The drama by the late Miller, who died Feb. 10, will play Sept. 29-Nov. 5 in The Space Theatre, one of several theatres DCTC operates within the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
The first season under Thompson, who has tapped Bruce K. Sevy as his associate artistic director and director of new play development, will include a January-March 2006 world premiere yet to be determined; August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean (making good on the company's hope to stage all of Wilson's 20th-century cycle); Gina Gionfriddo's After Ashley (pending rights); George Feydeau's sex farce, A Flea in Her Ear (directed by Thompson); José Cruz González's September Shoes; A Christmas Carol (directed by Sevy); Regina Taylor's play with music, Crowns; Shakespeare's Measure for Measure; Lillian Garrett-Groag's portrait of Duse and Bernhardt, The Ladies of the Camellia; and Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House, the regional hit about a young Brazilian maid and the household she works for.
The least known of the titles may be September Shoes, playing The Ricketson Theatre Oct. 20-Dec. 17. It's billed as "the haunting, passionate story of Albert and Gail Cervantes' return to their southwestern childhood home. In the town of Dolores, meaning 'Sorrow' in Spanish, they encounter a collection of colorful, mystical characters both real and dreamlike. Their heart- wrenching tales help the couple come to terms with their past and realize that they and Dolores are forever bound together."
The theatrical play, Ladies of the Camellias, in The Space Theatre March 16-April 22, 2006, is set in 1897. It's a "comic divertissement loosely based on a real event, when the two most famous actresses of their time — Eleanora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt — meet in Paris in the waning 19th century. Add a bomb-wielding terrorist, Alexander Dumas fils and that overheated clash of egos and you have a comedy that, among other things, debates the value of theatre in an increasing complex world.
After Ashley, in The Ricketson Theatre April 6-June 3, 2006, was embraced at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2004 and is currently running Off-Broadway. DCTC calls it "a scathing satire on the media's exploitation of victims and violence" as it tells the story of Justin, who can’t deal with his hippie mother's frank sex talks. "Justin can barely cope with life much less his fame as 'The 911 Kid' while his father writes a bestseller and lands a cable TV show." Production plans for the new season are subject to the availability of rights and subject to change.
Current subscribers can renew their subscriptions online beginning March 1. New subscriptions will be available later this spring and single tickets will be available late this summer.
For more information, visit www.denvercenter.org.
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Longtime artistic director Donovan Marley leaves the company this summer.
