You asked: Payomet is the Wampanoag name for our beautiful Pamet River and ValleyDIRECTIONS:

From Boston:
Take Rt 6 towards Provincetown.Continue through Truro for 2.4 miles. Take a right on So. Highland Rd for .8 mile. Sign for Payomet is on Right at corner of Old Dewline Rd. Continue up Old Dewline 500 yards to tent.

From Provincetown:
Take Rt. 6 and travel 6 miles to North Truro. Turn Left on So. Hollow Rd for .6 mile. Turn Right on So. Highland Rd for  200 yards. Sign for Payomet is on Left at corner of Old Dewline Rd. Continue up Old Dewline 500 yards to tent.

PARKING IS FREE
WE ARE WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE
Public transportation available via
The Breeze Shuttle

Join Our Email List Email:

NORTH TRURO — Listening to Kevin Rice's enthusiasm, you'd almost think there was going to be fireworks set off at Payomet Performing Arts Center this summer. The words "pop" and "explode" pepper his descriptions, but it's only bang-up entertainment he's talking about.

At Payomet's 10-year anniversary, Rice has taken over as artistic director, and he's put together a season of multiple genres — building on a successful formula by founder Guy Strauss — as a way to draw in people of all ages and interests. A familiar face in Lower Cape cultural circles for more than two decades, Rice knows a lot of people and has a lot of connections and experience as co-founder of Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, a professional playwright and director, and a huge film and music buff. And a man passionate about his politics. The films and theater Rice is featuring at Payomet have something to say, especially about civil rights. (Many documentary choices are part of a "Liberty and Justice for Some" series underwritten by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.)
"Yes, I'm a fan of political or related historical-political issues," he says of the movie choices. "The discussions afterward are going to be explosions."

But a peek at the varied Payomet schedule shows that film nights won't be the only ones that "pop."
"Theater is political. ... Art is political, everything is political," Rice says. "We're tying the two together with the discussions with filmmakers because often that's going to be a theatrical event." He cites Seth Rolbein's "Provincetown USA" as an example. "You get any three people together at a dinner table and talk about Provincetown — the good, the bad ... You can have a very lively discussion, if not a fistfight."

And that emphasis is not even because this is a presidential election year. Sure, more people may be thinking about politics as the summer leads to the party conventions, but Rice says the art he chooses would provoke thought and discussion no matter what year it was.

His "fairly ambitious" schedule — filled daily from late June to Labor Day, with special events before and after — kicks off with a fundraiser tonight by political satirist and local favorite Jimmy Tingle. The comedian will perform his "Jimmy Tingle for President" show at First Congregational Church in Wellfleet to benefit both Payomet and Wellfleet Preservation Hall.

The center's main summer season starts ("starts jumping," Rice notes) with a film-music pairing on Gypsies: "American Gypsy" on June 27, Jasmine Dellal's film about civil rights abuses against Romani people, or Gypsies, living in Spokane, Wash., then a June 28 concert by the John Jorgenson Quintet, which Rice describes as "hot gypsy music that will get people on their feet."

Rice concludes this anniversary summer on Labor Day weekend by marking a tragic anniversary with "Katrina — Three Years and Counting!" The Aug. 29-31 festival, to celebrate New Orleans and discuss government ineptitude regarding the hurricane cleanup, will include residents' short documentary films, music by artists such as Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas, and food.

In the weeks between, Payomet will offer Equity theater on Sundays through Tuesdays, Shakespeare on Wednesdays and Thursdays, documentary films (with every filmmaker present for questions and discussion afterward) on Fridays, and music on Saturdays. During the day, there will be acting classes for adults; an expanded schedule of drama classes for children; free Cold War walking tours on Thursdays of Payomet, a former air base; 5 p.m. family shows of Shakespeare, puppetry, clowning and magic; Saturday morning storytelling; and yoga classes four mornings a week.

Several events and programs are scheduled for the fall, too. Rice is also reaching out to other community groups to work together to bring arts to the Lower Cape as well as increase visibility. He'll screen "At Home in Utopia," about immigrants settling in the Bronx in the 1920s, as part of Provincetown International Film Festival; he's hosting the Junior Players from Harwich Junior Theatre; and fundraisers will be held jointly with the preservation hall (Tingle), Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (a film screening), Castle Hill Center for the Arts (golf and golf-themed entertainment) and Shakespeare on the Cape (a clambake).

Everything takes place in the big white tent set up at Highlands Center at Cape Cod National Seashore on Old Dewline Road near Highland Light. Now if people can only find it.

Rice knows very well that his venue is off the beaten path and, especially on a dark night, can be a challenge to locate. He's decided to stay good-natured about that issue and face it head-on, trumpeting Payomet as "Truro's best-kept secret." He's making sure patrons have maps with every ticket and warns them to plan on at least five extra minutes to find the place.

He promises to have coffee waiting when you get there.
By KATHI SCRIZZI DRISCOLL
capecodonline.com
May 24, 2008

Kevin Rice Managing Artistic Director Payomet Performing Arts Center In Truro

kevinrice@payomet.org

a 501 (c)(3) Tax-Exempt Non-Profit Organization, Member Cape Cod Theatre Coalition