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WHAT in the World Wellfleet’s high-profile summer playhouse attracts bright lights of theatre
In Elmer Rice’s 1923 play, The Adding Machine, Mrs. Zero This year, 2007, is a landmark for Zinn. Two decades had it right. ago, the musician, actor, and writer gave up the itinerant “I’m getting sick o’ them westerns,” she says. “All them lifestyle of a New York actor/director for Wellfleet’s seacowboys ridin’ around an’ foolin’ with them ropes … I sonal theatre. His debut as a director was 1987’s A Lie of the don’t see why they don’t have more of them stories like For Mind, by Sam Shepard. Love’s Sweet Sake. I like them sweet little love stories.” Over the years, WHAT has produced other plays by In 1985, six Lower Cape writers and actors felt a similar Shepard along with works by Arthur Miller, David Mamet, need for theatrical change. Gip Hoppe, Dan Walker, Kevin Samuel Beckett, and WHAT founders Gip Hoppe and Rice, Dick Morrill, Laurie Swift, and Vicky Shepard had one Kevin Rice. Performances grew in size and scope, and common goal: to establish great theatre on Cape Cod. And additional programs were added. WHAT for Kids, a chilso they formed their own company and named it the Well- dren’s acting workshop, was launched in 1998. Here, chilfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT). They made sets, dren create entire performances under the tutelage of wrote plays, memorized lines, and sewed costumes in garages, basements, and barns. Today, 22 years later, WHAT’s executive office and $5 million theater in the works seem far removed from the garages, basements, and barns of a short time ago. “A bridge will connect our offices with the theater,” says Jeff Zinn, WHAT’s artistic director. “It’s really quite amazing.” As we talk, Zinn mentions the bridge several times. The bridge enchants him. Later, it becomes clear why: For years, Zinn has been one for the Wellfleet Julie Harris, right, in WHAT’s production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Harbor Actors Theater.
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BY TOM KEER
SPOTLIGHT ON THEATRE Live theatre has a special place in our area and many options. Here are a few: CAPE COD THEATRE PROJECT 7 Highfield Drive, Falmouth Academy Falmouth, MA 02540 General Information: 508-457-4242 Box Office: 508-457-4242 Web site: www.capecodtheatreproject.org Cape Playhouse 820 Route 6A, Dennis, MA 02638 Box Office: 508-896-1888 Web site: www.capeplayhouse.com Eastham •
Cape Rep Theatre 3299 Route 6A, East Brewster, MA 02631 Box Office: 508-896-1888 Web site: www.caperep.org
Wellfleet •
Monomoy Theatre 776 Main Street, Chatham, MA 02633 Box Office: 508-945-1589 Web site: www.monomoytheatre.org
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Provincetown
Provincetown Repertory Theatre 476 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA 02657 Box Office: 508-487-0600 Web site: www.ptownrep.com Shakespeare on the Cape Box 333, Provincetown, MA 02657 Box Office: 508-487-7377 Web site: www.shakespeareonthecape.org Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater Box 797, Wellfleet, MA 02667 Box Office: 508-349-WHAT Web site: www.what.org Zeiterion Theatre 684 Purchase Street, New Bedford, MA 02740 Box Office: 508-994-2900 Web site: www.zeiterion.org
Tom Keer is a freelance writer who lives in Wellfleet.
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Payomet Performing Arts Center The Tent at Route 6 & Noons Height Road Truro, MA 02652 Box Office: 508-487-5400 Web site: www.ppactruro.org
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veteran actors. Inaugurated in 2000, the Winter Play Reading Series produces dozen staged readings that enliven the dreary months of the year and showcase new works by some of the best contemporary playwrights. The theatre founders’ crePlaywright Sam Shepard ativity and hard work paid off, and in 2001 WHAT won the coveted Elliot Norton Award “for establishing a serious theater on Cape Cod.” The Boston Globe dubbed WHAT “one of the region’s top 10 theaters.” With an award-winning reputation in place, the only way for WHAT to further raise its artistic bar was to become a Professional Equity Theater (PET). As a PET Theater, WHAT could produce higher-caliber plays, hire the country’s best actors and designers, and add a full-time management team. Reclassification as a PET theater was the breakthrough that WHAT worked toward for years. With a solid creative and management foundation, all that was needed was a topnotch stage on which to perform the plays. Zinn began raising capital. Generous contributions came from donors, sponsors, the community, and artistic foundations. The new theatre construction project is expected to be complete in May 2007. Zinn hired a fulltime management team, including Jeffry George as managing director. Add an impressive veteran team that includes Mitch Eskie as house manager, Chris Huge as production manager, and Dan Lombardo as dramaturge, and you’ve got a theatrical powerhouse. WHAT’s new theater, the Julie Harris Stage, will be a state-of-the-art year-round playhouse with 200 seats. WHAT will maintain the Harbor Stage, the seasonal 90seat Chamber Theater overlooking Mayo Beach. WHAT for Kids will run in July and August in a tent adjacent to the new theater, and the 2008 Winter Play Reading Series will debut in the new theater later in the year. Check out a WHAT performance this year. Mrs. Zero would like that there ain’t no westerns. For a schedule of the upcoming season, contact WHAT at 508-349-WHAT or visit www.what.org.