Theatre, Dance and Live Arts at AS220
Here at AS220, we see theatre, dance, music, fine art, installation art, video and new media work, not as separate disciplines but as in constant dialogue. Our performance opportunities and theatre/dance residences cover a wide range of theme and content, from traditional theatre to experimental performance art, dance, and interdisciplinary work. In addition to our featured programming and residency programs, the Blackbox theatre also hosts one-night performance events, music shows, and 1-2 night presentations of work from touring groups. If you are interested in booking one of these kinds of events please fill out a Live Arts online booking form.
Unjuried and Uncensored Theatre and Performance at AS220’s Black Box:
In keeping with AS220’s mission to create a space where any and everyone in the state of Rhode Island has the opportunity to share work, AS220 offers a number of gateway events that allow performers to share their artistic projects. Although we will try to book anyone and everyone – it’s hard to accommodate this demand. Please give us multiple dates and times that you are available so that when you try to book a performance it is more likely we stage your work.
- Works in Process Nights: AS220 hosts a semi-annual Dance Works in Process Showing for sharing new work in development. Our next show is in Fall 2016. For more information, email theatre@as220.org. Second Sundays of every month, From Scratch: Theatre Works in Process. In each of these events, performers/companies will be given 1-15 minutes to perform a new or in-process piece of work and will have time for audience feedback.
AS220’s Resident Companies for the 2018-2019 Season
Counterproductions Theatre Company
Company Email: counterp2012@gmail.com
Company Website: http://www.cptcri.com/
Mission Statement and History
Counter-Productions Theatre Company presents a variety of theatrical productions (classic, contemporary, and new works) throughout the year. The company is dedicated to providing volunteer actors, directors, designers, and technicians an opportunity to practice their craft in a professional environment.
Counter-Productions Theatre Company was founded in Boston, Massachusetts. We presented our first production, William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in May of 2007 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts. In October of 2007 we moved to the Piano Factory Theatre where we were residents for four years, producing five full length plays (Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Glengarry Glen Ross, Psycho Beach Party, Twelve Angry Jurors, ART, and The House of Yes), two science fiction festivals (X Minus One and Journey To the Heart of X Minus One), and a new works festival (Tales From The Countertop). During this time, we were engaged by the Stadium Theatre Performing Arts Center to tour three shows from Boston to Woonsocket, Rhode Island (The Mousetrap, Twelve Angry Jurors, and HAIR: The American Tribal Love Rock Musical).
2018-2019 Season at AS220
Choke By Matt Greene – Dec 2016
Isabel by David Valentin – Jan 2107
Fall Production:
‘Night Mother – November 2018
Spring Production:
The Aliens – March 2019
Gideon’s Knot – May 2019
Manton Avenue Project
MAP Website: mantonavenueproject.org
MAP Twitter: @mantonave
MAP FB: TheMantonAvenueProject
MAP in the news: http://mantonavenueproject.org/mantonave/about/news=
MAP’s Mission Statement and History:
The Manton Avenue Project’s mission is to nurture the unique potential of young people living in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood, one of the city’s lowest income neighborhoods, by unleashing their creative voices and uniting them with professional artists to create original theater.
Through our long-term, after-school playmaking programs, The Manton Avenue Project (MAP) sparks an ever-expanding sense of possibility by building each child’s capacity for personal and academic success. MAP gives young people tools to become tomorrow’s creative thinkers and community leaders.
The Manton Avenue Project’s volunteer company of actors, designers, directors, dramaturges and classroom assistants come from a pool of incredibly talented volunteers who are involved in Providence’s lively performing arts community in many capacities, and work with other local groups like Elemental Theatre, Wilbury Group, Strange Attractor, PIG, Improv Jones, Gamm Theatre, and Trinity Repertory, to name a few.
HEAD TRICK THEATRE COMPANY
Email: headtricktheatre@gmail.com
Mission Statement and History
Head Trick Theatre is a performing group based in Providence, RI that puts on innovative productions of classic plays with a focus on the importance of liveness.
Our first play, produced at 95 Empire, was Pirandello’s metatheatrical mindscrew Tonight We Improvise, in an all-new translation specifically updated for the twenty-first century. Breaking through the formality of language and theatrical architecture, this version, designed for a black box, tackled head-on what it means to act a character.
Next was Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It. This production, performed in Blackstone Field, featured traditional folk music and dance, which served as a way of telling the characters’ stories in a stylized/abstract form in addition to the play’s actual text. We’ll be continuing our partnership with Blackstone Field and with local musicians this summer in Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy. Now that we’ve had one summer to get our bearings in our outdoor location, we’re excited to test the limits of what we can do in that space, and to bring this frankly hilarious play to our audiences.
We also offered our first workshop this year, “F#&%ing Shakes”. Participants studied and developed two Shakespearean monologues using several unconventional techniques. The final performance for the public, rather than showing the finished form of the monologues as they might appear in their plays, was a chance for the audience to see the techniques participants used for the text work — a behind-the-scenes look at preparing a Shakespeare piece.
2018-2019 Season
Watch on the Rhine– October 2018
Goblin Market – March 2019
