ANNA CHRISTIE, Eugene O’Neill’s celebrated Pulitzer Prize-winning drama and hit of the 2016 season, is returning to the Wharf House at the Provincetown Marina, opening July 13.
The Provincetown Dramatic Arts production was selected as one of the Best Plays of 2016 and leading actress Sarah MacDonnell was named by the Cape Cod Times as one of the best female performances of the season. The play runs Thursday–Sunday through July 30.
The play tells the story of Anna Christie, an ex-prostitute, abandoned by her father as a child, who travels to find him on the waterfront, and hiding her past, tries to find a safe harbor with him. The play dramatizes her search for redemption, and the conflict between her tempestuous relationships with her father, Chris, and her lover, ship stoker Mat Burke.
Set in a waterfront bar, and a barge in Provincetown and Boston harbor, the unique location of the Provincetown harbor is a visual backdrop for this drama of family passion and secrets. The cast includes Jody O'Neil as Chris Christopherson, Sarah MacDonnell as Anna Christie, J.Stephen Brantley as Mat Burke, and Lynda Sturner as Marthy Owen.
“We are delighted that the full cast is returning for the 2017 production, with the addition of J. Stephen Brantley as Mat ,” said director Margaret Van Sant.
“We can truly say we have two ‘Oscar’ winners and an ‘Oscar-nominated’ actor, since both Lynda Sturner and J. Stephen Brantley won the top acting awards at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, and Sarah was nominated as best actress. The festival awards are a statue of Oscar Wilde!”
Written in Provincetown in 1916, and the winner of the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Van Sant chose to stage the production at the Wharf House of the Provincetown Marina because the play is set the play is set in Provincetown and Boston harbor.
“It will be wonderful to look out the doors of the Wharf House and actually see Long Point Light–it is the perfect location.”
“ANNA CHRISTIE is a gritty and provocative play that holds you in suspense, as Anna tries to navigate the hold that both her father and her lover have on her. And the sexual politics in the play not only offers a clear look at the life of women in the early 1900’s, but also feels very contemporary,” Van Sant said.
The Wharf House is located at the end of the Provincetown Marina (at the end of Ryder Street) It’s well known for the large photographs of the Portuguese fishing wives looking out to sea on its exterior walls. For more information or to book tickets, please visit:
www.provincetownannachristie.brownpapertickets.com Or call: 800-838-3006.
Tickets are also available the day of the show at: House of LaRue, 244 Commercial Street.
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Company information and Bios:
PROVINCETOWN DRAMATIC ARTS (formerly CTEK Arts) has been a member of the Cape Cod theater community since 2004. It was established to celebrate the rich theatrical heritage of Provincetown and Cape Cod, to contribute to its artistic future by developing new scripts and interdisciplinary performances, and to support the economic vitality of our community through education in the arts. Provincetown Dramatic Arts presents original and classic scripts, with a focus on the stories of female artists and community-based play development.
MARGARET VAN SANT is a playwright, theater director, festival orga¬nizer, educator, and the Artistic Director of Provincetown Dramatic Arts. She has directed classic and contemporary theater, with a focus on the development of new scripts. She directed Jim Dalglish and Lynda Sturner’s Super-Lubricated at the international Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. Van Sant organized the Centennial Celebration of The Provincetown Players, THEN AND NOW, for the Provincetown Theater and directed their Rat Pack Lounge New Year’s Gala. She directed Venus in Fur by David Ives at the Provincetown Theater and in 2014 Charles Busch’s The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife. She directed The Ballad of the Sad Café at the Arena Stage Edward Albee Festival. Margaret produces the WOMEN’S INTERNATION¬AL THEATER FESTIVAL every fall in Provincetown. She is a proud member of the Stage Di¬rectors and Choreographers Society, the Playwright’s Forum in Washington, DC, the Provincetown Playwright’s Lab, and has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
SARAH MACDONNELL (Anna Christie) TV includes guest stars on FRIENDS, ER, STAR TREK DS9, DREAM ON and MURDER SHE WROTE. Stage credits include Off-Broadway at The Irish Arts Center, The Beckett and First Look Theatre Company. L.A. Stage includes premieres at the Tiffany, Celtic Art Center, Theater 40 and a Dramalogue award for Titania in The Old Globe's A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM; Regional work includes the premieres SYBIL:THE MUSICAL, ROSETTA (Provincetown Theater), and BACK TO NATURE (Wellfleet Preservation Hall). She recently appeared in SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS (Tennessee Williams Festival) ‘‘MacDonnell is desperately moving” (Charles Isherwood NY Times). Dublin Ireland: Cobalt Theatre, Sean O’Casey Theatre. Her latest film, “A Murder in Cape Cod” is premiering this summer. Bard College and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Dramalogue and Eva Gore Booth Best Actress award nominee, she is a director, dramaturge, theatre reviewer and member of the band Sarah Mac and the Rodeo Drive Bys.
JODY O’NEIL (Chris Christopherson) is pleased to reprise his role in Provincetown Dramatic Arts Wharf House production of ANNA CHRISTIE. This spring, he appeared opposite Erica Morris in Steven Ross’s staging of EDUCATING RITA at Eventide Theater Co. in Dennis. Other recent roles include, for Provincetown Theater: Claire in THE MAIDS, directed by James P. Bryne and Harry Evans in THE VERGE, directed by Nathan Butera; Tyrone, Jr. in A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN and Gerry Evans in DANCING AT LUGHNASA, directed by Steve Reynolds for Eventide. He can be seen as Ivan Zamir in the 14-part TV series, OFFSEASON, currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Jody is the founder and Artistic Director of Sailor Beware, a Cape Cod theater coalition of Actors’ Equity Association Members.
J. STEPHEN BRANTLEY (Mat Burke) Off-Broadway: Mope (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Murder In The First (59E59), Pirira (Theatre 167). Regional: The Night Alive (Guild Hall), Of Mice And Men (Bay Street), and Romeo And Juliet with its zombie sequel R & J & Z at Stonington Opera House. TV: “The Blacklist” (NBC), “Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter” (Adult Swim), “Difficult People” (Hulu). Previous P-town appearances include Slap & Tickle at Provincetown Theater and Chicken-Fried Ciccone at the 2014 Afterglow Festival. Brantley is an eight-time New York Innovative Theatre Award nominee and winner of the Micheál MacLiammóir Award for Best Actor at the 2013 Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival.
LYNDA STURNER is thrilled to be back playing Marthy in Anna Christie. Broadway: Oliver! ; The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-In-the-Moon Marigolds, Off-Broadway and years later in Provincetown: The Food Chain; A Perfect Ganesh; The Allergist’s Wife; Wit; Ryan Landry’s The Gulls and 8 plays by Meryl Cohn including Insatiable Hunger and And Sophie Comes Too. She won the Eva Gore Booth Best Actress Award at the Dublin International Gay Theater Festival for her play Super-Lubricated written with Jim Dalglish. Artistic Director of Playwright’s Forum, member of the Actor’s Studio Playwright’s Unit, The Woman’s Project, was co-president of The League Of Professional Theatre Women. Journalist: The Provincetown Banner, NiteLife Exchange and TheaterMania.