Bob Marley musical launches near era at Harwich theater + 13 more shows on Cape Cod stages
It’s a new yet familiar world at The Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre, as Kate Pazakis begins her first summer season as producing artistic director there (following Nina Schuessler’s retirement after 25 years). Pazakis talked to the Times about summer plans and where she hopes to lead the theater; see the story below.
In addition, we’ve got reviews online (or will have after openings in the next couple of days) at www.capecodtimes.com/entertainment of new and continuing shows of “Mamma Mia” at Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster; Always … Patsy Cline” at Cape Playhouse in Dennis; “Marry Me a Little” at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater; “The Lady Hamlet” at Provincetown Theater; “Buried Child” at Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet; and “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” at Cotuit Center for the Arts.
In Falmouth, College Light Opera Company, which produces a different musical each week, will be presenting “No, No Nanette,” about a young girl who chooses adventure, through this weekend and then opening “All Shook Up,” a stage musical about Elvis Presley, starting Tuesday, July 12.
For one-night or short-run shows and Pazakis' plans, read on:
Reviews:: 7 Cape Cod theater shows our reviewers say you should see
Broadway in Provincetown
Mark Cortale's "Broadway @" series continues bringing Broadway stars to Provincetown to talk and sing with host/music director Seth Rudetsky. On July 8 and 9 at the Art House (214 Commercial St.) will be Christy Altomare, who originated the role of Anya in the Broadway production of "Anastasia" and made her Broadway debut playing the role of Sophie Sheridan in Mamma Mia!.
On July 10, at Provincetown Town Hall (260 Commercial St.), joining Sirius XM radio star Rudetsky will be stars and spouses Stephanie J. Block and Sebastian Arcelus. Block won a Tony Award winner for her title role in "The Cher Show" and also starred in "Wicked," "Falsettos" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." Arcelus' Broadway credits also include "Wicked" plus "Elf" and his TV career includes "House of Cards" and "Madam Secretary." Tickets and information: https://provincetownarthouse.com/.
Postponed from last year: 'Coming home': Broadway star Stephanie J. Block returns to live concerts in Provincetown
New and old plays in staged readings
All three productions will involve post-show talkbacks.
► At Falmouth Academy, Cape Cod Theatre Project will continue its July season of developing new plays with Anna Ziegler’s “The Janeiad,” presented in live staged readings at 7:30 p.m. July 7-9 and a streaming viewing available on July 9 only. The story is about Jane, a Brooklyn woman whose husband disappeared on a September day 20 years ago and how she is advised to wait for him by Penelope from “The Odyssey,” who waited 20 years for Ulysses’ return. Information: https://capecodtheatreproject.org/.
Starring as Jane will be Broadway actress Judy Kuhn, a four-time Tony Award nominee known for musicals that include "Fun Home," "She Loves Me" and this year's "Assassins." The cast will also include, as Penelope, Florencia Lozano (Netflix's "Narcos," the upcoming "Keep Breathing," and "Life After You," available on Amazon and iTunes); and as Gabe, Alex Mickiewicz (Broadway's "Trouble in Mind," Ziegler's "The Last Match" and TV's “New Amsterdam” and “Blue Bloods").
► A summer theater series of staged, costumed readings of plays by local writers at Provincetown Public Library, 356 Commercial St., will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 10. The show: “Reverend Mother’s Final Confession,” a comedy by Lucy Blood about a nun sharing a “trinity” of secrets during her retirement party as principal of the Immaculate Conception Elementary School.
Through July: All 4 plays in Cape Cod Theatre Project season focus on life for women today
The reading, featuring local actors, will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 10 at The Commons, 46 Bradford St., Provincetown. The performance will be introduced by Carole DeBoer-Langworth, a dramaturg, Brown University senior lecturer and Boyce scholar, and Boyce’s grandson, Fred Hapgood and wife Sarah will be in attendance. . The afternoon will commence with an introduction by DeBoer-Langworthy and a Q&A session will follow the reading.
► John Dennis Anderson's 45-minute, work-in-progress play "The Ghosts of Cooper’s Town," about race relations in a small Texas town, will be given a free staged reading at 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 13 at St. Mary of the Harbor, 517 Commercial St., Provincetown. The reading will feature Anderson, Scott Cunningham and Sallie Tighe in a play that is a finalist for the Jeremiah Kaplan Playwriting Competition of the Eventide Theatre Company in Dennis.
Pazakis wants to focus theater on inclusion of all types
Leading CCTC/HJT is a homecoming for Pazakis, and she wants to make a good thing even better. Her first summer season includes a nod to her own Cape childhood, a nod to her mentor, and area premieres that spotlight her push for more involvement by people of color, as well as neurodivergent and disabled children and adults.
The first two shows are “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse,” which opened July 3 and runs at 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays through July 21 on the outdoor stage at the theater at 105 Division St., West Harwich. The show about the importance of being considerate and forgiving, adapted by Kevin Kling from a book by Kevin Henkes, was the last show chosen by predecessor Schuessler, who retired after 25 years and has been a close friend and mentor to Pazakis.
Running Friday, July 8 through July 30 on the indoor stage is the regional premiere of “Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds,” a musical “about peace and love” with lyrics and music by reggae pioneer Marley, a story by his daughter Cedella, and a stage adaptation by Michael J. Bobbitt (who is due to be at the opening night). The story is about 11-year-old Ziggy who is afraid to leave his house for various reasons until he learns “everything is going to be alright.”
This summer: Arts news: Pazakis to lead Harwich theater, Will Swenson becomes Neil Diamond in Boston, new Beach Road Weekend acts
“It’s lighthearted and the music is amazing because it’s Bob Marley,” Pazakis says. “Even in rehearsals, everybody dances and the energy is bright and happy.”
The eight-person cast is “all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) performers, as well as the director, choreographer and some of the band,” she says. “The demographics here on the Cape are changing for the good. Growing up here, there was not much diversity and now I get to see that. … There were so many people who wanted to do this and be part of the show and that was just so exciting to me.”
Information on all of CCTC/HJT’s shows and classes: https://capecodtheatrecompany.org/.
Creating communities
The company’s summer shows include neurodivergent cast members, and indoor shows will have sensory-friendly performances (dates not yet determined), with outdoor shows already considered sensory-friendly. Plans are underway for two new fall classes, “Creative Drama on the Spectrum” and “Social Skills and Superheroes,” plus Pazakis hopes to start a neurodivergent troupe of Junior Players similar to the theater’s longtime youth performance group.
“I definitely want to bring more diversity to the theater. That's really important to me. And also have it be a more inclusive place, with places for the disabled community and the neurodivergent communities,” she says.
Noting that she has seen few local extracurricular activities for children "on the spectrum" or who have disabilities, she says, "I have a son with autism, so having a place where he can make his community and his home is really important to me. ... I think (CCTC/HJT) is a multi-generational theater for all, and that's what it really needs to be."
In a phone interview, Pazakis clearly cherishes the role she has been given to carry on the tradition of the 71-year-old theater — known only as Harwich Junior Theatre until recent years — and her chance to make a difference there and help children to "learn and grow."
A goodbye and hello: 'She's irreplaceable': Nina Schuessler retiring after 25 years as leader of CCTC/HJT
“Since I grew up here, it's always been a really, really special place to me,” she says, noting her early theater roots at CCTC/HJT, Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster and the Academy of Performing Arts in Orleans. “Until high school, this was where I was every day. … I'm happy to run this theater and hold the reins for this really special place on the Cape.”
Why Pazakis wanted the job
Pazakis had been living in Los Angeles, working as producing artistic director of Rockwell Table & Stage where she created “The UMPO Series” (for “unauthorized musical parodies of…”). A few years ago, she was back on a Cape vacation when Schuessler came by for a play date between her granddaughter and Pazakis’ son, mentioned her upcoming retirement and suggested Pazakis apply for the job.
Pazakis says she was moved that Schuessler had that confidence in her, but initially didn’t consider the idea because she was living on the West Coast. But “it stayed in the back of my head and I kept thinking about what she said over and over and over again” so six months later, Pazakis asked Schuessler to keep her updated on her retirement plans. Pazakis’ family ended up moving back to the Cape for unconnected reasons, and when the time came months later, Pazakis applied.
“Once I started interviewing for this job, it became very important to me. I want (the theater) to be a place where people get to experience what I experienced,” she says. “It changed the trajectory of my whole entire life coming to this theater.”
The first show Pazakis ever saw as a child at CCTC/HJT was “Charlotte’s Web,” a show she chose for this first summer (running July 30-Aug. 16 outdoors). “I came here with my dad and it was so magical that it just turned me into a theater person.”
She took several classes at the theater and, after some unsuccessful auditions, was first cast in 1986 as “Rich Girl No. 2” in “Rags to Riches.”
The rest of the 2022 summer schedule includes “Fairy Tale Heroes,” three fairy-tale adaptations by local playwrights that will be performed by the Junior Players troupe in the outdoor theater. The indoor theater will feature the area premiere of the musical ‘’School of Rock,” adapted from the 2003 Jack Black-starring movie by Julian Fellowes, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Glenn Slater about an unorthodox substitute teacher who turns his elementary-school class into a rock band.
“I was so surprised that so many kids play instruments,” Pazakis says with a laugh. “We were completely floored that all of these kids came in with their instruments ready to jam.”
Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @KathiSDCCT.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod theater: Bob Marley musical in new Harwich era, more shows
