Welcome to WHAT’s 2025 Season

This summer, WHAT charts a bold path forward with three world-premiere productions, each inspired by a true story.  These stories celebrate the power of community, the power of our convictions, and the power of friendship.  They speak to the world we live in now, and the better world we work to create.

Kevin Rice’s timely comedy Sacco & Vanzetti’s Divine Comedy (June 25 – July 26, 2025) revisits the scandalous 1921 trial of immigrants and anarchists Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, at the height of America’s first Red Scare.  This searing satire will make you laugh, make you think, and make you hungry thanks to a delicious culinary twist!

In the 1920s, Sacco and Vanzetti came to symbolize the failure of American justice when wrongfully convicted of murder in a Boston courtroom. As Italian immigrants and avowed anarchists, what hope did they have before a corrupt court during America’s first Red Scare? In this world-premiere dark comedy from WHAT favorite Kevin Rice (The Pickleball Wars, One Night In The Life of Denise Ivonovich), the sensationalized trial is revisited over three hearty Italian meals, seasoned with equal portions of wit, anarchy, slapstick comedy, and capital(ist) punishment.

Kevin Fogarty drew inspiration from the true story of the small town of Carthage Texas, where a shocking murder transformed the tight-knit community in unexpected ways, for his new musical Southern Harmony (August 6 – September 6, 2025). Filled with colorful characters, rich humor, and a terrific score, this exciting new musical will warm your heart and keep your toes tapping.

He was a friendly mortician.
She was a wealthy widow.
They were an unlikely pair.
The murder was just the beginning.

Now a community has to rethink everything they know about right and wrong to try to make sense of it all.  The line between good and evil runs right through the heart of Texas in this new musical based on a true story.

Kai Maristed’s Paul and Émile (September 18 – October 12, 2025) explores the deep friendship and mysterious estrangement between artist Paul Cézanne and writer Émile Zola through a fateful encounter that reunites the pair after two decades of separation.

Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola were inseparable as schoolboys in Aix-en-Provence.  Once up in Paris they shivered sharing a bed and eating broiled sparrows, impatient for the world to recognize their genius, one as painter, the other as writer. Then, inexplicably, came a bitter falling out and a mystifying two decades of silence.  But what might happen when they are unexpectedly reunited, in Cézanne’s studio, at the height of their separate life journeys?

Creative risk, an adventurous spirit, and an innovative approach to programming have long defined the ethos of Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.  As we enter our 5th decade, we are excited to share these fresh new works, created right here on the Outer Cape, with you.  Tickets and season subscriptions are on sale now.