Denver Center Theatre Announces 2009 Play Summit Premieres

The Denver Center Theatre Company will present their fourth annual Colorado New Play Summit

 In February of 2008 more than 200 theatre professionals – artistic directors, literary managers, dramaturgs, directors and press representatives from National Public Radio and American Theatre – traveled to Denver to see if Artistic Director Kent Thompson could pull off his ambitious goal of producing three Denver Center commissioned works staged together for the Colorado New Play Summit.  They attended performances of the world premieres of Our House, conceived by Theresa Rebeck and Daniel Fish, written by Theresa Rebeck; Plainsong by Eric Schmiedl, based upon the novel written by Kent Haruf; and Lydia by Octavio Solis.  Also on the Summit agenda were readings of four new plays – three Denver Center commissions, Inana by Michele Lowe, Shooting Star by Steven Dietz, Perilous Night by Lee Blessing, and Dusty and the Big Bad World by Cusi Cram.

Thompson has selected Inana and Dusty and the Big Bad World to receive world premiere productions during the Denver Center’s 2009 Summit.  From the 2008 Summit’s world premieres Our House will be produced this season at New York’s Playwrights Horizons.  The real buzz surrounds Octavio Solis’ lyrical and haunting Lydia.  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 announced they will publish the Lydia script in the December 2008 issue.

With additional funding from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Play Development Bruce K. Sevy and Dramaturg and Literary Manager Douglas Langworthy are insuring the future of the Colorado New Play Summit by developing one of America’s most ambitious new play commissioning programs, building a collection of new works to be featured at Summits and eventually at the Denver Center and other national stages in full productions.

For more information visit www.denvercenter.org/summit

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