It is anyone’s guess how much of The King and I is based on a truthful or, at least, objective account. Anna Leonowens, the real life English governess, was accused of embellishing and sensationalizing her story when she first published it in 1869. Rodgers and Hammerstein, finding Margaret Landon’s 1944 book on the subject was […]
This is an interesting time for Rhode Island theater, as the seemingly isolated and disparate companies proliferating the Ocean State are beginning to form some interesting collaborative partnerships. Aside from the Rhode Island Performance Exchange (an informal communal gathering of the state’s performing entities, pro and amateur alike) there is the newly formed Rhode Island […]
While Our Town is a Pulitzer Prize winning classic, its simplicity belies its depth. The Artists’ Exchange, under the mature direction of Rich Morra, reminds us of the messages Thorton Wilder intended. The play is set in the early 1900s, yet as always with well-written stories, there are universal truths that are everlasting. Of course, there are […]
Named, “the most adventurous playwright of her generation,” by the New York Times, Obie Award winning director and playwright, Young Jean Lee, explored a new discourse in her work-in-progress Straight White Men at Brown University on Saturday night. Presented by Brown TAPS and Sock and Buskin, Lee’s project is set in the conventions of a […]
Trinity Rep’s new horror play about society is interesting and ambitious. It challenges us to think about what trade-offs we make in order to be members of society, but shies away from ever making us truly horrified by the results. The apocalypse has come and people have organized into two groups: those living inside and […]
While spring serves as a welcoming prelude to summer, it is also ripe with wonderful symbolism: rebirth, fertility and growth. Thus Festival Ballet Providence is opening the spring portion of their season with the popular Up Close On Hope dance series. This latest installment consists of 10 pieces, six world premieres, and features many of […]
The Artists’ Exchange has been open since 2004 at 50 Rolfe Square in Cranston, serving both the community at large and developmentally disabled adults with innovative arts programs. The creative people who run the Artists’ Exchange, operating under the umbrella of Gateways to Change, Inc., have always had new ideas but limited space. With careful […]
If there’s one thing Marquee Theatre Productions didn’t skimp on in its performance of Jesus Christ Superstar, it was production design. Director Roberto Santo Cristo Soares’ lustful production design sets the right tone for themes of power and corruption. There’s rarely a scene with fewer than 10 harlots on stage flaunting their wares to the […]
Even without any foreknowledge of the plot of The Real Thing, we’re tipped off as soon as we walk into the space that Tom Stoppard’s tale will examine lives both onstage and off. Patrick Lynch’s set design incorporates a simple and obvious stroke of symbolism by blending raw, bare scenery into the surroundings, revealing the […]
The darkness that accompanies a scene change in a play forgives many sins. On stage, silhouettes break character and move, settings are rearranged, and costumes changed. In the audience, programs are consulted, stifled coughs are let free, and critics scribble furiously in low light, hoping their witticisms will be legible the next morning. Every so […]