Barbara Lawlor, Peak to Peak.

One could feel the buzz, the spark of people who hadn’t met but knew each other through their passion for the theater. One could almost smell the grease paint, hear the murmur of an audience before the curtain opens.

The meeting of the Peak to Peak Players at the Stage Stop on Sunday afternoon was proof positive that the time for a theater group has arrived and that arrival is coming from myriad directions and diverse people.

Interest in the Peak to Peak Players came from actors, singers, musicians, stage hands, production people, lighting experts, teachers, parents of future performers and anyone else who has been bit by the theater bug.

Kayla Evans of the Backdoor Theater, director of plays produced years ago, believes it is time to begin again. People in the mountains want to participate in the theater, but they don’t want to drive to the cities below five days a week for rehearsal. They want their children to experience getting up on the stage in front of an audience, but they don’t want to have them coming home at 10 p.m. at night after rehearsals.

All it will take to get a theater group going is experienced leaders, energetic volunteers and …money.

As a crowd of theater enthusiasts gathered upstairs at the Stage Stop, they were offered chicken tenders, fries and drinks.

Jacquelyn O’Brien and Angela Hunt and Mark Ragan greeted the participants. Jacquelyn and Angela directed the recent smash hit of Annie at the Gilpin School where they met Mark who began his acting career in Chicago. He was hired for production after production for the next 15 years.

“I became a journalist but ended, covered three different presidential campaigns and ended my career as a White House reporter. I couldn’t get the theater out of my system.”

Mark came to Colorado. By this time he had three daughters whom he named after Shakespeare characters: Juliet, Kate and Olivia. Even though the family moved to Gilpin County, Mark still owns Ragan Communications, a company based in Chicago which demands that he is on the road a lot.

“But my dream was to start a theater in Colorado and when I met Jacquelyn and Angela, I wanted to help.”

Jacquelyn says she missed the theater desperately and when she met Angela at a Tai Kwai Do class they discovered they had much in common, especially not commuting to Denver every day.

The women had the desire, the drive but not the money. They both looked at Mark, saying “money” was his nickname. They had everything they needed to form the Peak to Peak Players Board of Directors. Now they needed people, needed to get the word out, to have members and volunteers. The people who showed up at the Stage Stop were lured to the meeting like addicts following the scent of drugs.

Kayla Evans said that when the BDT ran out of money to put on live theater, it hurt. She has been hoping for this time since then; the time to get the feet tapping on stage, the carpenters building sets, the voices rehearsing their lines or their songs.

She says, “It will take a village. Fresh blood is a good thing.”

Mark’s wife Jamie studied performance piano at Juilliard and is eager to hit the keys; their daughter Julie wants to act.

Nederland Elementary School teacher Corrie Beauvineau recently presented her latest fourth grade production, this time the story of Gulliver’s Travels, getting the kids to recite their lines as if they were born to language. She says she has always been motivated to get the kids on stage and began the Magnolia Road Children’s Theater.

Ted Zychlinski said he had a recording studio in his home. A family of newcomers to the area had been hoping that they could find a theater so their daughter could continue her passion for acting. Nick Goins said when he first got on the stage, he was given the role of the leader of the Munchkins. He is the founder and president of a makeshift film group and is all for anything creative.

Mark asked the meeting attendants to spread the word, tell their neighbors and friends.

“We need help in every realm of building this theater, especially a home.”

The PPP plan a Broadway Performance at the Very Nice Brewing Company on April 7; there will be a three-week summer camp for kids and then a musical production at the Gilpin School. Auditions will take place beginning April 28 and the performance will be on August 10. They plan to present small cabarets around the county.

And always the call is out for talent in aspect of the theater.

This could be the start of something big; something a long time coming in our mountain community.