When the Cape Cod Chronicle was first published around a half century ago, it featured advertisements for modern spec homes in new developments, designed to appeal to young working families. Today, those houses are occupied largely by retirees, or they’ve been renovated and expanded for use as vacation homes. It’s a symptom of demographic changes that have been in the works for decades. From school administrat...

Eunice Kennedy Shriver—dare we identify her as the sister of President John F. Kennedy and the mother of Maria Shriver of NBC News?—is a fascinating and accomplished woman who deserves to have her story told apart from those of her famous brothers. This is the premise of a new biography by Eileen McNamara, a journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1997 while writing a column at the Boston Globe. ...

Mike Reiss, best known for his work as a writer and producer on the longest-running American television sitcom, “The Simpsons,” spends time in Chatham during the summer. “I come for one week a year, sometimes two weeks,” he said. “I love the town, I know it inside and out by this point.” After he published his book “Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Sim...

Even though it’s the last play of their 34th season, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater is heating up the stage with “Raging Skillet,” a scorching comedy about cooking, taking chances and family dynamics. Known as a “rebel anti-caterer,” Chef Rossi broke the jello mold from the beginning. Filled with humorous reflections and recipes, her 2015 memoir “The Raging Skillet” was turned into a comedic play by Jacques L...

It is nearly 50 years since George V. Higgins introduced us to Boston’s grubby criminal underworld in “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.” In 2001 Dennis Lehane introduced us to a new generation of criminals and grifters in “Mystic River.” So debut author Matt Fitzpatrick of Chatham, 47, is swimming into a rich literary tradition with his first novel “Crosshairs: A Justin McGee Mystery” (Green Place Books, 2018). ...

Sustainable Practices, a Cape-wide non-profit organization, is hosting the Sustainability Film Series at the Chatham Orpheum Theater. The documentary screening series began in the fall of 2017 and is returning on Sept. 1 at 10 a.m. with “The True Cost,” a film that tackles the topic of where clothes come from. “It’s about the clothes we wear,” reads the official synopsis, “the people who make them, and the imp...

It's a warm summer evening at the Martin Vanderhof New York home. Martin is the patriarch of a warm and welcoming extended family whose dinners begin with a prayer of Thanksgiving: "We all have our health and leave the rest to you!" "You Can't Take It With You," George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's three-act comedy, makes for a sizzling conclusion to the Monomoy Theatre's 83rd summer season. Guest Director Mic...

CHATHAM — Local author Elizabeth Rudnick Hessler has novelized countless films for Disney, one of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates, including recent live-action remakes such as 2015’s “Cinderella” and 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast.” Hessler’s latest Disney adaptation is of “Christopher Robin,” a film released in early August featuring classic characters such as Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. “I f...

Andrew Singer of Yarmouth has just released his compelling new memoir “China Sings to Me: A Journey into the Middle Kingdom and Myself” (Station Square Media, 2018). Singer, 52, who practices law in Dennis, spent the 1986-1987 college year in China. In 1986 both China and Singer were very different, and one of the great pleasures of this well-written coming-of-age story lies in observing how Singer changes and...

Do you believe in something because everyone says it’s so? Are you so afraid of being looked upon as a fool so much that you lie to yourself? Are you confident in your role in life? Do you believe in yourself? Take the fool-or-not test in this adaption of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” at the Cape Cod Theatre Company, Harwich Junior Theatre. on Division Street in West Harwich. The Theater has been a major player ...

Something about “then and now” shots of familiar places always captivates us – the older photographs reveal ghosts of what once existed in spots we know so well. So you might want to take a second look at “Double Take: Historical and Current Panoramic Photographs of Chatham,” a show of then-and-now photographs of the town on display at the Atwood House and Museum. If you already saw the show, which opened earl...

"Everyone in Yonkers is afraid of Grandma." Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" won the 1991 Pulitzer and Tony Awards. "Lost" is not quite as light-hearted as his "Brighton Beach Memoirs" trilogy of comedies. In his character study of the Kurnitz family, Simon conveys two powerful messages that are keenly felt in Monomoy Theater's intensely thorough production, directed by Francesca James. Guest Artist Ellen Fis...