A musical stage version of a classic book beloved by young adults for over a century is a daring challenge inherently difficult to do. Despite many adaptations for the stage and screen, none have succeeded in compressing into a short few hours the rich texture of character and detail that account for the enduring appeal […]
As permanent employment in some fields shifts by employer choice to temporary and even outsourced workers, a complementary movement toward freelancing by employee choice is gaining strength in the creative fields. A simple web search will trivially turn up a plethora of articles with similar titles: “World’s 5 Best Freelance Websites 2015,” “10 Most Popular […]
It’s difficult to review a production of a show after seeing it numerous times elsewhere on stage and literally many hundreds of times on screen, because the inevitable tendency is to emphasize what is different or unusual. However, most audience members think of The Rocky Horror Show as perhaps the definitive iconic Halloween theater piece, […]
Playwright David Mamet in 1983 very much captured what would later be elsewhere called the “greed is good” era with this Tony and Pulitzer award-winning look into an office of seedy real estate salesmen trying to sucker gullible buyers into a world of pipe dreams wrapped up in worthless property. Most people know Glengarry Glen […]
Cannabis is legal for medical use in 26 states (“Legality of cannabis by U.S. jurisdiction” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis_by_U.S._jurisdiction ), but nearly all producers are very small operations, usually comprising only one or two individuals supplying not only their own patients, but also local clinical dispensaries. This is a fundamentally different business model than the pharmaceutical industry, which […]
Pug-let, Shakespeare’s Hamlet performed by pug dogs, is sweeping the theater world like a furry tornado – with established actor, playwright and Epic Theatre Artistic Director Kevin Broccoli in the role of Toto. Started as a satirical joke on Kickstarter (“To Pee or Not to Pee: An All-Pug Hamlet Media Frenzy,” Sep 4, 2014), the […]
Elaborately and creatively choreographed dance in an Elizabethan style is the highlight of Head Trick Theatre’s outdoor production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Because most of this light comedy is set in a forest, it is one of the most popular Shakespeare plays for in-the-park performance. I’ve seen at least a dozen versions over […]
I. The Plan “Knowledge wants to be free!” The increasingly impassioned assistant professor defended his plan to the chief librarian who had summoned him to this awkward and unpleasant meeting in a room filled with dust that seemed to have collected slowly and inexorably since slimy, tentacled tetrapods first evolved to crawl from water onto […]
Part of a series of personal observations from the Rhode Island International Film Festival. It seems an undeniable paradox to be famous for being obscure, but The Residents have managed it. Widely regarded as the world’s most influential band (or avant-garde performance artists pretending to be a band) that no one is sure exists, they […]
Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival begins the main week-long annual event of its 19th season on Tuesday, August 4, with an opening night gala and screening of a showcase of short films at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) and continues through Sunday, August 9. The festival is especially well-known and respected for its […]