Ocean State Theatre Company’s new production of the classic Broadway musical, My Fair Lady, is a triumph. My Fair Lady, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play Pygmalion, and with a book and score by Lerner and Loewe, centers on Eliza Doolittle (Jessica Wagner), a London flower peddler who agrees to take speech lessons from […]
He’s King Midas with a curse He’s King Midas in reverse -Graham Nash Like Ovid’s original collection of myths, Mary Zimmerman’s beautifully elegiac Metamorphoses defies categorization. Zimmerman’s series of transformative tales are presented in something of a Reader’s Theater style, but to pigeonhole the work into so narrow a definition is to do the play […]
The Wilbury Group opens its fifth season with the Rhode Island premiere of This Beautiful City by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis. Cosson is the artistic director of The Civilians, a New York theater company that develops their work by interviews, research and community residencies, combining journalism and art to explore current issues. The play, which […]
The Counter Productions Theatre (CPT) Company burst into the consciousness of the Rhode Island theater world this year with a bang. At the 2014 Motif Theater Awards, CPT was nominated in six categories, and won in four. Although the CPT just completed its third season in RI, Ted Clement and Christine Fox, the heart, soul […]
As more new theater companies emerge across the state, particularly in the Providence/Cranston area, diversity and choice clash with opportunity and availability. Audiences and resources are stretched thin and the most immediate practical need – performance space – becomes a literal showstopper. Many theater companies form with a wealth of talent, but no place to […]
Motif seeks to recognize the excellence in local theater at many different levels. We polled the critics and the theater companies themselves – about their own best work, and the best work they saw – and then over 2,500 of you, our theater-going readers, voted for your favorites. The results were announced at our awards […]
Starting this weekend, Rhode Island’s own Radioactive Theater Company will debut its latest production: Guido’s: Scenes from a Restaurant. Written by Rhode Island natives Shannon McLoud and Stephen Nani, Guido’s chronicles the story of love, from the optimism of that first date to depressing reality of life with kids. To set the stage, you’re first […]
The one-person show is a producer’s dream. Less overhead, same ticket price, more control over the process. Often the domain of comedians and comedic actors, the one-person show does actually have an honorable dramatic tradition, often in the context of bringing to life historical personalities for either educational purposes or for a contemporary retelling of […]
The beginning of Trinity Repertory Company’s production of Ivanov caught me pleasantly off guard. The actors, accompanied by a group of musicians, break into song before the show’s main character, Nikolai Ivanov (Stephen Thorne), was wheeled onstage in a bathtub. Ivanov, which opened in previews on September 4 and runs through October 5, is acclaimed […]
Epic Theatre Company has gotten off to a smashing start for its 2014-2015 season with a highly entertaining production of Compleat Female Stage Beauty. The setting is 1661 when it was routine for male actors to play the female characters in Shakespeare productions. Jonathan Fisher stars as vain actor Edward Kynaston, famous for playing roles […]