Arts Briefs - The Provincetown Independent

By The Independent Oct 23, 2024

Dixie Krystals Is Sweet on the Spotlight

Dixie Krystals isn’t just a character. She’s a genuine person: over the top, campy, a little dirty when she wants to be. “I get my loudness from my mother,” she says.

Krystals chose her name at a Perkins restaurant in central Florida in the wee hours of the morning. “I used to work at Disney,” she says. “We had late-night rehearsals.” Someone asked her what her drag name would be. Krystals, who was nursing a glass of iced tea, noticed the words on a packet of sugar: Dixie Crystals. A star was born.

The Denver-based performer will make her Outer Cape debut on Friday, Oct. 25 at the Post Office Cabaret in Provincetown. Her show, “My Favorite Things,” is meant to help the audience get to know her better. A music lover with a background in musical theater, Krystals grew up in Curwensville, Pa., a small town “smack dab in the center of the state.”

Her father was a Methodist pastor. “I didn’t even know what the word ‘gay’ was until I was in my 20s,” she says. She credits her rural upbringing with forming her personality and providing her with material: “I have some good stories to tell.” Her set list, which changes from show to show, includes numbers from the musicals Waitress and Wicked and songs by Dolly Parton, Bobby Darin, and Frank Sinatra.

As a kid, Krystals dreamed of her name in lights. Now that she’s in the spotlight, she says it’s everything she dreamed of. She doesn’t mind when the audience takes pictures and videos of her performances — as long as they tag her on social media. But she’d like people to put the phones down, too. “Be present in the moment,” she says. “I want people to forget the normal world for an hour or two.”

Tickets are $35 at postofficecafe.net. —Dorothea Samaha

A Portrait of the Artists as Friends (and Enemies)

The story of what transpired — or might have transpired — between two of the towering cultural figures of 19th-century France is the subject of a new play that will be presented as part of the New Works Reading Series at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater this weekend.

Kai Maristed’s Paul and Emile, or, The Masterpiece examines the real-life relationship between painter Paul Cezanne and writer Emile Zola, who forged a strong friendship as students at a boarding school in Aix-en-Provence in the 1850s. As attested by their surviving correspondence, the two remained close after Zola moved to Paris in 1858; Cezanne moved to the capital three years later, just as Zola was finding success as a writer.

But while Zola became increasingly cosmopolitan during his years in Paris, Cezanne was drawn to a more isolated life in the countryside of Provence, and the two drifted apart. In 1886, Zola published his novel L’Oeuvre (The Masterpiece), the central character of which — an artist who struggles to find critical or commercial success and eventually dies by suicide — seems to have been based on Cezanne. The two remained estranged until Zola’s death in 1902.

In Maristed’s play, the two artists are brought together in Cezanne’s studio for a long-delayed reckoning about their contentious relationship — with expectedly (and perhaps unexpectedly) dramatic results. While the play is based on historical sources, Maristed has her protagonists debate whether Zola’s novel was the actual cause of their estrangement. “The two characters in the play have a very different view of the situation,” she says. “The play isn’t an essay. It’s about letting the characters express their own ways of seeing.”

Born in Chicago, Maristed currently divides her time between Paris and Wellfleet. She is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories. Her second collection of stories will be published next year.

The staged reading will take place at WHAT (2357 Rt. 6) on Friday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. Tickets are free, and reservations are not required. See what.org for more information. —John D’Addario

Words and Images at the Cape Cod Museum of Art

Thirty poets were recruited last year to write poems inspired by works of art from the permanent collection of the Cape Cod Museum of Art. The poets were asked to respond as a form of ekphrasis, or detailed description of a work of visual art as a literary device. The art and the poems they inspired are currently on view in the exhibition “Poetic License,” which opened at the CCMoA (60 Hope Lane, Dennis) on Oct. 17.

The participating poets were invited by CCMoA Director of Art Benton Jones and author Lauren Wolk. Jones invited Wolk to help curate the exhibition because she previously curated a similar project when she was the associate director at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in Yarmouth. Wolk says she’s inspired not just by writers but by all kinds of artists. “They always teach me something,” she says, “always make me see the world in a new way, and always impress me with their courage and creativity.”

The poems will be displayed on panels next to the original artworks in CCMoA’s largest gallery space and are also posted on the museum’s website. “I’ve read all the poems now and seen all the artwork that inspired them,” says Wolk. “But I’m really looking forward to seeing them side by side on the wall.”

Prizes will be awarded to three poems during an evening of readings at the museum on Thursday, Oct. 24 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission to the event is free, but RSVPs are appreciated. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Thursday, Nov. 7, and the show is on view until Jan. 12. See ccmoa.org for more information. —Hazel Everett

A Fundraiser to Help Young People Thrive

Founded in 1996 as the Cape and Islands Gay and Straight Youth Alliance, We Thrive is an LGBTQ community center that organizes gatherings, field trips, and special events for people under 22. According to its website, the Hyannis-based organization is founded on “the belief that making our community safer, more respectful, and less judgmental begins by bringing a broad diversity of young people together in an environment where everyone’s dignity is appreciated.”

As part of the 50th annual Trans Week schedule this weekend, the Provincetown Pride Center (115 Bradford St.) will host a fundraiser for We Thrive on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 3 to 5 p.m. Dubbed a “Relax-a-thon,” the event will feature refreshments and live music by Provincetown musician Peter Donnelly. A singer-songwriter who also plays guitar, Donnelly has been a part of the Outer Cape music scene since 1990.

“I like words,” he told the Independent in November 2023. “Some raw songwriters might be more focused on melody and rhythms, but I tend to focus on the story. I like how words fall together.”

Tickets for the event are $50 at ptown.org, and all proceeds will support We Thrive. See wethrive.us for more information. —Eve Samaha

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Filed Under: Arts & Minds, Arts Briefs