Remembering an ‘Epic’ Provincetown Musician
Provincetown flutist Eric Maul, who died on Sept. 12, had an expansive music taste. “He especially loved French music,” says Brian Calhoon, who owns and operates the Brasswood Inn. Maul loved classical music in general, musical theater, and pop. All of these genres — and others — will be represented at “Epic,” a memorial concert for Maul at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House (236 Commercial St., Provincetown) on Sunday, Nov. 24, at 5 p.m.
More than 25 musicians, all of whom had a connection to Maul, will participate, says Calhoon, who organized the event with Sam Sewell. There will be several classical instrumental pieces, an opera singer, and singer-songwriters performing original songs and covers. “We’ll have a lot of familiar Provincetown faces like Peter Donnelly, Hilarie Tamar, and John Thomas,” says Calhoon, adding that Jon Richardson will be performing Jim Henson’s song “The Rainbow Connection,” which Richardson and Maul often played at the Crown & Anchor and Tin Pan Alley.
“All of the pieces have some tie-in to Eric, whether it’s a song we played with him, or for him, or a song that makes us think of him,” says Calhoon, who became friends with Maul after moving to Provincetown in 2020. He’ll be playing “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at Sunday’s concert. It’s a song he and Maul would play together, with Calhoon on marimba and Maul on flute. “In this case, I’m going to play solo and sing,” he says.
After the concert, guests will be invited to donate to the Eric Maul Scholarship Fund, created by Maul’s family to enable students to study flute with Marina Piccinini, Maul’s former flute teacher at the Peabody Institute, at her summer master classes in Switzerland. Guests may also donate to the Red Door Chamber Music series, which Maul co-founded in 2021 with pianist Craig Combs.
“We decided to call the concert ‘Epic’ because Eric was truly epic: larger than life and loved by many,” says Calhoon. “He inspired us all.”
The show will run about two hours, with an intermission. Admission is free. See instagram.com/reddoorchambermusic for more information. —Eve Samaha
Calling All Local Playwrights
Founded in 2023 as an homage to the early 20th-century Provincetown Players, whose members (including Eugene O’Neill) created and produced plays in their homes, back yards, and in a shack on Lewis Wharf above Provincetown Harbor, the nonprofit Helltown Players are returning this winter for “More Little Devils,” a showcase for new original short plays by Cape Cod writers.
“Last year, we did ‘Little Devils,’ which included six plays from six of the eight founders of the company,” says Helltown Players founder Jim Dalglish. “This year, we’re opening it up beyond the founders to invite anyone with a Cape Cod affiliation.”
The original run of “Little Devils” was performed at Provincetown Theater in February 2023 and was subsequently presented at the Academy of Performing Arts in Orleans. While “More Little Devils” will again premiere at the Provincetown Theater in February 2025, Dalglish says that the Helltown Players are still looking for a second venue for repeat performances.
Submissions for the showcase will be accepted through Nov. 30. Each play must be no longer than 20 minutes (Dalglish says that 10-to-15-minute plays are “ideal”). There is no fee to submit a play; the only requirement is that the writer be affiliated with Cape Cod. Nor are there any restrictions regarding genre: comedies, dramas, or something in-between are welcome. Dalglish says the main objective of the showcase is to present six plays that naturally complement each other. The plays will be announced in December, and playwrights whose works are chosen will receive a royalty of $100 for the use of their work.
For more information on “More Little Devils” and to submit a play for consideration, see helltownplayers.org. —Hazel Everett
On the Lookout for a Holiday Tradition
The Pilgrims landed in Provincetown on Nov. 11, 1620. That’s why the Pilgrim Monument is lit every year around this time — not because of the holidays, as some might assume.
For decades, the Monument lighting took place the night before Thanksgiving. In 2020, the ceremony was moved to Nov. 11 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival. Courtney Hurst, the new executive director of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum, says the local community has fond memories of that tradition as a kickoff to the holiday season, even though the twinkling white lights are not holiday lights but — in PMPM parlance — “landing lights.”
“We kept it on the 11th for a few years after the pandemic,” Hurst says. “But over time we recognized that while having it on the earlier date might be more historically accurate, dwindling attendance and increasing community feedback told us that it should be on Thanksgiving Eve. The point of the lights is to remember that the Pilgrims landed here first, but it’s also to gather and celebrate this town we love.”
Hurst has fond memories of watching the lights come on from her grandparents’ house on Bradford Street and hearing people all over town counting and cheering. She hopes that spirit will be evident this year, whether people trek up to stand at the base of the Monument, step outside their homes, or watch the livestream on PMPM’s Facebook page.
On Wednesday, Nov. 27, the Monument grounds will open at 3 p.m. and the museum itself will be open to visitors. The inclined elevator adjacent to Bas Relief Park will take revelers up High Pole Hill from Bradford Street until 4:55 p.m. Festivities will include music by DJ Emerson, a cash bar, hot cocoa, and baked goods.
The Provincetown business community will be honored on the first night of the lighting, with Liz Lovati, owner of Liz’s Café Anybody’s Bar, throwing the switch at 5 p.m. See pilgrim-monument.org for more information. —Katy Abel
Billy Hough’s School of Punk Rock
“Got an abundance of anger?” asks Provincetown musician Billy Hough in a recent social media post. “How can we fight? Distract ourselves? Have a voice?” Hough provides an unconventional answer to those questions: enroll in his “Punk Rock High School.”
Since 2006, multi-instrumentalist Hough and bass player Sue Goldberg have been performing “Scream Along With Billy,” a popular (and loud) weekly live show at the Grotta Bar. He’s also performed in a punk band called the Garage Dogs with his brothers since 1995. All of which is to say that he knows his stuff. Starting this month, Hough will be sharing that experience in a weekly punk rock class at the Governor Bradford in Provincetown.
“I find punk music to be incredibly powerful,” says Hough. “It comes at times of great distress.” By his own definition, punk includes the protest songs of the civil rights movement — “primarily the songs of Nina Simone,” he says.
“Punk rock is a great way to express yourself when you’re pissed off,” he continues. “This is a good moment to scream at the hierarchy or the patriarchy or whichever ‘-archy’ you’re pissed off at.”
Previous musical knowledge isn’t required. Along with punk history, Hough will teach the elements of music theory and basic chords on guitar and piano as well as a little bass and drums. “Ninety percent of punk songs can be played with three chords,” he says. “And the rest of them with four.”
Participants are encouraged to bring their own instruments. If a student can’t find one, Hough says that pots and pans are acceptable as percussion.
Members of the Outer Cape community are welcome to lend instruments as well. “A lot of people have been loaning us guitars and keyboards,” says Hough. “If you’ve got an old Yamaha hanging around, it could be very helpful for us. We will take very good care of them. But please don’t bring us $5,000 guitars.”
Hough says that his students will be given a list of three-chord songs to practice. They’ll then form bands of two or more members, choose a band name, and write “a brilliant three-chord punk song.” The program will culminate in a concert sometime around New Year’s, during which a winner (“purely for bragging rights,” he says) will be announced.
“The idea is to give people an outlet,” says Hough. “Going into a Provincetown winter is never easy, and especially in this moment politically, everybody feels kind of helpless. I want Provincetown to stop feeling like a target and start feeling like the most punk-rock city in the f***ing country.”
Although the school, which started on Nov. 17, is already in session, new students are welcome. “I can accommodate as few as 10 people or as many as 50, if we get them,” Hough says.
There is a $10 fee per class to cover the cost of materials. “But if you don’t have it, come anyway,” says Hough. “I would love it if the town was flooded with punk rockers.” See @billhough on Instagram for more information. —Eve Samaha
Exploring Possibilities at the Cape Cod Museum of Art
According to artist Mary Doering, the title of a current four-artist exhibition at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis is like a Buddhist koan intended to shake people out of traditional ways of thinking, doing, and being.
“THINK BIG work small” is a show by ArtSynergies, a group co-founded by Doering that also includes Barbara Ford Doyle, Sara David Ringler, and Alan Trugman. Doering says their work aims to combine traditional and innovative forms of printmaking, digital technology, and photography to create diverse imagery.
In the exhibition, “smaller surfaces offer subjects their own distinct character, inviting closer, more intimate study,” according to a group statement. Yet when pieces are combined, individual identities blur and become part of a greater narrative.
Some of Doering’s work shows images woven together in various ways, including virtual “weaving” through digital manipulation.
Doyle’s art also layers images and information. A collage on rice paper incorporates images of a language teacher and street graffiti with other printed material from a trip to Italy. Made of wooden panels with resin coating, the 4-by-4-inch modules of the piece become components of a larger whole.
For Trugman, working “small” means using minimal materials: just three relief plates and three colors of ink. The “big” was exploring potentially unlimited variations and combining materials and techniques into more than 100 different images so far.
Some of Ringler’s art allows visitors to create variations themselves. For Screen Time, she affixed monotypes, etchings, and mixed media to magnets to be rearranged on double-sided boards. The interactivity reflects the flux and chaos of our complex times, Ringler says, as we’re bombarded with images and must constantly make decisions and connections from what we see.
The exhibition opens on Thursday, Nov. 21 with a free artist talk at 4 p.m. followed by a reception at 5 p.m. It will remain on view through Feb. 9. See ccmoa.org for information. —Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll
