Blogs

  • Arts Week for September 21, 2017

    Posted: September 20th 2017 @8:15 AM

    Arts Week: 21 September 2017

    Guests: Tennessee Williams Festival!

    Michael Kellerman, external relations

    Cem and Meltem, two well-established actors from Turkey who both perform in Antony & Cleopatra

    Abena, Ghanaian actress (who spent her childhood in New York City) appearing in both Antony & Cleopatra and the Ghanaian touring production of Ten Blocks on the Camino Real

    Mawuli, the proprietor/head of the troupe called Abibigromma, which performs as the National Theatre of Ghana.

    ***

    If you’d like to keep up with what’s going on in town between installments of Arts Week, you can always sign up for the weekly mailing list at ptownie.com. They’ll keep you in the know about all the things you need to know to plan your week. Ptownie.com

    At the Cape Rep in Brewster, it’s A New Brain through October 15. In the throes of writer’s block for an irritating children’s TV show, composer Gordon Schwinn experiences a sudden life-threatening brain disorder which engulfs him and those he loves in a tumultuous, surreal and very funny ordeal. Based on an incident in his own life, William Finn explores what is truly important in life and love. Caperep.org

    Coming up at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater it’s The Turn of the Screw from October 19th to the 29th: Based on the provocative tale of suspense and horror, this adaptation gives the famous story yet another turn of its own. A young governess journeys to a lonely English manor house to care for two recently orphaned children. But she is not their first governess. Her predecessor drowned herself when she became pregnant by the sadistic valet, who was himself found dead soon after under mysterious circumstances. Now the new governess has begun to see the specters of those two people haunting the children. But are the ghosts real, or are they the product of her own imagination? what.org

    Want to find out about local music going on all over the Cape? Visit capecodmusic.com for bands and events.

    Of course the big news this week is the 12th annual Tennessee Williams Festival, this year pairing Williams with another William—Shakespeare, that is! The festival begins today and runs through Sunday, and if you haven’t secured your tickets yet, now is the time! Go to twptown.org for the full schedule, and we’ll be talking with some of the actors in just a few minutes. Directors and actors have come to Provincetown from all over the world to perform. The festival honors Tennessee Williams by presenting his classic and undiscovered plays, the work of his peers, and new work inspired by Williams’ creative vision worldwide. The Festival contributes to the cultural wealth of Provincetown by celebrating Williams’ connection to Cape Cod, his evolving international importance, and his avant-garde spirit. Twptown.org

    There are four movie options at the Water’s Edge Cinema:

    • DUNKIRK: An emotionally riveting World War II thriller about the heroic mission to evacuate Allied troops from the French city of Dunkirk when they are surrounded by the German army.
    • STEP: An inspiring & dynamic documentary about the young women of a high school step dancing team, each of whom is striving to be the first in their family to attend college.
    • BEACH RATS: A powerful & visually stunning character study of a young man’s adolescent turmoil as he begins to explore his sexuality through hook-ups with older men he’s met on the internet, while simultaneously starting a relationship with a young woman.
    • LUCKY: A special screening in conjunction with Art House Theater Day, this film is a love letter to the life & career of Harry Dean Stanton, as well as a meditation on morality, loneliness, spirituality & human connection. Free to Film Society members.

     

    The tent may be down for the season, but the Payomet Center for the Performing Arts is teaming up with other arts organizations to bring you Darlene Love and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Check them out at payomet.org.

    Fall classes are now enrolling in creative drama, creative movement, acting & improv, teen acting, and more at the Cape Cod Theatre Company in Harwich. And coming up in October, watch for Little Shop of Horrors, a comedy musical about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. Capecodtheatrecompany.org.

     

  • A Sign of the Times: Glengarry Glen Ross at the Harbor Stage Company

    Posted: July 21st 2017 @7:34 AM

    The play that won David Mamet a Pulitzer when it debuted in 1984, Glengarry Glen Ross concerns a group of middle-aged Chicago salesmen—definitely men—hustling tracts of worthless Florida real estate dressed up as real investments with Scottish-sounding names like Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms. They’re hustling their clients, they’re hustling each other, and by the end of the play one finds oneself wishing that the thief who absconded with the precious “leads” would take the whole office with him as well. There’s nothing to like about these characters or their interactions; but that’s not Mamet’s point: the play is all about deceptions—the deceptions we practice on others, the deceptions we practice on ourselves. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of the glorification of salesmanship with the toll that it takes on people as, well, people.

    Mamet’s been called “a poet of bluster and flimflam, the bard of the blighted American male,” and there is indeed something of poetry in the rapid-fire, talk-over-each-other dialogue in Harbor Stage Company’s current production. Unusually, only one of the founding members is onstage—Robert Kropf, who also directed the piece, plays the smarmy Ricky Roma—but he’s given excellent backup by the other actors, all of whom rise to the stellar performance level that audiences have come to expect from Harbor Stage.

    Be warned: you’re not going to like any of these characters. Mamet would be disappointed if you did. The only nice people around stay stubbornly offstage and become the butt of jokes. And Mamet’s obscene and scatological language could be off-putting for some (though for no one in the audience on the night I went, where every utterance of “fuck”—and they were myriad—elicited gales of laughter). But beyond that, this is a play about loneliness, about looking back and trying to grasp a glory that, perhaps, never was there in the first place.

    Mamet’s characters look even more like small-time losers in 2017 when weighed against the culture of corporate criminality and pitiless downsizing that has blossomed since they were created. The set design—their low-rent office, the tackiness of the Chinese restaurant they frequent—just underlines the sense that they are all on their way out: the end, not just of them, but of an era.

    Mamet’s technique takes some getting used to. He fractures language, starting with sentences that become shorter and shorter, then devolve into fragments, sometimes even just words, before being interrupted by another speaker’s fragment. That style gives the dialogue a rapid-fire intensity and requires actors’ timing to be impeccable—and it is. William Zielinski’s Shelley Levene is pathetic, pitiful, and annoying, just what you’d expect from a salesman past his prime. He yells, he whines, he begs, and he reeks of failure. Zielinski puts a certain manic energy into the role that assures audiences that here is one guy who’s going to go home and put a gun in his mouth if he ever really believes that he’s finished; but his tragedy is that he never will believe that. Kropf—who is consistently inspired across roles—brings just enough positivity to Roma that his is the character one could like, at least a little. He’s at the top of the board, about to win the Cadillac, but he takes time to listen to Levene’s tale (the telling of which takes forever because of constant interruptions). Everybody is at an almost manic level of energy.

    Mamet’s script is filled with racism and misogyny, emblematic of the ’80s; but it would be a mistake to view this as a purely historic commentary. These days, the smarmy real estate hustlers have made their way into the presidential administration in Washington, with obvious and inevitable consequences. Indeed, it’s not a stretch to imagine Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner et. al. screaming obscenities at each other as yet another deal falls through and the police start staking out space in their offices. And that’s perhaps the ultimate sadness of Glengarry Glen Ross: that we’ve come to live it in real life and on an international stage.

     

     

    Photos: Joe Kenehan

     

  • Arts Week: July 13, 2017

    Posted: July 13th 2017 @2:16 PM

    At the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater you can see The Empaths, a timely, face-paced comedy, mines the complex landscape of shifting societal mores, family roles, and the expectations of relationships. Celine, a 30-something serial entrepreneur playing with her father’s money, is faced with the adult challenge of finding love. After randomly meeting Lichen, an overly-compassionate SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy). Celine is instantly convinced Lichen is The One. In order to ensure the relationship sticks, Celine tricks him and her wizened psychotherapist into having their first six dates in couples counseling, with all outside contact forbidden. And this weekend only, you can see The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. Written and performed by James Lecesne and based on his 2008 book of the same name, Absolute Brightness tells the story of detective Chuck DeSantis, a small New Jersey town investigator who sets out to solve the disappearance of a flamboyant 14-year-old boy named Leonard Pelkey. Through Leonard’s world, DeSantis confronts the horrors of bullying and sees how a community can learn to embrace their differences by having the courage to stay true to their individuality. For times and tickets, go to WHAT.org

    At the Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster it’s Men on Boats. In 1869, one-armed explorer John Wesley Powell and his crew of 9 men in 4 boats went down the Colorado River into the Grand Canyon, not knowing what lay ahead. This great adventure is reenacted by ten women —- the rapids, the rations, the ride of their lives— an ingenious and hilarious new play and a hit of the season last year at New York City’s Playwright’s Horizons. See my review on the Arts Week blog at WOMR.org, and get times and tickets at caperep.org

    Provincetown’s Art House has a full schedule of Broadway greats, comedians, and cabaret performers. Varla Jean Merman’s new show is called Bad Heroine. Jinkx Monsoon and Peaches Christ bring their smash hit, Return to Grey Gardens, for a summer long run from July 5 – September 7. Next, Jinkx Monsoon debuts her own new show The Ginger Snapped with cohort Major Scales at the piano, from July 8 through September 10. Super-duo Kitten n’ Lou make their Art House debut with their new comedy “Holier Than Thou” – fresh from a critically-acclaimed, sold out smash run at Fringe World in Australia and Joe’s Pub in NYC, from July 9 – 24. Following that, Varla Jean, Ryan Landry & Peaches Christ debut their new comedy 5 to 9 – a hilarious parody of the hit movie 9 to 5, set in our even MORE absurd Oval Office, running from July 14 – September 9. For tickets and information, visit www.ptownarthouse.com

    On July 18th at the Provincetown Theater it’s the fifth annual Provincetown Story Night, a Moth-like production of real people and real stories. And then it’s the Summer of Salome, Oscar Wilde’s passionate play about passions run amuck. More at provincetowntheater.com

    The musical Chicago is the longest-running musical in Broadway history and it’s making its Outer Cape premiere with the Peregrine Theatre Ensemble at Provincetown’s newly renovated Fishermen Hall. The show follows murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart who find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in the 1920s. See my reviews on the Arts Week blog and in this week’s Provincetown Magazine: this is absolutely a must-see. peregrinetheatre.com

    Coming up at the Payomet Center for the Performing Arts in North Truro, it’s Joan Osborne, Suzanne Vega, and more. For tickets and to see the entire season lineup, go to payomet.org.

    This is your last weekend to catch Anne of Green Gables at the Cape Cod Theatre Company in Harwich. See the classic tale of an orphan girl, Anne, who rises from destitution to happiness in farm country, entirely by virtue of her pluck and personality. Anne’s adventures at Green Gables, the farm owned by her new caretakers, are both comical and heartwarming. The original Anne of Green Gables novel is the first in a prized series by writer L.M. Montgomery. More at capecodtheatrecompany.org.

     

  • Peregrine Does Chicago…

    Posted: July 9th 2017 @10:01 AM

    … and makes it look easy. Chicago is an ambitious production and the Peregrine Theatre Ensemble, presenting the musical as part of its fifth-year anniversary summer, absolutely owns it.

    Everyone knows the history: Chicago is Broadway’s longest-running musical, the winner of six Tony awards, two Olivier awards, and a Grammy. And Adam Berry, executive director of the Peregine Theatre Ensemble, has always wanted to work on it with director and choreographer Kyle Pleasant. When Peregrine finally obtained the rights, Berry sent Pleasant an email with a simple subject line: “And All That Jazz.” Pleasant understood right away.

    What he then did with Chicago is, quite simply, awesome. This is the best of everything: directing, acting, dancing, set design, costumes, lighting—there just isn’t anything in this production that isn’t absolutely spot-on right.

    So: the story. Chicago in the roaring twenties wasn’t a town for the faint of heart, and was even less so after experiencing a spate of real-life murders committed by women against various male partners. On death row in a women’s facility, the famous Velma Kelly (played by Katie O’Rourke) is awaiting trial, represented by smarmy lawyer Billy Flynn (Ben Berry). Velma opens the musical with All That Jazz, but it’s really the third piece, the Cell Block Tango, that shows the audience what this cast can do. It’s gorgeous choreography, but that’s not all. It’s pitch-perfect singing, it’s fantastic dancing. It’s got pathos, and humor (“he ran into my knife. He ran into it 10 times”), and more than a little sexiness.

    And then Roxie Hart (Maddie Garbaty) kills her lover and joins the death row club, and in the process overshadows Velma in both notoriety and access to Billy. O’Rourke is a fantastic dancer—she has to be, with Velma’s moves—and it’s easy to see the desperation she feels when she perceives both fame and freedom slipping away from her. But it’s easy to see, also, how Roxie eclipses Velma, because Garbaty absolutely steals the show: she’s cute, she’s innocent, she’s evil, she’s scheming, she’s humorous… Garbaty expresses all of Roxie’s sides, her little-girlishness, her cold calculation, her will to survive, and somehow in the process makes Roxie a real person. We want her to be okay even as we despise parts of her persona.

    Maybe a little like our own selves.

    Chicago raises issues for a 2017 audience that Fosse & Co. would probably have never imagined. In an arguably post-truth era, its take on the judicial process underlines the adage that there’s nothing new under the sun. “Ladies and gentlemen,” the prologue begins, “you are about to witness a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, and treachery. All the things we hold near and dear to our hearts.”

    Peregrine’s take on all those “near and dear” things underscores both that the story is happening in another time (Berry’s Billy actually sounds like a voice off a 75-rpm record) and that it’s simultaneously all-too-real for a Trump-era audience. The constant presence of the media—and how that media is manipulated—is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and Chicago demonstrates its power, from courting media stars to dictating the course of justice.

    You leave not just with the enjoyment of a brilliant show, but with nagging questions that keep you thinking long after the curtain has gone down. Is this justice? How can a corrupt system be changed? What role does communication play? What constitutes fairness?

    The answers aren’t here: only the questions. But what a way to think about them! From Ellen Rousseau’s lush art-deco scenic design (no, that’s actually not a contradiction in terms) to Seth Bodie’s sexy and vulnerable costumes, the play exudes visual candy. Pleasant’s timing in both direction and choreography couldn’t be better, as the audience enjoys, appreciates, even laughs… and then immediately after wonders why.

    I went to see Chicago with a friend, herself an actor, who was transfixed. We took advantage of the special pre-show dinner offered by The Pointe restaurant at Crowne Pointe Inn, practically next door to the theater: a three-course prix-fixe meal for $35 (at most places in town, that price describes the entrée), which was absolutely delicious and made for an elegant and memorable dinner-and-theatre experience.

    Back on stage, “It’s all a circus,” says Berry in summary, “a three-ring circus. This trial…the whole world…it’s all show business.” Then he adds, “But, kid… you’re working with a star.”

    For the Peregrine Theatre Ensemble, this whole show is a star. Make sure that you get to see it.

    ****

    Photo credits for Chicago: Michael and Sue Karchner, for The Pointe restaurant: Provincetown Tourism.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Men on Boats is a Fantastic Ride

    Posted: July 1st 2017 @3:54 PM

     

    Imagine being on a boat facing the rapids of a fast-moving river. Now imagine watching that experience take place on stage. And finally, imagine (if you can) that the latter doesn’t feel all that removed from the former, and you’ll have a sense of Men on Boats, currently playing at the Cape Rep. It’s exciting, it’s rollicking, and it’s great fun.

    The play doesn’t have a detailed fictional story arc: it’s based on the journals of John Wesley Powell, who in 1869 led a geographical expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers into the great unknown canyon that Powell was the first to call grand. Each of the men on the expedition is represented in the play, as is the bonhomie, competiveness, courage, and fear that such an expedition would forcibly entail; Men on Boats stays close at all times to the historical narrative.

    Except, of course, for the cast being all female.

    This isn’t a gender-bending attempt to make a statement: in a sense, the reversal of gender roles opens the story up in ways that a male cast never could. We notice masculine mannerisms more when women do them, it highlights male speech patterns and approaches to problems, conflicts and aspirations, though it never allows them to become caricatures. The past is a foreign country, and this is as good a way to try and decipher its ways as any.

    And it is funny. When one member of a two-person boat remarks, “There’s one dud in every boat,” his partner, deadpan, inquires, “Who’s the dud in our boat?” In another moment of humorous insight after one of the four boats is destroyed by the rapids, someone says, “We’re going to lose some boats–we’re on a river!”

    The expedition took place when the end of the Civil War was still very close–and very raw, and there’s a sense of that as well, from Powell’s own obvious disfigurement (he lost an arm in the war) to his brother Shady’s uniform hat and constant alertness to possible dangers, a little PTSD that goes nicely with the odd songs he springs on the others from time to time.

    The play touches on what 21st-century viewers see as problems with the historical narrative, but lightly, with sarcastic Ute tribe members and Powell’s musing that “they’ve probably named all this area, and here we are, naming it again­–after ourselves.” But those moments are few: most of the time what we’re seeing is, in fact, what the men experienced: the sheer excitement of a Great Expedition.

    The minimalist stage set is perfect for this production. The cast endures rapids and waterfalls, throws lines, portages, climbs cliffs, and all under the brilliant direction of Mo Hanlon who makes it all seem true, if not real. The choreography is intricate, the music choices whimsical, and the acting, frankly, superb.

    There’s some courage involved in taking on a play that’s relatively new, and not every kink has been ironed out of this one; the last five minutes change gear from showing to telling, and that’s unfortunate, particularly since the rest of the play is not just a painless way to learn a little history but an exciting experience. This is the best ride you’ll go on all summer: be sure not to miss it!

     

     

  • Arts Week, 29 June, 2017

    Posted: June 29th 2017 @11:08 AM

    (If you’d like to keep up with what’s going on in town between installments of Arts Week, you can always sign up for the weekly mailing list at ptownie.com. They’ll keep you in the know about all the things you need to know to plan your week.)

    At the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater you can see Painting Churches. Gardner and Fanny Church are preparing to move out of their Beacon Hill house to their summer cottage on Cape Cod. Their daughter Mags agrees to help, for she hopes as well to finally paint their portrait. She is now on the verge of artistic celebrity herself and hopes, by painting her parents, to come to terms with them and they with her. For times and tickets, go to WHAT.org

    At the Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster it’s Men on Boats. In 1869, one-armed explorer John Wesley Powell and his crew of 9 men in 4 boats went down the Colorado River into the Grand Canyon, not knowing what lay ahead. This great adventure is reenacted by ten women —- the rapids, the rations, the ride of their lives— an ingenious, hilarious, brilliant new play and a hit of the season last year at New York City’s Playwright’s Horizons. More at caperep.org

    Varla Jean returns to Provincetown’s Art House with her new show, Bad Heroine, starting June 23rd and running through the summer. For their whole cabaret schedule, go to ptownarthouse.com

    On July 18th at the Provincetown Theater it’s the fifth annual Provincetown Story Night, a Moth-like production of real people and real stories. And then it’s the Summer of Salome, Oscar Wilde’s passionate play about passions run amuck. More at provincetowntheater.com

    On Sunday, check out the New England Strawberry Festival. That’s at Wellfleet Preservation Hall rom 2-4. And don’t forget that open mic night continues throughout the summer! You can find this and more at wellfleetpreservationhall.org.

    The musical Chicago is the longest-running musical in Broadway history wand it’s making its Outer Cape premiere when Peregrine Theatre Ensemble opens the show at Provincetown’s newly renovated Fishermen Hall. The show follows murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart who find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in the 1920s. peregrinetheatre.com

    Coming up at the Payomet Center for the Performing Arts in North Truro, it’s, Nikki Hill tonight (Take a look at her profile in this week’s Provincetown Magazine), and Marcia Ball on July 2. For tickets and to see the entire season lineup, go to payomet.org

     

  • The Domino Effect (for Diana Fabbri)

    Posted: June 28th 2017 @7:40 AM

    The Domino Effect (for Diana Fabbri)

    I was a teenager when I fell in love with radio. It was the ’70s, and late one night when I couldn’t sleep, I heard a sultry-voiced DJ cooing, “The flutter of wings, the shadow across the moon, the sounds of the night, as the Nightbird spreads her wings and soars above the earth into another level of comprehension, where we exist only to feel. Come fly with me, Alison Steele, the Nightbird, at WNEW-FM until dawn.”

    I was hooked.

    I’ve taken every chance I’ve had to get on the airwaves ever since.

    While in pursuit of those airwaves in Provincetown, Massachusetts, I met a soft-spoken, kind-eyed woman named Diana Fabri.

    One of the countless magical things about Provincetown is its radio station, WOMR, which plays everything from folk music to punk rock to classical.

    I figured if they were willing to follow up The Clash with Beethoven, maybe they’d let me read some of my memoir on the air.

    I’d come to some notice as a chef and food writer, so pretty much every time I tried to get on the radio folks, wanted me to talk about food. I wanted to talk about my crazy family.

    I walked into WOMR in the fall of 2003 and asked to speak to the person in charge. The receptionist directed me to Diana who was the operations manager. I wasn’t sure what a radio station manager might look like but was delighted to find a cute, spunky, smiling woman sorting through albums as if each one were made of gold.

    “Oh I love this one, this one, too, and this one,” she practically sang.

    I told her I wanted to read my memoirs on WOMR. I thought she might roll her eyes and groan, but instead she shouted.

    “Good for you!”

    She agreed to submit my request.

    The powers that be (whoever they were) wanted me to do a show about food, not about my family.

    I offered a compromise: “What if I do both?”

    Diana said, “You have 15 minutes. That’s the longest one uninterrupted voice should be on the radio; people just have no attention span. Tell me how you want to fill it.”

    “I’ll read a memoir for 10 minutes then follow it up with 5 minutes of recipes. We can call it Bite Me!”

    “I like it! Let me run it to the top and see how it flies.”

    I was back in NYC cooking for a wedding when Diana called me.

    “I can’t seem to convince them.”

    “Okay…,” I groaned, “Thanks for trying.”

    She stopped me in the midst of my self-pity fest.

    “You’re giving up that easily?! Let’s talk them into it!”

    Diana arranged to have me call in an audition that she taped over the phone. I read a piece called “The Devil and Mrs. Goldstein.”

    A few weeks later she called sounding like she’d just won the lottery, “You’re in, baby!”

    There was only one small hitch, they felt “Bite Me” was too vulgar for public radio.

    “What if I change it to ‘Bite This’?”

    “Do it, baby!”

    I had a business to run in New York City, but it wasn’t an problem. Diana pre-taped my shows, whenever I came to town. From one of the many albums she loved she found me an upbeat little melody for my theme song.

    Sitting with Di Di, as I called her, for hours as we taped my shows, her kind eyes beaming as she smiled from ear to ear, was pure joy.

    How often in life do you experience pure joy?

    Thirteen years later, “Bite This” is still going.

    Knowing I had to come up with new shows every year kept me writing. The format of following a memoir with recipes became that of my first published book. The audition I read for Diana over the phone became Chapter 1. The book has been adapted for the stage and is now a play.

    I’ve had the honor of going all over the country on my book tour, from Naples, Florida, to Los Angeles to St. Louis, but nowhere was more special than in November of 2016 when I got to read in the event space at WOMR and look into the audience to see Diana’s face, once again, smiling ear-to-ear.

    The spunky powerful lady I met in 2003 had been weakened by pancreatic cancer, but she hadn’t let that keep her home that evening. I wanted to honor her while I still had time.

    I started thanking her for championing me and then was overtaken by the moment and went on to explain that if Diana had not gotten me on WOMR, I would not have written the book and if I had not written the book, none of us would be sitting there sipping wine and having such a lovely time. The crowd, (most of whom did not know about her cancer), gave Diana a well-deserved and hearty round of applause.

    She smiled and nodded, humble to the core, as always.

    After the show, Diana and I embraced. As sick as she was, she still managed to give me a killer hug.

    I thought of a radio show I used to listen to that started with, “Soft and warm the quiet storm.”

    I wondered if this would be the last time I saw her.

    It was.

    Diana and I made plans to get together this month when I was coming back to Provincetown, but she died two weeks before I got there.

    A few days after I arrived in Provincetown, I was staring out at the bay. It was a drizzly, hazy morning and the gray enveloped the bay like a soft blanket.

    I closed my eyes and heard Diana’s voice.

    “DO IT, BABY!”

    For you sweet lady, I will. I will.

     

  • Arts Week Happenings for June 1

    Posted: June 1st 2017 @9:34 AM

     

    Guests in the studio include Rick Hines & Rebecca Alvin of the Provincetown Magazine, and Nina Schusseler of the Cape Cod Theatre Company

     

    If you’d like to keep up with what’s going on in town between installments of Arts Week, you can always sign up for the weekly mailing list at ptownie.com. They’ll keep you in the know about all the things you need to know to plan your week. Ptownie.com

    At the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater you can see Sex with Strangers. When twenty-something star sex blogger and memoirist Ethan tracks down his idol, the gifted but obscure fortyish novelist Olivia, he finds they each crave what the other possesses. My review is on the Arts Week blog. For times and tickets, go to WHAT.org

    Want to go to the movies? At Water’s Edge Cinema you can see NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE & TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER: Richard Gere playfully portrays a well-dressed, wheeling & dealing Manhattanite who befriends an Israeli politician just before his career begins to soar, bringing a mix of positive change & new levels of chaos into both of their lives. A YEAR BY THE SEA: Set & filmed on Cape Cod & based on the best-selling memoir by local writer Joan Anderson, this romantic drama/comedy tells the story of a woman who moves to a seaside cottage for a year of self-reckoning & rediscovery. Times and tickets go to watersedgecinema.org.

    This is your last weekend to see Regular Singing at the Cape Rep Theater, a wonderfully intimate drama set on the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, that unfolds in the Apple home in Rhinebeck, New York as the family shares a monumental evening together, one that is both unique and familiar to us all. More at caperep.org

    Tonight’s the premiere of Wrinkles, the Musical at the Cape Cod Theatre Company in Harwich. In 2008, two dear friends celebrated their 60th birthdays. One went on a silent retreat for three weeks and wrote poetry. The other got a personal trainer, cosmetic dentistry, Botox, Juvaderm, and laser treatments. See how it all worked out! For times and tickets, visit capecodtheatrecompany.org.

    As you know, it’s almost time for the 19th annual Provincetown International Film Festival! It runs from June 14th to 18th, and you can see the entire film lineup at ptownfilmfest.org

    Coming up on June 23rd and 24th it’s the 12th annual Provincetown Dance Festival, a showcase of the best in dance for Provincetown audiences from hip-hop to ballet, from tap to contemporary and classical Indian dance. More at provincetowntheater.com

    Want do try your hand at creating art? The Provincetown Art Association and Museum has posted its summer workshops on its website; many of these workshops fill quickly, so you might want to peruse the offerings and see if there’s something there to interest or challenge you. Check it out at paam.org. And the Castle Hill Center for the Arts in Truro has also posted its 2017 workshops, from encaustic to pottery to textiles to photography, there’s something for everyone. You can find out more about these classes and more at castlehill.org

    Coming up at the Payomet Center for the Performing Arts in North Truro, it’s Judy Collins on June 10th, Los Lobos on June 18th, and Marcia Ball on July 2. For tickets and to see the season lineup, go to payomet.org.

     

  • Anything But Strange: Sex With Strangers at WHAT

    Posted: May 26th 2017 @5:52 PM

    The setup is almost too cliché to take seriously: put together a reclusive writer (whose one opus never garnered commercial success) with a younger writer of extremely popular fluff; listen to them spout self-absorbed literary existentialist nonsense; and watch them inevitably end up together in bed. This isn’t a play, it’s a trope. Its clickbait title, its endless namechecking (Smashwords? Jeffrey Eugenides?), and its overall lack of subtlety have one wondering if there isn’t in fact a joke here—and it’s on the audience.

    So I have to start by saying this: it’s a massive tribute to the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater that its production of Sex With Strangers is able to rise above the wild inconsistencies and impoverished worldview of the script and present something worth seeing.

    Despite its title, this play has little to do with sex. Instead, it’s about a lot of other things: it’s about power, and it’s about identity, and it’s about aspirations. Playwright Laura Eason isn’t big on subtleties: the world she presents is strictly binary. Men behave like jerks and women behave like frightened rabbits. Writers are either shallow, rich, and hugely popular, or talented, poor, and toiling in obscurity. One is either obsessively digitally connected (to the tune of thousands of hits on a blog) or unable to keep up with the digital revolution, left alone by the literary wayside, drinking wine by the fire.

    And it is about gender as well, in Eason’s seriously unfortunate choice of—oh, let’s see, cliché alert, a sexually promiscuous brash young male with literary pretensions playing house with an innocent rejected insecure talented female novelist. In the opening scene, Ethan has clearly been stalking Olivia (and there isn’t anything wrong with this?); they end up alone in a snowstorm in the same isolated B&B; after a few hours together he ravishes her and off to the bedroom they go. Remind me: what century are we in?

    The plot twists—and there are several—depend heavily on great direction and great acting in order to work; they teeter constantly on the edge of melodrama. As the power is passed back and forth between the two characters, actors Nichole Hamilton and John Kovach pull humanity out of caricature and somehow enable the audience to care about what’s going on.

    “It smells like the future,” muses Olivia, sniffing her new iPad. (Wait—did she actually say that? You’re kidding, right?) Fortunately, Hamilton is able to carry off lines like that one (and there are many) by absorbing them into her character, making the remarks self-deprecating rather than ingenious. Kovach has more challenges: he has to make us believe that Ethan—who has apparently stepped off the cover of a Harlequin romance and is proving it by taking off his shirt at every possible opportunity—is actually trying to become a serious writer. And although Ethan’s behavior strays into the abusive (he not only violates Olivia’s space but violates her trust by stealing and reading her manuscript), Kovach manages to resurrect his humanity as the play progresses, showing flashes of insecurity that are real rather than bombastic and touching rather than irritating.

    Both actors were clearly faced with substantial choices throughout the play; they’re allowing their characters to explore a range of feelings about success and failure and how one’s sense of self-worth is affected and do it despite the unfortunate lines through which they must convey it all.

    While it’s a mystery to me why anyone would wish to produce this play, director Jeffry George manages to tease out the comedic moments and avoid the worst of the clichés, and that alone elevates him to the brilliant category.

    If subtlety is missing in the script, it’s present in the staging. Michael Steers has outdone himself here, especially in the north-country B&B where the play opens. He’s followed Eason’s binary requirements by contrasting its coziness with a modern, sterile Chicago condo; but his real genius is in atmosphere. The quiet shimmering snow, barely perceptible, falling outside the window. The braided rug and the plaid sofa in the B&B. The glass-and-chrome fittings of the modern Chicago condominium, cold beyond belief. It’s as though Eason said, “the world is black and white, show me the two extremes” and Steers responded, but with his own subtle twists.

    None of the “revelations” about changes and shakeouts in the publishing industry should have been news to anybody in 2017. Perhaps that’s why it was so easy to look past them and see where Eason had the opportunity here to make something real, to decide what her goal was and go for it, and instead decided to cop out with a cheap “insider” look at what’s in fact a layered and complex literary scene.

    The play is a mess. The production, actors, and director did their best, and should be honored for it. Sex With Strangers is ultimately anything but strange: it’s a rehash of a story that’s older than any of us, and not a very good one at that.

     

    Sex with Strangers is playing at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater through June 10th; Thurs-Sat at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm. Photos by Michael and Sue Karchmer.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Arts Week Happenings for May 18

    Posted: May 19th 2017 @6:59 PM

    This is Arts Week, and I’m Jeannette de Beauvoir. I’m going to give you a taste of what’s going on around the mid and lower Cape in terms of art, literature, theater, cultural events, and other entertainment.

    If you’d like to keep up with what’s going on in town between installments of Arts Week, you can always sign up for the weekly mailing list at ptownie.com. They’ll keep you in the know about all the things you need to know to plan your week. Ptownie.com

    20Summers is back in Provincetown for a month of art, music, and more at the old Hawthorne Barn. Get tickets to their season of concerts and conversations in the Hawthorne Barn from May 12 to June 10. Space is limited to each event, so get yours today! You can also visit them on Thursday nights for their Artist Residency Open Studios. 20Summers.com

    At the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater you can see Sex with Strangers. When twenty-something star sex blogger and memoirist Ethan tracks down his idol, the gifted but obscure fortyish novelist Olivia, he finds they each crave what the other possesses. As attraction turns to sex, and they inch closer to getting what they want, both must confront the dark side of ambition and the trouble of reinventing oneself when the past is only a click away. For times and tickets, go to WHAT.org

    At the Provincetown Theater this is your last weekend to see Oscar Wilde’s Salome, a scandalous play that takes place at King Herod’s birthday party. “The Man Who Has It All” only wants one thing- for his stepdaughter Salome to dance for him. He promises to give her absolutely anything in return. The rest, of course, is history. For times and tickets, visit provincetowntheater.org

    Come dance! The Outermost Contra Dance takes place on the third Friday of each month at the Wellfleet Preservation Hall with a community potluck beforehand at 6:30, and the dance starting at 7:00. Contra dancing is social interaction set to music, meeting people, and making new friends. A caller, working with a group of live musicians, guides new and experienced dancers alike through a variety of dances. No need to bring a partner. More at wellfleetpreservationhall.org

    Want to go to the movies? At Water’s Edge Cinema you can see Three Generations, a stirring & touching story of three generations living together & grappling to understand & support the youngest as s/he prepares to transition from female to male. Starring Naomi Watts, Susan Sarandon & Elle Fanning. A Quiet Passion tells the story of American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist. Times and tickets go to watersedgecinema.org.

    The Cape Rep is presenting Regular Singing, a wonderfully intimate drama set on the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, that unfolds in the Apple home in Rhinebeck, New York as the family shares a monumental evening together, one that is both unique and familiar to us all. More at caperep.org

    As you know, it’s almost time for the 19th annual Provincetown International Film Festival! Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Preview Weekend from Friday May 19th to Sunday May 21st has been cancelled, as Lainie Kazan was hospitalized this week in Panama and has cancelled all her appearances, including an intimate dinner hosted by the Red Inn and her two cabaret shows on Cape Cod. Refunds will be issued and everyone is invited to attend a festival preview at 11 am on May 21 at the Water’s Edge Cinema. Artistic Director Lisa Viola will present trailers of the most highly anticipated films. Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase specially discount festival passes and purchase festival tickets before they go on sale to the general public. And go ahead and check out the entire film lineup at ptownfilmfest.org

    The Provincetown Art Association and Museum has posted its summer workshops on its website; many of these workshops fill quickly, so you might want to peruse the offerings and see if there’s something there to interest or challenge you. Check it out at paam.org And the Castle Hill Center for the Arts in Truro has also posted its 2017 workshops, from encaustic to pottery to textiles to photography, there’s something for everyone. You can find out more about these classes and more at castlehill.org

    There’s a great lineup of performances and activities at the Payomet Center for the Performing Arts in North Truro, and as it’s a good idea to get tickets in advance, head on over to payomet.org to see what’s happening.