With the season’s first snowstorm behind us and the mercury dropping to bone-chilling levels, RI’s winter dance offerings are ready to heat things up. From local productions to several touring troupes, things could get hot around here long before the spring thaw. Festival Ballet Providence (FBP), the capital city’s resident professional ballet company, will get […]
Now that the holiday season is over, we can safely put aside the family fare and turn from heartwarming messages of hope to emotional destruction and collapse. Not that Epic Theatre Company was ever going to follow seasonal trends: last month’s RI Premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s dark and twisted Passion Play, as well as the […]
As more arts programs disappear from academic curricula, the Manton Avenue Project (MAP) is fighting back to educate and inspire Olneyville area students. Some 200 local theater professionals from the Gamm, Trinity, the Wilbury Group, and other companies that might ordinarily vie for theatrical greatness, have combined their talents and volunteered their time to mentor […]
One trick of great playwriting is crafting a theatre piece that is more than meets the eye. For example, David Auburn’s Proof is a play about math that isn’t about math at all. And Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive is not really about learning how to drive. A similarly great play, Sarah Treem’s The How and the Why, […]
One might expect to see the Rhode Island premiere of a Sarah Ruhl piece at one of the state’s larger, more established venues. Her In The Next Room was a smash at 2nd Story, as was Trinity’s run of her Dead Man’s Cell Phone. However, audiences first experienced the sublime Eurydice at a high school […]
Trinity delivers a timeless yet updated version of the Dickens’ classic Dickens’ A Christmas Carol often gets updated, contemporized and twisted in myriad of ways. It’s been set in modern times, and it’s also been turned into a musical, a cartoon and a movie starring Muppets. Still, sometimes a production comes along that takes it back […]
While some in RI continue to debate whether it’s a Christmas tree or a holiday tree, it’s refreshing to see that several local Christmas traditions remain unaffected: Festival Ballet Providence’s The Nutcracker and The State Ballet of Rhode Island’s Coppelia. Recently, I sat with FBP Artistic Director Mihailo Djuric before the start of rehearsal. With […]
For anyone who has ever looked at an abstract expressionist painting and thought, “My kid can do that,” this is the play for you. Red is a window on Mark Rothko, a workman-like painter who had no time for simple expressions and pretty pictures. Only the deepest, most sorrowful feelings would do, and he devoted […]
William Shakespeare’s Richard III, currently playing at Roots Arts and Cultural Center in Providence, demonstrates the evil lengths one person will go to in pursuit of a goal. Presented by The Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater (TRIST), this fast-paced production is chock full of dastardly deeds, double-crosses, and murder in every dark corner. Directed by […]
Daydream Theatre, fuelled by the always unique creations of playwright Lenny Schwartz, stands alone in the crowded field of Rhode Island independents. Whether presenting bizarre glimpses of post-apocalyptic shopping frenzies or skillfully crafted narrative biographies, Daydream has carved out a niche at the Bell Street Chapel. Free of the shackles of subscriber concerns, audience demographics, […]