Premiering this weekend at the Jamestown Arts Center, PARt is an exercise in juxtaposition. It is a collaboration in dance, music and painting conceived by choreographer Ali Kenner Brodsky and fulfilled by a cast of five dancers (Brodsky, Meghan Carmichael, Jessica Howard, Ellen Oliver and Sarah Osterhus) as well as three musicians led by MorganEve Swain and […]
On October 29, RISD will host Queen Boudicca: A Metal Opera, an epic performance that tells the story of an ancient Celtic queen. Don’t think you’ll have to sit through a bunch of high-pitched Italian singing and all those ridiculous wigs. It’s an opera in the sense that it uses music and lyrics to tell […]
Marc Blitzstein’s Depression-era pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock has always held an almost mythical “bad boy” spot in the history of theater, so it was really no surprise to me that the always irrepressible Head Trick Theatre chose to produce this rarely seen script. The play’s pedigree is pretty impressive as it was […]
EPIC Theatre Company’s latest production is a real treat. Bootycandy is directed by EPIC’s artistic director, Kevin Broccoli. The provocative, comical play, which spotlights members of one southern black community’s views toward homosexuality, was written by Robert O’Hara. Set between the 1970s and present day, it stars Cardryell Truss as Sutter, a teenage (gay, but not 100% […]
The word “appropriate” can be pronounced (according to the American Heritage dictionary) either as an adjective “(ə-prō′prē-ĭt)” meaning “suitable for a particular person, condition, occasion, or place; fitting” or as a verb “(ə-prō′prē-āt′)” meaning “to take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself, often without permission.” The ambiguity is deliberate in the title […]
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown is a musical version of the beloved Peanuts, the long-running comic strip. Creator Charles Schulz depicted human frailty in the ongoing saga of Charlie Brown, the endearing sad sack who faces endless heartbreak and disappointments. You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown features all the famous characters: There’s Charlie’s […]
Time Stands Still is a powerful drama that depicts the sacrifices some people are willing to make in the service of a greater good. Playwright Donald Margulies has created some vivid three-dimensional individuals who are torn between their own desires. Sarah (Kathleen Povar) is a photojournalist who has been severely injured while covering a conflict in […]
The mark of a classic show is one that has received multiple revivals around the world and across the decades. Such shows are brought back again and again, not for nostalgia’s sake as a piece of history, but rather because of their timelessness. Perhaps it says more about humanity than the quality of a production […]
I am waking up on the second day after seeing Trinity’s Appropriate, by Brandon Jacob Jenkins, directed by Brian Mertes. After viewing, it took me about this long to digest and come up with a coherent way to express not only what this play says to me, but how this play says something I […]
Theater today impresses audiences with the extravagant; the more authentic and intricate, the better. To keep up with television and movies, sets and props have to be so lifelike that willingly suspending disbelief is no chore at all for the audience. In these shows, the work is done for you. Such productions are impressive spectacles, […]