The last time Moisés Kaufman’s New York-based theater company came to Colorado, they left with “The Laramie Project,” a powerful piece about the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.
The award-winning playwright is returning to spend a month as an artist-in-residence with Naropa University’s contemporary performance MFA program. He will be accompanied for his April- long stay by members of his Tectonic Theater Project.
Kaufman and his company will work with Naropa students to develop a new play exploring the ongoing controversy over what can and can’t be taught in public school science classrooms.
“The Laramie Project” helped spawn a now-prolific new genre of American theater – fact-based stagings based on interviews, court transcripts and other research conducted by the acting company itself. New York’s The Civilians troupe was recently in Colorado Springs developing a similar piece on evangelism.
Tectonic’s stated mission is to ask, “What can theater do that is uniquely theatrical, that cannot be realized in any other medium?”
Kaufman directed the Pulitzer- and Tony Award- winning “I Am My Own Wife” on Broadway, “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde” and “The Laramie Project,” which was later made into an HBO film.
His new play’s working title is “Dover.” It will have a public reading at 7:30 p.m. April 14 at Naropa’s Nalanda campus, 6287 Arapahoe Ave. (303-245-4798).
Fright night at CDP
The Country Dinner Playhouse lost its “Guys and Dolls” leading lady less than 48 hours before opening when Sharon Kay White (Miss Adelaide) violently collided with Tamara Jenkins (Sarah Brown) during a rehearsal blackout Tuesday.
Jenkins was taken by ambulance and hospitalized overnight with a concussion.
Barnstormer Sara Grace Sever stepped in as Sarah for Wednesday’s preview and Thursday’s opening, and performed heroically. White returned Wednesday with a nasty bump on her head. Jenkins’ return date is still to be determined.
First in “Line”
In the wake of last week’s news that Denver will launch the national tour of “A Chorus Line” in 2008, a cynical reader suggested it’s no honor – that Denver is chosen for such engagements only because its audiences aren’t sophisticated enough to complain about being served an untested product.
This is the same “no win” argument people use about sports teams. Colorado Rockies baseball fans are called rubes if they support an utterly mediocre product (it is); those who stay away until the team earns their support again are called fair-weather.
“It is nice to be first,” said Denver Center president Randy Weeks. “We get the fresh, brand-new product, and we get to see the creative team’s first choice for every role. The alternative is we could be on the other end of things – we could get the show 18 months down the line, when the cast has cycled through four times.”
Longmont turns 50
The Longmont Theatre Company’s current production of George S. Kaufman’s “Solid Gold Cadillac” marks the 50th anniversary of one of Colorado’s most venerable community theater groups. The staging is a revival of the company’s first production from 1957. It’s the story of a sweet little old lady who turns a high-powered corporation upside down. It plays through March 24 at 513 Main St. (303-772-5200)…
Briefly …
The Denver Center Theatre Company’s 2007-08 season announcement comes Tuesday morning. You can expect artistic director Kent Thompson’s third slate to feature more new plays than perhaps ever before in the company’s history…
Jason Grote, the self-deprecating playwright of the DCTC’s recent “1001,” reports it’s “increasingly inevitable” that the play will be mounted in New York. “Right now, I have definite interest … but no contracts have been signed,” he said …
On Thursday, Theatre 13 opens the world-premiere adaptation of Leonard Peltier’s book, “Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance” at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. Peltier has been jailed for murder since 1976, but some believe he was unjustly convicted. The play chronicles his struggle to survive in prison while working for forgiveness and fair treatment (303-443-2122) …
The Union Colony Civic Center in Greeley hosts “An Evening with Lily Tomlin” at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday (970-356-5000) …
And finally, Miners Alley Playhouse has raised $5,000 so far to help cancer-stricken actor Pete Nelson. Call 303-935-3044 to chip in.
This week’s theater openings
THU-APRIL 1|Theatre 13’s “Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance”|BOULDER
FRI-APRIL 7|Next Stage’s “Frame 312” (at the Phoenix Theatre)
This week’s theater closings
TODAY|Vintage Theatre’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (at Buntport Theater)
TODAY|Fine Arts Center’s “Little Shop of Horrors”|COLORADO SPRINGS
SAT|Playwright’s “The Perfect Party”
SAT|Backstage’s “Steel Magnolias”|BRECKENRIDGE
SAT|Ami Dayan’s “Conviction” (at the Avenue Theater)
SAT|Theatre Company of Lafayette’s “Woman in Mind”
MARCH 18|TheatreWorks’ “Importance of Being Earnest”|COLORADO. SPRINGS
MARCH 18|Jester’s Dinner Theatre’s “Deathtrap”|LONGMONT
MARCH 18|Union Colony Dinner Theatre’s “The Taffetas”|GREELEY
