Provincetown Theater Honors Playwrights Joe DiPietro and Kirsten Greenidge At Summer Gala

In Provincetown, Massachusetts, the board, artistic and managing directors of the Provincetown Theater have announced the sixth annual Provincetown American Playwright Awards will be presented during the non-profit’s annual fundraising gala on Sunday, August 25 at the historic Provincetown Inn at One Commercial Street in Provincetown, MA. 

Following such PAPA recipients as Terrence McNally, Ryan J. Haddad, Charles Busch, Chisa Hutchinson, and Pulitzer Prize winners Doug Wright, Paula Vogel and Michael R. Jackson, the 2024 PAPA honorees will be two distinctly different yet equally inspiring contemporary American playwrights -- the Drama Desk and Tony Award-winning librettist and lyricist Joe Di Pietro (Memphis; I Love You, You’re, Perfect, Now Change) and the Obie Award-winning playwright and Boston University professor Kirsten Greenidge.

Established in 2018 to celebrate Provincetown’s theatrical legacy as the Birthplace of Modern American Drama, each year the Provincetown Theater has bestowed PAPA awards to great, living American playwrights who’ve enriched and expanded the depth and scope of the American experience on the world stage. 

Also serving as the Provincetown Theater’s annual summer fundraiser, this year’s PAPA event begins at 6PM at the Provincetown Inn with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, followed by a sit-down dinner, a brief awards presentation, a silent and live auction, and a conversation with the honorees moderated by Provincetown Theater artistic director David Drake. 

Tickets to the gala can be purchased at provincetowntheater.org.

Proceeds from this year’s fundraiser will benefit future programming for the Provincetown Theater (238 Bradford Street), the only year-round performing arts institution in Provincetown, MA.

ABOUT THE HONOREES

Joe DiPietro is the author of over two dozen stage shows, including the Broadway musicals All Shook Up, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Diana, and the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2010, Memphis, for which Joe won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score. Off Broadway successes include The Toxic Avenger, F**king Men, and the long-running musical revue I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change which ran for over 5000 performances at New York’s Westside Theater and has been translated into 17 languages with hundreds of productions around the world. Joe sits on the board of Only Make Believe, a charity devoted to bringing interactive, therapeutic theater to chronically ill children.

Kirsten Greenidge is a playwright and professor of theater at Boston University. Her plays have been produced by a multitude of regional theaters, including the Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre, Yale Rep, Humana Festival/ Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, as well as in New York City at the WP Theatre and Playwrights Horizons, where Kirsten’s play Milk Like Sugar won a Village Voice Obie Award. Also, with her sisters Kaitlyn and Kerri Greenridge, Kirsten has created an artist-centric project, Femtour, to tour feminist landmarks of the United States, write about their existence far and wide, and promote others to use that material in their work.

For news and updates on the Provincetown Theater, please visit provincetowntheater.org. Or call the box office at 508. 487.7487. 

ABOUT THE PROVINCETOWN THEATER:

The Provincetown Theater is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to enrich, entertain, and educate by providing quality theater, events, and programming celebrating our historic legacy in the birthplace of American theater. We are a safe and creative outlet for illuminating our common humanity on Outer Cape Cod and beyond.

To post a comment, you must register and login.