Audra McDonald & More to Launch PTown Memorial Day Weekend 2022

Mark Cortale, Producing Artistic Director of Provincetown's Art House Theatre will kick-off his 2022 Memorial Day Weekend with three perennial P-Town favorites. Historic six-time Tony Award Winner Audra McDonald, star of Broadway's The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Carousel, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill and HBO's The Gilded Age, opens the Town Hall series on May 29 with Seth Rudetsky as music director and host, and Melissa Ferrick as the opening act. Summer 2022's Town Hall series, produced by Mr. Cortale at Provincetown's largest venue, will once again raise funds for Sandy Hook Promise. Local music favorite Zoë Lewis will open The Art House season with her new mini musical A Slice of PTown: "30 years of songs and stories inspired by one incredible little spit of land" on May 27 & 28, featuring local drag sensation Qya Cristal joined by Parker Ousley on cello and Roxanne Layton on recorder. Indie Rock star Melissa Ferrick returns for her eleventh Art House season on May 28 for one show only.

Mr. Cortale recently announced his largest and most ambitious lineup of music and comedy superstars for this summer's 2022 season. He will also add to the mix a first-ever "Virtuoso" series spotlighting six of the solo classical reps brightest stars. Summer 2022 marks Mr. Cortale's eleventh season leading the storied Art House. Taking center stage again is the internationally acclaimed Broadway @ series, first launched here by Cortale in 2011 and now in more than a dozen major venues worldwide. For Tickets and information, visit www.ptownarthouse.com or call 800-838-3006.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actor. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, in 2015 she was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people and received a National Medal of Arts-America's highest honor for achievement in the field-from President Barack Obama. In addition to her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill-the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London's West End-she has appeared on Broadway in The Secret Garden; Marie Christine (Tony nomination); Henry IV; 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination); Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed; and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination).

A Juilliard-trained soprano, her opera credits include La voix humaine and Send at Houston Grand Opera, and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Los Angeles Opera, where the resulting recording earned her two Grammy Awards. On television, she was seen by millions as the Mother Abbess in NBC's The Sound of Music Live! and played Dr. Naomi Bennett on ABC's Private Practice. She won an Emmy Award for her role as host of PBS's Live From Lincoln Center and has received nominations for Wit, A Raisin in the Sun and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. Having first appeared as Liz Lawrence on CBS's The Good Wife, she can now be seen in The Good Fight on Paramount+ as well as in Spectrum's pandemic-themed drama, The Bite. On film, she has appeared in Seven Servants, The Object of My Affection, Cradle Will Rock, It Runs in the Family, The Best Thief in the World, She Got Problems, Rampart, Ricki and the Flash, Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast, the movie-musical Hello Again, and MGM's Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect. McDonald has issued five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as Sing Happy with the New York Philharmonic on Decca Gold. She also maintains a major career as a concert artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world and with leading international orchestras. A founding member of Black Theatre United, board member of Covenant House International, and prominent advocate for LGBTQAI+ rights, her favorite roles are those performed offstage, as an activist, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother.

Melissa Ferrick is a Professor of the Practice at Northeastern University in the Music Industry Department at the College of Arts Media and Design. They've released seventeen albums over the last twenty-five years and has won numerous awards for songwriting, production, and performance. From 2013 - 2019, Melissa was an Associate Professor of Songwriting at Berklee College of Music. They hold an Ed.M from Harvard University. Melissa is the named plaintiff of the class action lawsuit, Ferrick v. Spotify for willful infringement of copyright. Their publishing catalog is administered worldwide by the Raleigh Music Group.Signed to Atlantic Records in 1992 at the age of 21, after opening up for Morrissey in the US and UK, they released their debut and sophomore albums on Atlantic before moving on to Independent label W.A.R. Records between 1996-1999. In 2000 Melissa launched the nationally distributed independent record label Right On Records. Regarded in the industry and by their peers as one of the most prolific and hardworking artists in the business, Ferrick still tours regularly playing throughout North America. They have shared the stage with Morrissey, Joan Armatrading, Weezer, Tegan and Sara, Mark Cohen, Paul Westerberg, Bob Dylan, John Hiatt, Ani DiFranco, k.d.Lang, Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, and many others.

Zoë Lewis' new A Slice of PTown: 30 years of songs and stories inspired by one incredible little spit of land! Is a mini musical memoir with special guests Parker Ousley on cello & Roxanne Layton on recorder. Zoe Lewis washed ashore in Provincetown over 30 years ago. Singer-songwriter extraordinaire she has toured with the likes of Judy Collins, the Indigo Girls, Nanci Griffith to name a few, penned 2 musicals, recorded 10 albums of original material, and her songs have appeared on Broadway, in film soundtracks, commercials and most recently on Netflix. So many of her compositions have been inspired by our little town on the edge of it all. This collection of songs, anecdotes and images captures 3 decades of a beautiful and entertaining life on the tip of the Cape. She is delighted to be joined by the virtuosic talents of Parker Ousley on cello and Roxanne Layton (Mannheim Steamroller) on recorder.

The 2022 Art House and Town Hall season produced by Mark Cortale is sponsored by Cape Air, Anchor Inn Beach House, Ptown Bikes, Provincetown Gym, Fanizzi's Restaurant, Brasswood Inn, Wild Flower and BroadwayWorld.

Purchase the 2022 SEASON PASS for all shows at The Art House and Town Hall BY MAY 20th and save $1,500.00! Cut to front of the line and have a reserved seat for every show offered at The Art House & Town Hall. Buy now and cut to the front of the line with a reserved seat of your choice. Just show up 5 minutes before the performance and enjoy the show. All seats are guaranteed to be in the front of the VIP section. Seat are chosen by each patron before the season begins on a first come first serve basis. More information can be found at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5389328

Mark Cortale is celebrating his eleventh anniversary season as Producing Artistic Director of The Art House in Provincetown, MA. Since 2011 he has presented artists that include Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Kristin Chenoweth, Chita Rivera, Megan Mullally and Christine Ebersole. In 2019, he co-produced the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominated Off-Broadway musical Midnight At The Never Get. He founded the international Broadway @ Concert Series featuring Seth Rudetsky as music director and host in Provincetown in 2011 and has presented these concerts at theatres that include the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Broward Center, The Wallis, The Kimmel Center, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Huntington Theatre Company, The Herbst Theatre and the Leicester Square Theatre in London. Beginning in June of 2020 these concerts were offered virtually every Sunday during the pandemic as The Seth Concert Series in association with BroadwayWorld. Mark also founded the singing string quartet Well-Strung which debuted at The Art House in 2012. In 2019 he launched the developmental theatre lab New Works Provincetown. New Works Provincetown with producing partners Jonathan Murray & Harvey Reese has commissioned two new musicals two date: The Last Diva with a book by Jonathan Tolins, music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie and Maiden Voyage with book and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and music by Carmel Dean. Info at markcortalepresents.com.