Uncategorized | January 7, 2008
“Plainsong,” Kent Haruf’s award-winning novel about life on Colorado’s High Plains, struck a chord with readers in Wyoming. Haruf was one of the presenters at the 2005 Literary Connection in Cheyenne, sharing the podium with his pal, Wyoming’s Mark Spragg, author of “An Unfinished Life.” Both of these chroniclers of rural life in the Rocky Mountain region have had their works translated into electronic versions. “Plainsong” was adapted for TV; “An Unfinished Life” became a major motion picture.
Now “Plainsong” makes it stage debut at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Stage Theater in downtown Denver. See it Jan. 25-Feb. 23. Curtain Times: Mon.-Thur. at 6:30 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. at 7:30 p.m.; Sat. matinee at 1:30 p.m.
The play was written by Eric Schmiedl (“based upon” the novel written by Kent Haruf) and directed by Kent Thompson.
In case you don’t know the book, here’s a description from the DCPA:
Set on the high plains of eastern Colorado, this adaptation of the New York Times best-selling novel unflinchingly portrays love and loss in a small ranching community. A school teacher is left alone to care for his vulnerable sons, while two gruff bachelor brothers – knowing little about life beyond the ranch – awkwardly offer a home to a pregnant teenage girl. As their lives intertwine, they survive harshness and cruelty to recreate family and community. Warm, stark, unsentimental, yet poetic – this story taps a deep well of human emotion.
The Wyoming Arts Council believes that experiencing the arts should be accessible for all, including people with mental and/or physical disabilities, older adults, military/veterans, people living in institutions and those who lack access to the arts due to geographic isolation, cultural difference and economic hardship.
