Obie Award winner David Drake the new artistic director at The Provincetown Theater is determined to plan for the future, by building on the past. If you have paid a visit to the place in the past few months, you’ll know it’s almost impossible not to be swept away by his infectious energy as he moves through the theater like a whirling dervish.
Next week sees the opening of his latest production: a revival of Terrence McNally classic gay Tony Award-winning play Love! Valour! Compassion! It is mainly a talented local cast with a couple of Broadway actors thrown in for good measure and directed by Drake himself.
It’s all about a group of gay New Yorkers — including Buzz Hauser, an HIV-positive Broadway musical enthusiast; John Jeckyll, a dry-witted British composer; and Gregory Mitchell, a prominent Broadway choreographer — who spend summer weekends together at a lakeside house in upstate New York. As the season progresses and secrets begin to surface, the complex relationships within the group are sometimes strained and sometimes strengthened. The play was first performed in 1994 and is just as relevant today as it was then.
This, however, is not all the news, as Terrence McNally will be there in the audience during opening week: a rare honor indeed. The openly gay 4 time Tony Award Winner (and countless other Awards) was once described by Rex Reed as “one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced“.
This visit to PTown is marked by the fact that he will be the very first recipient of the new annual Provincetown American Playwright Award to a great living writer. Known in short as the PAPA, and Drake jokes when he broke the news to McNally, the delighted writer said that as he was now 80 years old, maybe it should be the GRANDPAPA.
The Theater plans to mark the Celebration of this inaugural Award with opportunities for keen P Town drama buffs to not just meet the great man in person, but at the same time help raise much-needed funds to sustain the Theater and its increasingly ambitious program. There are three ways of doing this:
On Thursday, July 19th
$75. – TICKETS WITH TERRENCE: See Love! Valour! Compassion! on Thursday, July 19th at 7:30pm and be in the audience with the man who first brought this invaluable intergenerational story of gay men to life: Terrence McNally.
On Friday, July 20th
$500 – THE DIRECTOR’S PASS: Includes…
— A champagne toast and an intimate sunset supper at Ken Fulk’s home on his beautiful backyard deck facing the bay.
$1,000 – THE PRODUCER’S PASS: Includes ALL THAT, plus…
— A cocktail meet & conversation with Terrence McNally, artistic director David Drake, and the cast on the set of LVC at the Provincetown Theater at 5pm on Friday, July 20th.
— A photograph of you with Terrence McNally and the Cast of LVC.
— A poster of LVC autographed by Terrence McNally and the cast of LVC.
— An autographed copy of the play LVC by Terrence McNally.
— A pedicab ride from the theater to Ken Fulk’s home, where we will initiate the P.A.P.A. ceremony with a champagne toast.
— One VIP reserved seat to LVC on Thursday, July 19th when Terrence McNally and his husband, Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy, will be attending the performance.
For more details on all these events https://provincetowntheater.org/
Love, Valour & Compassion will run from JULY 16 -AUGUST 30TH
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