Production
Producer, Musical Director: John Thomas has an MFA in film from San Francisco Art Institute and has successes in film-making, music, building, teaching, and business. In 1974 he made the documentary film "Day of The Dead" shot in a grave Yard Mts. of Central Mexico 1974 and won many Awards. In the 1980s Thomas shifted his focus to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he built a solar, off the grid adobe home in Santa Fe which was featured in "Newsweek" magazine. While in Taos, he also painted oil paintings, wrote music and performed in bars and small clubs.
Thomas moved to Durango, Colorado in 1986 and started the "Durango Kid" retail store. He began teaching in the art department of Fort Lewis College in 1987, but also developed a performance art piece "Samurai and Geisha" which was featured in the Arts section of the Durango Herald. During this time, Thomas began a ten years period of writing songs and preforming. Not to be pigeonholed, he began supporting himself by painting over 800 paintings of Old West scenes on furniture from which lots of magazine articles flourished on his diverse talents. Thomas then shifted into his building phase, remodeling old houses on a Durango hillside using recycled materials. More magazine articles came from that adventure. Along the way, he wrote the first song of the Opera, " 24 lbs" and was inspired to do a photo shoot of the Cowgirls. Of course that led to more cowgirl songs with poet and fiddle player Karla Miller. And more cowgirls songs that he wrote on his own till they eventually coalesced into the Opera.
Co-Director: Theresa A. Carson, is currently the Theatre Director at San Juan College and the Artistic Director of Sandstone Productions in Farmington, NM. She came to the Four Corners from Moorhead, MN, where she was an Assistant Professor in the Theatre Arts Department at Minnesota State University for four years. Favorite directing credits include Sweeney Todd, W;t, Annie Get Your Gun, Urinetown-the musical, Proof, The Grapes of Wrath, Angels in America-Part II, A Lie of the Mind, Talk Radio, As You Like It, and Blood Wedding.
Co-Producer, Publicity: Tami Graham, been producing music and events in Durango since 1992, including co-producing the Spearhead show in Mancos in September 2008, to a sold-out crowd of over 3,000. She is the former Station Manager of KDUR Community Radio (1990-1997) and is an original cast member of the Bare Bones Burlesque & Salt Fire Circus. She is coordinating marketing and publicity for the Circus. In her spare time, Tami is a mediator, trainer and facilitator and co-owns a ranch in Mancos, Colorado, which is affectionately known as "the Leservation".
Editor: Lani Gibbs has a background in opera and has been instrumental in editing for character development, continuity, scripting and synopsis for The Cowgirl Opera: Twenty-Four Pounds of Bullets and Steel. She is an English teacher at the American School in The Hague, Netherlands.
Choreographer: Erika Wilson Golightly, a Colorado native and alumni of Fort Lewis College with degrees in communications and psychology. She has performed, choreographed and taught for almost 15 years in the region including a performing stint off Broadway. She was a principal dancer with 3rd Avenue Dance Company, a permanent fixture in the Skins Project and has directed and performed many works with FLC Theatre Department and several Animas Music Festival projects. She is a member of the SaltFire Circus and currently teaches classical and contemporary dance at Durango Dance. Erika's ardent love for the Four Corners region inspires her to share many disciplines of the body including adventurous and powerful yoga at Yoga Durango. She also performs with the Asa Fire Tribe and Mysto's Magic Spectacular. More fun than any performance opportunity is the chance to collaborate with the wealth of brilliant artists in the area. To stoke and be stoked by those who explore the inner, imaginative world is the ultimate pleasure. Thus, with great enthusiasm, Erika jettisoned into '24 Pounds' and is very grateful for the opportunity.
Choreographer: Talia Bamerick, has lived in Durango for 13 years. She graduated from Fort Lewis in 2000 with a bachelors degree in environmental biology. During her time as a student, she appeared in many FLC theatre productions such as "Taming of the Shrew" and "Skins". While in school, she co-created FLC Dance Co-Motion and choreographed and danced in numerous performances. Talia was a principal dancer in 3rd Avenue Dance CO. for years and has been involved in many local unaffiliated theatre and dance projects such as "Penumbra" and "Mandala". Currently, Talia is choreographing for the "Salt Fire Circus" and teaches modern dance at Dance in the Rockies. She loves snowboarding, bartending at the Wild Horse Saloon and cuddling with her fat black cat, "Monster".
Tech Director: Kelly Rogers, is owner of Lightning Communications, a local provider of media and event production services. Kelly’s technical and creative accomplishments include sound engineering, software engineering, audio and video recording, editing and producing, music composition, live performance and studio recording.
Kelly is the Technical Director for Salt Fire Circus, and has been involved in stage and theatrical production locally and in the four corners for more than a decade.
He is a multi-instrumentalist and is presently involved in several music projects involving live performance and commercial studio recording.
Stage Manager/Continuity: Krystyn Dennis (aka YY) a ‘Jane’ of all trades joins the Cowgirl Opera as stage manager. Her backstage experience includes a variety of productions ranging from Salt Fire Circus and Blues & Brews, to Michael Franti and many in between. In other capacities she is a chicken rancher, gardener, yoga teacher, non-profit fund raiser, and adventurer extraordinaire. Resident of the four corners for over a decade (on and off, of course) she is excited to help bring this opera to life with such an amazing cast, crew, and director.
Set Design: Aaron Beck has served as a performer, stage manager, designer, producer, dramaturg, and technical director on stage, as well as film and television in The USA, Denmark, and Spain. The most notable companies include Signa (Denmark), Looking Glass Theater (Chicago), and Harpo Studios (Chicago). Aaron is thrilled to be working on the Cowgirl Opera
Mechanical Advisor: Chris Johnson, since giving up stunt-flying, Chris has kept himself busy with his new sport of high-powered speed lawnmowing, setting a Colorado record of three football fields in twenty three minutes, 42 seconds. In his spare times he works in the oil fields assisting hillbillies with shooting holes in the ground in search of "bubbling crude and Texas T." Chris has been instrumental with designing and building several of the set items for The Cowgirl Opera.
Webmaster, Video, Stills, Graphic Design: Sean Cridland has lived many lives. He grew up in the Adirondacks of upstate New York, moved to Aspen at the age of 18 and worked for many years in restaurants while pursuing a career in ski racing and river guiding. Throughout the 80s Cridland was a world-ranked speed-skier, becoming only the 7th person to break the 200kph (124mph) barrier on skis. Partly for training and partly as a promotional stunt, Cridland broke the car-top speed-skiing record at the Bonneville Flats by riding on top of the famous Vesco 444 streamliner at 162mph. This effort earned many magazine articles and inclusion in Warren Miller's Beyond the Edge and on TV's PM Magazine. Shortly after, Cridland retired from ski-racing, earned his BA, MA, and Ph.D in East-West Comparative Philosophy at Fort Lewis College and the University of Hawaii, then taught at FLC for 8 years. Cridland now lives in Jemez Springs, NM where he runs www.visionsofpower.com a web-design, vidoeography and graphic design company. After completing a two-DVD set for the Cowgirl Opera, Cridland went on to do a 24 minute documnetary for the City of Santa Fe, NM on preserving their water-system from catestrophic forest fire and is now in pre-production on a film about Native American education pioneer Gerald One Feather and another on artist Phillip Vigil.