And we’re off!  The Colorado New Play Summit has officially begun.  First on the agenda tonight was a performance of the world premiere production of When Tang Met Laika, a play by Rogelio Martinez read at the Summit last year.  Because it takes place largely on the International Space Station, the play has a lot of interesting technological elements (video projections, turntables, moving scenery, etc), but they don’t distract from Rogelio’s compelling story.   The audience loved the show;  Actor Ian Merrill Peakes, who plays Patrick, said “The show was great tonight, we had a full house of smart, savy theatre-goers.  It was awesome.”

Before the performance, Charlie Miller had a chance to hear from Artistic Director Kent Thompson and playwright Jose Cruz Gonzalez:

After returning from their (theatrical) journey to space, festival attendees went up to the Seawell Grand Ballroom for the Opening Reception.  DCTC Artistic Director Kent Thompson gave a brief welcome to the enthusiastic crowd and mingling ensued.   At the reception, Charlie chatted with several theatre professionals about When Tang Met Laika:

That’s all for today – check back tomorrow for the next daily recap of the Summit.

Popularity: 16% [?]

With Christmas literally just around the corner, The Denver Center, like so many others, has created its wish list. In this video, Denver Center Theatre Company Artistic Director Kent Thompson wishes you and yours the happiest of holidays and outlines how you can play a part in making The Denver Center’s holiday wishes come true!

Click here to make your donation today.

Happy Holidays, everyone!  Thanks for supporting us in another fantastic year of theatre.

Popularity: 23% [?]

(clockwise from upper right): Theresa Rebeck, Octavio Solis, Lisa Loomer and Marcus Gardley

Continuing its commitment to supporting new American playwriting, the Denver Center Theatre Company has recently commissioned plays from four exciting playwrights: Marcus Gardley, Lisa Loomer, Theresa Rebeck and Octavio Solis. Their projects, which will come to fruition over the next year or two, are all part of Artistic Director Kent Thompson’s keen interest in supporting new playwriting. Since coming to the Denver Center five years ago, Thompson has established a vigorous commissioning program (at least four plays per season) as well as the COLORADO NEW PLAY SUMMIT, a dynamic weekend each February featuring full productions and readings of brand new work.

Both Theresa Rebeck and Octavio Solis have received prior DCTC commissions, their plays going on to full productions during the Company’s 2007/08 season. Rebeck’s Our House, a satirical look at reality TV, has had a second production at New York’s Playwrights Horizons. Solis’ Lydia, a dark and haunting family saga set in El Paso, Texas, went on to receive four subsequent productions last year at theatres from coast to coast that included Yale Rep and the Mark Taper Forum.

Theresa Rebeck’s past New York productions include The Understudy, Mauritius, The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection, Spike Heels and Omnium Gatherum (co-written, Pulitzer finalist). All of her plays have been published in acting editions by Samuel French. Publications also include Collected Plays Volume I-III and Free Fire Zone with Smith and Kraus. She has won the National Theatre Conference Award, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, Boston’s Elliot Norton and IRNE awards, a Writer’s Guild Award, and Edgar and a Peabody.

Octavio Solis’ past productions include Man of the Flesh, Prospect, El Paso Blue, Santos & Santos, La Posada Mágica, El Otro, Dreamlandia, The Seven Visions of Encarnacion, Bethlehem and Gilbralter. His adaptation of Quixote based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes was recently produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He received the 2000/01 National Theatre Artists Residency Grant from TCG and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Lisa Loomer’s play Living Out was produced at the Denver Center in the 2006/07 season. Her recent play, Distracted, played at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York in 2009, had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum, and is currently being produced in regional theatres and in Europe. Her other plays include The Waiting Room, Expecting Isabel, Birds, Accelerando, Bocon! and Broken Hearts. Her awards include the Jane Chambers Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award.

Marcus Gardley recently received a Helen Merrill Award for an Emerging Playwright. His most recent play is Love is a Dream House in Lorin. Other produced plays include dance of the holy ghost, (L)imitations of life, and like sun fallin’ in the mouth. He is the recipient of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Gerbode Emerging Playwright Award, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Award, a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Grant and an NEA/TCG Playwriting Participant Residency among others.

Popularity: 43% [?]