Play Time

As the Denver Center Theatre Company’s literary manager and dramaturg, Douglas Langworthy helps select the offerings for each year’s Colorado New Play Summit, which brings in theater people of every discipline and from all over the country for a two-day marathon of readings, panels and networking. Scripts are chosen from...

By Juliet Wittman

February 7, 2013

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As the Denver Center Theatre Company’s literary manager and dramaturg, Douglas Langworthy helps select the offerings for each year’s Colorado New Play Summit, which brings in theater people of every discipline and from all over the country for a two-day marathon of readings, panels and networking. Scripts are chosen from among playwrights who are already well on their way, fresh new voices, and those working on commission for the DCTC. Of those selected, a few will receive full production. This year’s writers are Catherine Trieschmann, Matthew Lopez, Marcus Gardley, Laura Eason and Karen Zacarias, who adapted Helen Thorpe’s book about four young Denver Latinas. Two plays that were read last year will be shown in the evenings: Michael Mitnick’s Ed, Downloaded and Grace, or the Art of Climbing by Lauren Feldman.

The most original offering in terms of voice and dramaturgy, Langworthy says, is Gardley’s Black Odyssey. “He’s a very young, lyrical and poetic writer. We had commissioned him over three years ago and when it came in, the first draft was amazing. It’s a re-telling of Homer’s Odyssey, with a black soldier coming home from the Gulf War. He goes through moments in contemporary African-American culture — Katrina, profiling — all done within a mythological framework.”

The summit runs today through Sunday at the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. For complete information call 303-893-6030 or visit denvercenter.org/summit.
Feb. 8-10, 2013

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Juliet Wittman is an investigative reporter and critic with a passion for theater, literature, social justice and food. She has reviewed theater for Westword for over a decade; for many years, she also reviewed memoirs for the Washington Post. She has won several journalism awards and published essays and short stories in literary magazines. Her novel, Stocker's Kitchen, can be obtained at select local bookstores and on Amazon.

Contact: Juliet Wittman