Two previously announced, fully produced world-premiere productions, both commissions, are part of the mix, as well: When Tang Met Laika by Rogelio Martinez and Eventide by Eric Schmiedl, based on the novel by Kent Haruf.

Thompson, director of new play development Bruce Sevy and literary manager Douglas Langworthy selected the following new works to present to artistic directors, literary managers, dramaturgs, directors, press representatives and American Theatre Critics Association members who will travel to Denver Feb. 11-13, 2010.

The House of the Spirits by Caridad Svich based on the novel by Isabel Allende.
"From the confines of her prison cell in an unnamed Latin American country, Alba thinks back over the past 50 years of her family's history. Her grandfather made his fortune working in the mines, but her father became a field hand and revolutionary. While the tensions between the haves and the have-nots escalate, the Communist party takes power. Caridad Svich's haunting and lyrical adaptation of Isabel Allende's critically-acclaimed bestseller, The House of the Spirits, looks at four generations of political and social upheavals through the powerful lens of memory."

Svich is a U.S. Latina playwright, translator, lyricist and editor whose works have been presented across the U.S. and abroad at diverse venues including Repertorio Espanol, The Women's Project, INTAR, 59East59, Cincinnati Playhouse, McCarren Park Pool, 7 Stages, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, ARTheater-Cologne, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival/U.K. She is the recipient of the 2009 Lee Reynolds Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women. Among her plays are 12 Ophelias, Any Place But Here, Alchemy of Desire/Dead-Man's Blues, Fugitive Pieces, Iphigenia...a rave fable, Instructions for Breathing and The Booth Variations. She has translated nearly all of Federico Garcia Lorca's plays as well as works by Lope de Vega, Calderon de la Barca, Julio Cortazar and new plays from Spain, Cuba and Mexico and has freely adapted works by Wedekind, Sophocles, Euripides and Shakespeare. Visit www.caridadsvich.com.

Map of Heaven by Michele Lowe.
"Lena's painting career is on the rise; her beautiful abstracted maps of places real and imaginary are poised to take downtown New York by storm. But her husband Ian, a radiologist, makes a fatal error that upends Lena's relationship with her agent and threatens to take down her first show. A contemporary drama with tragic undertones, Map of Heaven explores the devastating consequences of a single lapse in judgment."

Lowe is the author of Inana, which premiered at the Denver Center Theatre Company and was a finalist for the 2009 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her play, Victoria Musica, recently premiered at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. New York productions include The Smell of the Kill (Broadway debut) and String of Pearls (Outer Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play). She is the librettist and lyricist for the musical A Thousand Words Come to Mind (Joe's Pub), which she wrote with composer Scott Richards. She also is the author of Mezzulah, 1946 (City Theatre) and Backsliding in the Promised Land (Syracuse Stage). Lowe has been commissioned by the Denver Center Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Arden Theatre and Geva Theatre.

The Catch by Ken Weitzman.
"America's national pastime meets America's financial meltdown. A failed dot-commer plots to regain his fortune by catching a star slugger's record-breaking home run ball — through a mix of willpower, determination and sheer optimism. Playwright Ken Weitzman's baseball drama The Catch knocks the cover off our national obsession with sports, stardom, money — and positive thinking."

Weitzman's previous plays include The As If Body Loop (Humana Festival '07), Arrangements (Atlantic Theatre Company, Pavement Group), Spin Moves (Summer Play Festival), Hominid (Theatre Emory), Fire in the Garden (Castillo Theatre), Stadium 360 (Out of Hand Theater), Memorabilia (Alliance Theatre). His awards include The L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Arrangements, the McDonald Playwriting Award for The As If Body Loop (Best New Play in San Diego), The Mario Fratti/Fred Newman Political Playwriting Contest for Fire in the Garden, and the Elizabeth George Commission for an Outstanding Emerging Playwright (chosen and awarded by South Coast Repertory Theatre).

Civilization (All You Can Eat) by Jason Grote.
"The filming of a post-racial TV commercial kicks off Jason Grote's fierce burlesque of America's love/hate obsession with food. A giant pig on the rampage, mass choreography, Washington and Jefferson selling snacks to the inner city, the search for love and meaning — all are braided together to devastating effect through the inspired vision of the author of 1001 — DCTC's acclaimed 2007 premiere."

Grote's 1001 was developed in The Denver Center's first Colorado New Play Summit in 2006 and received its world premiere in Denver the following year. It has since been published by Samuel French and gone on to ten more productions throughout the United States, one of which (by Page 73) was listed in Time Out New York's Top Ten of 2007, and another of which (Theater @ Boston Court) was nominated for Best Performance of 2008 by L.A. Weekly. He is currently developing a musical version of the play with composer Marisa Michelson as part of Montclair State University's 2010 New Works Initiative. His other plays include Maria/Stuart, Hamilton Township, Darwin's Challenge, Box Americana and This Storm Is What We Call Progress. Civilization (All You Can Eat) was a commission from Clubbed Thumb, supported with a grant from The New York State Council on The Arts.

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The 2010 Colorado New Play Summit also will include a panel of theatre professionals and ATCA critics discussing "New Works and the Critics." Denver Center trustee and national theatre philanthropist Jim Steinberg of the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust will moderate the discussion. Panelists include Christine Dolen from The Miami Herald, Jeffrey Eric Jenkins editor of Best Plays and Christopher Rawson from the Pittsburgh Post - Gazette.

For more information and Summit registration visit www.denvercenter.org/summit.