The Provincetown Players News

Need something new to read or watch? Check out this week's list of new and upcoming releases!

Found Stages and Dunwoody Nature Center are joining to present the forth play in the second annual 'Wine & Reading Series,'  Lee Nowell's And Cauldron Bubble on Sunday,  August 11th.  

Modern American drama was born in Provincetown when the Provincetown Players were founded in July, 1915. They are credited with changing American theater forever by birthing the careers of famous playwrights such as Eugene O'Neill and Susan Glaspell, who would eventually relocate to Greenwich Village to found the historic and famous Provincetown Playhouse. These revolutionary artists set the stage for Provincetown to become a hub for talented and innovative theatrical minds. Ever since, Provincetown has been an incubator for brilliant theatrical characters, many of whom would go on to become well-known on an international stage.

Susan Glaspell's The Verge, an expressionistic masterpiece of the 1920s, will be performed Oct. 18 -22 in the F. Scott Black Theatre in the Robert and Eleanor Romadka College Center at Community College of Baltimore County Essex, 7201 Rossville Blvd. Part of Performing Arts at CCBC's season of American Masters, the play highlights the work of Susan Glaspell, an American playwright, who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1931 for her play Alison's House, but is best known for her one-act Trifles. 

Transport Group has announced casting for its world premiere musical, Renascence, which begins performances Friday, October 5 at 7:30pm, at the Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand Street. Renascence has music by Carmel Dean (musical director If/Then, American Idiot), book by Dick Scanlan (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Everyday Rapture), and lyrics from the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. The musical is directed by artistic director Jack Cummings III and Dick Scanlan. The opening is set for Thursday, October 25 at 7:30pm.

Inspired by the life and work of the American poet Emily Dickinson, The Depot Theatre in Marrickville presents the (lost) American classic and Pulitzer Prize winner, ALISON'S HOUSE by Susan Glaspell. Motivated by a desire to bring iconic, but neglected plays written by women into contemporary consciousness, ALISON'S HOUSE is an integral part of Depot's 2018 Season, playing 8pm Wed-Fri, 2pm and 8pm Sat, 4 - 21 April 2018.

Wagner College Theatre, as part of its New Works Agenda, will present three works-in-progress Trifles, Small Town Story and The Mouth Pieces, at its intimate Stage One space (located behind the Wagner College Football Stadium).

Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright Sam Shepard passed away on Thursday, July 27 of complications from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Shepard spent a decade as playwright-in-residence at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, where he premiered his masterworks Buried Child (Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 1979), True West (1980), and Fool for Love (1983, starring Ed Harris and Kathy Baker). Shepard returned to Magic in 2000 to direct the world premiere of his new work The Late Henry Moss, starring Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and Cheech Marin.

For those who didn't have the opportunity to meet the cast of fourteen in East Lynne Theater Company's 'Ah, Wilderness!' at the after-show party at The Merion Inn, another chance is to be had on Friday, August 4 at an after-show Q&A.  It's a wonderful opportunity for patrons to ask the actors and  director such questions as how characters are created, what goes into selecting a season of plays, and where they have previously worked.  Actors in this production have a variety of backgrounds, including performing in regional theater, film and on Broadway, and are ages 12 on up.

???????Eugene O'Neill's celebrated Pulitzer Prize winning drama and hit of the 2016 season, is returning to the Wharf House at the Provincetown Marina for 2017. The Provincetown Dramatic Arts production of Anna Christie was selected as one of the Best Plays of 2016 and Sarah MacDonnell was honored as one of the best female performances in her role of Anna (by the Cape Cod Times). The play opens on July 13 and runs Thursday - Sunday until July 30. Margaret Van Sant, Artistic Director of the Provincetown Dramatic Arts, directs.

Directed by Aimee Todoroff and Tonya Pinkins and now in performances at the Gloria Maddox Theatre, Visionary Voices begins with Susan Glaspell's Trifles, followed by Marita Bonner's Exit: An Illusion and ending with Glaspell's The People - three wonderful plays that are more engaging and poignant in their single acts than many full length shows ever have the opportunity of being. All three plays take place at or near the start of the twentieth century, craftily combining themes as relevant today as they were then - collaborating with suspenseful plots, troubled characters and questionable motives that, when put together, show just how clever Todoroff and Pinkins are. In both the structure of this show as a whole and the effect it has on the audience, the truth here is that Visionary Voices is more than a statement - it is definitely a production worth your time.

Park Avenue Armory presents a bold staging of Eugene O'Neill's iconic American drama The Hairy Ape, directed by Oliver Award-winner Richard Jones and starring Tony nominee Bobby Cannavale.

Owing to the popularity of this double bill, Metropolitan Playhouse is adding two performances in the final week of June to the run of O'NEILL (UNEXPECTED).

THE HAIRY APE at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble through July 17 tells the story of Robert 'Yank' Smith, a brutish ship laborer who searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the wealthy elite who he believes only see him as a dirty and hairy ape rather than a real human being. As head coal stoker on an ocean liner, Yank (Haile D'Alan whose incredible and extremely physical performance lifts the entire production to the highest artistic quality) is in his element where he rules his dark, hot, hard-drinking smoky world while managing a group of six other coal stokers who seem to prove their resemblance to simians no matter what they do thanks to the brilliant and totally physical ape-like choreography of their every move by director Steven Berkoff. It's truly a wonder as to how the ensemble manages to keep their energy at such a high level throughout the entire show.

Renowned British actor/writer/director Steven Berkoff directs a rare production of Eugene O'Neill's 1922 expressionist play THE HAIRY APE. The production opened on May 14 at West L.A.'s Odyssey Theatre, and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

History Matters/Back To The Future, committed to promoting the study and production of women's plays of the past, has announced the winner of the second annual Judith Barlow Prize. Lindsay Adams, a student at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., has been chosen for her one-act play, HER OWN DEVICES, which was inspired by Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Harvey.

Renowned British actor/writer/director Steven Berkoff will direct a rare production of Eugene O'Neill's 1922 expressionist play The Hairy Ape, opening May 14 at West L.A.'s Odyssey Theatre.

History Matters/Back To The Future, committed to promoting the study and production of women's plays of the past, has announced the winner of the second annual Judith Barlow Prize. Lindsay Adams, a student at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., has been chosen for her one-act play, HER OWN DEVICES, which was inspired by Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Harvey.

The award-winning Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company announces its 2016 Cape May Mainstage Season. As usual, it includes classic gems, a NJ premiere, and a radio show. This year's theme is 'Love Bites.'

Why did a man in Pennsylvania create The Red-Headed League in London?  Who is the person behind "The Voice" stealing millions in Manhattan?  What organization is considered the first modern American theater company?