Tag Archive for: Playwriting

Playwriting Lab

Colorado Companies Foster New Voices in Theatre

Theater, by its very nature, is a collaborative enterprise. But creating the raw material – the scripts themselves – can be a lonely one. Without hearing the words spoken by actors, the playwrights are left with the voices in their heads. That access to a full company of theater specialists makes the DCPA’s Colorado New […]

Director of Education Allison Watrous works with the cast of They Stole the Moon by Ricardo D'Urso

The Transformative Power of High School Playwriting

Why is arts education so important? The arts provide soft skills like creativity, communication, confidence, and emotional intelligence that can be used as building blocks for a career in any industry. Access to arts education, especially for students who might not typically receive it, is scientifically proven to create a solid foundation for academic achievement. […]

A DCPA education student reads from a piece of paper onstage

Unleash Your Inner Playwright

Imagine two characters meeting on the street. One sincerely believes they know each other, while the other insists they have never met. How would their interaction go? If this prompt got your creative engine running, consider taking a playwriting class from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) Education Department. Since 2012, DCPA Education […]

Colorado New Play Summit image of two women laughing and acting out lines while reading

Progression of a Script

Since our inception in 1979, the DCPA Theatre Company has been committed to new works. In fact, our very first season included the world premiere of Passing Game by Steve Tesich. By our 1982/83 season we had held our first public reading of a work in development — A Beautiful World by David Jones. Our […]

Colorado New Play Summit image of two women laughing and acting out lines while reading

New Play Festivals Across the U.S.

Every year, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts hosts the Colorado New Play Summit, featuring new play readings and attracting theatre industry leaders and artists. Launch Weekend showcases stripped-down readings of plays in development, so the playwright, director, and audience can focus entirely on the story. After receiving audience feedback, the productions spend the […]

2022 Student Playwriting Competition Finalists and Winners

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is proud to announce the winning plays as part of its annual High School and Middle School Playwriting Competition, which has impacted more than 25,000 students since its inception in 2013. The DCPA’s Education & Community Engagement Department launched the playwriting program to spark interest in the […]

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot_full

Creativity: A Super Power

Remember when you were a kid and maybe ditched class a few too many times that it raised suspicion? So does Allison Watrous, Executive Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. When her mom came to observe her in class at the teacher’s request, she “quickly found out that I was visiting the bathroom to sing in the acoustics at a full belt!”