Playbill
PORTRAITURE
a new play written & directed by
Margaret Van Sant
Cape Cod Museum of Art
D’Alessandro Auditorium
60 Hope Lane, Dennis, MA 02638
Friday, May 2 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, May 3 at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM
Sunday, May 4 at 2:00 PM
Cotuit Center for the Arts
Sigel Black Box Theater
4404 Falmouth Road, Cotuit, MA 02635
Thursday, May 22 at 7:30 PM
Friday, May 23 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, May 24 at 7:30 PM
Thursday, May 29 at 7:30 PM
Friday, May 30 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, May 31 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, June 1 at 2:00 PM
Portraiture
Margaret Van Sant – Playwright / Director
CAST:
Kristin Stewart - Sylvia Santos
Karen McPherson – Alice B. Toklas
Anna Botsford – Mabel Dodge Luhan
Kathleen Larson Day – Gertrude Stein
Portraiture is approximately 80 minutes in duration.
There will be no intermission.
Please silence personal devices before the show begins.
No recording of any kind is permitted during the show.
Portraiture contains strong and offensive language that has been replicated from historical texts authored by Gertrude Stein. These opinions and language choices in no way reflect the opinions and language preferences used by the actors expressing them, the playwright/director, or the creative team.
Production Team
Margaret Van Sant - Playwright / Director
Jim Dalglish - Producing Artistic Director / Dramaturge / Sound & Projection Design
Caitlin Nicholson - Lighting Design / Stage Manager
John Killwey - Set Design and Construction
Bill Jacobs - Set Design and Construction Assistant
Tami Trask - Costume Design
Robin Joyce Miller – Script Advisor
Donna Rockwell – Poster Design / Illustrations
PARTNERS:
Benton Jones - Cape Cod Museum of Art Director of Art
Joyce Groemmer - Cape Cod Museum of Art Sr. Marketing Manager
Erica Strzepeck - Cape Cod Museum of Art Education / Program Manager
Jason Mellin - Cotuit Center for the Arts Black Box Artistic Director
About Helltown Players
Helltown Players is a collaborative of dramatists and theatre enthusiasts from the Outer Cape whose mission is to produce new plays written by Cape Cod playwrights.
Helltown Players was founded in the Spring of 2023 by eight playwrights and theatre enthusiasts with Outer Cape connections who wished to support local, home-grown theatre.
Helltown Players is a registered non-profit corporation with the State of Massachusetts. Helltown Players is a registered tax-exempt non-profit under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRS).
Helltown Players Trustees
Jim Dalglish - Founder/Producing Artistic Director/Trustee
Ian Ryan - Secretary/Treasurer/Trustee
John Dennis Anderson - Trustee
Lynda Sturner - Trustee
Margaret Van Sant - Trustee
Meryl Cohn - Trustee Emeritus
Gary Garrison - Trustee Emeritus
Fermin Rojas - Trustee Emeritus
Helltown Players Benefactors
Helltown Players thanks the following individuals and organizations for their support. We would not have succeeded as an organization without you!
Scott Allegretti
Jerry Birdwell
Karen von Bismarck
Barbara Boone
Jadah Carroll
Maureen Condon
Meryl Cohn
Kevin Chandler
John Greiner-Ferris
Jarice Hanson
Elizabeth Hogan
Wendy Levine
Jane Macdonald
Delane & Richard Moser
Pamela Painter
Judith Partelow
Rob Phelps
Carl Pritkat
Laurence Ramin
Fermin Rojas
Patrick Riviere
Mike Syers
Victor Stein
Wenifred Watson
The Jaqueline I. Kroschwitz Fund
Joan Patchen Art and Activism Fund
Provincetown Local Cultural Council
Mass Cultural Council
Cape Cod 5
Special Thanks To…
Mass Cultural Council
Mass Cultural Council Card to Culture
Jenn Pina and Cape Cod Theater Company - Home to the Harwich Junior Theater
Provincetown Dental Arts / Scott A. Allegretti, D.D.S.
Cape Cod 5
Dennis Memorial Library
Yale University Library System
Bill Jacobs
John Killwey
Lynda Sturner
Rob Phelps
Ian Ryan
Mark Downey
Benton Jones
Eric Strzępek
Joyce Groemmer
Development History & Acknowledgements
Margaret Van Sant would like to thank all of the theater talent who helped to develop Portraiture. Ernie Joselvitz and the Playwrights Forum (Washington, DC, 2010), Goddard College faculty advisors Pam Hall, Devora Neumark, Erica Eaton, and Daniel Alexander Jones (2010), directors Bart Murell (Provincetown Playwrights Festival, 2012) and Nina Schuessler (The Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Festival, 2023) and the actors who have participated in these readings as well as the Kaplan Prize finalist reading (2022): Braunwyn Jackett, Racine Oxtaby, Lee Roscoe, Judith Partelow, Laura Esterman, Sara Sneed, Phoebe Otis, Jen Cabral, Jadah Carroll, and John Shuman.
Creative Team Bios
(Alphabetical by last name:)
Anna Botsford
Mabel Dodge Luhan
Anna was most recently seen at Cape Cod Theatre Company in The Jungle Book and Dracula, as well as at Cotuit Center for the Arts in The Helltown Players production of the one woman show, The Playground. Before that she performed the one-woman show Grounded (2021 & 2017, Winner: Best Actress - Broadway World). Other CCftA Credits include: A Talented Woman, Unsafe (IRNE Nomination), Boston Marriage, and The 39 Steps. Other Cape area credits include Bedside Manners at BCC, Church at Harbor Stage Company and The Lear Project at CCTC. Anna is a graduate of the Emerson College Theatre Education Program and is a former company member of Theatre Espresso in Boston and a founding member of ASA Theatre Company here on Cape. She is currently the IB Theatre teacher and STAGE Director at the Sturgis Charter Public School West Campus.
Jim Dalglish
Dramaturge / Founder / Producing Artistic Director / Trustee
Jim is a playwright, director, filmmaker, and producer with more than 30 plays and films to his credit. These works have been produced and screened around the world and have won awards in New York, Boston, London, and Dublin. A few of his plays have been anthologized in best play collections. Jim has directed more than two dozen theatrical productions, five of which he also independently produced. He has been employed by a variety of theaters in New England as a managing director, marketing director, and box office manager. Jim has a master’s degree in creative writing/ playwriting from Brown University. His thesis advisor was Paula Vogel. When he isn’t busy writing, directing, or producing plays and films, he and his husband Rob Phelps enjoy sailing Delphina – their 17-foot O’Day Daysailer – along the sheltered harbors of New England.
Kathleen Larson Day
Gertrude Stein
Kathleen is a wash ashore from the Boston MetroWest area. Prior to reluctantly adulting, she performed professionally in theater and opera houses throughout the US. Kathleen feels incredibly lucky to be welcomed into the Cape Cod theater family and privileged to be back on stage in this important play with this talented cast and team. Locally, she has performed at CotuitCenter for the Arts (Grease, The World Goes Round) and The Eventide Theatre Company (A Grand Night for Singing, The Importance of Being Earnest, The World Goes Round, Blithe Spirit, Company, Our Town). Thank you Helltown Players, Jim, Margaret, Chuck and of course, Gertie.
Tami Trask Good
Costume Design
Tami has been costuming productions at various local theaters for more than 30 years, including recently Pippin and The Importance of Being Earnest at Eventide Theatre Company and Fiddler on the Roof and Always, Patsy Cline at Cotuit Center for the Arts. When she’s not working in the theater, Tami works with private clients, specializing in creating custom garments, or is planning her latest home renovation project. It’s been a pleasure working with Jim again and for the first time with Margaret, and has enjoyed spending time with this talented and lovely cast!
Bill Jacobs
Design and Construction Assistant
Bill Jacobs is a director, writer, cinematographer and producer living full-time in Wellfleet, MA. Bill worked many years at Columbia, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles before starting his media production company, Shooting Star Creativeworks. Currently, Bill is in the final stages of postproduction on the independent feature film, When the Moon Was Twice as Big, a project that he wrote and directed, and coproduced with his husband, John Killwey.
John G. Killwey
Set Design & Construction
After 23 years in corporate business focusing on claims legal, John transitioned into the entertainment industry, co-producing the independent feature film When the Moon Was Twice as Big with his husband, Bill Jacobs. As co-owner of Shooting Star Creativeworks, a media production company, John has coordinated with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG/AFTRA), scouted locations, and used his expertise in carpentry and design to craft exceptional movie sets and props. Since relocating to Cape Cod, John has expanded his creative pursuits, producing set pieces for critically acclaimed theatrical productions. For him, life is a creative adventure—and he's loving every moment of it!
Karen McPherson
Alice B. Toklas
Karen has been performing on Cape Cod stages from Provincetown to Cotuit since washing ashore in 1996. She is delighted to work with this amazing cast and join the Helltown Players. Among her favorite roles are Daisy (Driving Miss Daisy APA, CCftA, BCC), Professor van Helsing (Passion of Dracula, CDG), Lady Bracknell (Importance of Being Earnest, APA), Linda Loman (Death of a Salesman, ETC), Nurse (Romeo and Juliet, CCCC), Pip (Moby Dick, the Musical CCftA), Mother (Sunday in the Park with George, CCftA), and…well, there have been over 75 shows in 29 years, and, frankly, they are ALL favorites! Karen is a happy Cape Cod actor.
I just want to thank everyone in the cast and crew for their help, as I came to the cast late. I also want to thank Margaret and Jim for introducing me to a deeper appreciation of earlier 20th century women who changed literature!
Robin Joyce Miller
Script Consultant
Robin Joyce Miller is a retired educator, artist, author, poet, and public speaker, who taught for 30+ years in the NYC school system. She spent the first half of her career teaching learning disabled students and the next half as an art teacher. Miller was also a NYC Blueprint for the Arts Facilitator, leading workshops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum.
After retirement she and her husband have maintained two residences in NYC and Cape Cod. After George Floyd’s murder, Robin and her husband, James, began presenting a BLM Series with the Cotuit Center for the Arts. These programs focus on African/African American history and are available to the public on Cotuit on Demand - YouTube. She is on the Bd of Directors at the Cotuit Center. Miller is also a Peace and Racial Harmony advocate. She speaks at churches, schools, universities, and libraries on the subject of race. You can view more of Robin’s work on www.robinjoycemillerart.com.
Cait Nicholson
Lighting Designer / Stage Manager
Cait Nicholson (She/They) is a lighting designer and technician based on Cape Cod. With over a decade of experience in the theater industry, Cait has worked across a range of venues including the Cape Cod Melody Tent, Cotuit Center for the Arts, and several local theater companies. They specialize in lighting design, operation, and stage management, and are passionate about creating immersive, visually striking experiences. Cait is excited to be a part of this show and honored to work with such an amazing group of women.
Kristin Stewart
Sylvia Santos
Kristin has been a performer since her start at the Harwich Junior Theatre in 1983. She has worked professionally as a circus clown with the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus and in many theaters across the country. She has performed at Cotuit Center for the Arts in Black Comedy, A Tuna Christmas, and Much Ado About Nothing. A firm believer in laughter as the best medicine, she was also a proud member of the Laughter League, bringing light and joy into area children's hospitals. Kristin is a founding member of ASA theatre ensemble. She is delighted to be working with this incredible group of women and to be a part of the Helltown Players.
Margaret Van Sant
Playwright / Director
Margaret is the Artistic Director of Provincetown Dramatic Arts and a Trustee of Helltown Players. She established the PDA development project, the O’Neill Festival of New Works. Margaret has directed classic and contemporary theater, but has a special focus on the development of new scripts. At Long Wharf Theater she managed the Stage II program of new script development, and at the PTC she established the Playwright’s Lab and the Provincetown Playwright’s Festival. She has directed at Virginia Stage Company, Long Wharf Theater, Arena Stage, Yale University (National Conference on Portuguese Theater), Yale Cabaret, Berkshire Theater Festival, University of Massachusetts/ Dartmouth, City Studio Theater, Payomet Center for the Performing Arts, and Provincetown Theater. For the past four years she has taken a play by a Cape playwright to the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. She is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. A special thanks to Jim Dalglish, my dramaturge (who makes it fun), Helltown Players, Will and Vanessa.
Portrait Permissions…
Gertrude Stein painted by Francis Picabia, Alice B. Toklas by Dora Maar, and Mabel Dodge Luhan by Mary Foote. Images used with the permission of the Yale University Library.
Partners and Sponsors…
Registered Nonprofit
Helltown Players is a nonprofit corporation registered with the state of Massachusetts and is a registered tax-exempt nonprofit under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRS).
