Events:

Terry Shea

Terry Shea has been involved in RI Theater since 1986 and graduated with a BA in Theater Performance from Rhode Island College in 1992. Since then, he has been working in Theater, TV and Radio on a regular basis and co-created the RI Theater review website, MoreTeeth, in 2010. Reviewing for Motif since November 2012, Terry is still (mostly) active as an actor, director and sound designer and also as a voiceover talent for 990WBOB internet radio. Sometimes he brings his kids to the shows to keep his reviews from being too jaded, but they're more cynical than he is. | tbshea@hotmail.com | 413-429-1872|

Theater

The Last Waltz: Counter-Productions Theatre Company Says Farewell After Twelve Seasons

“Our goal from the beginning has been to create a space for performing artists to create art that they truly care for and to tell stories about who we all are. We never intended to have a specific mission other than that.” CPTC’s Artistic Director, Ted Clement As theater companies in Rhode Island come […]

Theater

CTC Proves it’s Gotta Tell a Story with Gypsy

Artistic Director Chris Simpson makes note of his hesitancy to embrace the musical theater format in the program notes for his current production of Gypsy, running through May 11 at Contemporary Theater Company in Wakefield. Simpson’s goals, when it comes to musicals, is to forego the flash and dazzle of big-budget efforts (or the effort to […]

News

Snapshot!

The word “visceral” is often overused by critics in describing any work that has an immediate, almost physical impact on the audience, whether via physical events onstage or in the relentless passion of the author’s words. Polaroid Stories, a streetwise stew of classical mythology and urban tales, partly inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, promises to live […]

Theater

Missionary Position: Mormon Hits the Spot at PPAC

Storming into Providence to baptize the unbelievers is the return of The Book of Mormon, the insanely irreverent Trey Parker/Matt Stone/Robert Lopez concoction that upends the classic buddy quest (and, yes, Lord of the Rings is certainly referenced) and manages to skewer both America and religion in one fell swoop. Two young Mormons are sent […]

Theater

The Gamm’s True West Explores the Polarity of Human Nature

“Who will provide the grand design, what is yours and what is mine? ‘Cause there is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here Don Henley, “The Last Resort” The wanderlust and notion of manifest destiny that drove our forefathers west spoke to the American character, warts and all. Alongside noble ideals […]

Theater

But Is the Script on Golden Plates?

The show that has been dubbed “the best musical of this century,” The Book of Mormon, returns to PPAC this month. Irreverent, unconventional and insanely popular, Mormon still has the ability to shock while providing a superior musical comedy experience. The musical stretches all boundaries of conventional taste, but contains a warmhearted core that continues to […]

Theater

ECAS’ Divorciadas, Evangelicas y Vegetarianas Is Clever and Funny

Sometimes a play is able to slip in a message unnoticed, all while coming across as light, breezy entertainment. In the case of Gustavo Ott’s snide, yet heartwarming Divorciadas, Evangelicas y Vegetarianas (Divorcées, Evangelists, and Vegetarians), three women’s lives intersect briefly in what could be written off as an almost sitcom-like romp, but greater questions […]

Theater

Finding the Edge

The Gamm wraps up Season 34 (and the first year in their new space in Warwick) with Sam Shepard’s gritty (is there any other way to describe Shepard?) True West. Alternately hilarious and horrifying, Shepard’s script is a study in toxic masculinity — this is Cain and Abel through the lens of modern-day America. Lest anyone […]

Theater

Love, Loss, and Lasagna – Barker’s Over the River and Through The Woods

Some plays are simply comfort food – warm, satisfying and faintly nostalgic. Joe DiPietro’s cleverly sentimental Over The River and Through The Woods falls squarely in this category and manages to rise above its own tropes (Italian families love food, the amusing frailties of senior citizens, etc.) often enough to enjoy it on its own […]

Theater

Up with WomensWork

Motif recently caught up with Lynne Collinson, founder and creative director of WomensWork, a creative collective designed to provide theatrical opportunities for women, particularly women over the age of 40 Their remarkable production of Susan Miller’s autobiographical drama My Left Breast, which ran at Artists’ Exchange back in October, is making a return engagement at the […]