All three dozen of the world premieres will be produced by The Provincetown Repertory Theatre, which this year inaugurates its new playing space (storied Provincetown's first standing theatre venue in more than 25 years), The Provincetown Theater. Furthermore, every playwright's script will be handled by the same director, Tony-winning actress Phyllis Newman.
How is this all possible? By way of something called Direct Line Play, in which every scribe contributed only three minutes of text to a single full length play. The idea was conceived by PRT artistic director Lynda Sturner. The playwrights involved include Eve Ensler, David Auburn, Charles Busch, Christopher Durang, Harvey Fierstein, John Guare, A.R. Gurney, David Henry Hwang, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman, Wendy Wasserstein and Lanford Wilson.
Direct Line Play will have just two performances, on June 25 and 26.
The new Provincetown Theater stands at 238 Bradford Street in Provincetown. The building is a former mechanic's garage. It was purchased a few years ago and has since undergone a conversion into the home of two local companies, The Provincetown Repertory Theatre and The Provincetown Theatre Company.
The mission of the REP, as it is called, is "to establish a permanent, resident professional company dedicated to challenging audiences with creative, intelligent and provocative American works." The REP has a company of professional Equity actors. The Provincetown Theatre Company (PTC) is a long-standing community theatre company made up of professional, semi-professional, and amateur actors, writers, directors, technicians and teachers. It produces a year round theatre season.
