Day 6: Colorado New Play Summit concludes
A packed house of 500 patrons just saw the final reading at our 2012 COLORADO NEW PLAY SUMMIT. Based on the novel by JANE AUSTEN, with Book & Lyrics by Jeffrey Haddow and Music by Neal Hampton, SENSE & SENSIBILITY THE MUSICAL was a lovely conclusion to our three-day new play festival.
If you haven’t seen the interviews, please tune in to get a glimpse at what happened during this extraordinary event:
KENT THOMPSON, Artistic Director, Denver Center Theatre Company
BRUCE K. SEVY, Director of New Play Development, Denver Center Theatre Company
SENSE & SENSIBLITY THE MUSICAL
Mark your calendar for next year’s Summit Feb 8-10, 2013.
Day 3: Colorado New Play Summit
Wow! A combined 125 hours of rehearsal have been put into preparing for our COLORADO NEW PLAY SUMMIT, which begins tomorrow! Plus we are officially SOLD OUT. (If you want to come and don’t have a ticket, you are still encouraged to head down and check for available seats.) But at this point we have DOUBLED the number of “industry” representatives over last year.
PLAYWRIGHTS who are expected to attend include: Jeff Carey, Steven Cole Hughes, Terry Dodd, Richard Dresser, Lauren Eason, Lauren Feldman, Marcus Gardley, Judy GeBauer, Kirsten Greenidge, Jeffrey Haddow, Neal Hampton (composer), Samuel D. Hunter, Luciann Lajoie, Carter Lewis, Leslie Lewis, Felice Locker, Lisa Loomer, Robert McAndrew, William Missouri-Downs, Michael Mitnick, Steve Moulds, Henry Murray, Philip Penningrot, Max Posner, Theresa Rebeck, Eric Schmiedl, Helen Thorpe and Karen Zacarias.
DIRECTORS expected to attend include Hal Brooks, Sam Buntrock, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, Mike Donahue, Pam MacKinnon, Art Manke, Christy Montour-Larson, Ethyl Will (music) and Justin Zsebe.
THEATRES represented include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Contemporary American Theatre, Creede Repertory Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, Dallas Theatre Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Lincoln Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, New Dramatists, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Primary Stages, Page 73, Soho Rep, South Coast Rep and Third Law Dance Theatre.
Our New Play Summit is relatively new compared with others around the country. Now in our seventh year and under the leadership of Artistic Director Kent Thompson and New Play Development Director Bruce Sevy, we have quickly created a new play festival that is attracting attention. National Public Radio is continuing its interest. American Theatre magazine will cover the festival. And we’re delighted that the American Theatre Critics Association will once again hold its Winter meeting to coincide with our event.
Despite the long days and intense work, there is a feeling of anticipation as everyone gets ready to welcome our local and national guests. The excitement is palpable! We will see what tomorrow brings.
Kent Thompson opens Colorado New Play Summit
And we’re off! More than 100 playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, actors, stage managers and other key staff gathered this morning to kick off the DENVER CENTER THEATRE COMPANY’s seventh COLORADO NEW PLAY SUMMIT.
Five readings of new works in development, plus two full productions of new plays and the ever-popular Playwrights’ Slam will be experienced by theatre industry representatives from across the nation, local and national press, and local theatre patrons.
The casts are assembled and the work has started on the second floor of our Newman Center. Here’s what you can expect coming up Feb 10-12:
SENSE & SENSIBILITY
THE MUSICAL
Based in the novel by Jane Austen
Book and Lyrics by Jeffrey Haddow Music by Neal Hampton
Directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge
Music Direction by Ethyl Will
ED, DOWNLOADED
by Michael MItnick
Directed by Sam Buntrock
Dramaturgy by Douglas Langworthy
Multimedia Design by Charlie I. Miller
THE HAND OF GOD
by Richard Dresser
Directed by Pam MacKinnon
HOMEFREE
by Lisa G. Loomer
Directed by Justin Zsebe
Dramaturgy by Liz Engelman
GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING
by Lauren Feldman
Directed by Mike Donahue
Dramaturgy by Liz Frankel
Stay tuned for a daily recap of our work in development.
Denver Center Theatre Company Artistic Director Kent Thompson on New Plays and New Play Development
In anticipation of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s upcoming Colorado New Play Summit (Feb 10-12) and to coincide with the world premieres of THE WHALE and TWO THINGS YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT AT DINNER, the DCPA blog talked with Artistic Director Kent Thompson about new plays and new play development.
DCPA: You’ve selected 3 brand new plays to produce this season. What was it about these plays that convinced you to stage them?
Kent Thompson, Artistic Director: Great writing—all with lots of humor yet serious issues underneath. The Whale is the best new play that I’ve read in years—improbable leading character (600 lb. man) desperately trying to re-connect with his estranged daughter. The Whale starts so dark and troubled and ends up very moving, even redemptive. Two Things You Don’t Talk About At Dinner does the reverse—starts as a comedy. Sort of reminds you of those (in hindsight) hilariously dysfunctional family holidays we’ve all experienced. But it reveals a sobering truth about the US today—even with our closest friends and families we can’t talk about politics and religion. Great Wall Story is like one of those news room caper movies of the 1940s—except this one is based on a real journalistic hoax that happened in Denver!
DCPA: Since we are the first audiences to see these plays in full production, what should we expect?
KT: Terrific performances—and new, edgy ideas. If you like to see funny, relevant, emotional, and sometimes dark new stories, come see them. Maybe the new plays are the Showtime/HBO shows of our season.
DCPA: Why are new works important to Denver audiences? To theatre in general?
KT: These new plays are part of our contribution to the whole field called “The American Theatre.” We’re trying to create new stories that stick in your mind—unforgettable memories. Denver sees these stories BEFORE they go on to New York, Los Angeles, around the country, even the world. I hope we can create a play that becomes a classic—so my grandchildren are forced to read it in high school!
DCPA: So every play gets a start somewhere. Which plays that have started in Denver have gone on to big success?
KT: Lots—The Laramie Project, Quilters, Black Elk Speaks. More recently, Octavio Solis’ Lydia (Yale Rep, Mark Taper Forum in L.A.), Jason Grote’s 1001 (New York, California, DC and elsewhere), Mama Hated Diesels (all over the country).
DCPA: What are commissions and why do you offer them?
KT: We contract a playwright to write a new play—occasionally on a topic/book/etc. (Plainsong, Eventide, Just Like Us). More often, the playwright chooses what to write about. We offer to support playwrights so that they have time and resources to concentrate fully on writing. In return, we get the option to produce the world premiere.
DCPA: How many scripts are sent to you in a year?
KT: Hundreds. From agents, directors, producers, other theatres. We read and read and read all year long.
DCPA: What is the process for play development?
KT: Depends on what the play needs. Most often, we bring together a director, a dramaturg, the actors, and the playwright to work on the play for a week and then hold a couple of public readings—when the playwright gets to hear the play in front of an audience. This nearly always accelerates the process of revisions and making the script ready for production.
DCPA: So you have this annual Colorado New Play Summit. What is it and why should I care?
KT: At the Summit each year we produce 2-3 world premiere productions and do public readings of 4-5 others. You should come see how plays are created—from first draft through production! Plus, theatre professionals and press come from all over the U.S. to see this annual event. It shows off Denver, Colorado and DCTC.
DCPA: Apart from those companies devoted exclusively to the development of new work, how does the Denver Center compare nationally in regard to the number of new plays it produces each year?
KT: We produce 3-4 new plays and musicals a season out a total season of 11 to 12 (depending on the year). So a quarter to a thirdof our season is made of mew plays. Most major regional theatres produce 1 or maybe 2 a season—so Denver is where it’s happening in American theatre!
Shrew-ing it up in the 1950s
The Taming of the Shrew has been a paradox of late.
Despite harsh feminist critiques over the past 40 years (in fact there are many who feel the play is so deeply misogynistic that Kate and Petruchio should be banished from the stage for good), Shrew remains one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. How can this be? Artistic Director Kent Thompson, who is directing the play this season, views the play not as merciless gender warfare but as a battle of equals, “the kind of fight between two people who are outside the norms of conventional society…Two people with larger than life personalities who fight their way through their romance and end up being in love.”
To stage his reading of the play, Thompson sought out a period when roles were well defined and rather inflexible. He landed on the 1950s, a time of conventional role models for men and women—women could keep house while men brought home the bacon. Katherina is too strong-willed and intelligent to comfortably fit into a housewife’s apron, and Petruchio is too wild to settle for a gray-flannelled businessman’s life. So in this version, Petruchio is a cowboy from Texas, while Katherina (or Kate) is a fiery Italian-American who works in her father’s restaurant in Chicago.
The play takes place in an imagined America with U.S. place names changed to the Italian cities of Shakespeare’s text. Scenic designer David Barber has dreamed up a large map of the country that will hover over the set, lighting up to show the travels of the various characters. The main playing area rests on a 22-foot-diameter revolve to keep the story’s many scenes flowing smoothly. To the left and right of the set, billboards set the period by displaying iconographic 50s’ advertising art. Watch for this: as “a little extra added kick” and to lighten the mood, Barber is sneaking clever Shakespearean references into each of the signs.
Speaking of scene changes, composer Gregg Coffin will be composing brief songs based on Shakespearean text set to 50s-style music. This is the great period for Italian-American singers: Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett to name only a few, so he’s got plenty to work with. And expect some country western sounds to accompany Petruchio’s visits to his ranch deep in the heart of Texas. Coffin is also going to have a bit of fun “Elvis-ing up” the scene in which Lucentio, disguised as a music teacher, gives Bianca a lesson.
Costume designer Susan Branch describes the costumes as having a heightened reality: “There are certain icons, like Elvis, that are being referenced. We’ve created the iconic gangster from New Jersey and the iconic cowboy from Texas.” She admits it’s difficult when clothing is described in the play, such as Petruchio’s wedding outfit, and you are setting it in a different period. “How do you take the clothing of the period you’re dealing with and still make the descriptions work?” she asks. “It’s fun to figure that out.”
While Bianca will be dressed as a bobby-soxer (“more frivolous, lightweight, a girly-girl”), headstrong Kate will be much more no-nonsense. She will be introduced working in her father’s restaurant, dressed in functional slacks and flat shoes. Her clothing tells a story of its own—her wedding dress getting soiled on the trip home with Petruchio, the improvised outfit his ranch hands rustle up for her, and finally the beautiful dress that the tailor made for her (the one Petruchio destroyed in front of her eyes).
Although many of us remember the 50s in black and white, Thompson wants this to be a Technicolor production, which really works for Tom Sturge, the lighting designer: “The play is definitely set in the summer, so that lends itself to the hot stickiness of Chicago and the lush, bright sunlight in Texas. Sturge also feels the use of bright color lends itself to comedy: “The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy, and if it takes itself too seriously it will die a quick and sudden death.”
That may have been the problem with the last production of the play he worked on which featured cross-gender casting. “That,” Sturge admits, “was a pretty big mistake.”
For Thompson, Shakespeare’s characters are inherently bold and colorful: “All the characters come right out of Commedia dell’Arte. Gremio, the old Pantalone pursuing the young woman; Lucentio, the handsome young man whose father won’t let him marry; Bianca as the female version of that; and Kate as the shrew.”
At the end of the day, where does Thompson come down on the question of Petruchio’s (mis)treatment of Kate?
“I don’t think that what Petruchio does to Kate is cruel, but he gets close to being not very nice. I think audiences will see the progression of their love, because I think that, even in a play based on Commedia, Shakespeare has planted clues to show that she starts to understand his game.”
In the final, most controversial speech of the play, Kate’s vow of love and possible submission, Thompson believes she’s promising “…what she’s willing to do for him more than making a statement that she’s capitulated completely as a human being, because I don’t think she has.”
This article originally appeared in PROLOGUE, the Denver Center Theatre Company’s subscriber newsletter.
The Importance of Costumes
To coordinate with today’s THEATRE THREADS: A COSTUME RUNWAY SHOW, Denver Center Theatre Company Artistic Director KENT THOMPSON explains the importance of costumes.
Costumes at the Denver Center Theatre Company are a vitally important part of theatrical storytelling. At the DCTC, they literally help us create the characters onstage and tell the story better. And what an impression they make!
In an average season of the DCTC, we put 350-400 different costumes onstage. A few we purchase (for contemporary shows), a few we rent from other theatres, some we pull from stock and re-work—with new trim, fabric, buttons, (not to mention re-fitting to the actor now wearing it)—and many we create from scratch.
Here is what is truly amazing—in materials, in the current season we spend about $250 a costume. When you think about the gorgeous costumes in The Liar and the price of buying one outfit for yourself (and everything that entails, from shoes to dress to hat to—in our case—wig), you should ask how do we do it? The answer is simple—we hire the best craftspeople we can. They create patterns from color sketches and then create a garment that fits perfectly on each specific actor. They are brilliant at taking less expensive fabrics and making the most of them. Our head of wigs stitches many wigs from hand. Our head of costume crafts makes masks, refashions shoes, and creates fans, hats, bloody heads, whatever we need! We have one of the best costume shops in the U.S., because of the quality and experience of our staff. And they do it for love of the theatre more than for the money—they could make far more in the TV, film or entertainment industries.
That’s why contribution mean so much. They allow us to fully realize the visions of our costume designers—including the 80+ costumes for American Night!
By the way, we estimate our costumes shops have created between 10,000 and 11,000 costumes since we opened in 1979. Now that’s astonishing!
We’re proud to announce the Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2011/12 season!
