Hamlet
At the Gamm Theatre

Jeff Church was born to play Hamlet. As lead in a retelling of the Shakesperean tragedy at Gamm Theatre, Church is physically and emotionally nimble, leaping and swashbuckling about the three-tiered stage to deliver iconic lines...

Picnic
Sometimes the ants show up uninvited!

The Arctic Playhouse presents “Picnic" by William Inge and directed by Karen Besson. In 1953, when the play premiered on Broadway, Picnic won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award...

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Fat Ham
Reinventing a Shakespearean classic

FAT HAM by James Ijames, directed by Don Mays, is a funny, poignant play that deftly transposes Hamlet to a family barbecue in the American South to grapple with questions of identity, kinship, responsibility, and honesty. Wilbury...

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the night-time
Frailty of genius needs an audience!

Burbage Theatre Co presents The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, based on the novel by Mark Haddon, and adapted by Simon Stephens. Its title refers to a short story that features a...

Down, But Not Out
The ongoing saga of the Bristol Theatre Company

This is the second article in a series about community theaters located throughout RI. According to the American Theater Association, it has always been difficult to get an accurate count of community theaters in operation in...

Chill Cocktails, Cool Jazz, and Eclectic Books
RiffRaff celebrates new featured artist Adèle Saint-Pierre

“I’m not trying to say something specific with my artwork,” said Adèle Saint-Pierre at the March 14 launch of her exhibit at Riffraff Bookstore and Bar in the West End of Providence. “But that doesn’t...

Film Review
An embodied movie experience with Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door

The first time I saw a film by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, I was probably in my early twenties; it was Todo Sobre mi Madre (All About my Mother), and I couldn’t get enough of...

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Gather Glass Ice Cream Class

It’s rare to see today an interconnected community of artisans, chefs, farmers, and artists. It feels as though such fraternity is of a bygone era; something belonging to a European medieval market town where the...

Pistachios, Phyllo, & Providence
How baklava became my passport during Arab Heritage Month

Forget your passport — I just traveled 5,500 miles from Rhode Island to Syria with nothing but a fork and a sweet tooth. In a cozy corner of Providence, where college students usually hunt for...

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Growers Grow, Part 4
Exclusive new products from Aura

This is the fourth in a series of articles about the ecology of cannabis growers. Michael Petrone, Marketing Manager at Aura Cannabis Company with stores in Fall River, Massachusetts, and Central Falls, shares some background...

Roots Report

Okee dokee folks… One of the best protesters for social justice was Pete Seeger. He spent a good deal of his life fighting and singing out for causes. He was a victim of unjust US...

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Battle of the Bands Recap

Fists were thrown, tears were shed and blood was splattered on audience members as they watched the battle unfold. One guitarist used his prized fender to rain blows on the rival band while his drummer...

Obit
John "The Mad Peck" 1941-2025

The intersection of Power and Hope will forever conjure thoughts of artist The Mad Peck for Providence residents familiar with his iconic poster. His other alias, Dr. Oldie, was known for hosting The Original Rhode...

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Step Into The Afroverse
Interview with poet and worldbuilder Vladimir Jean

As I strolled down a thriving and sundrenched Wickenden Street this past weekend and made my way toward Coffee Exchange to meet Vladimir Jean, the curator of PVD’s Afroverse and a nominee for the 2025...

Separate Houses
Books of poetry to celebrate National Poetry Month

Fernando Pessoa, early 20th-century Portuguese poet, is famous for the creation of his three literary personas, or heteronyms. Pessoa wrote under these heteronyms to not only distance the act of writing poetry, but as a...

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Laying the Groundwork
A conversation with Stephen Brodsky of Cave In

Cave In emerged from the Merrimack Valley north of Boston in the mid-1990s to become a prominent presence in New England’s D.I.Y. music scene, their blistering and emotive hardcore-inspired approach to metal finding a natural...

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A Conversation Through Poetry
Lebanese American poet writes of family, and culture, and of hope

Poet and illustrator Jess Rizkallah of Boston begins her poem, “in another dimension i am a good daughter” with: i wake up early / i sweep the floor / i put coffee on the nar my...

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On the Cover
Olivia Lunger

Hiya! I’m the Art Director for Motif, doubling as the cover artist for this issue. Here’s a little dispatch from my side of things. The themes for this issue morphed several times, as spring sprang,...

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