Sundays, July 10 to August 7, 2 pm in the Marc Jacobs Reading Room
The Provincetown Public Library and Library Director Amy Raff are pleased to announce the return of live theater to the Library with the revival of its Summer Play Series! This popular series – originally conceived in 2012 by former Library Director Matthew Clark and the noted actor/writer Bragan Thomas – seeks to present new works by local, Cape-based authors and playwrights, continuing the tradition of Provincetown as a center for the production and development of contemporary theater and literature. Now, the Summer Play Series returns for the 2022 Season with five new plays, covering a wide range of genres from uproarious comedy/satire, to drama, to sci-fi fantasy. Each new work will be a one-act play, to be shown as a costumed, staged reading on Sunday afternoons at 2PM in July and August.
The Series will commence on July 10 with Reverend Mother’s Final Confession, by the well-known playwright Lucy Blood. In this new comedy, a Reverend Mother shares a “trinity” of secrets during her retirement party as Principal of the Immaculate Conception Elementary School. On July 17, emerging author John Hanright’s The Finishing Touch, a serious drama examining the complex relationships between a dying woman, her daughter, and her nurse, all of them linked by love, and the craft of quilt-making, will be performed. July 24 sees the mood shift from drama to satire, with a reading of Jonathan Scott Ryder’s new dark comedy, Summer Stalk. In this satirical treatment of 1980s “slasher” films, a group of camp counselors spend the night sharing their local legends, opening up the possibility of darker intentions arising. Will they all survive the night, or will it be their last? July 31 sees a return to serious drama, with Peter Creedon’s A Rainy Night on India Street, set on Nantucket in the late 1960s. In this brand-new work, four characters gather on “a dark and stormy night,” and we learn that real power in a small town is to be found in unexpected places. The Series will conclude on August 7, with a very special teaser presentation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth, adapted by Bragan Thomas from the classic 1927 novella by the fabled sci-fi/horror author H.P. Lovecraft. In this epic fantasy, an aristocratic scholar learns that there is such a thing as knowing too much when he makes an unexpected visit to a mysterious, isolated seaport somewhere along the Massachusetts coast. This is the first time this major work by the renowned 20th century master of the uncanny has been adapted for the stage.
Each presentation will be held on Sunday afternoons at the Library in the Marc Jacobs Room at 2PM and will be followed by a talk-back and discussion with the author. Admission is free. Come and participate in the development of exciting new works of live theater at the height of the summer Season! The 2022 Summer Play Series is being produced by Bragan Thomas, with Library Assistant Director Brittany Taylor. For more information, please visit the Library website at www.provincetownlibrary.org or call 508-487-7094.
