The Playgoer: Denver Preems 3 New Commissions

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Monday, January 21, 2008

Denver Preems 3 New Commissions

Kent Thompson, the relatively new AD of Denver Theatre Center has revved up new play commissions and productions, er, dramatically in his short tenure so far. Giving Louisville's Humana fest a run for their money, he's putting on a New Play "Summit" next month with three, plus ancillary readings.

True, compared to many playwrights, Theresa Rebeck does just fine and is already a staple of at Louisville. And it would be nice to have an alternative to Louisville that doesn't draw upon the same pool of writers.

But, hey, it's a start. And check out the funding Thompson's been getting for this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think at the early stages of Thompson's influence at DCTC, he necessarily had to reach out to the Usual Suspects on the playwriting circuit. Brand names, you know...

The next phase would be actually doing something with the piles of scripts DCTC solicits, with no agent representation necessary, from writers in the Rocky Mountain region, as they did in their legendary Playwriting Unit of the 1980s. I think as their finances stabilize (their fundraising for new plays, esp. from women, started when Thompson did), they'll get more courage to take a few plays out of Curious' and other smaller venues' mouths, and put them on the stage without compromises in casting and production.

Then again, I expect a unicorn to fix me breakfast one day....

Anonymous said...

Oh, yeah, their request for submissions:

"The Denver Center Theatre Company accepts original, full-length, un-produced plays. All plays should be submitted through an agent, with the exception of plays by Rocky Mountain States residents in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Adaptations will be considered only if the playwright has secured underlying rights. No children’s theatre plays. We cannot accept email submissions. Please include a self-addressed stamped envelope if materials are to be returned. Plays may be sent directly, without prior synopsis or dialogue sample. Response time may be up to six months, due to high volume of submissions. Plays are accepted year-round."

http://www.denvercenter.org/page.cfm?xid=9514048