1. The undeniable : It was a special moment. One for the ages. At the playwright Matthew Lopez’s drama was in rehearsals. Less than two miles away from that Golden Triangle theater, the 36-year-old’s was being put through its gold lamé paces in a Denver Center studio. The first, a drama about newly ex-slaves celebrating an uneasy passover seder with the son of their former master, the second, a dramedy about a straight man who finds his creative calling as a drag queen in a Panama City, Fla., dive bar. Could there be two more different, yet incandescent, examples of one writer’s range? Perhaps, but the fact is we were there, Denver, to witness a star taking off.
2. The Colorado New Play Summit: Yes, dear theatergoers, even the reading of a good play can bring you to tears. Such was the case when “Appogiatura,” James Still’s tale of grief and rebirth in Venice, was workshopped as part of the Denver Center’s most exciting venture: the New Play Summit. Next month, a full production of the play will get a world premiere. So, too, will fellow workshop beneficiary, “Benediction.” The Denver Center play marks the final installment in Eric Schmiedl’s adaptation of “Plainsong” trilogy. Very involved in the play’s nurturing, the great Colorado novelist died last month.
3. The New Play Summit was just the, well summit, of new play production in the area. Signs of the fresh were everywhere: from Local Theater Company’s upgraded new-play gathering to the Boulder Ensemble’s nurturing and mounting of science writer-turned-playwright ; from Buntport’s ridiculously pleasing comedy “Naughty Bits” about the missing “member” on a statue of Hercules to the spiky new holiday comedy “The Familiars,” commissioned by Lakewood’s Edge Theater.
4. ” “: “We’re so unpretentious, we’re pretentious” sings the actor playing Guy in the “Forbidden Broadway: Alive & Kicking!” parody of the Tony-winner based on John Carney’s indie movie about a Guy and a Girl who make beautiful music together. It’s a funny line. But truth be told, the national tour at the Buell was a soulful triumph and arguably as good — even better — than its Broadway counterpart.
5. “We are Phamaly”: Someone needs to do a fresh cover of Sister Sledge’s 1979 hit. Because the Phamaly Theatre Company has earned a celebratory anthem. Composed of actors with disabilities, the troupe was invited to bring a show to Japan in 2015, got its second NEA grant in as many years and put on a rousing reprise of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
6. A few words about actors: Not sure what was in the air — or was it water? — but 2014 seemed to privilege strong turns from actors. (The same has been said of this year’s movies.) The menfolk mesmerized. To wit, bravo to: “The Whipping Man” trio of Cajardo Lindsey, Laurence Curry and Sean Scrutchins; to Chris Kendall, who made “Annapurna,” “‘Til Death,” “Ambition Facing West” that much richer; to Sam Gregory, who made John Barrymore a lovable, sexy lout of ghost in the Colorado Shakespeare fest’s “
7. “Dead Man Walking”: I know what it’s like to be led astray or nudged to new heights by the writing of an arts critic. Fellow Postie of “Dead Man Walking” — based on the story of Sister Helen Prejean and the death-row inmate she gave spiritual counsel to — made a trip to Central City unavoidable. The Central City Opera made the experience rattling and transcendent.
8. “: As seductively promised by the Leading Player at the start of director Diane Paulus’ revival of Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson’s strange but resonant tale about King Charlemagne’s seeking son, there was “magic to do.” And the acrobats, contortionists and mischief makers who helped launch the national tour at the Denver Center for Performing Arts did just that. “Ta-da!”
9. , 1925-2014: The theater impresario was a load-bearing beam, a cornerstone, a pillar. Whatever construction metaphor you reach for, the 89-year-old was essential to the building of the city’s cultural infrastructure and the erecting of its theater community. Small wonder then that the folks at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center had planned to honor Lowenstein with a play even before he died: Lowenstein had been a participant in the British program that offered 10,000 Jewish children refuge just before the start of WWII. He died a few weeks before the honor. The beautiful show went on. Is there a better tribute than that?
10. Randy Weeks, 1955-2014: All of 59, the far too young. Weeks was at a theater conference in London when he died Oct. 9. Though in shock, the grieving folk at the Denver Center put on one heckuva memorial a few weeks later. It was elegant and elegiac. At one point, four chairs representing Weeks and his three beloved siblings were placed on the stage. After each spoke, a chair was removed until there was one, then none, left on the Buell’s stage. It ended with shiny gold bits showering down on the gathered, a show befitting the showman Weeks so very much was. Let us now praise fabulous men who loved a good confetti cannon.
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567, lkennedy@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bylisakennedy
