Curious Theatre’s 12th season will be one big welcome-home party.
The world premiere of “Yankee Tavern” is written by Denver native Steven Dietz. “Home by Dark,” by local playwright Terry Dodd, brings back former Denver Center Theatre Company actor Jamie Horton — as a director.
And the genre-bending spoken- word piece “Ameriville,” which Curious presented during last summer’s National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, will have a full slot on the company’s five-play 2009-10 season.
“We’ve always tried to develop ongoing relationships with artists. And not just actors and designers, but with playwrights and directors all across the country,” said producing artistic director Chip Walton. “It’s interesting for an audience to be able to engage with an artist’s body of work as opposed to a single play. It gives deeper meaning to the work.”
“Yankee Tavern” is a conspiracy tale set in a rundown New York tavern where a young man seeks to debunk many of the wackier 9/11 conspiracy theories — then finds himself caught up in one of those very theories.
This will be Dietz’s third production at Curious. Previously the company staged the Kennedy High School graduate’s “Inventing Van Gogh” and “Fiction.”
“Ameriville” is a creation of a New York troupe called Universes, a multidisciplined ensemble that fuses poetry, theater, rhythm and politics to break the traditional bounds of live theater. It’s headed by Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz, previously commissioned by Curious to help write “The War Anthology” and “The Denver Project.”
“Ameriville” puts race, poverty, politics, history and government in America under the microscope.
Dodd’s “Home By Dark,” a co-presentation with Denver Center Attractions, is about a son who confronts his father about one secret and to reveal one of his own. Described as “a young man and his father grappling to turn their fear of the truth into acceptance.” Horton, a professor at Dartmouth, last directed “Fiction” at Curious in 2006.
Also on the ’09-10 slate: Michael Hollinger’s “Opus,” which takes audiences backstage as a “high strung” string quartet prepares for a high-profile performance. It’s a pressure-cooker tale of colliding ambitions.
The quirky comedy “Up,” by Bridget Carpenter, follows an inventor after his 15 minutes of fame have ended.
Curious’ niche has always been to bring the most buzzworthy new American plays to Denver. With “Yankee,” “Up” and “Opus,” Walton believes, “We’re on the front end of three plays I guarantee you will soon be getting performed all over the country.”
Curious Theatre’s 2009-10 season
Sept. 12-Oct. 24: “Yankee Tavern,” by Steven Dietz
Nov. 14-Dec. 5: “Ameriville,” Created by Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz of Universes
Jan. 9-Feb. 6, 2010: “Home By Dark,” by Terry Dodd
Feb. 20-April 3, 2010: “Opus,” by Michael Hollinger
April 24-May 29, 2010: “Up,” by Bridget Carpenter
For ticket information, call 303-623-0524
