Fall Theater Preview

We’re skeptical that any theatrical event this fall could possibly come close to grabbing the public’s attention quite like the epic comedy (or is it a tragedy?) that is our current presidential campaign unfolding on the political stage. That being said, theaters in our state have scheduled a mix of plays and theatrical events to challenge, entertain and bring much needed laughter to local audiences.

PROFESSIONAL THEATER

2nd Story Theatre’s artistic director Ed Shea is banking that his mix of fall plays will be “just the antidote to the wild and woolly campaign season.” The ‘3 play comedy cocktail’ that he has concocted is “guaranteed to lift spirits, induce laughter and warm hearts.” Their season gets off with a bang with Charles Morey’s “loose” adaptation of the sidesplitting Feydeau farce, The Ladies Man. Next up is Terrance McNally’s two-hander, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. While also set in the bedroom, the bittersweet play is a touching – and quite funny — look at a pair of middle-aged lost souls trying to find love in a weary corner of New York City. In November, Craig Lucas’ Prelude to a Kiss takes the stage with a modern take on fairy tale romance that tests the limits of true love. “There’ll be plenty of romance, humor and joy,” promises Shea. “We hope you leave the theater with a smile on your face, feeling a little better about the world than when you entered.”

Wakefield’s Contemporary Theater Company has enjoyed a busy summer of programming and immediately picks up again in September with Testing, Testing 1234, the theater’s 6th annual collaboration with S. Kingstown High School. Professional directors lead the high school age cast and crew in staging a program of four short plays. Hitting the boards next is Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies.

Their holiday show, An Evening with Donner and Blitzen by Andy Hoover promises audiences they will leave feeling “the joys, the tears and the Christmas cheers!”

Gamm Theatre artistic director Tony Estrella has brought together a diverse mix of plays for the theater’s 32^nd season, starting with Tom Stoppard’s incomparable tour de force Arcadia. Estrella says, “In what may be our most ambitious slate of plays yet, we’ll travel to the Tudor court of 16th-century England for King Elizabeth, a new version of Friedrich Schiller’s political masterpiece Mary Stuart, then to a girls boarding school in New England for Lillian Hellman’s groundbreaking Depression-era drama, The Children’s Hour. We’ll hang around a seedy junk shop in the 1970s Chicago of David Mamet’s game-changing American Buffalo. Finally, we’ll fast forward to a terrifying near future in the virtual world of Jennifer Haley’s darkly compelling The Nether, where tangible reality all but disappears.”

The Rhode Island professional premiere of Billy Elliot the Musical, kicks off Ocean State Theatre Company’s season, a choice that producing artistic director Amiee Turner says has been a long time coming. “Ocean State Theatre Company has been ‘on the list’ with Music Theatre International for several years waiting for the rights to become available for Billy Elliot,” she explains. “To be able to produce this uplifting, meaningful 10-time Tony Award-winner is absolutely thrilling and the perfect way to kick off our fifth season in Warwick.” Also on the docket for Fall is John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Doubt: A Parable, followed by the classic screwball comedy Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin. Spring brings to the stage the charming Little Women the Musical, based on Louisa May Alcott’s beloved semi-autobiographical novel. With themes that still resonate today, the debate over evolution versus creationism is at the center of Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee’s searing courtroom drama, Inherit the Wind. Ocean State caps off their season with the tap-dancing extravaganza Thoroughly Modern Millie set in the Big Apple of the roaring twenties.

When asked about the upcoming 2016-2017 Taco/White Family Foundation Broadway Series, Providence Performing Arts Center President Lynn Singleton commented that they were very much “looking forward to launching the National Tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I. This will be the 13th National Tour that has launched at PPAC since 2008,“ he explained, adding, “Providence audiences will be among the first to see this Tony Award-winning production.” The Broadway Series also includes such crowd-pleasing musicals as Wicked, Disney’s family favorite The Lion King and the jazz-hand filled Chicago. Singleton also pointed out that Providence will be one of the first cities where Broadway veteran Jessica Vosk will perform Elphaba in Wicked. Perfectly complementing these popular titles are the regional premieres of two Tony award-winners – A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, which took home Best Musical, and the National Theater’s Best Play winner, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Matilda the Musical will also finally hit Providence, with the raucous clash between an evil headmistress and some brilliant children and their ensuing spectacular adventures. The Theater’s Encore Series will present the return of the very popular Once, 42nd Street and the 20th Anniversary Riverdance tour.

Trinity Rep kicks off their season with Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, the awkwardly titled but eagerly awaited new work from Natasha & Pierre… composer Dave Malloy and playwright Jason Craig. When asked about the what he was most looking forward to with this new season of plays, artistic director Curt Columbus commented, “Doesn’t every artistic director say, ‘I’m excited about everything in my season?’ I am excited about everything in Trinity’s season, but I’m really especially excited to introduce Rhode Island audiences to the work of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins this fall. This extraordinarily talented young writer is simultaneously a brilliant comedian, a razor sharp social critic and a breathtaking craftsman of drama. Appropriate, which deals with a white American family from the South, addresses the toll that family secrets take on family members, all while being wickedly and hilariously funny.” Kicking off 2017 is Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop about one of America’s most beloved icons, Martin Luther King, Jr. Columbus says of the timely and resonant piece, “It transcends a traditional history play and challenges audiences to feel Dr. King’s presence today.” Next up is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. Columbus points out that the play’s “buoyant humor mixed with fascinating social politics creates a complicated and magical text.” On the new play front comes by Deborah Salem-Smith’s Faithful Cheaters, a farcical look at modern marriage and fidelity. Closing out Trinity Rep’s six-play season is the RI premiere of Fuente Ovejuna by Lope de Vega Carpio. “In this time of division, it’s important to tell stories about people coming together and overcoming differences, and how that changes the life of a community,” explains Columbus. “Producing Fuente Ovejuna encapsulates what we want to do as an institution.”

Semi-Professional

Liz Messier, Board President of the Players at Barker Playhouse had this to say about their upcoming season: “Time Stands Still, a gripping drama about physically and emotionally wounded war reporters, by Donald Margulies, opens The Players’ 108^th season in our newly renovated theater. This coincides with the exciting news that we are now accessible to all patrons due in part to a matching grant from RISCA. The improvements make the main theater ADA compliant.”

“And,” adds Church, “We’re thrilled to have an all-female team working on this project. Our inexplicably amazing ensemble of actors (Valerie Westgate, Christin Goff and Rachael Perry), their director (Allison Crews), and their all-female production team are working hard to bring this darkly comic feminist masterpiece to life.”

Counter-Productions Theatre Company, helmed by artistic director Ted Clement, always aims for intensity and quality with classic and contemporary mainstage shows, new script readings and a tradition as CPTC looks back on a decade of existence. “Join us as we launch our 10th season with the very last installment of our live science fiction series, The Final Voyage of X Minus and let your nerd flag fly!” enthuses Clement.

Kevin Broccoli’s Epic Theatre Co. has a lot going on for 2016-17 (including some semi-secret “pop-up” shows that will literally appear out of nowhere, fully cast and ready to show). “We’re starting our fifth season with two very different and exciting shows,” says Broccoli. “In September, we have The Guys directed by Wendy Overly, which is an incredibly moving drama about life in the early days after 9/11 and healing through art. And then, in October, we’re doing the outrageous comedy Bootycandy about growing up gay and black in the ’70s. I can’t wait for Rhode Island audiences to see these two shows. Our theme for the upcoming season is ‘Theater on the Edge’ and they definitely embody that idea.” And that’s just what’s in store for the rest of *this* year.

Throughout OutLoud’s four seasons, they have shown us one thing, this isn’t your run of the mill theater troupe! So what about season five? “The overall theme of delving into madness and the mind, and mental health, and those conversations,” says AD Kira Hawkridge. In addition, Hawkridge is excited about family. “I get to work with my folks, which is awesome, my dad is going to be Lear.”

Nick Albanese will bring his Motif award winning one man show The Last Sicilian to Theatre 82 on September 10.  Good Heart Productions will bring Out of My Mime! with Clare Vabeoncouer November 11 and 12.  As Theatre 82 does rent out their space, it is best to frequently check out their website!

Wilbury Theatre Group artistic director Josh Short was happy to share the theater’s plans for their 6th season of plays. “We have an amazing season lined up, full of the adventurous work that our audiences have come to expect from us, and we’ve spent the last few months getting together some of the best artists in the state to bring those productions to life,” says Short, adding, “We couldn’t be more excited to start our season this September and share with you all our work.” First up is Ui (oo-ey), the fresh, fascist and on fleek look at the rise of an unlikely leader who feeds off the fear he has instilled the masses. Next up is the intriguing world premiere of 10,000 Things by Erik Ehn, described in press materials as “an exploration of the limits of mercy and extent of distraction in a busy age.” Obie award-winning playwright Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men is dramatically paired in repertory with the all-female Di and Viv and Rose by Amelia Bullmore. Betrayal by Harold Pinter promises to heat up the New Year with a tale of a 7-year affair where the illicit couple manage to deceive everyone involved, even themselves. Both an homage to the tradition of live theater and the resilience of Bart Simpson, Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a post-electric play starts after the collapse of civilization with an episode of The Simpsons being told by campfire. Fast forward and the story has become the stuff of legends some 75 years later. Closing out Wilbury’s season is the electrifying rock & roll musical Spring Awakening. From the duo of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik comes an explosive journey from adolescence to adulthood.

Community

Academy Players of RI wraps up Bring it On! The Musical in August and recharges their batteries while they prepare to present The Wiz in January. As usual, artistic director Rita Murray Maron fills the interim with community events and fundraisers, with a special nod to youth performers and families. Expect more flash, dazzle and brilliance from the Academy crew this season as they celebrate over 60 years of community theater in Rhode Island.

Attleboro Community Theatre is about to kick off its 60^th season and ACT publicity director Carlos Gutierrez is looking forward to what he claims will be their “best yet.” “The biggest thing about our 60^th season is the diversity. We’re opening with a big name (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and then we switch gears with our Christmas show and then onto the dark comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and so much more. We’re drawing in all aspects of the community with different acting styles, different types of plays. We’re very excited.”

The Community Players of Pawtucket, billed as “Rhode Island’s Oldest Community Theater” (their born-on date is May 9,1921, for those comparing notes) has quite a season to look forward to, kicking things of with Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret in October. The uniquely talented Paul Morin runs the show for the season opener while Pawtucket mainstay Eric Barbato will take the reins for January’s heavy and wonderful Rabbit Hole. It’s a season of crowd-pleasers and challenges, promising Pawtucket’s continued track record of drama, music and mirth. Just be sure to allow time to fight the PawSox traffic when attending July’s You Can’t Take it With You.

Lenny Schwartz’s Daydream Theatre always promises the original and the unique, and this year will be no different. Says Schwartz: “I’m excited about the two plays I am directing, starting in November with Ben Minus Zoe Minus Ben. I am also directing a show in the spring with no title; I am just calling it The Untitled Barry Weintraub Project. And Kevin Broccoli is producing a play I have written about Bogart and Bacall as well as a complete rewrite of CoCreator, the Bill Finger play, to be performed in NYC next year sometime.” Batman, Barry and Ben and Bacall … there may be a theme here.

Encore Repertory Company is presenting a trio of musicals for the 2016-2017 season, including Willy Wonka Jr., which will run from November 4 – 6, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which runs from April 7 through 9. Encore Kids will present High School Musical March 3 through 5.

Take the scenic route to Westerly this fall to enjoy the tail end of the Granite Theatre’s 2016 season. Granite, running on a calendar schedule for their seasons, will finish the year with a little-known Agatha Christie, Black Coffee, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and their season closer, their annual production of A Christmas Carol.  

Head Trick will produce The Cradle Will Rock. This musical is a product of the WPA, was immortalized in the film of the same name and has the prestige of being the first ever cast recording. Artistic director Rebecca Maxfield is motivated to begin the new season. “I’m excited to direct a musical again. I was in The Cradle Will Rock in high school, and I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now because I have ideas, and it’s timelier than ever.”

Newport Playhouse will present Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite September 1 through October 9. Hilarity abounds in this portrait of three couples successively occupying a suite at the Plaza. The cast features Sandra Nicastro, Rick Bagley, Jeff Blanchette, Philip D. Clarke and Constanze Almonte.

What better way to enjoy the beauty of fall than to drive through Foster with their colorful landscape.  While there, pop into Swamp Meadow! Swamp Meadow is known for bringing popular shows to their corner of the world, and this season they went the extra mile with an original stage adaptation of Apocalypse Now. The troupe received permission from Francis Ford Coppola’s studio to perform an original stage adaptation of the 1979 movie.

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Murder on Us is presenting the political spoof Death or Taxes: The 2016 Election Mystery for two dates at Bravo Brasserie in September. “Everything happens all around you,” explained producer John Thayer, noting the show was a “combination of improv and scripted scenes.” Death or Taxes depicts a Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump debate, where things go hilariously awry.

Kaleidoscope Theatre is presenting Little Red Riding Hood’s Christmas, which will be performed at The Scottish Rite Auditorium in Cranston on December 8.^.

Theatre Company of Rhode Island will continue their season of mystery throughout the fall, and what better way to spend a crisp autumn night than at the theater unravelling a good mystery? TCRI’s new season begins in March.

Strange Attractor has made a niche in theater, making it far-reaching because they perform here, in Alaska and Philadelphia. So when it comes to talking to a Strange Attractor artistic director, you have a few to choose from. Rhode Island’s  Rebecca Noon outlined some of the plans for us.  “We’re remounting Sans Everything for a run in Philadelphia’s Fringe Arts. It’s the largest venue that’s ever produced us, and it’s a play we loved making in Rhode Island.  We’re also making a 100-person Sea Pageant on First Beach in Newport next August during the solar eclipse.”

Brown’s TAPS season for the fall will be one united in a theme of embracing a campus-wide commitment to diversity and inclusion. With student involvement and input shaping both the departmental plan and the season selection, Brown’s fall offerings are shaping up to be innovative and unconventional choices. The season opens in September with By The Way Meet Vera Stark, a play about racism in old Hollywood, set in the flashbacks of an aging actress looking back on her life in film. Publicity and box office manager, Paul Margrave, spoke to Motif about the importance of working through questions of race and identity, and giving them life on stage, and this seems like the perfect play to do so.

University of Rhode Island’s upcoming season is one full of unique challenges and perspectives to inspire both students and audiences. Theater department chair, Paula McGlasson, spoke to the desire to meet the needs of a diverse student body and audience base while finding ways to involve the community at large in their programming. “All of the plays in our season really have something different to offer, and coming back to campus and seeing the students — we’re all fired up to get to work,” she said of the upcoming season. McGlasson is especially anxious to get working on The Great Gatsby. URI will tackle one of the most well-known novels of all time, and is excited to bring the talents of their student body to such a familiar story.

Speaking with Reggie Phoenix, recently named director of Salve Regina’s Theatre Arts department, shared with Motif his excitement at a season that “entertains and educates” both the Salve student body and the community of Rhode Island theatergoers. Salve is tackling some classics this year, most notably Lillian Hellman’s controversial 1961 play The Children’s Hour. Phoenix described the work that went into choosing the play and the ways in which the story of a few children’s lies unraveling the lives of their school teacher remains relevant in the age of social media, where records remain of nearly every conversation or online encounter. Salve’s season goes from Hellman to Shakespeare with Midsummer Night’s Dream and then to another more contemporary classic, Little Shop of Horrors, which gives students the chance to flex every theatrical muscle over the academic year.

Roger Williams University‘s season for fall looks to be one of big ensembles and big choices. Their two mainstage productions are both bold takes on old stories. First, Peter and the Starcatcher (a prequel to the classic tale of Peter Pan) will be directed by Lori Lee Wallace, whose background in physical theater and ensemble work will lend itself to the piece, which is built for collaboration and inventive physical acting. RWU’s second major piece, The Liar, is contemporary playwright David Ives’ part translation, part adaptation of a 17th century French farce, The Liar, full of mistaken identities and polar opposites colliding. Staged in the round and directed by department chair Jeffrey Martin, it’s sure to be a wild ride.