The Lady Hamlet at The Provincetown Theater

A rollickingly smart, gender-defying comedy with big heart, deep curiosity, and serious laughs. Drake directs a dynamic cast of six, including Jennifer Van Dyck (Bway: Two Shakespearean Actors, Hedda Gabler, Dancing at Lughnasa), Kate Levy (Bway: Bernhardt/Hamlet). John Shuman (Bway: La Cage Aux Folles, TV: Boardwalk Empire), Anne Stott (Film: Don't Look Up, The Mothership, Crookedfinger) Laura Scribner (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), and Brandon Cordeiro (Bway: The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me). Sixteen performances will be staged from June 27-July 21, 2022, at The Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford Street in Provincetown, MA.Two artists, both born to play Hamlet, were born women. With 1920s New York City as their sparring field, they engage in a war of wits that leaves their colleagues and lovers caught in the crossfire. A hilariously smart and farcical costume comedy with one foot in screwball and the other in a fencing match, The Lady Hamlet watches a duel of divas in a fierce battle to see who will be the first and best! female Hamlet on Broadway. But which lady will win the off-stage hand of the fair Ophelia?I am thrilled beyond measure for The Lady Hamlet to finally reach her audience. I emerged as a playwright into a world of all-male, all-white seasons selected by mostly male artistic directors when the few women writers who could squeeze through had to confront a wall of all male critics who knew nothing about women's lives, shared playwright Sarah Schulman. The new inclusion, fought for by women and people of color in the American Theater, includes lesbian protagonists, women writers over fifty, and a reconsideration of serious/funny writers whose works were discarded in the blizzard of male sameness that dominated in repetition. David Drake asked himself the question that all Artistic Directors must ask Where are the lesbian plays? Who are the women writers who have been overlooked? The answer gives this fun and funny Lady Hamlet the life she has long deserved.Sarah Schulman, a Guggenheim Fellow in playwrighting, has been produced at Playwrights Horizons, The Women's Project, La Jolla Playhouse, The Wilma Theater and has worked with Deirdre O'Connell, Marion McClinton, Morgan Spector, Trip Cullman, and Diane Venora. The author of 20 novels and nonfiction books, her most recent work LET THE RECORD SHOW: A Political History of ACT UP, New York 1987-1993 was called a "Masterpiece" by The New York Times, and has been optioned for television by Concordia and Killer Films, to be written by Andrew Haigh ("Looking").When I accepted this position in 2018, an important part of my mission as artistic director of the Provincetown Theater was to develop new plays by American writers in the birthplace of modern American drama, stated Artistic Director David Drake. Now, with this world premiere of The Lady Hamlet, Im honored and grateful to have Sarah Schulmans voice begin expanding this part of our communitys theatrical heritage, leading the way into our future.The Lady Hamlet was developed in part through the Provincetown Theater's new play development program, The Stephen Mindich Literary Project.