Album of the Week: The Dayoffs
New York City is such a widely diverse place that there’s a good chance any two people from different backgrounds can come together to create something. For example, a Russian punk rocker can collaborate with a Japanese sound engineer and start a shoegaze band. That’s what happened when Vladimir Komarov and Atsuo Matsumoto got together […]
Cat Has Claws Release Oh Well EP at Dusk, Nov 16
By walking the fine line between synthpop and alternative rock, Cat Has Claws staked their claim to being one of the most talented acts in Providence’s music scene. Julie Bozek has stunning skills on electric guitar while the sonic tones of Matt Hebert on synth and keyboards are fantastic; their dual harmonies make them shine […]
Brown Tackles Challenging Show in Lives of the Great Poisoners
The latest show from Brown University Theatre’s Sock and Buskin is an extremely ambitious project; any Caryl Churchill play is enough of a challenge on its own, but the apparently rarely performed Lives of the Great Poisoners is more of an opera than a play, minimally accompanied and demanding in both vocal and technical skill. The play, […]
Fun Home Brings a Sense of Peace to Real-Life Events
When an audience member of Fun Home approached its playwright Lisa Kron and said it was “much bigger than a story of a lesbian,” Kron replied, “It’s exactly the size of the story of a lesbian.” A story about a lesbian is no small feat. Fun Home, which only hit Broadway a few years ago, […]
Swamp Meadow’s Tending to Grace Is Heartwarming
Not every young adult novel has the power to transform a teacher into a playwright, but after years of teaching Tending to Grace for its use of literary devices, a stage adaptation began to take shape in Laurie Murphy’s mind. With the blessing of the author and the support of Swamp Meadow Community Theatre, that […]
Local Artist Promotes Childhood Safety
Comic Con seems to unearth marvelous creatures of all kinds, and this year it brought a most welcome visitor. There are many unseen gems buried deep in the rural backwoods of RI and Jim Weicherding is one of them. He was lured out of hiding when Altered Reality Entertainment invited him to the con as […]
Big Ideas at Wilbury
By the end of the talk back following the Friday night performance of New and Dangerous Ideas, it became abundantly clear that the audience members who were convinced they understood the content of the play still had a long way to go on the path of enlightenment. Race is a tricky subject. Conversations about identity […]
Epic’s Red Speedo Earns Gold with Fantastic Staging of Muscular New Play
While many theaters have the boldness to market their next show as “the theatrical event of the year” it is admittedly more of a rarity when the experience lives up to the hype. Thankfully, in the case of Epic Theatre Company’s site-specific production of Lucas Hnath’s Red Speedo, the event far exceeds its billing. […]
Skeleton Crew and Death of a Salesman Explore the American Dream
Last year, when Trinity Rep announced their season, I was almost giddy. It is an educator’s dream, beginning with Arthur Miller’s classic Death of a Salesman. I read it as a student and taught it this past summer; however, I have never seen it staged live. Then I learned that the show would be played […]