Time and time again, I forget how quickly tickets to Merely Players’ productions sell out – and, consequently, people must join a waitlist. However, I was recently gifted tickets to “Hamlet” by a friend who couldn’t make it – and what a gift it was.
Of course, the production itself – acting, direction, lighting and costume design – lived up to the quality that’s become a hallmark of Merely Players. A rainy afternoon at the theater transported me to Denmark and murder, and away from laundry and grocery shopping.
However, the bigger gift was the moment when it dawned on me that Durango’s theater scene is made up of multiple threads that weave a tight-knit tapestry.
Three actors on the stage before me – Conor Sheehan (Hamlet), Matt Bodo (Claudius) and Jessica McCallaum (Horatio) – helped bring new plays to life at the 2025 Durango PlayFest in June. Behind the scenes at “Hamlet,” PlayFest board member Margy Dudley spent many long (and fulfilling) hours as assistant stage manager.
The threads didn’t stop there. A glance at the printed program illustrated how many members of the Merely Players Artistic Company currently serve as play submission readers for PlayFest, or who have done so in past years – a list too long for this column. But we do want to welcome Merely Players co-founder and Artistic Director Mona Wood-Patterson as a new reader this year. We value all the readers’ help in whittling down 200 submissions to four for our 2026 festival.
I mentioned this “tapestry analogy” to my friend Felicia Lansbury Meyer, artistic director of PlayFest and chair of the Fort Lewis College Department of Performing Arts. She quickly reminded me of the FLC “threads” in the production of “Hamlet”: Actors Geoff Johnson (Laertes), Moriah James (Ophelia) and Shaunibah Morfin (Bernado) graduated with degrees from FLC; Megan Sander (costume designer) and Tara Demmy (mask director) are instructors in FLC’s theater department; and Kathleen McGee (costume designer) is currently the head draper in the FLC theater department.
Another vital part of Durango’s tight-knit theater community, albeit not “Hamlet” related, is the Durango Arts Center. Tonight marks the opening of an eight-performance run of its popular “Rocky Horror Show” featuring FLC students and graduates, and a few PlayFest alums as well. (And Jason Lythgoe, DAC Youth Theater Director, is a PlayFest reader this year, too.)
Coincidentally, PlayFest, Merely Players, the FLC Theatre Department and the DAC recently purchased a shared advertisement in Durango City Lifestyle magazine to highlight the breadth and scope of theater in our area. Our organizations recognize the powerful benefit to us collectively and individually when audience members, donors and sponsors can visualize these threads, too!
Theater nonprofits in Durango don’t operate in silos. We are friends and collaborators with distinctive contributions and a collective passion for theater. We share talent and promote each other’s productions. And we’re all stronger because of it.
Mandy Mikulencak is managing director of Durango PlayFest and an author of historical fiction. She’s worked in the nonprofit sector for 35 years.
