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Provincetown Theatre Company opened its doors for the first time on March 29, 1963. Then it was known as the Provincetown Theatre Workshop and presented its first production, an original fantasy called, Circles in the Snow, in the Parish House of St. Mary’s of the Harbour on the east end of Provincetown. The company consisted of a creative mix of professional, semi-professional and talented non-professional local actors, writers, musicians, artists, directors and technicians.
From the beginning, the company emphasised a mixture of staged readings, original plays by local writers, and works by established playwrights-a combination that continued to be the core focus of the company.
From 1963 through 1972, the company changed locations many times, mounting more and more ambitious productions. They performed a wide selection of plays, readings, and even musical revues in a variety of venues, including Town Hall, The Crown and Anchor, The Provincetown Art Association, and Piggy’s (a former nightclub on Shank Painter Road).
In the winter of 1973, the Provincetown Theatre Workshop was re-christened as The Provincetown Theatre Company and The Provincetown Academy of Performing Arts and Museum, by drawing up a new constitution and establishing itself as a not-for-profit organisation.
In the late 1970’s the theatre company was an itinerant group, performing in various spots around town until it re-established itself at the Art Association in 1982 with a full season of productions.
In 1988-89, the company moved to the Provincetown Inn and for the first time had a year-round performing space for plays, revues and staged readings. It was during this period that the company hired its first Artistic Director, the late Michael Prevulsky, who directed a number of acclaimed productions.
The company also entered into an artistic collaboration with acclaimed artist and playwright Edward Gorey during this period and produced three of his plays. In the early 90’s, the company produced the enormously popular and award-winning AIDS Quilt memorial musical, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens.
In addition to a year-round season, the company produced a highly successful Playwriting Competition that celebrates the work of a Massachusetts playwright with a cash award, and a staged reading of his/her work.
In 1995, Artistic Director Ken Hoyt and Joan and Anton Schiffenhaus founded The Provincetown Repertory Theatre. They wanted to provide the Cape Cod community with exciting and challenging theatre performed by an Equity company.
Their goal was to produce works historically linked to Provincetown, new plays, and contemporary classics to entertain and engage Cape Cod audiences. Paula Vogel’s The Mineola Twins and the musical Amphigorgorey, based on Cape resident Edward Gorey’s book of the same name are but two examples. Both Vogel and Gorey had their world premieres at The REP before heading off to New York City productions, establishing Provincetown as an important place for the development of new American work by great American writers. Edward Albee and Terrence McNally, to engaging the award-winning director Jose Quintero to direct the plays of Eugene O’Neill, The REP was a shining example of regional theatre. Ken Hoyt chose a season that balanced the importance of new work with revisiting such classics as Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie and Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour.
In October of 2005, The Provincetown Theatre Company and The Provincetown Repertory Theatre began discussions to consolidate staff and merge resources. In January of 2006, The Provincetown Repertory Theatre and The Provincetown Theatre Company became the New Provincetown Players and set off to produce a year-round theatrical season at the Provincetown Theater. Guy Wolf was named as Producing Artistic Director.
Provincetown is the undisputed birthplace of Modern American drama. Ever since the Provincetown Players produced Eugene O’Neill’s Bound East for Cardiff in 1916, the town has hosted and nurtured playwrights and writers – from Tennessee Williams to contemporary award-winners such as Norman Mailer, Michael Cunningham, Wendy Kesselman, Paula Vogel and John Guare.
In 2001, a group of prominent community members formed the Provincetown Theater Foundation, Inc. as a 501© 3 non-profit organisation, to manifest a long-held dream – construction of a new, state-of-the-art theater facility to house the decade-old Provincetown Repertory Theatre (REP), a professional Equity company, and the community-based Provincetown Theatre Company (PTC), active for forty-one years. With enormous support from individual contributors, volunteers and friends of the community, the Foundation raised funds to make the building a reality. Located on the grounds of the former Provincetown Mechanics building at 238 Bradford Street, construction began in September 2003.
The opening of the Provincetown Theater on June 22, 2004, was a landmark in Provincetown’s cultural history. The premiere season garnered national media attention, rave reviews (NY Times and Best of Boston, Boston Magazine) and artistic contributions from several acclaimed authors, playwrights and directors including Pulitzer Prize writers Michael Cunningham, Terence McNally and Norman Mailer.
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Provincetown Theater,
238 Bradford Street,
Provincetown, MA 02657
Phone: 508.487.9793
operations@provincetowntheater.com
http://www.provincetowntheater.org/wordpress/
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.