“Doing the work” — actor-speak for whatever it takes to develop one’s talent into marketable skills — is a phrase that probably goes all the way back to the first professional actors in ancient Greece: one day you’re playing Orpheus, the next you’re making ends meet by working the olive harvest. But it’s also a philosophy and a mantra, fundamental to the life of an actor.
And it’s something that Provincetown-based actor Joe MacDougall takes seriously. “You must be open to direction,” he says. “You must have the trust and respect of your fellow actors. You also have to do the work. The best piece of advice I ever got was from a director who said, ‘Do the work, and the truth will follow.’ ”
MacDougall’s career is an example of the rewards and challenges facing working actors on the Outer Cape. He made his local debut when director Patrick Falco and producer Susan Grilli of Counter Productions cast him in Take Me Out in 2009. That show led to a spate of good roles in local productions — so good, in fact, that MacDougall left New York, where he’d lived for 25 years, and moved to Provincetown in 2020.
“That show opened up a whole new world for me,” says MacDougall. “Suddenly, I was getting offered parts I would never get in New York.” Those parts included leading roles in The Elephant Man, The Lion in Winter, The Normal Heart, The Maids, Small Craft Warnings, Lonely Planet, and, most recently, Jerker, which was staged at the Provincetown Theater last summer.
The theater scene on Cape Cod has proved to be resilient. Although Covid closed live theaters for 14 months, none of the theater organizations on the Cape permanently closed its doors. But it’s not a theater mecca, and it lacks many of the basic elements most theater professionals would call essential — including a dense concentration of other actors with whom one can rehearse, rejoice, and commiserate when needed.
“I do miss being around other actors, and I miss in-person auditions,” says MacDougall. “And I miss running into friends at castings, classes, and workshops. The business is far more intense in New York, and that can be hard. But it is also exhilarating.”
Also, while the vibrant theater scene on the Cape provides many opportunities for actors to practice their craft, it doesn’t provide steady union-wage jobs that will support a full-time acting career.
MacDougall is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, the union of professional actors. While it provides many benefits to its members, AEA can also restrict actors from working in non-AEA shows. There are very few AEA shows because the high cost of producing them is often a financially risky proposition. Accordingly, most theater productions on the Cape are nonunion.
“Very few actors here are trying to make acting their profession,” says MacDougall. “The artistic opportunities are great, but the pay is low, and union opportunities are even harder to come by.”
There are other economic considerations. Waiting tables between jobs is an actor cliché, but it’s also true. MacDougall, like so many other actors, has relied on restaurant work to support his acting. Fortunately, he’s found steady work as a waiter at Mac’s in Provincetown.
“I like working there because it’s very flexible and it’s a year-round job,” he says. “It is also a place where a lot of the community goes, especially in the off season.”
Age has played a part in MacDougall’s development as an actor. (Keanu Reeves once said he looks upon aging with “wonder and terror.”) MacDougall, who is in his 50s, has often played younger roles, says that he has begun to consider how aging is affecting his castability — and how it will work to his advantage.
“I really wanted to play Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird of Youth and Biff in Death of a Salesman, but I have aged out of those parts,” he says. “I also wanted to play Joe in Angels in America. But now I want to play Roy Cohn. And I would love to play Macbeth. I was always told to be patient because I probably would not hit my stride until I was older. I think by ‘older’ they meant the age I am now. So, we’ll see what happens.”
Despite these challenges, MacDougall has found success and recognition in both New York City and on the Cape, including a nod from the New York Times for his work in George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra and kudos from Broadway World for his portrayal of a troubled Vietnam veteran in Jerker.
He’s also acquired a solid reputation in the local theater community. “He’s always honest in his choices, quick in taking direction and making adjustments, and he’s a 100-percent trustworthy team player,” says David Drake, artistic director of the Provincetown Theater. “I’m so happy to have had a hand in bringing him up to Provincetown.”
Jim Dalglish, author of The Black Eye (a short play that was produced as part of the Quickies series at the Provincetown Art House last year), gives MacDougall high praise for his work. “His trust in me and the play was a gift, one that not many actors are willing to give to work that isn’t already in the canon,” says Dalglish. “The play asked a lot of Joe, and it wouldn’t have worked without total commitment. Joe gave it.”
MacDougall says his commitment as an actor also involves reading and watching plays, taking classes, watching films and interviews, learning to self-tape auditions, keeping his résumé current, getting new headshots, regular exercise, and refining a video reel of his on-camera work, especially in the off season. It can be daunting, but he is resolutely optimistic about his professional future.
“The nice thing about Provincetown and the Cape is that creating something is more realistic than in New York City,” says MacDougall. “I love being an actor here.”
Editor’s note: Because of a reporting error, an earlier version of this article, published in print on Jan. 19, incorrectly stated that David Drake had cast Joe MacDougall in the 2009 production of Take Me Out. It was Patrick Falco and Susan Grilli of the independent Counter Productions who hired MacDougall in 2009. Drake, who had encouraged MacDougall to come to Provincetown, became artistic director of the Provincetown Theater in 2018.
