A shimmering sari, a tale of Western revenge, talking lemurs, and Aztec superheroes took center stage at the 20th annual Colorado Modern Play Summit, held February 14-15 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The festival showcased a diverse range of new works and emerging playwrights, drawing artists, subscribers, students, and industry professionals to the Mile High City.
Despite a reduction in length from its pre-pandemic two-week format to two days due to budget restructuring, the Summit demonstrated growth in other areas, according to Grady Soapes, the artistic producer who has programmed the event for 11 years. “Walking into the 20th anniversary and knowing we’ve been developing new plays on this campus for the entirety of the Denver Center lifespan is such a special thing to celebrate,” Soapes said. He noted that staged readings were moved to larger 600-seat venues to accommodate increased demand, signaling a growing audience for new function in Denver.
The Summit featured four new-play readings and two world premiere productions: Cowboys and East Indians, co-written by Nina McConigley and Matthew Spangler, and Godspeed by Terence Anthony. The event also included a Playwright Slam and a competition showcasing works by local middle and high school students.
Cowboys and East Indians, adapted from Nina McConigley’s 2013 short story collection, centers on the Sen family, Indian immigrants in Wyoming, and their daughter Lakshmi, known as Lucky, as she attempts to fulfill her deceased mother’s request to tie ten saris for her sister’s wedding. The play explores themes of cultural identity and connection in a rural American setting. Director Chris Coleman balanced humor and suspense, while Shawn K. Jain and Minita Gandhi delivered strong performances as Rajah and Chitra Sen. Sadithi De Zilva portrayed Lucky, capturing her yearning for both her heritage and her family. Meghan Anderson Doyle’s costume design highlighted the interplay between South Asian and Western aesthetics.
Godspeed, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, is set in South Texas in 1865, following Anna, a newly freed Black woman who renames herself Godspeed, on a quest for retribution. The play confronts the lingering effects of slavery and the challenges faced by Black Americans in the Reconstruction era. Erica Cruz Hernández delivered a compelling performance as Peklai, a Mexican woman of Coahuiltecan descent, communicating primarily in Spanish, with the play’s structure allowing English-speaking characters to understand her through context. The production utilized a circular stage design and soundscapes to emphasize Godspeed’s journey and spiritual transformation.
Beyond the mainstage productions, the Summit offered opportunities for emerging playwrights to share their work. Bonnie Antosh’s Lemuria, set in North Carolina, offered a comedic take on inheritance and ambition, featuring lemurs. Alyssa Haddad-Chin’s Make sure to Be So Lucky explored family dynamics and magical realism in a New York City Chinatown apartment. Isaac Gomez’s Influent, a DCPA commission, examined the lives of Latina beauty influencers navigating issues of racism and online culture. Tony Meneses’s The Myth of the Two Marcos, set in Albuquerque, told a coming-of-age story centered around two boys with the same name and a shared love of comics.
The middle and high school playwriting competition featured staged readings of three short plays: Audrey Flege’s Scraps, addressing homelessness. Kaylee Johnson and Carson McConathy’s absurdist Number 47, set in an afterlife waiting room; and Flavia Armas’s Bajo La Misma Luna, a rooftop romance exploring teenage life and political concerns.
DCPA leadership announced their next season’s world premieres will include bogfriends by jose sebastian alberdi and How to Conquer America: A Mostly True History of Yogurt by David Myers, both of which were previously presented as staged readings at last year’s Summit. Soapes expressed optimism that the plays developed at the Summit would find wider recognition and production across the country.
