Press Release: 2nd Wednesday Theater Presents “Here!” at Cotuit Center for the Arts

Cotuit Center for the Arts’ 2nd Wednesday Theater presents a staged reading of “Here!” by Lee Roscoe, on Wednesday, January 9, at 7:30 PM. Carol McManus directs.

Part satire, part serious, “Here!” looks at what happens when hyperbole becomes real and Amerikka turns fascist. How does the political affect the personal? This play looks at individuals, relationships, and communities as they are affected by national policies. “It takes place right here and now, in any New England town,” said playwright Lee Roscoe. “It could be right here on the Cape.”

Sara is a painter who runs a B&B, Dave runs a radio station, and their best friend is a farmer. How do these relationships change when friendly, folksy Eddie Fabuloso is elected president and implements national policies that put the nation under his control?

“Here!” was, in part, inspired by Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, “It Can’t Happen Here,” but “it is my own take on the historical patterns of the rise of dictatorships,” said Roscoe.

“I want my director, Carol McManus, to have free sway in creating a collaboration with actors that will be vivid and imaginative and hold the proverbial mirror up to a bleak possibility, in hopes that we might awaken to avoid it,” said Roscoe.

Roscoe is a former NYC-trained Equity professional who worked backstage and onstage in Off-Broadway productions and in independent films. Her chapter in “The Cinema of Normal Mailer (Bloomsbury Press) received rave reviews. She has acted on the Cape at WHAT, where the Boston Globe called her work “brilliant,” at the Provincetown Theatre, and in various other productions, including “A Woman’s Heart,” which will be staged at Cotuit Center for the Arts in 2019.

Her playwriting accomplishments are substantial. She is a Yale Drama series finalist. Her plays have been called “powerful and important theater” by Michael Kahn of the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington DC; “brilliant” by Judith Malina, the late founder of the Living Theater; and praised by Howard Zinn, David Hare, and others.

Roscoe’s plays have been seen at Provincetown Theater, Great Plains Theater Conference, the Living Theater in New York City, Boston Playwrights Theater, and other venues, and heard on WBRS FM. This past Halloween WOMR/WFRM aired a special broadcast of Roscoe’s original radio drama, “The Mooncusser’s Tale,” which is available at womr.org and will rebroadcast this summer. “The Mooncusser’s Tale” enjoyed a staged reading at 2^nd Wednesday Theater last May.

Roscoe’s varied life experience informs her plays. She is also a journalist, a Woods Hole Ocean Science Journalism fellow, a poet, and the originator of the Instant Dress, as well as a former environmental educator.

Second Wednesday Theater is a monthly play-reading series of rarely performed classics, undiscovered gems, and exciting new works. Admission is free, and wine is available for $5 a glass.

Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit. For more information, visit www.artsonthecape.org or call 508-428-0669.

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What:

2^nd Wednesday Theater presents “Here!” by Lee Roscoe

Where:

Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit

When:

Wednesday, January 9, 7:30 PM

Admission:

Free

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