{"id":21274,"date":"2025-07-25T16:33:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sunflower-shorts-to-present-weekend-of-talent-in-august\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:04:43","slug":"sunflower-shorts-to-present-weekend-of-talent-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sunflower-shorts-to-present-weekend-of-talent-in-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunflower Shorts to present weekend of talent in August"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shawn
Shawn McAllister (left) directs the movement of actors Abraham Proffitt, Silvia Fleitz and Aaron Lesse (left to right) during rehearsal for \u201cThe Time Travelers\u2019 Hotel,\u201d part of the 2025 Sunflower Shorts. (Heidi Brugger\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Sunflower Troupe\u2019s third annual Sunflower Shorts play festival, set for Friday, Aug. 1 through Sunday, Aug. 3, will present six original short plays by local Four Corners authors, each exploring what can happen in a hotel room in 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Sunflower Shorts will be held at the Sunflower Theatre, and will feature multiple new directors, including recently named MCHS Student of the Year Shawn McAllister.<\/p>\n

McAllister wrote one of the selected shorts and is directing it as well. According to information provided by the Sunflower Theatre, McAllister has experience in eight high school plays, but is new to both playwriting and editing. This is his first time submitting a short for consideration, sharing that he was inspired by this year\u2019s prompt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought about submitting a play for the last Shorts but never got around to it. This time the prompt piqued my interest,\u201d McAllister said. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool that my play was chosen. I\u2019m seeing it come to life in rehearsal, but it is kind of unreal to see the actors performing what I wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n

McAllister will reportedly study filmmaking in the fall at the University of Colorado Boulder.<\/p>\n

Other directors include Abraham Proffitt, directing \u201cThe Haunting in Room 112\u201c; Silvia Fleitz, directing \u201cTipping Points\u201d; Aaron Lesse, who wrote and is directing \u201cExpressionate\u201d; Hattie Miller, directing \u201cAva Gone Rogue\u201d; and Jennifer Morris, directing \u201cThe Path of Annularity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the directors are also acting in the performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first it felt very different, telling them what to do, but we have a give-and-take kind of collaboration that is working well,\u201d McAllister said.<\/p>\n

The plays cover various genres, including ethical dilemmas, memory-driven stories and \u201coutright romps,\u201d with some addressing current issues like artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Performances are scheduled for Friday, Aug. 1, and Saturday, Aug. 2, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 3, at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

Tickets are available online<\/a> at www.sunflowertheatre.org\/events\/2025-sunflower-shorts-play-festival\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the new shorts was created by the 2025 MCHS Student of the Year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,21,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77239,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21274\/revisions\/77239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21274"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}