The Denver Center Theatre Company is excited to announce the full casting and creative teams for the world premiere productions of Cowboys and East Indians by Nina McConigley and Matthew Spangler, and Godspeed by Terence Anthony. Both world premiere productions were first introduced to audiences as readings at the 2024 Colorado New Play Summit. 

“Each winter, the Denver Center Theatre Company opens the door for audiences to experience bold new stories by some of the most gifted playwrights in American theatre, said Artistic Director Chris Coleman. “Cowboys and East Indians follows the Sen family as they navigate cultural collisions moving from India to Wyoming and examines understanding your identity when you don’t see a reflection of it in your community. Godspeed is a classic Western that takes audiences on an epic theatrical adventure of one woman’s journey for vengeance. Both plays celebrate voices that are profoundly moving, and we are honored to champion new work that sparks conversation and connection.” 

For information and tickets, visit denvercenter.org. The DCPAccess reduced price ticket on sale for Cowboys and East Indians and Godspeed will take place on Tuesday, January 6 at noon. Through the DCPAccess program, made possible by citizen support of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), the DCPA can provide a limited number of reduced-price tickets to the community to select DCPA productions. 

Cowboys and East Indians will feature Sadithi De Zilva (Let’s Talk About Anything Else, The Flea Theater) as Lakshmi “Lucky” Sen, Minita Gandhi (Arabian Nights, Lookingglass Theatre) as Chitra Sen, Shawn K. Jain (2nd Murderer, The Flea) as Rajah Sen, Christopher Kelly (Tomorrow in the Battle, Stageworks/Hudson) as Richard Larson, and Shannan Steele (Hamlet, DCPA) as Nancy Larson.  

Cowboys and East Indians will be directed by Chris Coleman (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, DCPA) with scenic design by Chika Shimizu (Soft Power, Signature Theatre), costume design by Meghan Anderson Doyle (Hamlet, DCPA), lighting design by Amith Chandrashaker (Prayer for the French Republic, Broadway), original music and sound design by Lindsay Jones (Hamlet, DCPA), voice and dialect coaching by Pavithra Prasad (DCPA debut), dramaturgy by Leean Kim Torske (The Suffragette’s Murder, DCPA), psychodramaturgy by Barbara Hort, PhD (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, DCPA), casting by Grady Soapes, CSA (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, DCPA), and stage management by Elizabeth Ann Goodman (Misery, Broadway) and Harper Hadley (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, DCPA). 

Cowboys and East Indians is the recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. 

NINA MCCONIGLEY is the author of Cowboys and East Indians (Viking) and How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder (Pantheon). Cowboys and East Indians was the winner of the PEN Open Book Award and High Plains Book Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Orion, O, Oprah Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, and Ploughshares, among others. In 2019-2020, she was the Walter Jackson Bate fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Creative Writing Fellowship. She teaches at Colorado State University. 

MATTHEW SPANGLER. The Kite Runner from Khaled Hosseini’s novel (Broadway, West End, U.S. and U.K. tours); The Beekeeper of Aleppo co-written with Nesrin Alrefaai, from Christy Lefteri’s novel (U.K. tour); Operation Ajax co-written with Farshad Farahat; Tortilla Curtain from T.C. Boyle’s novel (San Diego Rep); Albatross co-written with Benjamin Evett (off-Broadway); Striking Back co-written with Kellie Hughes, from Mary Manning and Sinead O’Brien’s memoir (Dublin Theatre Festival); Forgotten Empress co-written with Farah Yasmeen Shaikh (Z Space, San Francisco). Matthew is Professor of Performance Studies at San José State University, California; and Writer in Residence at the Hinterland Festival, Ireland. 

Godspeed will feature CG (“Queer as Folk” on Peacock) as Godspeed, Khiry Walker (Sally and Tom, Public Theatre) as Jacob/Pettus/Felix, Christopher Halladay (In Masks Outrageous & Austere, Off-Broadway) as Nelson Bendy, Zurin Villanueva (Murder Mystery 2 on Netflix) as Mama Zo/Lucinda Tanner, Erica Cruz Hernández (Skirball, Off-Broadway) as Peklai Cobos,   Colton Pratt (Sense and Sensibility, Theatreworks) as Benjamin Mauck, and Gareth Saxe (The Suffragette’s Murder, DCPA) as John Bendy/Kent.  

Godspeed will be directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg (Deceived, Old Globe Theatre), scenic design by Tanya Orellana (Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, DCPA), costume design by Nicole Jescinth Smith (“The Chair Company” on HBO), lighting design by Charles R. MacLeod (Little Shop of Horrors, DCPA), sound design by Noel Nichols/Uptown Works (I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, DCPA), dramaturgy by Arminda Thomas (The Renaissance Mixtape, Apollo Victoria Theatre), fight direction by Samantha Egle (Rubicon, DCPA), voice and dialect coaching by Nathan Crocker (Ain’t Too Proud, National Tour/Pre-Broadway), casting by Grady Soapes, CSA (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, DCPA) and Amber Snead, CSA of Murnane Casting (The Hot Wing King, DCPA), and stage management by Chandra R.M. Anthenill (One of the Good Ones, Old Globe Theatre) and Malia Stoner (A Christmas Carol, DCPA). 

TERENCE ANTHONY is a playwright and TV writer based in Los Angeles. TV credits include the Paramount+ show “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” and an upcoming series for Netflix.  He is currently developing a limited series with Escape Artists Entertainment. Terence’s plays have been seen at the Alcove/Lortel Theatre, Colorado New Play Summit, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, PlayPenn Conference, Chicago Dramatists, RADAR LA Festival, and Great Plains Theatre Conference. Theater credits include: The House of the Negro Insane (World Premiere, Contemporary American Theater Festival, 2022 + National Black Theater Conference, 2022), Burners (2017 Ovation nominee), Euphrates (Max K. Lerner Playwriting Fellowship), Tombolo (O’Neill Conference finalist).