AURORA | Living in a big city made Matthew Lopez get a bit snobby when it came to culture.
For the playwright based in New York writing new dramatic work, the Rocky Mountains weren’t always high on the artistic radar. Lopez and his fellow theater scenesters weren’t always liable to have the Denver metro area at the top of their list when it came to looking for fresh material and world premieres.
That attitude was a trap for Lopez, the award-winning playwright currently working with the Denver Center Theatre Company. His new comedy, “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” is one of two world premieres kicking off this week at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The Denver Center Theatre Company commissioned the comedy about a small-town Elvis impersonator’s transformation into a successful drag queen after last year’s New Play Summit. “Georgia McBride” was only one of several new works to debut during the staged readings held at the annual event, a showcase of new material and a launching point for new playwrights.
For Lopez, the summit offered more than a fast track to produce his newest play for a major audience. It was also proof that Coloradans had plenty to be snobby about in their own backyard.
“Sometimes you can get in your New York and L.A. mindset of, ‘We are the only ones who know how to do theater,’” Lopez said. “It’s just simply not true. The Denver Center and Denver is proving that that’s not true.”
That proof is in the caliber of the actors, crew and production value the DCTC has provided for the premiere of “Georgia McBride,” Lopez said. It’s in the fact that the New Play Summit offered a direct route from first reading to full production in less than a year. That timeframe has been the model since DCTC Artistic Director Kent Thompson launched the Summit nine years ago.
“This is a very unique process. It’s been an extraordinarily productive process,” said Lopez, whose 2006 play “The Whipping Man” ran on stages across the country. The DCTC’s streamlined process stands out from some of the biggest workshops and new theater festivals in the country, Lopez said. “Their intention is to give as many premieres as they can.”
The intention is also to give those premieres as many resources and as much support as possible, Lopez added. “Georgia McBride” follows the unlikely creative journey of Casey, an Elvis impersonator living and working in a small town in Florida. When he learns his Elvis showcase is being replaced with a drag queen revue, he signs up as part of the troupe without telling his wife.
It’s a story that’s come to life thanks to a skilled cast led by Ben Huber and Jamie Ann Romero, as well as an unwavering commitment from the DCTC, Lopez said.
“This theater company has their stuff together,” Lopez said. “I can count on less than five fingers the number of times we’ve been told, ‘No, we don’t have the resources.’”
Along with “Georgia McBride,” the DCTC will start 2014 with the world premiere of “black odyssey,” a new drama by Marcus Gardley based on Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey.” Those two new plays follow productions of “Just Like Us” and “The Most Deserving,” a pair of world premieres that also debuted with readings at last year’s Summit.
“Georgia McBride” and “black odyssey” will run through the 2014 New Play Summit in February alongside readings of new works like Idris Goodwin’s “Victory Jones and the Incredible One Woman Band,” James Still’s “Appoggiatura” and “Benediction,” the latest drama based on Kent Haruf’s novels.
With audiences that include theater professionals from across the country as well as local actors, directors, writers and theater staff, the Summit is a unique opportunity for cast, crews and audiences alike. Denver Center vet Kim Staunton said the production process behind “black odyssey” was more collaborative. Actors like Staunton are involved from the beginning. They get rewrites and edits as the play evolves. As playwright Marcus Gardley constantly updated and edited the material, everyone from the actors to the tech crew had to adjust to constant edits to the material. Unlike doing “Romeo and Juliet,” there weren’t any conventions to draw from; this was new theater at its rawest.
“It’s not about us, it’s not about the theater, it’s about the playwright,” Staunton said. “To be able to do that and to be a part of that as an actor is just an honor.”
That’s not to say “black odyssey” is unfamiliar. Gardley’s drama takes its basic narrative structure from “The Odyssey,” an epic tale about a single soldier’s difficult homecoming. In this piece, the Gulf War takes the place of the Trojan War. The protagonist is still struggling to make his way back to his family, but his journey and his struggles have roots in American black culture.
“It’s the same story, it just has a specific connection to this black man’s experience,” said Staunton, who plays four different characters in the play. “He has to go through this really incredible journey to get there.”
It’s not the first time Staunton has worked with a new playwright. Staunton collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson long before he was famous. There are plenty of parallels between her work on “black odyssey” and her time with Wilson at the Eugene O’Neill theater in Connecticut, she said.
“Marcus is like August. He’s just so hungry,” Staunton said. “I think he’s one of the new American playwright treasures that will carry on the legacy of an August Wilson.”
Thanks to the New Play Summit, Gardley found a way to find his potential on a single stage.
“The Legend of Georgia McBride” runs until Feb. 23 and “black odyssey” runs until Feb. 16 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 1101 13th St., Denver. Tickets start at $47. Information: 303-893-4100 or denvercenter.org.
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com