Playwrights in Action

Jon Vogels
For the past thirteen years, a group of dedicated student writers has generated exciting and entertaining short plays as part of the Curious New Voices program. Working with Dee Covington, the Education Director at the renowned Curious Theatre in Denver, these students spend a few months developing their pieces, meeting weekly to discuss and workshop.  In any given year their work explores a theme raised by one of the full-length plays that the Curious is producing; this year that "companion" piece was The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Alegria Hudes.  
This year, sixteen different students created pieces that were showcased over two nights in January at Curious. One of the really exciting aspects for these young playwrights is that their plays are directed and performed by seasoned director and actors who volunteer their time for this educational purpose.  Doing staged readings, these professionals help the students truly see the potential of the written work. Often the students are surprised and amazed by their own words when the dialogue turns into performance on the Curious stage.  Three of the "veteran" students in this program also had their plays showcased in another festival of plays called Acts of Revolution, also at the Curious this past Monday night.  Seniors Trinity Goderstad and Eliza Ducnuigeen and junior Liam Caplan were amongst this elite group of eight Denver-area young writers.  I was able to see this performance as well and was struck by the maturity and wisdom these writers showed in their plays, which touched on very sophisticated and complex themes.  They wove humor and drama together in ways that made strong statements.  

Dee Covington is also a talented actor and director whose talents have graced the Curious stage multiple times, so the opportunity to work with her has been a positive force in many CA students' lives over the years.  On the CA side, Betsey Coleman has shepherded this program along for the entire time that we have had it. Now that she is retiring we will look for another faculty sponsor to keep the program going at some level. I know the talented returning students will want another chance to see their work come to life on stage!
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