There was a time when I could not have written a column recommending 10 live theater offerings that are new to Denver. Are you kidding? Ten new plays opening in one month? There have been entire years without 10.
New plays are a marketing nightmare. You haven’t heard of the title. There is no built-in audience. Audiences are notoriously risk-averse. Experts say staging any new play costs an average of about 30% more to put on than an established play.
At a time when local arts groups, which exist on razor-thin margins even in the most flush of times, are struggling to bring audiences back up to pre-COVID levels, we are entering this particular September with a swath of new stories. Why?
Well, why not?
At Curious Theatre Company, producing new plays is the reason for its existence. Season 28 opens next week with “Eureka Day,” described as a razor-sharp comedy about a progressive utopia that implodes with a measles outbreak at a private school in Berkeley, Calif. Director Christy Montour-Larson believes there is a hunger right now for fresh, thought-provoking stories that resonate with today’s audiences.
“Plays like ‘Eureka Day’ are essential, even when familiar titles might seem like a safer bet,” Montour-Larson said. “We program newer work because it invites our community to sit together, laugh together and tackle complicated questions together.
“‘Eureka Day’ mirrors debates happening in Denver’s homes and classrooms. We need these kinds of voices to keep the art form alive, relevant and meaningful in a time when we need it most.”
With that, here is our uncommonly bounteous rundown of 10 new-play recommendations that are all opening in the Denver metro area in the next month, listed by opening date. But make your plans now: Some will be done as soon as Sept. 20.
Thge Broadway cast of ‘Eureka Day’ included, from left: Bill Irwin, Thomas Middleditch, Jessica Hecht, Amber Gray and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. A different team from Curious Theatre will bring the show to Denver audiences for the first time.
‘Eureka Day’
- Curious Theatre Company
- Sept. 6-Oct. 5 at 1080 Acoma St.
- Written by Jonathan Spector
- Directed by Christy Montour-Larson
“Eureka Day,” which closed on Broadway in February, bitingly satirizes the conflicts between parents and the school board when an outbreak of the mumps taxes an elementary school’s liberal vaccine policy. Funny how, when a health crisis hits, empathy and inclusion suddenly give way to chaos, polite conversation gives way to explosive confrontation, and fault lines crack wide open. This play sounds like a descendant of Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage,” (minus the Vomitron).
- Featuring: Erik Sandvold, Kristina Fountaine, Karen Slack, Josh Robinson and Rhianna DeVries
- Info: 303-623-0524 or curioustheatre.org
Tara Falk, left, and Madison Taylor will take audiences on a storytellng seance with the play ‘The Thin Place,’ presented by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company
‘The Thin Place’
- Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company
- Sept. 12-28 at The Savoy Theater, 2700 Arapahoe St., Denver; Oct. 3-26 at The Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder
- Written by Lucas Hnath
- Directed by Jessica Robblee
“The Thin Place” is a gripping, ghostly psychological thriller about a woman who claims to communicate with the dead. They’re all still here, don’t you know – just in a different part of “here” – in the “thin place.” Hnath’s suspenseful tale explores the unsettling boundary between the living and the dead. This theatergoing experience is being described as “an intimate seance” that is guaranteed, we are told, “to seep under your skin.” The playwright shot to fame with “A Doll’s House, Part 2” and “The Christians.”
- Featuring: Madison Taylor, Tara Falk, Maggie Tisdale and Jihad Milhem
- Info: 303-351-2382 or betc.org
Kellie Fox in ‘The Princess and the Goblins,’ coming soon to the People’s Building in Aurora.
‘The Princess and the Goblins’
- Third Side Theatre
- Sept. 12-20 at the People’s Building, 9995 E. Colfax Ave, Aurora
- Written by Kellie Fox with Brian Dowling
- Directed by Aaron Vega
This inventive new theater company has quickly made its name by creating clever, original works that incorporate original music, puppetry and imaginative staging techniques. “The Princess and the Goblins,” originally conceived as a full puppet show, has evolved into a hybrid endeavor that mixes in other storytelling mediums, like shadow play. The story tells of a curious Princess named Irene and the young miner boy she befriends as they uncover a grotesque subterranean world of goblins, a magical grandmother in the attic and long-hidden secrets. “This isn’t your typical fairy tale,” said Vega. “It’s whimsical and weird in all the best ways — and the creative team is using every trick in their theatrical toolbox to bring it to life.”
- Featuring: Kellie Fox, Max Lubeck, Lisa Kraai, Brian Dowling and Jeremiah Martinez, with live music by AbdulKarim Islam, Ryan Glaser and Alexandra Seracuse
- Info: thirdsidetheatre.com
Meet The Three Leaches Theater and Flamboyán Theatre, based in Lakewood
‘You’ll Be Made of Ashes Too’
- Flamboyán Theatre
- Sept. 17-27 at the Three Leaches Theatre, 1560 Teller St., Lakewood
- Written by Baylee Shlichtman
- Directed by Veronica Straight-Lingo
When their mother dies under mysterious circumstances, estranged sisters Evelyn and Liana must confront their old wounds and rivalries, which are aggravated by an increasingly aggressive spirit that has taken over their mother’s house. The play is billed as “an intense new horror comedy” that will have its world premiere at Jon Marcantoni’s Flamboyán Theatre. That’s a new home for Boricua storytelling, which encompasses the oral and literary traditions of Puerto Ricans.
This is the cast of ‘Miss Manhattan’ that will introduce the story of America’s forgotten first supermodel to audiences in Boulder next month.
‘Miss Manhattan’
- 19K Productions and CenterStage Theatre Company
- Sept. 19-28 at the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder
- Written by Graham Fuller, Kristina Fuller, Stephanie Ronco and Dan Graeber
- Directed by Robert Michael Sanders
The married Fullers of Longmont, whose debut musical comedy “That Parenting Musical” had a high-profile off-Broadway run last year, are back with a very different developing concept musical. “Miss Manhattan” is inspired by the true story of America’s first supermodel, Audrey Munson, whose often-nude statues adorn the New York City skyline. Allegedly cursed as a child, Audrey’s meteoric rise to fame meant rubbing elbows with Rockefellers, Whitneys and Astors. But her abrupt fall was punctuated by scandal and murder. In the musical, a precocious, modern-day 8th-grader sets out to learn why one of the most recognized women in the world back in 1920 is now largely forgotten by history.
- Featuring: Anne Terze-Schwarz, Megan Van De Hey, Sophia Dotson, Vidushi Goyal, Scott Rathbun, Katja Podsiadly, Elton Tanega, Graham Fuller and Kristina Fuller.
- Info: 303-444-7328 or thedairy.org
The world premiere performance of ‘Yankee Bajan’ at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus in Barbados in June 2023. The performance comes to Denver’s Su Teatro Sept. 19-20.
‘Yankee Bajan’
- Parris-Bailey Arts Group
- Sept. 19-20 at Su Teatro, 721 Santa Fe Dr.
- Written by Linda Parris-Bailey and H. Stefan Walcott
- Directed by Dahlak Brathwaite
You may recall that, in May, we reported Denver’s Su Teatro had been promised in writing $15,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts to host a special touring engagement of “Yankee Bajan,” featuring visiting performers from around the country and Barbados. When the feds reneged on their own signed, promissory contract, others stepped up, including the Carter-Martinez Family Foundation, the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and individual donors. “Yankee Bajan” explores the concept of American expatriates returning to the land of their family origins. The primary question: How can one return home to a place that has never been home? “It also asks what forces are currently in place in the United States that would drive a family to consider the expatriate experience,” said Su Teatro Executive Artistic Director Tony Garcia.
Jeff Campbell is ‘Jedidiah Blackstone’ for Emancipation Theater Company.
‘Jedidiah Blackstone’
- Subtitled: ‘Origin Story of an Alter-Ego & The Untold Tales From the Dark Side of the West’
- Emancipation Theater Company
- Sept. 25-Oct. 5 at Clayton Early Learning Center, 3801 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
- Written by Jeff Campbell
- Directed by Shayla Riggle
Jeff Campbell has been creating compelling performance art in Denver and beyond for more than 30 years, while always leveraging his platform as a poet, playwright, hip-hop artist and community organizer for social commentary and civic engagement. “Jedidiah Blackstone” blends theater, spoken word, music “and unapologetic truth” to reclaim the erased legacy of Black American pioneers of the West such as Clara Brown, Jeremiah Lee and Lorenzo Bowman. “In a time when Black history is under attack from the highest levels of government, we’re raising our voices through art,” said Campbell.
- Featuring: Jeff Campbell, DJ Musa, Erica Brown, Merrian Johnson, DeAndre Carroll and Lino Dupa
- Info: 720-331-7977 or emancipationtheater.com
‘Alabama Story’
- Firehouse Theater Company
- Sept. 27-Oct. 26 at the John Hand Theatre, 7653 E. 1st Place
- Written by Kenneth Jones
- Directed by Melissa Lucero McCarl
This topical new history play tells the little-known true story of a no-nonsense Alabama librarian named Emily Wheelock Reed, who was persecuted by politicians for protecting a controversial children’s picture book back in the Jim Crow South. The book, published in 1958, depicted a black rabbit marrying a white rabbit – which had politicians and everyday citizens of Montgomery alike calling for the book to be banned – and burned. Jones has said his drama “is a play about how we behave when we face terrible circumstances — how character is revealed in times of transition, change and crisis. It’s also a love letter to reading — and librarians.”
- Featuring: Martha Harmon Pardee, Cal Meakins, Jysten Atom, Elicia Hesselgrave, Jeff Jesmer and Matt Hindmarch
- Info: 303-562-3232 or firehousetheatercompany.com
Playwright Kori Alston was in Boulder in April to talk about his play ‘A Bedtime Story for Black Boys on the Moon’ as part of Local Theater’s annual Local Lab new-play festival.
‘The Case for Black Girls Setting Central Park on Fire’
- Local Theater Company
- Oct. 2-25 at the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder
- Written by Kori Alston
- Directed by Betty Hart
If you are an active local theatergoer, perhaps you saw a workshop reading of Massachusetts playwright Kori Alston’s “A Bedtime Story for Black Boys on the Moon” at Local Theater’s annual new-play festival in April. That’s one-fifth of a loquaciously titled pentalogy that includes this now fully staged choreopoem about a brilliant 12-year old Black girl who is running for her life from Brooklyn to Harlem. Over the course of her dusk-to-dawn journey, she is aided by the ghost of Nat Turner, a fire-wielding Oracle – and her Rottweiler. This new American myth uses poetry, gospel music and long-distance running “to burn through pain.”
- Featuring: Jahalia Coleman, Dwayne Carrington, Michaela Murray, Sheryl McCallum and Krisangela Washington
- Info: 303-444-7328 or localtheaterco.org
‘Diva Royale’
- Miners Alley Playhouse
- Oct. 3-Nov. 9 at 1100 Miners Alley, Golden
- Written by Jeff Daniels
- Directed by Warren Sherrill
Three stay-at-home moms from the Midwest who share a deep obsession for Celine Dion decide to take a spontaneous trip to New York City to see their diva idol performing in a one-night-only concert. The playwright is best known for acting on film in “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Dumb and Dumber”; onstage in the brilliant revival of “To Kill a Mockingbird”; and as a writer for “Escanaba in Da Moonlight” and last year’s “A Jukebox for the Algonquin,” also staged at Miners Alley. “Diva Royale” has been described as “a crowd-pleasing and side-splitting comedy.”
- Featuring: Emily Paton Davies, Amy Arpan and Lisa DeCaro
- Info: 303-935-3044 or minersalley.com
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