Theater

THE WINTER WOLF: Things Only Truly Become Perfect in Memory

With the waning of winter, there’s no better way to close out the season at Attleboro Community Theatre (ACT) than with The Winter Wolf by Joseph Zettelmaier, directed by Douglas Greene. “It’s Christmas night in young Cora’s house. She’s visited by her beloved grandfather, a man of high spirits despite his failing health. As the […]

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THE MUSICAL COMEDY MURDERS OF 1940: (Nope, not a musical!)

In true comedic (not exactly musical) style, a cadre of eccentric Broadway devotees gather under the premise of discussing a new play. Everyone, including the producer, writers, director, financial backer, and the actors are ready to “put on a show.” It’s murder and mayhem in this whodunnit. Could it be the maid? The butler? Perhaps […]

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Behind the Lights: Showing them something different, with William Succoso

Seeing himself as a “roadie in training for a very, very long time”—having supported his mother’s country and classic-rock cover band, Roadhouse Band, on Long Island since childhood—lighting designer William Succoso first found himself mesmerized by the visual effects created by the lighting systems at summer concerts on Jones Beach. He tried his own hand […]

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Lighting Isakov: Illuminating the music of Gregory Alan Isakov and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra

As the house lights dimmed on a nearly sold-out crowd of 3,000 at the Providence Performing Arts Center on January 29, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, silhouetted in silence on stage, anticipated the arrival of singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov at the foreground. Under a shadow cast by a backlight stepped Isakov, with his solitary croon […]

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HAROLD & MAUDE: Love Is a Form of Acceptance

Harold, a spoiled young man, experiments with destructive ways of destroying himself in order to get the attention of his self-obsessed, affluent mother. Maude is peacefully wise, an old but youthfully vibrant, offbeat octogenarian who befriends him. What could possibly go wrong?! Colin Higgins’ screenplay has us falling in love with these opposites as they […]

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SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS: Silence, Laughter, and the echo of being seen

There’s a curious vigilance that falls over a room where a story is told without words. Not the absence of sound, but an intimacy, a heightened awareness of breath, glance, gesture. In Small Mouth Sounds, currently playing at Wilbury Theatre Group, this hush becomes the heartbeat of the production. Director Tanya Martin compassionately captures playwright […]

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Life Flashes: Sleepwalker steps between imagination and illusion

In Sleepwalker, a one-man show created and performed by Andy Russ and stage managed by Ollie Crowe, at the Wilbury Theatre Group in Providence, an open-air cell claims center stage. Absent walls except for a floor panel, the metallic frame of the cube suggests an imprisonment while allowing for permeability. Its bars segment the blankness […]

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THE MEMORY OF WATER: Some Things Stay In Your Bones 

Picture this: grief and laughter, absurdity and tenderness coexisting cohesively. Not easy to do, yet Burbage Theatre Company’s production of The Memory of Water adeptly captures this ephemeral equilibrium. Under the expert direction of Lynne Collinson, this revival of Shelagh Stephenson’s reflective comedy lands with a bittersweet bang — funny, fractured, and full of feeling. […]

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