOW DATES: July 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23
LOCATION: The SteamPlant Theater and Event Center

Buy TIckets
“Every Brilliant Thing”
Directed by Brade Bradshaw
Starring Kelsey Elyse Rodriquez (from Chicago)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

You're six years old. Mom's in the hospital. Dad says “she’s done something stupid”. She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV. 4. The color yellow. These are the first four items on a list of every brilliant thing in the world worth living for. Every Brilliant Thing is a life-affirming story of how to achieve hope through focusing on the smallest miracles of life.

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

​
Buy TIckets
“2 Across”
By Jerry Mayer
Directed by Allen Lane, Assistant Director Leslie Matthews
Starring Justin Critelli and Devon Jencks (from Salida)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

Two strangers, a man and a woman, board a San Francisco BART train at 4:30am. They're alone in the car, each is married, both are doing the New York Times crossword. She's an organized, sensible psychologist. He's a free-spirited, unemployed ad exec. She is a crossword pro, he always quits. When he tosses the puzzle away, she snaps, "Crosswords are a metaphor for life, those who finish, succeed, those who don't fail." now he vows to finish. Described by critics as "Hilarious", "Witty", "Romantic" and "Wonderfully entertaining".

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

Buy TIckets
“A Destination of My Own”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Mike Broemmel
Starring Denver actor TGKAFG
Produced by TINTS

Colorado TINTS is proud to present "A Destination of My Own, the story of Richard Durham." A one man show about the life of an African American radio journalist who, in the 1940s, broke through the racial barriers of the "lily white industry of radio." Richard Durham was the creator and writer of Destination Freedom, a weekly radio drama that aired for two years in the 1940s. The radio serial dramatized the lives of important Black American historical figures and is described as “nothing ever before heard on radio.” The radio program strove to defeat commonplace stereotypes routinely attached to Black Americans. Richard Durham’s work has been described as an important precursor to the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
Previous slide
Next slide
“2 Across”
By Jerry Mayer
Directed by Allen Lane, Assistant Director Leslie Matthews
Starring Justin Critelli and Devon Jencks (from Salida)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

Two strangers, a man and a woman, board a San Francisco BART train at 4:30am. They're alone in the car, each is married, both are doing the New York Times crossword. She's an organized, sensible psychologist. He's a free-spirited, unemployed ad exec. She is a crossword pro, he always quits. When he tosses the puzzle away, she snaps, "Crosswords are a metaphor for life, those who finish, succeed, those who don't fail." now he vows to finish. Described by critics as "Hilarious", "Witty", "Romantic" and "Wonderfully entertaining".

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

Buy TIckets
“A Destination of My Own”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Mike Broemmel
Starring Denver actor TGKAFG
Produced by TINTS

Colorado TINTS is proud to present "A Destination of My Own, the story of Richard Durham." A one man show about the life of an African American radio journalist who, in the 1940s, broke through the racial barriers of the "lily white industry of radio." Richard Durham was the creator and writer of Destination Freedom, a weekly radio drama that aired for two years in the 1940s. The radio serial dramatized the lives of important Black American historical figures and is described as “nothing ever before heard on radio.” The radio program strove to defeat commonplace stereotypes routinely attached to Black Americans. Richard Durham’s work has been described as an important precursor to the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
“I'm Harvey Milk”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Greg West
Starring Ben Beasely
Produced by TINTS

"I'm Harvey Milk" tells the story of the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Called "the most famous and most significant openly LGBT official ever elected in the United States,” Harvey Milk was described as a “visionary (who) imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk battled against anti-gay initiatives and was elected San Francisco city supervisor in 1977, sponsoring bills banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

SHOW DATES: July 20, 27, 28
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
“Into the Woods”
By James Lapine
Music by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Kyria Stange
Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez
Produced by Sventastik Productions

Join Sventastik Productions for the incredible production of “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim! Follow some beloved fairytale characters through the woods and discover that sometimes wishes are not all that they appear to be. Directed by Kyria Stange and Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez, this all adult cast production promises to be Sventastik’s best show yet!

SHOW DATES: July 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23
LOCATION: The SteamPlant Theater and Event Center

Buy TIckets
“Every Brilliant Thing”
Directed by Brade Bradshaw
Starring Kelsey Elyse Rodriquez (from Chicago)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

You're six years old. Mom's in the hospital. Dad says “she’s done something stupid”. She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV. 4. The color yellow. These are the first four items on a list of every brilliant thing in the world worth living for. Every Brilliant Thing is a life-affirming story of how to achieve hope through focusing on the smallest miracles of life.

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

​
Buy TIckets
Previous slide
Next slide
“A Destination of My Own”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Mike Broemmel
Starring Denver actor TGKAFG
Produced by TINTS

Colorado TINTS is proud to present "A Destination of My Own, the story of Richard Durham." A one man show about the life of an African American radio journalist who, in the 1940s, broke through the racial barriers of the "lily white industry of radio." Richard Durham was the creator and writer of Destination Freedom, a weekly radio drama that aired for two years in the 1940s. The radio serial dramatized the lives of important Black American historical figures and is described as “nothing ever before heard on radio.” The radio program strove to defeat commonplace stereotypes routinely attached to Black Americans. Richard Durham’s work has been described as an important precursor to the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
“I'm Harvey Milk”
By Mike Broemmel
Directed by Greg West
Starring Ben Beasely
Produced by TINTS

"I'm Harvey Milk" tells the story of the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Called "the most famous and most significant openly LGBT official ever elected in the United States,” Harvey Milk was described as a “visionary (who) imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk battled against anti-gay initiatives and was elected San Francisco city supervisor in 1977, sponsoring bills banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

SHOW DATES: July 20, 27, 28
LOCATION: Box of Bubbles

Buy TIckets
“Into the Woods”
By James Lapine
Music by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Kyria Stange
Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez
Produced by Sventastik Productions

Join Sventastik Productions for the incredible production of “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim! Follow some beloved fairytale characters through the woods and discover that sometimes wishes are not all that they appear to be. Directed by Kyria Stange and Vocal Director Jordan Gonzalez, this all adult cast production promises to be Sventastik’s best show yet!

SHOW DATES: July 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23
LOCATION: The SteamPlant Theater and Event Center

Buy TIckets
“Every Brilliant Thing”
Directed by Brade Bradshaw
Starring Kelsey Elyse Rodriquez (from Chicago)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

You're six years old. Mom's in the hospital. Dad says “she’s done something stupid”. She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. 1. Ice cream. 2. Kung Fu movies. 3. Staying up past your bedtime and being allowed to watch TV. 4. The color yellow. These are the first four items on a list of every brilliant thing in the world worth living for. Every Brilliant Thing is a life-affirming story of how to achieve hope through focusing on the smallest miracles of life.

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

​
Buy TIckets
“2 Across”
By Jerry Mayer
Directed by Allen Lane, Assistant Director Leslie Matthews
Starring Justin Critelli and Devon Jencks (from Salida)
Produced by Salida Theater Project

Two strangers, a man and a woman, board a San Francisco BART train at 4:30am. They're alone in the car, each is married, both are doing the New York Times crossword. She's an organized, sensible psychologist. He's a free-spirited, unemployed ad exec. She is a crossword pro, he always quits. When he tosses the puzzle away, she snaps, "Crosswords are a metaphor for life, those who finish, succeed, those who don't fail." now he vows to finish. Described by critics as "Hilarious", "Witty", "Romantic" and "Wonderfully entertaining".

"Every Brilliant Thing" and "2 Across" are one act plays (80-90 minutes each) with an intermission in between.

SHOW DATES: July 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
LOCATION: A Church

Buy TIckets
Previous slide
Next slide