What’s going on at WHAT ( Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater )?
Perhaps the biggest news of this little town in recent months is the resignation in August of Jeff Zinn as artistic director (read head honcho) of Wellfleet’s celebrated beyond -local, local theater .
This is more than a simple changing of the guard. At an impromptu sendoff at a recent opening night party some longterm wellwishers referred wistfully to Zinn’s departure as the end of an era. It sure feels that way.
As actor, director, writer as well as longtime administrator, Zinn embodies a connection to the original spirit of one of the most ambitious and successful grassroots arts effort anywhere. WHAT was founded in 1985 by several local actors, some of whom fortunately had builder’s skills and could carve a 90 seat theater out of a ramshackle, unheated building by the harbor.
From the beginning the idea was, through adventurous choice of edgy material and sheer attitude, to tweak and transcend expectations of community theater. It was a creative explosion, smalltown locals producing theater that soon had big city reviewers treating Wellfleet as, theatrically, a borough of Boston.
No doubt, part of the original fun was the contrast between the creative results and that cramped (but ever so intimate!) space by the harbor. A lot of us not directly involved could at least feel a sort of co-conspiratorial pride in this flourishing of Wellfleet creativity.
When, 15 years or so into this flourishing, the theater decided to build a new stage it seemed a natural outgrowth and expression of the original WHAT impulse, the creativity overflowing its original vessel. After having made do for so long with the original humble space, they had earned an upgrade.
It was an expensive move. The state-of-the-art building–nothing less for this country theater with urban ambitions–cost $6.8 million and the financial burden changed something. In place of lighthearted dunning of patrons in the spirit of throwing a few bucks into the hat, there was serious, bigtime fundraising. Despite the generosity of numerous patrons, a large mortgage loomed.
The great theater continued, maybe got even better with more elaborate sets enabled by the new facility. But pretty quickly the question began to come up: will the serious, cutting-edge theater that has built this building be able to support it? The pressure to fill seats to pay the bills felt quite contrary to the original WHAT spirit. Finances began calling the shots instead of the creative ambition. Somehow, things had gotten turned around: the expensive new building itself had become the master instead of the servant of creativity.
Perhaps it was inevitable, but it was unfortunate.
Change isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if the future is a worthy successor to the past. Right now, the future of WHAT feels very much up in the air. One new emphasis, according to executive director Mark Hough, is to sponsor more “ …community based events beyond its legacy of cutting-edge summer theater.” This sounds less like new era inspiration than a bill-paying measure. (And redundant, since we already have brand new Preservation Hall, dedicated to serving community needs, as well as the old standbys senior center and library.)
Yes, there’s that big mortgage to pay, and probably lots of maintenance on that complicated building, but when finances begin to dictate vision and direction, there’s something wrong. It might be good for WHAT to kick off the post-Zinn era with a values-clarification session focussed on its little-theater-that-could roots.
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