Theater Professionals Gather At The Colorado New Play Summit

The Denver Center Theatre Company continues its climb to the top tier of American new play festivals with the expected arrival this weekend in Denver of nearly 300 theatre professionals and press representatives.

Theatre professionals scheduled to attend the fourth annual Colorado New Play Summit February 12 -14 include artistic directors, literary managers, agents, members of the press, actors, dramaturgs and directors. They will come from The Playwright's Center in Minneapolis, Lark Play Development Center in New York, New Haven's Yale Repertory Theatre, Colorado's Creede Repertory Theatre, Primary Stages and New Dramatists in New York, Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco, The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, National Public Radio in Washington DC, Theatre Communications Group in New York, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Showtime Networks, Sundance Institute Theatre Program, Utah Shakespearean Festival, WNYC Public Radio and Utah Contemporary Theatre.

Summit attendees will experience the world premiere productions of Michele Lowe's Inana - a poignant love story about an Iraqi museum curator's desperate attempt to save an ancient and treasured statue before the US invasion of his country - and Dusty and the Big Bad World - Cusi Cram's wildly humorous story about bigotry and the censorship of "Dusty," a public television children's series about a dust ball.

In addition to the two world premieres, five playwrights will hear readings of their new works in development: Dick Scanlan reworked The Unsinkable Molly Brown rediscovering Molly Brown's colorful Gold Rush past in a sparkling new adaptation of Meredith Willson's musical set in Colorado; Eric Schmiedl adapted the moving companion piece to Kent Haruf's Plainsong - Eventide; Rogelio Martinez put Americans and Russians with more than a half century of hostilities on the space station together in When Tang Met Laika; Constance Congdon tells the story of Colorado and Kansas families torn apart as they are engulfed in a contentious battle over water rights in Take Me to the River; and Julie Marie Myatt's star TV meteorologist turns oracle when he abandons bland L.A. for the wilder weather of North Carolina in Flooded.
The company's long tradition of new play development and the Summit gained new status with the success of plays premiered as last season's event - Our House will be produced this season at New York's Playwrights Horizons, Octavio Solis' critically-acclaimed Lydia will be produced four times this season (Yale Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group, Marin Theatre Company and Oregon's Miracle Theatre Group.) Theatre Communications Group's American Theatre magazine recently published the Lydia script in the December issue.

For more information visit www.denvercenter.org/summit.

 

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