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Casting announced for DCPA Theatre Company’s ‘Indecent’
From left: Playwright Paula Vogel, Director Nancy Keystone, and actors John Plumpis and Andrea Goss.
Paula Vogel’s Tony Award-nominated play opens 2019-20 season
The DCPA Theatre Company has announced the full casting and creative team for its 2019-20 season-opening production of Indecent, the acclaimed musical play by Pulitzer-winning playwright Paula Vogel that will perform from August 30 through October 6 in the Space Theatre.
Indecent, which was nominated for Best Play by the Tony Awards and won for for lighting and direction, tells the emotional true story of Sholem Asch’s groundbreaking 1906 play God of Vengeance and the passionate artists who risked everything to share it. Many European productions of the provocative Yiddish story were highly successful in the early 1900s – even with a same-sex romance at its center. But when its Broadway debut was deemed “indecent” in 1923, it begged the question of who gets to decide what is considered art and what deserves to be censored. Follow the explosive tale through scandals, war and rewrites as a defiant, dedicated few refused to let it be silenced. Indecent evokes the Jewish experience through traditional songs and dancing, this stirring production will leave you with a deeper appreciation for the art and experiences we often take for granted.
Dominique Kelley. Photo by John Moore.
The DCPA’s production, led by Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award-nominated director Nancy Keystone, will include choreography by Dominique Kelley, who is presently nominated for a Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Award for his work on last season’s Oklahoma!.
The ensemble cast includes John Plumpis, who played the meerkat Timon in the first national touring production of The Lion King that originated at the Denver Center in 2002. He was later nominated for a Denver Post Ovation Award for Best Season by an Actor for his work in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Servant of Two Masters and Julius Caesar in 2007. Plumpis returns to Colorado to play Lemml, a character who has been described as a cousin to the Stage Manager of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Lemml is both the narrator of Indecent and the actual stage manager of “God of Vengeance” as the play-within-the play wends its way across Europe and eventually to New York.
Indecent also calls for live music, and one of the musicians will be Erik Fellenstein, who performed in last season’s Anna Karenina for the DCPA Theatre Company and just played violin and acted in Local Theater Company’s just-closed world premiere musical Discount Ghost Stories in Boulder.
Erik Fellenstein
Cast:
- Ben Cohen (Multi-instrumentalist for bands including Hal Aqua and Lost Tribe) as Musician/Moriz Godowsky
- Lianne Marie Dobbs (Jane Austen’s Emma, Repertory of St. Louis/Cincinnati Playhouse) as The Middle/Halina
- Erik Fellenstein (DCPA Theatre Company’s Anna Karenina) as Musician/Mayer Balsam
- Andrea Goss (Indecent, Cort Theatre on Broadway) as The Ingenue/Chana
- Paul Kreppel (Comedy of Errors, Delacorte Theatre) as The Elder/Otto
- Zal Owen (The Band’s Visit on Broadway) as The Ingenue/Avram
- John Plumpis (Widowers’ Houses, The Actors Company Theatre @ Theatre Row) as Lemml/Stage Manager
- Valerie Spencer (Apollo, Portland Center Stage) as The Elder/Vera
- Jonathan Spivey (Arcadia, Yale Repertory Theatre) as The Middle/Mendel
- Meg York (Founder of Iranian Farabi Ensemble and Klezmerize) as Musician/Nelly Friedman
Creative team:
- Written by Paula Vogel
- Directed by Nancy Keystone
- Scenic design by Efren Delgadillo Jr. (DCPA Theatre Company’s Smart People)
- Costume design by Jeff Cone (DCPA Theatre Company’s Oklahoma! and Anna Karenina)
- Lighting design by Elizabeth Harper (Between Two Knees, Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
- Sound design by Curtis Craig (DCPA Theatre Company’s Smart People)
- Music direction by Angela Steiner (Associate for DCPA Theatre Company’s Oklahoma!)
- Projection design by Gregory Wren Towle
- Voice and dialect coaching by Mary Mac
- Fight direction by Chris DuVal (Twelfth Night, Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
- Dramaturgy by Doug Langworthy (DCPA Director of New Play Development)
- Casting by Harriet Bass and Grady Soapes, CSA
- Stage management by Michael Morales (Stage Manager), Corin Davidson (Assistant Stage Manager), Nick Nyquest (Apprentice Stage Manager)
“Paula Vogel has been an incredible visionary and voice in American theatre for decades, and what she created with Indecent is a powerful story about who gets to decide what is beautiful and what is ‘indecent,’ ” said Artistic Director Chris Coleman. “Audiences can expect folk music, folk dancing and a play that is going to provoke conversation in a very positive way.”
Indecent: Ticket information
- Dates: Performances August 30-October 6 (Opens September 5)
- Where: Space Theatre
- Genre: Drama, history play with music
- Advisory: Contains adult themes, language and sexual content
- Tickets: Start at $30 and can be purchased at 303-893-4100 or in person in the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex at 14th and Curtis streets or online by clicking here:
