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Photo Emily Sussman
WHAT producing artistic director Jeff Zinn at Sunday’s official groundbreaking. |
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Photo Emily Sussman
Honorary Chairperson Julie Harris, namesake of the new stage |
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Plenty of thanks & laughs at groundbreaking
By Emily Sussman
Banner Staff
WELLFLEET — “We could have done this one of two ways,” said WHAT producing artistic director Jeff Zinn, referring to Sunday’s groundbreaking celebration. The first option, he noted grimly, “was having a big ceremony and then having nothing happen for six months.”
A more attractive alternative, he said, was to get construction of the new 11,000-sq. ft. theater well underway, then hold a blowout groundbreaking ceremony.
The choice was clear to the crowd of WHAT patrons and staff who gathered Sunday under a white tent, arranged among an impressive group of monster sandpits outside the Post Office. Buoyed by the sandy evidence that the new theater would be ready in time for next season, the mood at the groundbreaking was an exultant one. A packed crowd dined on sushi donated by Mac’s Seafood, drank melted rainbow sherbet, chatted with friends and neighbors, and donned buttons that read “I Dig WHAT.”
And perhaps to offset the bevy of financial and practical obstacles that WHAT has faced in its six-year struggle to begin construction on the new theater, the speeches at Sunday’s ceremony were cheerful, comedic and, of course, appreciative.
In one of the most memorable moments of the ceremony, Tony-award winning actress Julie Harris received a standing ovation when Zinn announced that the main stage in the new theater would be named after her. The celebrated actress, who starred in a WHAT production of “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” smiled bashfully and playfully covered her face with her hands as the tent thundered with applause.
Zinn went on to deliver a laundry list of thank-yous — in particular, to the multitude of donors who gave a total of $3.7 million toward the construction of a new 189-seat theater and expanded facility, which will hold about double the capacity of WHAT’s Mayo Beach theater. (Fund-raising is ongoing for $2 million more in construction costs.)
Singer-songwriter Patty Larkin and WHAT alum and former 60 Minutes commentator Jimmy Tingle took turns entertaining the crowd. And a congratulatory note from Congressman Bill Delahunt was read aloud.
At the close of the ceremony, when WHAT’s key players — including Harris, Zinn and board of directors president Carol Green — donned hard hats and armed themselves with shovels to conclude the groundbreaking, the throng of WHAT supporters clamoring to take pictures was not unlike a swarm of paparazzi at a Broadway musical premiere.
“There’s something about a theater that pulls people together,” Zinn said, smiling.
esussman@provincetownbanner.com
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Aug 24th, 2006