Just in time for Halloween comes the pleasurably creepy debut novel “In the Midst of the Sea: A Novel of Paranormal Horror” (Pace Press, 2019), set on off-season Martha’s Vineyard. “Both the Cape and the Islands are so full of history, culture and time, that I almost feel like you can’t help but feel the ghosts around you,” author Sean Padraic McCarthy of South Plymouth said in an email interview last week. Mc...

Is it surprising that to photograph ducks and shorebirds, you may well have to creep along ice-covered rocks or lie down on your belly in the sand or mud? These are commonplace activities of award-winning wildlife and nature photographer Sarah E. Devlin of Chatham, who will show her exquisite bird photographs at the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge from Oct. 4 to 14. “I lie in a prone position,” Devlin said...

Recent books by local writers examine life in New York City, Cape Cod and during Neanderthal days. Skip Rozin of Harwich, who made a career as a freelance writer in publications as diverse as Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and Audubon, has now turned his considerable talents to memoir in “The View from Apartment Four: On Loving and Leaving New York” (77 Street Press, 2019). At the heart of the memoi...

You better be careful what you name a group of young musicians because in a few years, when it releases its first CD, that name might not quite fit. Take the case of the Keltic Kids. When music instructor Clayton March of South Chatham assembled the group to play Irish music in 2012, he had no idea that the group would have to rebrand after a few years. None of the original talented young musicians in the Kelt...

“I was just speaking to someone I work with about the play I saw last night, and didn’t realize at first the hair on my arms was up, and I was chilled all over. I’m still thinking about it. So powerful,” texted my theater companion the day after we went to Cape Rep’s “Indecent.” Cape Rep sets the bar higher and higher for Cape theaters by producing quality shows over and over. Brewster’s theater in the woods hand...

Ten local bands will pitch in to raise money for Hurricane Dorian relief efforts in the Bahamas in a benefit concert slated for Friday, Sept. 27 from 6 to 10 p.m. at Cape Cod Beer in Hyannis. Bands for the Bahamas is being organized by Josh Stewart, who teaches at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School and in Nassau; Steve and Sarah Swain—whose band Sarah Swain and the Oh Boys will play at the benefit—and Noel...

Think of a box. Any box will do: a beautiful jewel box, a commuter train, a cardboard moving crate, even the kind of box they use to bury people. Now think outside the box. That’s what a troupe of about two dozen dancers of all ages will be doing on the evenings of Sept. 19, 20, and 21 at the Cape Cod Theatre Company, home of the Harwich Junior Theatre. A statement from the Movimento Project promises that t...

To say Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater’s “Orson’s Shadow” is well acted is an understatement. The show’s noteworthy actors have the monumental task of convincingly portraying some theatrical greats from the stage and silver screen, which they deftly achieve, creating an absolute tour de force. WHAT’s choice of “Orson’s Shadow” was very purposeful, as the drama revolves around putting on the absurdist dram...

More and more we seem to be living in a superficial world. People are skimming tantalizing and often misleading headlines instead of reading the full, more informative pieces, half listening with their faces fixated on a hand-held screen instead of engaging personally with the other people in the room. Although some folks are still willing to dig deep, many are happy enough with the flyby bytes of information...

Cape Rep Premieres 'Indecent' In 1923 when the Yiddish play "God of Vengeance" opened on Broadway, the entire cast was arrested on the grounds of obscenity. Playwright Paula Vogel's Tony-nominated musical "Indecent," which will have its Cape Cod premiere at Cape Rep theater on Sept. 18, tells the story of the controversy surrounding that original production and the passion of the artists who risked their lives...

From their start, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater never shied away from controversy, opening up with the French play “Rhinoceros,” written by the famed playwright Eugene Ionesco. Thirty-five years later, WHAT has come full circle, staging the absurdist classic once again. The avant-garde play begins with what appears to be an idyllic 1940s French town. Two friends, Jean (Justin Bennett) and Berenger (David Fra...

Some titles only hint at a play’s storyline, if at all, while others perfectly encapsulate it. Eventide Theatre Company’s “Radio Ridiculous” falls into the latter category, with the title highlighting the parody’s amusing take on the golden age of radio. Set in 1940, the energetic comedy is presented in a live radio-broadcast format with six actors performing over 60 roles. When not needed in a scene, the rest...