The Denver Center Theatre Company’s massive, triumphant adaptation of “Plainsong” was a watershed for its new-play program.
Now, a Seattle theater company wants some of the credit.
The Book-It Repertory Theatre, which first staged Kent Haruf‘s best seller in 2006, is not accusing Denver of copying or theft — the differences between the two productions are pronounced. Still, they say, one doesn’t happen without the other.
“The Denver Center Theatre Company is taking 100 percent credit for conceiving the book ‘Plainsong’ as a play,” said co-artistic director Myra Platt. “But the truth is, without Kent Haruf’s and Kent Thompson‘s association with Book-It Theatre’s world-premiere production, the DCTC production would have never come to fruition. We don’t feel like we got credit where credit is due.”
Responded Haruf: “To suggest that the Denver production would never have happened — how can you prove that? Never is a long time.”
Thompson, the DCTC’s artistic director, had an interest in staging Haruf’s novel beginning in 1999, which is why he accepted an invitation to attend the Seattle play in ’06. Platt offered Thompson their work — but only if Platt directed and brought her own actors, Thompson said. Those were problematic conditions for many reasons, among them that Book-It’s production had only two union actors; Denver, being a union company, employed 15.
Thompson, who had many artistic reservations about the Seattle production, decided (with Haruf’s encouragement) it would be cleaner to commission his own playwright (Eric Schmiedl) to fashion a new adaptation according to his own vision, with Haruf’s direct consult.
The Denver production is an hour longer, incorporates more characters and scenes, and strengthens the dynamic of several key characters. The sticking point is in the ways both stagings used narrators.
Book-It, which was founded in 1990 specifically to convert literary works into theater, has developed a signature style in which its characters narrate to the audience while still fully participating in scenes. Schmiedl uses narrators, too — lots of them — but in the same traditional way writers have used narrators since plays have been written.
This is murky territory: Two companies adapt the same story using distinct narrative styles that are both faithful to someone else’s source material. Can one adapter claim ideological credit over another when the original belongs to neither?
“It’s murky from your standpoint,” Platt said. “It’s very clear from ours — just not provable.”
The court of final opinion lies with Haruf, who offers an emphatic “no.”
“There were parts of the Book-It production that were effective,” said Haruf, who did not participate in the creative process in Seattle, but spent a month in residence here.
“But the Denver production was very different, completely original and vastly improved — in scope, quality and depth — a true dramatic rendering of the book I wrote.”
Bully for bullied boy
Christopher Sieber, who plays Sir Galahad in Broadway’s “Spamalot,” asked us to pass on his support for Adrian Ulm, the West Middle Schooler who was bullied for, among other things, being in theater.
“We all have to deal with bullies in one way or another,” Sieber wrote in an e-mail. “But when it happens as brutally as it did to Adrian, he should remember: The ones doing the bullying are almost always failures in life. Bullies usually ‘peak’ in middle and high school, and end up miserable people. The best revenge is success, and by the sound of it, Adrian is going to be very successful.
“Please let Adrian know he (has) the entire Broadway community behind him.”
Lannie, Alex & Peggy
“Lannie Garrett and Alex Ryer: A Tribute to Peggy Lee” will bring together two of our most formidable chanteuses for a cabaret run March 21 to May 3 at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret. Both singers have, or had planned, Lee tributes, so they decided to join forces. Pairing the women who created indelible portraits of Patsy DeCline and Edith Piaf on the same stage, Ryer said with a laugh, “may be overwhelming for audiences” (303-293-0075).
Catching you up
The Avenue’s “Girls Only” has been picked up for a six-month run at the Galleria Theatre starting in September . . . Grand Junction’s Cabaret Dinner Theatre was seized by the state for nonpayment of $13,000 in back taxes, but reopened five days later . . . And the theater community mourned the death of former Country Dinner Playhouse head Barnstormer Tony Hudziak. Separate reports on each of those news stories are posted at .
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
This week’s theater openings
Tuesday, March 4-March 9: National touring production of “Stomp” (Buell Theatre).
Thursday, March 6-23: Arvada Center’s “Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue.”
Friday, March 7-16: Magic Moments’ “Stand By Me” (Littleton)
Friday, March 7-15: North Stage Players’ “The Dining Room” (Northglenn)
Friday, March 7-23: Star Bar Players’ “Murder in Green Meadows” (Colorado Springs).
Friday, March 7-29: Adams Mystery Playhouse’s “Murder at an Irish Wake.”
Saturday, March 8-April 19: Curious Theatre’s “The Lieutenant Of Inishmore.”
For capsule summaries and contact information on these and all currently running plays in Colorado,
This week’s closings
Today: Platte Valley Players’ “Dearly Departed.”
Saturday, March 8: Upstart Crow’s “Much Ado about Nothing” (Boulder)
Saturday, March 8: Backstage’s “The Housekeeper” (Breckenridge)
Saturday, March 8: Thunder River’s “Mother Courage” (Carbondale)
Saturday, March 8: Dangerous Theatre’s Love Notes: The Journey.”
Sunday, March 9: Arvada Center’s “Of Mice and Men.”
This week’s podcast: Daniel Valdez
On this week’s episode of “Running Lines,” theater critic John Moore talks with Daniel Valdez the creator and director of El Centro Su Teatro’s world-premiere musical drama “Ollin.”
