I don’t know about art, but I know what I like. This frustrating aphorism creates boundaries and absolves the person using it from the burden of responsibility for their opinion. It is how Everyman relates to the aesthetic in much the same way we can spout insensitivity with the qualifier, “I’m just saying…” Both phrases […]
In 1987, Theatre by the Sea was still a Tommy Brent operation and this writer was a teenage intern learning the intricacies of set building, ensemble acting, sound design for musicals and how to pick up a few extra dollars singing in the postshow cabarets. That season featured a nostalgic burlesque review called Sugar Babies, […]
Burbage Theater Company crafted a first-rate production of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at the William Hall Library in Cranston. A riveting show from beginning to end, this version of the classic tragedy sparkles with electrifying performances. In 44 BC, a few members of the Roman senate, as a means of preventing the ascension of a […]
The Plaids are a 1950s singing group that never was. As an offstage speaker informs us, the four clean-cut males were tragically killed in a crash on their way to their first concert. Forever Plaid, being performed at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket on August 9 and 10, features the Plaids delivering a show from […]
Plays with titles intentionally chosen to be unprintable in the mainstream press are usually terrible. The New York Times reviewed the off-Broadway American premiere under the title “___ (The Cockfight Play)” apparently thinking that a long low line would preserve the innocence of their readers, and separately profiled author Mike Bartlett as “The Playwright Who […]
I’ve been lamenting the representation of women playwrights on the American stage since I learned that only 17 percent of all plays produced in the U.S. are written by women. And women playwrights are lamenting as well. In a 2008 New York Times article, playwright Gina Gionfriddo protested the lack of women’s plays produced in […]
By: Khrysta Ryan & Melanie Rainone The Brown Playwrights Rep offers playwrights a unique opportunity to perfect their work in the rehearsal room and on the stage. Now in its 10th year, the Playwright’s Rep has allowed three playwrights to explore their work’s potential. A playwright brings an unfinished piece of work and is able […]
It’s hard to describe just what’s going on when a Fluxus event takes place. We explored it in more depth with Shey Rivera, the organizer and instigator of this series of surreal experiences. At the Cock Fight edition, for example, there was the meditative, “What am I doing here,” experience of watching a woman in […]
The second show in rep for the summer at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren is Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. Set in the 1920s, the comedic romp about the eccentricities of theater folk was written by Coward as a kind of affectionate tribute to the families with whom he spent so much time. This is exactly the […]
By Melanie Rainone Jared Paul is a poetic and musical powerhouse that calls Providence home. As a nationally acclaimed spoken word poet and hip-hop artist, he draws his inspiration from social injustices and fuses his two art forms together to create something unique and powerful. Jared’s upbringing and early introduction to hip-hop took him on […]