Playwright Martin McDonagh has often been described as “one of today’s most important living Irish playwrights,” a fact that casts a certain air of solemn gravitas and formality to the proceedings. That is, unless you have seen Gamm’s latest black-as-pitch comic triumph A Skull in Connemara, an absurdist and endlessly fascinating play that lifts a […]
Director Alfred Hitchcock once said he enjoyed playing the audience like a piano. That quote came to mind while watching the Players’ new production of A Murder Is Announced. Based on an Agatha Christie potboiler, this twisty thriller toys with the audience like a finely tuned musical instrument. Letitia Blacklock (Becky Minard) is shocked when […]
You’ve got to hand it to the creative team behind A Midsummer Night’s Dream: They obviously went all out to create a show with tremendous beauty and style. Featuring a cast of talented thespians from Brown University, this latest incarnation of the Shakespeare classic works best as a meditation on love and desire. A series […]
Festival Ballet Providence’s season finale of their popular Up Close On Hope is an evening of remarkably vivid storytelling. With heavy doses of gut-wrenching drama, this program is not for the faint of heart, for indeed when the final piece reaches its tragic conclusion, gasps are heard throughout FBP’s intimate Black Box Theatre followed by […]
This is the fourth in a series of interviews where Epic artistic director Kevin Broccoli interviews other ADs in the area to create a more in-depth conversation about theater in Rhode Island. This month’s interview is with OUT LOUD artistic director Kira Hawkridge. Kevin Broccoli: My last interview was with Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, who also grew […]
Invisible UpSouth is an original stage work currently playing at the Wilbury Group’s space at the Southside Cultural Center in Providence. The work is the brain-child of Christopher Johnson and Vatic Kuumba, inspired by the book from 50 years ago, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 1952, addressing issues facing African-Americans of the time. Through a […]
Rose’s Money is a comedy-drama about a downtrodden family fighting over an inheritance. After Rose dies, $87,000 is discovered in her hope chest. Rose didn’t leave a will, so who gets the money? There’s Billy (Rudy Cabrera), a recovering drug addict with a pregnant fiancee, Sarah (Kerissa Rodrick). Rhonda (Danette Briggs), a highly insecure woman, […]
With the presidential race heating up, the rhetoric and insults are reaching a fever pitch. But, Ocean State Theatre Company’s current offering, the musical 1776, charmingly shows that such bickering and heated exchanges are nothing new to American politics. Detailing our founding fathers’ efforts to achieve independence from the British crown, OSTC, under the direction […]
With March comes the promise of spring and warmer weather. But for area dance fans, it also looks to be a month chock full of performances. Festival Ballet Providence gets things started Friday, March 4, with the second installment of their popular Up Close On Hope, a dance series presented in the company’s intimate Black […]
The first warning Burbage Theatre Company’s Titus Andronicus was not to be the usual Shakespeare performance was seeing everyone in the front rows at a sold-out show covering themselves with dark green, plastic, 30-gallon trash bags because they were in the “splatter zone.” Although the play is notoriously Shakespeare’s bloodiest, Burbage presents the extraordinary goriness […]