by Rebecca M. Alvin
Provincetown Magazine: When did you first become involved with the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival (PTWTF)?
Adam Weinstock: I’ve been producing in Provincetown for almost a quarter of a century.It’s funny I kind of became involved with the festival at its inception because one of my actors from Naked Boys Singing got cast in a show.A few years later I brought a show from the New York Fringe Festival to Provincetown—back when you could do that—called Blanche Survives Katrina In A FEMA Trailer Named Desire, and I loved it. Nobody else did, but David Kaplan, the festival’s curator, became aware of me. Subsequently, he asked me to help move one of their shows from the festival called The Hotel Plays to the University of the South in Tennessee. I worked with Jef Hall-Flavin, the former executive director and it was a wonderful experience. A few years later I helped the festival produce and move The Cat with the Jeweled Claws to La Mama in New York City.
PM: How does Tennessee Williams’ work resonate with you, personally?
AW: You know that’s a tough one. First, he’s brilliant and I really appreciate brilliance. Next, I remember as a child watching Suddenly Last Summer with my parents and not quite understanding why Sebastian Venable had to die. As a gay man, an American, and a producer of theater my entrance into producing was concentrated on gay work and our stories. Since then, I have realized as I matured and learned, that all of our stories are those of the human experience, and no one expresses that more eloquently than Tennessee Williams.
PM: You have had a long relationship with Provincetown. Can you briefly say how you first came to Provincetown and what makes this town a unique place for you?
AW: There’s no place like Provincetown. My first visit was back in the late 90s with a friend of mine who has since left us. And I was like…”What is this place?” It was so beautiful, fun, so wonderful, so accepting and I was already a producer, and quite simply I had an epiphany: “I have to produce here.” When I first started producing at Tropical Joe’s Café (now also gone), honestly everyone was so helpful, including Rick Hines and Provincetown Magazine. That simply doesn’t exist anywhere else.
PM: You have an extensive background in theater, but how did you first start your theater career?
AW: Should I say third grade when I played the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz? And I have to tell you, my mane made me look like a girl. I started the Kennedy Players Drama Cadets in my high school because they had been disbanded. I went to college for theater at SUNY Albany. I graduated and went to Chicago to learn improv at Second City. Steve Carell was in my improv group. Richard Kind was on the main stage with Dan Castellaneta. It was when Saturday Night was burgeoning. The Illegitimate Players won the Cable Ace Award for the comedy Near Northside Story.
After I left Chicago and came to New York I thought becoming a producer might be more interesting. I was involved in the 1996 revival of Boys in the Band which has been revived many times since then. I founded a company called Creative Concept Productions. This is my personal company where I answer to no one but myself and produce a lot of one-offs all over the world. My most loyal, brilliant celebrity with whom I work is Margaret Cho. Every time she’s been in Provincetown I’ve brought her here.
About a half a dozen years ago I created Red Spear Productions with my business partner Roger Cooper. We concentrate on film, Broadway and the West End. Our most recent production Back To The Future The Musical just won the Olivier Award for Best Musical 2021.
PM: In your new capacity as executive director, what do you hope to accomplish?
AW: Okay, that’s an easy one. I want to hold true to David Kaplan’s vision. I want to make the Festival (and Provincetown) proud. The PTWTF has lasted 17 years and stayed viable through Covid. Not many can say that. I want to show this festival the respect it deserves. In my first year I just want everything to be more efficient and get done more easily in a timely fashion. I want to hire wonderful, adroit, able-bodied, creative, diverse, brilliant people. Next year I want us to be in the black.
The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival will be held in Provincetown September 22 – 25. For more information visit twptown.org.
