Just under half of the 75 Rhode Island House seats in 2018 are uncontested in the general election. The Senate is only slightly better, with 22 of 38 primary nominees facing a challenge in November. Altogether, of the 113 members of the legislative branch of our state government, 51 of them will appear on ballots […]
What does it mean to be a Rhode Island candidate for office with the support of your political party? It depends on whether you are running for executive office or legislative office. It depends on whether you are running for state or federal office. It depends on whether you are campaigning in a primary or […]
Last place aversion is the heuristic bias in which people support measures that ensure they don’t fall to last place, even if that means acting against the greater good and their own best interests. It happens when uncomfortable is confused with unsafe. Americans’ growing inability to differentiate between real danger and discomfort is an invasive cancer […]
Trinity Rep’s Othello aims at being a bold, contemporary production. Yet director Whitney White misses the target, and instead the play strolls into the minefield laid by the unforgiving challenges of Shakespeare’s text. Staged with a minimalist, modern, military look and feel, Trinity’s Othello seems to forget its mission, instead becoming bogged down in a […]
On November 9, 2016, my 5-year-old daughter asked me what was wrong. “Donald Trump was elected president,” I replied. Cue the wailing and rending of garments. Audrey was upset, too. My wife was much more measured in her response. She asked, “What can we do about it?” So, I ventured online for answers. There, in […]
Mike Steinmetz describes himself as, “kind of a Renaissance man.” A Renaissance man is precisely the right kind of person for the job as Rhode Island’s first Cybersecurity Officer and Advisor to the Governor on Homeland Security. He likes music, flying and hikes in the woods with his spouse. “I have a grounding in […]
If Cirque Mechanics’ Pedal Punk is indicative of what FirstWorks has in store for audiences with their 2016-17 Artistic Icons Series, then we should all be marking our calendars with indelible ink. Okay. So, paper calendars and ink are largely metaphoric, with the millennial wave washing clear the sands of time, and replacing the crude […]
As the lights fade in on 2nd Story Theatre’s production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, we are voyeuristically introduced to the play’s only two characters in a dimly lit scene of uncomfortable intimacy. At that moment, they connect in the moaning throes of romantic entanglement. After that, rarely do they harmonize […]
Democracy is not about freedom, but accountability. We elect individuals we trust to hear our collective concerns and address matters with thoughtful deliberation and sound judgement. When those for whom we cast our ballots stray from the better angels of our greater society or fail to perform their duties with competence, we the […]
“If you’ve never seen the world then how would you know?” the titular character says to Emilia in Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief, at Burbage Theatre Company. “Women are clad in purdah, we decent, respectable matrons, from the cradle to the altar to the shroud … bridled with linen, blinded with lace …. […]
