6 short plays by the Helltown Players

Little Devils – the inaugural production of the Helltown Players – is back! Renamed More Little Devils, this year’s festival features a new set of original short plays and represent the amazing variety and quality of theatrical works written by Cape Cod playwrights.

A collection of published award-winning plays as well as world premieres, each offers a unique worldview – entertaining, hilarious, inspiring, and heart-warming.

Three Venues… Same Show…

This year’s show will be performed in three different venues: Cape Rep Theatre (Brewster), The Academy of Performing Arts (Orleans), and The Pilgrim House (Provincetown.)

About the Plays…

Convergence

Three lives. One storm. A convergence that changes everything.

Playwright: Bill Jacobs
Director: Bill Jacobs

Actors

Jonathan Rodman - Freddie
John Hanright - John
Wil Moser - Blond Guy

About the play: During a thunderstorm in 1965, three young men from vastly different worlds meet in a Bucks County barn. As they wrestle with race, privilege, and purpose, their fleeting encounter sparks a transformative moment that resonates far beyond the storm.

No Surrender

History comes down, but its echoes linger

Playwright: Candace Perry
Director: Scott Cunningham

Actors

John Dennis Anderson - Robert
John Shuman - George
P. Adams-Riviere - Beau

About the play: A disoriented stranger appears in a New Orleans homeless camp, claiming to have fallen from greatness. As he clashes with a veteran and a brash developer over history and identity, he challenges what it means to reckon with the past.

Remembering When I Used to Remember

What is remembered, lives on, in laughter and in strife

Playwright: Patrick Riviere
Director: Florence Heller

Actors

John Dennis Anderson - Marty
Bill Salem - Tucker
Dustin Ross - Jimmy

About the play: A gay married couple prepares to renew their vows at the beach in Provincetown as memories are lost and found and past secrets resurface. Remembering When I Used to Remember is a humorous and heartwarming story of love’s endurance in the face of time and imperfection.

Rolando

Two lives, one subway ride, and the weight of what could have been.

Playwright: Wendy Watson
Director: Florence Heller

Actors

Leanne McLaughlin - Girl
Jimmy C. Jules - Rolando

About the play: A subway ride in 1985 becomes a haunting journey through memory, grief, and humanity. A man searching for connection and a young woman grappling with guilt tell parallel stories that ask: When faced with suffering, will we look away or reach out?

The Pros and Cons of Implosion

When rusted dreams meet a spark of ingenuity, the past collides with the future.

Playwright: R. D. Murphy
Director: Mary Arnault

Actors

Neil McGarry - Mr. Gordon
Leanne McLaughlin - Allie

About the play: Allie is a whip-smart high school senior who is a car whisperer. She wants to restore her neighbor’s Volvo which has been left to rust for 20 years. Simple plan, right? Depends on what you know about implosion.
 

Colour My World

Memories may fade, but love remembers.

Playwright: Melinda Buckley
Director: Judith Partelow

Actors

Janet Moore - Nancy
Bill Jacobs - Malachy
Chelsey Brown - Janine

About the play: At a small-town bus stop, a woman encounters someone from her past who is just out of reach in her memory. Colour My World is a tender tale of love, loss, and the fleeting clarity that brings hearts together.

Sponsors and Partners…

Made possible in part by the Joan Patchen Art and Activism Fund and the Provincetown Local Cultural Council.

Produced in partnership with The Academy of Performing Arts.

The Helltown Players Mission…

We are a collaborative of dramatists, producers, directors, actors, designers, technicians, and theatre enthusiasts whose mission is to produce plays written by playwrights with meaningful connections to Cape Cod.

Historical Precedent…

We find our inspiration from the ground-breaking endeavors of the Provincetown Players. Tired of the silly comedies and stale melodramas that dominated theatre of their day, these theatre revolutionaries began writing and staging new, homegrown plays in Provincetown in the summer of 1915. Their continued efforts gave birth to a new approach to playwriting that would soon become the backbone of the great American dramatic writing tradition.

Eugene O’Neill, Susan Glaspell, Hutchins and Neith Boyce Hapgood, John Reed, Louise Bryant, Mabel Dodge, and other visionaries created and produced plays in their homes and backyards, and in a fishing shack dangling over Provincetown Harbor on Lewis Wharf. They soon caught the attention of the world and theatre has never been the same.

Our vision is to channel the spirit and passion of these theatrical revolutionaries and produce plays written by – and performed for – the people of Cape Cod.

New Productions of Cape Cod Plays…

Helltown Players will:

• Produce the theatrical works of playwrights who have meaningful connections to Cape Cod. 
• Engage dramatists, performers, directors, producers, designers, technicians, promoters, and other people from the Cape Cod community who wish to collaborate on these theatrical endeavors. 
• Create a welcoming atmosphere that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion in all our endeavors.
• Offer courses, seminars, festivals, and playwriting labs that will engage dramatists and theatre enthusiasts within the Cape Cod community and beyond.
• Collaborate with theatres, arts organizations, and performance venues on Cape and off to develop and promote the works of Cape Cod playwrights.