The National Performing Arts Convention ended with departing delegates praising Denver for its friendliness and weather. But the quadrennial confab also ended in a controversy that some are predicting — on and off the record — may doom it.
“It is going to kill it, because who’s going to want to come back and participate in an event that advocates censorship?” said Michael Wilson, who will be directing “Dividing the Estate” on Broadway this fall.
NPAC was an umbrella convention that gathered more than 30 arts organizations including Theatre Communications Group. One combined session was titled “Radical Ideas from Beyond the Border,” at which some TCG members protested the absence of an invited Indian documentary filmmaker.
Madhusree Dutta was to open the panel with her controversial film, but she demurred, the audience was told, after she was asked to excise two portions criticizing President Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Who did the asking remains a mystery.
But if a panel is called “Radical Ideas,” Denver Center Theatre Company artistic director Kent Thompson asks, “What’s wrong with a radical idea?
“I think it’s a really serious issue for any theater, frankly, because a lot of what we are trying to do is bring the political and social and cultural issues of our times to our stages, so it’s really important that we not self-censor the artist.”
But censorship “is not an accurate characterization,” said Marc A. Scorca of Opera America, one of the convention’s five organizing presenters.
“By the time the issue came before the highest level of NPAC leadership,” he said, “it was decided it would be wrong to ask Dutta to make any changes to her film. We didn’t have any right.
“But we did want to engage in a conversation about the compatibility of her participation in the session with what we wanted the session to be.”
The intent was to look at radical ideas for approaching the arts, Scorca said, not to explore radical political issues.
Scorca said Dutta and NPAC co-chair Ann Meier Baker of Chorus America “came to a mutual decision” not to show the film.
Thompson said the schism reveals just how different the various cultural fields are. “Classical music and opera and others are not as out there on the edge of artistic risk as theater is,” he said. Plus, he added with a laugh, “We’re an intensely verbal field.”
That’s why, Wilson said, the actions taken by other arts fields “created some real tension for those of us who were there for TCG. I’m sure some membership will be very reluctant to go into this conference (in 2012) without at least some guidelines to prevent this thing from happening again.”
Listen to Thompson and Scorca talk about this issue in greater depth by clicking on the link at the top left of this page.
Sweeney homecoming.
David Hess had many triumphant moments at the Country Dinner Playhouse from 1991 to ’93, but the actor now playing Sweeney Todd at the Buell Theatre says his greatest night in theater took place as an audience member at the Heritage Square Music Hall in Golden.
That’s the night “Oklahoma” castmate Marcus Waterman introduced him to his future wife, Joan Leslie Simms.
“I was really intimidated,” said Hess. “For three weeks, if I knew she was going to be somewhere, I wouldn’t go.”
But when the present and future Hesses were cast together in a TV commercial, it made talking to her kind of unavoidable. They’ve now been married for 11 years.
Hess was hired “sight unseen” by Bill McHale and did six CDP shows, starting with “Oklahoma” and including “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” opposite Jan Waterman and “Mame” opposite his wife’s sister, Lise Simms (who’s married to longtime CDP leading man Terry Rhoads and now host of HGTV’s “Desperate Spaces.”)
“It was very sad to hear (the CDP closed) because it has such history, and it was always packed with people,” Hess said.
“I’ll never forget one night when I was playing Curly. I was supposed to throw a rope over this hook, but I kept missing it. The audience roared with laughter, so I said, ‘It’s not as easy as it looks.’ I only found out later the whole house had been bought out — they were all cowboys and cattlemen.”
Shakes fest’s ’09 titles.
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival opened its 51st season Saturday by announcing the titles for No. 52: “Hamlet,” “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Inspector-General” by Nikolai Gogol. That’s the first in a series of collaborations with Gorky Theatre, the largest in eastern Russia, and will be directed by its Efim Zvenyatsky.
To read more about the 2009 season announcement,
Overheard
… leaving Wednesday’s performance of the concert musical “3 Mo’ Divas” at the Denver Center: “Now that’s the kind of thing I want to see more of, and not so many of those . . . plays!”
This week’s openings
Opening Wednesday, through Aug. 17: Cabaret Dinner Theatre’s “Chicago” Grand Junction
Thursday-Aug. 16: Theatre Aspen’s “Little Shop of Horrors”
Thursday-July 27: Little Theatre of the Rockies’ “Picnic,” Norton Theatre Greeley
Thursday-Aug. 10: Backstage’s “Easy Living” Breckenridge
Friday-Aug. 16: Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” CU-Boulder indoor theater
Friday-Sept. 27: Creede Repertory Theatre’s “Quilters”
Friday-Aug. 14: Southern Colorado Rep’s “The Spitfire Grill” Trinidad
Friday-Aug. 22: Grand Theatre Company’s “Lucky Stiff” Winter Park
This week’s closings
Thursday: Aurora Fox’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (children’s)
Saturday: Theatre Group’s “The History Boys”
Saturday: Crossroads’ “Four Days in Bed”
Saturday: California Actors Theatre’s “Mass Appeal” Longmont
June 29: National touring production of “Sweeney Todd,” Buell Theatre
June 29: Denver Center Theatre Company’s “3 Mo’ Divas,” Stage Theatre
June 29: Denver Center Attractions’ “The Last Five Years,” Galleria Theatre
June 29: PHAMALy’s “Side Show,” Space Theatre
June 29: Performance Now’s “Jekyll & Hyde” Lakewood
June 29: Town Hall Arts Center’s “Company” Littleton
June 29: Shadow’s “Hands of History” Aurora
June 29: Carousel Dinner Theatre’s “Cats” Fort Collins
June 29: Bas Bleu’s “Bernice/Butterfly: A Two Part Invention” Fort Collins
June 29: E-Project’s “Wonder of the World” Lakewood
This week’s podcast
Running Lines with . . . Curious New Voices. John Moore chats with Bailey Williams, Dee Covington, Mare Trevathan and Pulitzer-winner Paula Vogel at the National Performing Arts Convention. Listen at
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of every currently running production in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page.
This week’s podcasts
Running Lines with . . . Curious New Voices. This week, Denver Post theater critic John Moore reports from the Curious New Voices performances at the National Performing Arts Convention. You’ll hear excerpts from plays written by Luke Slattery and Bailey Williams, followed by conversations with Bailey, actor Mare Trevathan, director Dee Covington and Pulizer Prize-winning program mentor Paula Vogel. Run time: 19 minutes. Listen by
Running Lines with . . . David Hess. In this audio bonus, John Moore catches up with the Country Dinner Playhouse alum now playing the title role in the national touring production of “Sweeney Todd” through June 29 at the Buell Theatre. Running time: 10 minutes. Listen by
