Jon Marcantoni, a local playwright and founder of the Denver theater company Flamboyán, was nearing the end of the run of “Puerto Rican Nocturne” — his drama about the killings of two young, pro-Independence activists at Cerro Maravilla, during a time of particularly heightened tensions between those fighting for the Caribbean island’s independence and those wanting statehood — when he began writing “Empire of Solitude.” Also centered on the Puerto Rican experience, the drama inspired by the poet Julia de Burgos begins a run at Buntport in early August. In 2021, Marcantoni had been in talks with another writer about developing a story featuring the mid-20th century poet who died in July 1953 in New York City at the age of 39.
(She was reinterred in Puerto Rico two months later.) When that collaborator departed for another project, Burgos wouldn’t let him go. He was compelled by her poetry and her biography to figure a way into her creativity and boldness, artistry and activism.
He spent time “deep diving into her poetry and reading everything I possibly could about her,” he recalled over coffee one morning. “Her poetry is incredibly confessional. Which was nice because I didn’t have to assume a lot, like, ‘Oh, how does she feel about this? How does she feel about that?’ She tells you.
” Still, he wasn’t interested in telling her story in a conventional way. “I like a good biopic,” Marcantoni said. “But most biopics are bad.
It’s becaus.