DENVER, COLO.: The Theatre Company at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts has announced its 2016–17 season, which will include world premieres from Lauren Gunderson and Tira Palmquist, as well as the American premiere of a new adaptation of Frankenstein.
“We are excited to dive deep into the Theatre Company’s 38th season,” said producing artistic director Kent Thompson in a statement. “This season is full of powerful stories that range from American classics to new works that all get to the heart of the human condition.”
The season will open with Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie (Sept. 9–Oct. 16).
The U.S. premiere of Nick Dear’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Sept. 30–Oct. 30) will be next.
For the holidays, DCPA will present its annual production of Richard Hellesen’s A Christmas Carol, adapted from Charles Dickens (Nov. 25–Dec. 24).
Next up will be the world premiere of Lauren Gunderson‘s The Book of Will (Jan. 13–Feb. 26, 2017), a period drama that chronicles the construction of Shakespeare’s first folio.
Lucas Hnath‘s The Christians (Jan. 27–Feb. 26, 2017), about a pastor who delivers a controversial sermon that divides his congregation, will follow.
Next will be the world premiere of Two Degrees by Tira Palmquist (Feb. 3–March 12, 2017), about a scientist studying climate change who is invited to a Senate congressional hearing.
Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced (March 31–May 7, 2017) will be onstage next. The play is set at a contentious dinner party involving Muslim-American lawyer and his wife.
Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (April 21–May 18, 2017) will be next. The story follows an orphan who finds a key that unlocks her late aunt’s long-lost garden.
Closing out the season will be the national tour of Simon Stephens’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (May 30–June 18, 2017). Based on the novel by Mark Haddon, the show follows a 15-year-old boy on the autism spectrum who is suspected of killing his neighbor’s dog, and his journey to find the true culprit.
DCPA presents Broadway touring productions, and produces classics, new plays, interactive events, and cabarets, via its four departments: the Theatre Company, Broadway, Cabaret, and Off-Center. It was founded in 1979, and is part of the Denver Performing Arts Complex.
