The media often are accused of building someone up only to tear them down, something playwright Gina Gionfriddo learned firsthand when her “After Ashley,” playing at the Denver Center Theatre Company through June 3, first bowed in 2004.
“After Ashley” was hailed by many at the Humana Festival as the next great American play, its fans perhaps a bit blinded to serious problems that muddle its final half-hour.
Leading the coronation was The New York Times’ Bruce Weber, who wrote: “Her shrewd, dark comedy was the consensus favorite among the critics, agents and theater professionals.” He called it an absorbing and wholly unpredictable play “that virtually any audience would find accessible.”
That kind of assessment from the Times gets plays green-lit for runs in New York, where in this case, the same newspaper led “After Ashley” to slaughter. This time the critic was then-newcomer Charles Isherwood, who calling the play a finger-wagging cartoon. But secondary New York critics swatted with equal vengeance, and the play closed after a month.
Of course, any two critics are allowed to experience differing yet equally valid responses to any piece of art. But the disparity of tone coming from the nation’s leading voice on the American theater had some suspecting larger agendas at play.
The Vineyard, which mounted “After Ashley” in New York, warned Gionfriddo of its wariness for how the play would be received specifically because it was so widely hailed elsewhere. “There seems to be a current phenomenon in that New York, reviewers and audiences don’t want to be handed something with a stamp of approval on it,” Gionfriddo said. “They bristle at that. They like to discover things for themselves.”
That doesn’t bode well for the Humana model, which for 30 years has provided a gateway from Kentucky to New York for the best new plays. “Now the situation is more like you elevate something from the festival only to send it to New York to be smacked down,” Gionfriddo said.
But of late, New York critics seem to be sharpening their knives at all new plays, no matter their origin. Some see a return to the time-dishonored tradition of butchery as criticism.
“Living playwrights and new plays are really not faring well in New York right now, and part of me that is grateful that I can look at some other talented playwrights I respect very much who have gone through it recently,” said Gionfriddo, citing savage response to new works by Stephen Belber, Adam Rapp and Itamar Moses.
“We’ve had those conversations, but there is a certain solidarity, and we’ve all agreed to keep on writing anyway.”
Summer vacations
The Utah Shakespearean Festival will be the place to see many past and present DCTC stars this summer. Jacqueline Antaramian (fresh off a stint on “The Sopranos”) and Bill Christ star in “Antony & Cleopatra,” directed by Nagle Jackson (“The Misanthrope”), from June 23-
Sept. 1. Also cast is Corliss Preston (“Three Sisters”); call 435-586-7880 ….
The Creede Repertory Theatre, 256 miles southwest of Denver, will have Anthony Powell (“After Ashley”) directing “Snake in the Grass,” and Jamie Horton directing fellow DCTC actor and playwright Steven Cole Hughes’ “cowboyily,” starring Mike Hartman (“All My Sons”). The company includes National Theatre Conservatory grads Josh Landay and Jeff Carey (who also wrote Creede’s upcoming children’s offering, “Emelia’s Tree,” Diana Dresser (Curious’ “Frozen”) and Becky Gibel (Aurora Fox’s “Death of a Salesman”); call 866-658-2540.
Briefly …
The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District won an important legislative victory when a resolution passed allowing it to deduct its share of election costs from its sales-tax collections. The SCFD won a 12-year reauthorization last year, but the law requires anyone who brings an initiative to pay individual counties for its share of election costs. The SCFD was tagged with a $670,000 bill from six counties. But with a catch: The law forbade the SCFD from dipping into the $38 million it collects on the penny-per-$10 sales tax. Jefferson County froze grant allocations to its 75 smallest arts organizations while its stalemate with SCFD over $163,000 dragged on. …
DCTC artistic director Kent Thompson is the featured speaker at the Colorado Theatre Guild’s free, public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Miners Alley Playhouse, 1224 Washington Ave. in Golden. A performance of “The Rainmaker” follows. …
Lisa Rigsby Peterson will leave the DCTC on June 30 after a decade of service, the last five as director of administration. ….
The Country Dinner Playhouse’s conservative, all-musical new season: “Phantom,” “Clue The Musical,” “Guys & Dolls,” “Evita” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (303-799-1410) …
This week’s online podcast features a conversation with Jonathan Farwell, star of the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center’s “The King & I.” Listen at denverpost.com/theater.
This week’s theater openings
WED-JUNE 25|Country Dinner Playhouse’s “Pump Boys and Dinettes”|GREENWOOD VILLAGE
THU-JUNE 10|Denver Center Theatre Company’s “Crowns” (Stage Theatre)
FRI-JUNE 18|Town Hall Arts Center’s “The King and I”|LITTLETON
FRI-JULY 8|Metro Playhouse’s “Clue the Musical”|GRAND JUNCTION
FRI-JUNE 3|Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Masked”|BOULDER
This week’s theater closings
TODAY|Country Dinner Playhouse’ “The Man of La Mancha|GREENWOOD VILLAGE
TODAY|Arvada Center’s “Pippin”
TODAY|Aurora Fox’s “Death of a Salesman”
TODAY|Backstage’s “The Vagina Monologues” |BRECKENRIDGE
TODAY|Star Bar Players’ “Dancing at Lughnasa”|COLORADO SPRINGS
TODAY|Metro Playhouse’s “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s”|GRAND JUNCTION
SAT|Mizel Center’s “Insignificance”
SAT|Su Teatro’s “Serafin: Cantos y Lagrimas”
SAT|The E Project’s “Three One Act Plays”|LAKEWOOD
SAT|Debut Theatre Company’s “The Phantom Tollbooth”|FORT COLLINS
SAT|Buntport’s “Trunks” (children’s)
MAY 21|Second City’s “Red Scare” (at the Galleria)
MAY 21|openstage etc.’s “Desperate Affection”|FORT COLLINS
MAY 21|Festival Playhouse’s “Everybody Loves Opal”|ARVADA
MAY 21|Jesters Dinner Theatre’s “Steel Magnolias”|LONGMONT
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
