The 2018/19 Provincetown Gallery Guide
THEATER
Tennessee Williams WISHFUL THINKING
September 27-30
at various locations throughout Provincetown
Visit www.twptown.org for schedule and tickets
Hope makes us human, but anticipation can
either make us or break us. Tennessee
Williams delved deep into the drama of waiting
– and his plays are richer, sadder, and more
joyous for it. This is why the 13th Annual
Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater
Festival is called Wishful Thinking.
The 2018 shows feature five Williams plays
alongside works by Federico García Lorca,
Anton Chekhov, and Samuel Beckett,
produced and performed by artists from New
York City, Philadelphia, Pensacola, Michigan,
Texas, and beyond.
This year’s line-up features the world
premiere of Talisman Roses, a Williams play
that deals directly with how Tom (not yet
Tennessee) Williams responded to visiting his
older sister Rose in a state psychiatric ward
in Missouri for the first time. Never
before seen on stage, this tender
and vivid piece about mental illness
is staged by distinguished actor and
director Marsha Mason.
Images of roses feature prominently
in Festival shows this year,
including in The Rose Tattoo – one
of Williams’ most passionate
and romantic comedies, starring
Festival favorite Irene Glezos –
and in Doña Rosita the Spinster,
Lorca’s iconic Spanish play about
a lonely young woman whose
beloved leaves Granada for South
America, in a production directed
by Festival Curator David Kaplan
in collaboration with Texas Tech
University.
This year’s program also includes:
Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a brandnew
translation by John Freedman,
produced as an immersive and
intimate site-specific show by Arb
Arts from Ann Arbor, Michigan; an
48 www.provincetowngalleryguide.com
Photo by Ride Hamilton
imaginative rendering of the Beckett novella Company
by Philadelphia’s EgoPo, who produced the 2016
Festival hit The Hairy Ape; and a staged reading by
Brenna Geffers (last year’s Pericles) of a wild new
comic book by Mark Russell, The Snagglepuss
Chronicles, which re imagines the classic Hanna-
Barbera cartoon character as a closeted Southern
playwright living in New York City.
Also on the docket: a production from Pensacola
of the Williams drama Will Mr. Merriwether Return
From Memphis? that blends fantasy and reality into
a colorful ghost story; and a dark comedy from New
York City called Some Problems for the Moose Lodge
that skewers family, religion, aging, and
madness in a way only Williams can.
The festival also features parties, post-show
mixers, educational classes, and exclusive donor
events throughout the four-day celebration.
/www.twptown.org
/www.provincetowngalleryguide.com