All 4 plays in Cape Cod Theatre Project season focus on life for women today

The new plays being developed this July through Cape Cod Theatre Project in Falmouth are all written by women and led by female or female-identifying directors. The four shows only feature one male actor.

Artistic director Hal Brooks says he didn’t go into his reading and choosing of scripts for this first in-person season in three years with the idea of being female-centric. But when so many plays by women caught his attention, and current events made what women’s lives are like so front and center, he says it was easy to lean into that idea.

“I'm very proud of it, and it’s new for us in a good way,” he says. “I think we've always been very good about making sure that there's been gender parity, but you can always do better, so this was an opportunity to really do that.”

When reading plays, “the ones that really struck me tended to be by women,” Brooks says. “Inevitably, I was just like ‘You know what? This is where it’s heading, let’s keep going.’”

The four-week CCTP season brings writers, directors and professional actors together to work on each developing play for several days, then present three nights of staged readings per week at Falmouth Academy. There are post-show audience talkbacks and the writer often makes changes in between so each night’s script is likely a little different. Back again in person after two virtual seasons, the readings and rehearsals will follow all Equity union COVID-19 protocols, he says, including hiring a COVID-19 compliance officer.

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While Brooks says he’s curious about audience members’ reaction as the four new plays are presented through July 23, he also hopes they don’t really notice any difference.

“My hope is that they just say ‘Wow, these were great plays. I loved the themes. I loved the language. I loved the skill. I loved the acting and the interplay.’ That people don't go away saying, ‘It was a very female season’ or ‘It was a very women-focused season’ in a negative way, or in a critical way,” he says. “I want them to walk away going ‘These are super and strong plays and I understand why they were chosen and I can't wait to see them in full production.’”

Brooks was speaking the day after an opening party with playwright Heidi Schreck, whose “What the Constitution Means to Me” — partly developed through CCTP — was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and was nominated for two Tony Awards. The interview with the Times also took place mere minutes before the U.S. Supreme Court decision was announced Friday that overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion, changing who could make decisions about women’s bodies.

So women’s views on the laws of this country, and how they could affect upcoming discussions, were on Brooks’ mind.

“No doubt this will be an ongoing conversation all summer long and we're happy to … maybe end up being helpfully provocative, in our way,” he says.

The Cape Cod Theatre Project season

Brooks provided a preview of the four shows in the CCTP season and what issues they address. More information and tickets: https://capecodtheatreproject.org/.

► June 30-July 2: “The Violet Sisters,” by Gina Femia, directed by Taylor Reynolds

Set in Brooklyn post-Hurricane Sandy, the story involves a woman who returns home after an attempt to “make it” in Los Angeles and is greeted by an angry sister and a dilapidated house. They try to recover their lives, and restart their relationship, in a 90-minute play that takes place over 90 minutes in the women's home.

After reading a variety of Femia’s work, Brooks says she tends to focus on her home area of Brooklyn, but notes, “It's important for her that it would be a real Brooklyn, not  Brooklyn of this sort of Hollywood imagination of that other place that's not Manhattan. And the characters are real and truthful to the people who she knows.”

What Brooks, also a Brooklyn resident, says struck him about the play was “not that sadness that a hurricane can imbue, but the very, very funny and taut language that (Femia) uses. It's a very funny play. It struck me that these two women are offbeat, not you're typical characters that you might read in a play.”

The play will star Lucy DeVito (Hulu's "Deadbeat," Freeform's "Melissa and Joey") as Sam and Sarah Schenkkan (Amazon Studio's "Z," "Gotham") as Pam. Casts for the next two plays have not yet been announced.

► July 7-9: “The Janeiad,” by returning CCTP alum Anna Ziegler (“Photograph 51” in 2009, later starring Nicole Kidman in London; in 2019 with “The Great Moment”), directed by Lisa Peterson

In this take on Ulysses returning to Penelope 20 years after leaving in “The Odyssey,” a Brooklyn woman’s husband disappeared on a September day 20 years ago, but she is advised by Penelope to wait for him.

“When I read this one, I was completely floored,” Brooks says. “I was just weeping, I was so moved by this play. … It has this wonderful combination of classical literary influence and modern poignancy and it just does not disappoint. I love it.”

► July 14-16: “Ball Change,” by Brittany K. Allen, directed by Dina Vovsi

This play about changing technology and obsolescence was written as part of the EST/Sloan Project commissions that develop and present new works about how we view and are affected by the scientific world. “Ball Change” looks at a woman who operates a switchboard, then becomes part of an answering service and then her job becomes irrelevant in the age of the iPhone.

The woman, at first full of vigor and idealism, remains in the job over the decades while others go on to find more success, Brooks notes. “It's a really interesting play. The language in the first section is that great 1950s-1960s witty repartee and the language bounces very quickly back and fort. (Allen) has got incredible dexterity with words and I just wanted to see what she would bring to it in one week of development.”

► July 21-23: “Good Day to Me Not to You,” by Lameece Issaq, directed by Sivan Battat

This one-woman play also starring Issaq follows a 40-something dental assistant who gets fired and moves into a New York City Christian residence for women while taking care of a niece and trying to conceive a child. Director Battat is a 2012 CCTP intern who has gone on to success working in New York theater.

“There's a lot going on with this monologue,” Brooks says, “and it was to me reminiscent of ‘Fleabag’ in her escapades and how she is dealing with us head-on, always with a little bit of wink in her eye, and goes through a lot of stuff we might think of as a little bit on the sly so she can get what she needs in life in the big city. Knowing (Issaq), I don’t know what’s true and what’s fiction and that’s exciting for me.”

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Like “Photograph 51,” many of the plays developed by CCTP in Falmouth have gone on to full productions in New York and beyond after being seen first by and developed with Cape audiences. When asked about recent success in that way, Brooks mentions Zora Howard, whose play “Bust” was part of the 2020 virtual season and her play “Stew” was a Pultizer Prize finalist last year.

“I'm expecting incredibly big things from her and I think it's only a matter of time before ‘Bust’ gets a nice juicy production,” Brooks says. The director of “Bust” for CCTP was Lileana Blain-Cruz, he notes, who was just nominated for a Tony Award for directing “The Skin of Our Teeth.”

In addition, Sanaz Toossi, who was a writer in residence last year in Falmouth, was nominated for a 2022 Drama Desk Award for her play “English.”

Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @KathiSDCCT.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod Theatre Project: 4-play season focuses on women's lives today