Hamlet is a great way to show off your spine. Artistic directors usually only program it when they have a surefire actor to take on the lead role and an audience that’s been conditioned to appreciate the Moby Dick of theater. It’s a show you have to cross off your bucket list if you want […]
On the second floor of an apartment on Parade Street, there’s a man with no shirt standing in front of a window trying not to draw Superman. “It’s hard when something gets inside your head and you feel like you have to get it out, but it’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of […]
We were sitting around a circular table trying not to eat the bread. “You put out food that gives off a nice smell, like fresh-baked bread or soup,” said our hostess, a woman in her mid-60s who had invited the group of us to her house for a seance. “It invites the spirits in.” This […]
She works in a small office on the line where Providence meets North Providence, where she does medical billing and tries not to fall asleep. “I bartend at night, and when I first started, I could juggle all these things,” she tells me over coffee near her house. “I’m getting older now so that’s not […]
I sometimes wonder if I survived the drop. It’s a drop that never happened, but could have– Maybe it did. Years ago, I was standing on a rooftop in downtown Providence on a date that was going poorly, and the guy suggested we go out onto the roof, which seemed like a romantic strategy for […]
He played me something on his piano. “That’s not my best,” he says, “but it’s the one I like the most.” His house is on the South Side across from a little neighborhood convenience store where he shops every day. “I get the paper. I talk to the woman at the register. Sometimes she’s the […]
“One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.” ~ Moliere There are few things better in the theater than a company that knows which strengths to put forth and when to call upon them. Burbage Theatre Company has just moved into a brand new space at 59 Blackstone Avenue […]
“He was shaking so bad I thought he was going to pass out,” she said laughing, while he nodded his head with a good-natured smile. “I was thinking, Oh no, this is not the man for me. Look how nervous he is. I will destroy this man.” I ask him what happened next. “Well,” he said, […]
I had a professor in college who loved the term “gesamtkunswerk.” It’s a big German word that means “comprehensive work of art,” and it’s something all art is supposed to strive for — sort of the ideal piece of creativity. Creating it is one thing, but in some ways, you could argue that it would be even […]
I wanted to find someone as old as Providence Place. When I passed by a banner in the mall letting me know that the capitalist center I used to beg my parents to drop me off at in high school was turning 20, I knew that I had to write about it for this column. […]