Anne Cowie Follows the Light
There is something special about the light on the Outer Cape, where a thin spit of land is surrounded by water. Attempting to capture that light has occupied generations of artists, and the art of Truro painter and printmaker Anne Cowie stands firmly in that tradition.
“Light Horizon,” Cowie’s current show at the Provincetown Commons, consists of a series of monoprints recording the horizon through the seasons and at different times of day. The monoprints are drawn and then painted with watercolor pastel, ink, and gouache.
“I was captivated by how dynamic and truly everchanging that view was,” says Cowie about her frequent drives into Provincetown past East Harbor, also called Pilgrim Lake. “At every time of day, the sky, water, and dunes were all doing something different in relation to each other.”
In Parabolic Summer, which depicts the dunes from across the water, thick, colorful marks made with pastel obscure much of the original print. There is a brightness and density to the piece that speaks of summer, when the natural world is in abundant full growth.
In striking contrast, Winter Light depicts the same location — but here, the landscape feels thin and washed out. The monoprint process is visible in its flattened brushstrokes and in the wispy gray sky where Cowie wiped ink away to create windswept clouds. In this piece, there is little added to the original print.
Other pieces in the show depict the sun and moon rising or setting over the horizon. Unlike the Pilgrim Lake prints, these images give no clear indication of location. Although there is a universality to the subject, there is also a specificity that comes from Cowie’s observations and mark-making. The energetic line work of the water in Tidal Force and Orbiting II moves the viewer’s eye through the image and shows the hand of the artist. They are Cowie’s addition to a long line of visual inquiry: not just how to record the changes in the appearance of the landscape but how to record the experience of those changes.
“Light Horizon” is on view at the Commons (46 Bradford St., Provincetown) until May 26. See provincetowncommons.org for information. —Antonia DaSilva
A Community for Local Writers and Readers
Perhaps you enjoy reading about a tight-knit group of millennial friends, or maybe your tastes run more toward learning about local history, or ecological horror, or dark fantasy. All of these genres — along with poetry, graphic novels, comics, children’s books, and literary fiction — will be represented at the Local Author Fair at the Eastham Public Library (190 Samoset Road) on Saturday, May 17 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Librarian Corey Farrenkopf describes the fair as a way for the library to welcome local authors and give them a time and place to talk to readers. “We don’t have time to do an event for everyone,” he says, noting that many authors ask about hosting readings and other events.
The fair is in its second year. “It’s a work in progress,” says Farrenkopf. “We’re hoping it grows each year, and maybe we will eventually include talks or readings.”
Thirty authors from all over the Cape will participate in the fair, which will include returning writers from last year as well as new participants. Visitors will be able to purchase books, have them signed, and chat with their creators.
Farrenkopf feels that it’s important for authors to be able to talk about what it’s like to be a writer on Cape Cod — and from a reader’s perspective, “It’s good for people to be able to see the face behind the book and meet the person who made it,” he says. “It’s a good way to emphasize the human side of art.”
See easthamlibrary.org for information. —Antonia DaSilva
A Musical That’s All About Family
Gianna Casale was in middle school when she first met Denise Page, the mother of a friend. Now, Casale is playing Page’s onstage daughter in a new production of the musical Gypsy at the Academy Playhouse in Orleans, and the two actors are drawing on their own family experiences to portray one of the most famous mother-daughter relationships in musical theater.
The 1959 Broadway hit is filled with standards (including “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “Let Me Entertain You”) in a story based on a memoir by real-life burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee. The show tells the story of an ambitious stage mother, Rose (played by Page in a famously demanding role), trying to fulfill her own dreams for success by pushing stardom for her daughters June and Louise (Casale), who later becomes the performer known as Gypsy.
Casale knew the show well after playing a supporting role in a 2023 production in Harwich. In rehearsals for the current Orleans show, she and Page say they’ve spent long hours delving into their characters’ feelings, intentions, and growth.
“Someone said, ‘The way you and Gina are playing these roles, it’s more like a play with some music than a musical,’ and that’s a compliment,” says Page.
Both say that preparing for their roles has been emotionally draining — Casale says they often joke about “who will cry first at rehearsals.” Their relationships with their real-life mothers have been a source of inspiration, with Casale noting that the way her own mother always wanted what’s best for her helped her realize that the fictional Rose feels the same way about Louise.
As a mother and stepmother to three teenagers, Page — who grew up in Provincetown and lives in Wellfleet — notes, “You want to make sure they’re feeling the right kind of love all the time. And that’s something Rose doesn’t always do.”
Page says that Casale being her daughter’s age makes their scenes together seem very real. “She’s really good at getting those deep, emotional parts of the show,” says Page.
Gypsy runs from May 22 through June 8 at 120 Main St., Orleans. Tickets are $30 to $40 at academyplayhouse.org. —Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll
A New Production of a Grisly and Infamous Opera
German composer Richard Strauss’s infamous Salome had its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in the winter of 1907. Afterward, the opera, with its incestuous, lustful, and violent plot — not to mention the intensely dissonant chord near its end that scholar Gary Schmidgall described as “the most sickening chord in all opera” — was deemed so “repugnant” that Salome wasn’t performed at the Met again until 1934 and was banned in several countries in the meantime.
The Met’s Live in HD season continues on Saturday, May 17 at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater with a simulcast of a new production of Salome, the company’s first production of the one-act opera in 20 years. Soprano Elza van den Heever stars in the title role with baritone Peter Mattei, who plays Jochanaan, the object of Salome’s insatiable desire and the cause of her fury. Salome’s parents are played by mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung as Herodias and tenor Gerhard Siegel as Herod, and the opera is conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
The libretto of Salome is based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play. For this production, director Claus Guth makes his Met debut with a version of the opera set in the Victorian era, in which the disturbing tragedy plays out in strict and unforgiving daylight and a mysterious and ruinous night.
Some characters meet grisly ends, especially Jochanaan, who is beheaded after spurning Salome’s advances. The opera is described with a warning for its “disturbing content” on the Met’s website, no doubt for its verisimilitude: a recent New York magazine article reports that the Met engaged its wig and makeup department — a 10-person team headed by Tera Willis — to create a prop decapitated head that looks exactly like Mattei.
Tickets for the simulcast are $15 to $27, plus fees, at what.org —Dorothea Samaha
