Buntport Meets Tesla at the Summit

08 Feb Buntport Meets Tesla at the Summit

[click “Play”, Tracy speaks with Buntport’s Erin Rollman]

by Tracy Shaffer

For the first time in its six year history, Denver Center Theatre Company has included a local theatre company in the upcoming Colorado New Play Summit. Buntport Theatre Company is a zany/brainy collaboration of theatrical inventors, who have consistently delivered Denver’s most original theatre for the past ten years. Taking on Hamlet, Kafka, Ovid and O’Neill, Buntport has proven itself a true mix of the ridiculous and the sublime.

Last year the Buntport phone rang. It was “The Big House” on the other line, offering to commission an original piece for the Play Summit.  Shocked, validated, and thinking perhaps they’d been Punk’d, Buntport valiantly accepted the challenge. What makes this event extraordinary is that it marks the first time a collaborative piece enters the fray, and solidifying the Denver Center Theatre’s position as an inclusive member of our theatre community. Since taking the helm in 2005, Artistic Director Kent Thompson has made a concerted effort to engage and draw from Denver’s considerable talent pool, something rare in the previous administration.

The Buntport piece, An Extraordinary Demonstration of Nikola Tesla’s Most Recent Discoveries, will be presented to the public on Saturday, February 12 in the Denver Center’s Jones Theatre. Join me as I talk to the brains and beauty behind the operation, Buntporter Erin Rollman about this most excellent adventure.

Tickets for all Summit readings are free and open to the public, but reservations are a must. Call 303-893-4000 or visit www.denvercenter.org/summit.