The Thing That Ate My Brain (Almost)

The best theatre, like all art, comes from a place where personal expression, talent, and professional training intersect. Last Thursday and Friday, an excellent example of such theatre was staged at the Perishable Theater in Providence. The Thing That Ate My Brain (Almost) is one woman’s account of her experiences with a genetic illness that resulted in a near-terminal brain tumor for her and killed her mother years earlier. It’s a unique, startling, and strangely inspiring performance written and performed by Perishable’s artist-in-residence Amy Budd. The piece includes science fiction-inspired multi-media installations, an MRI chair dance, and a small supporting cast depicting the tumor in question, who goes by the name of Voldemort, and low-budget sci-fi film director Ed Wood.
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Rock the Boat! A BellaMinx Burly-Q Revue

Join Providence’s Classiest Chassis on a burly-q cruise as we bid a fond farewell to summer!

Featuring

• Satire and Seduction by Providence’s Classiest Chassis, BellaMinx Burly-Q!
• Boston’s favorite comedic-musical duo The Steamy Bohemians!
• Sinuous World-Fusion Dance by Ximon!
• Record-Breaking Sideshow Performer The Human Floor!

Details
Saturday, August 23
The Perishable Theatre (95 Empire St. in Downtown Providence)
Two Shows: 7:30PM and 10PM
$20
18+

A Brave New World: Rise on Broadway’s Young Director Series Presents The Tempest

Like all of Shakespeare’s comedies, The Tempest ends with the promise of joy and opportunity for its young protagonists: Miranda and Ferdinand thwart shipwrecks and murderous schemes, leaving the stage hand in hand and to embrace their future of wedded bliss and royal status. How fitting, then, that the Columbus Theater’s resident company, Rise on Broadway, will stage the Bard’s final play as the first installment of its Young Director Series.

Laura Westfall, Rise on Broadway board member and producer of this production, describes the Young Director Series as the company’s way of fostering new dramatic talent, giving back to the community, and offering a comprehensive educational experience for young people who want to learn the nuts-and-bolts of the art and business of theater. She plainly states that it is a lot of work, but that The Tempest’s director, sixteen-year-old Cameron Marcotte, has proved himself to be up to the task of directing: in only six weeks, he has helmed a professional, two-hour-long Shakespearean production.

Cameron is a junior at Providence’s Met School. Before taking on The Tempest, he worked as an assistant director on three plays and, most recently, directed a series of one-act plays at the Met with his own theater company, High Frequency Theater. Cameron has been involved with several Rise on Broadway productions, including playing the role of Bottom in its staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last summer. Following the success of that production, Rise on Broadway’s board expressed interest in doing another Shakespeare play this summer. Cameron wrote a proposal, the board accepted it, and the Young Director Series was born.

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Providence Sound Session: Now through July 12

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Providence Sound Session will be taking the Renaissance City by storm now through Saturday July 12^th. If you’ve never caught it, Sound Session is a “genre-defying” music, arts and culture festival boasting a lineup of international artists and featuring every kind of music you can possibly imagine, as well as spoken word and dance performances. The Providence Black Repertory Company has been producing this fantastic festival with the city’s Department of Art, Culture, and Tourism for the past several years. Performances will be happening all over the city throughout the week, culminating in Saturday, July 12^th’s enormous block party in downtown Providence with a fashion show at 8PM and a Carnival Parade starting at Waterplace Park at 10PM. This is one of the highlights of Providence’s summer season and I promise that you will be kicking yourself later if you miss it.

For a full schedule, including performer listings and participating venues, go to www.providencesoundsession.com

SweatLodge: A New England Rage

Sometimes, after a long, stress-filled week, you just need to go somewhere dark and cave-like, order a strong drink, and listen to some live, unrefined aggression, preferably while standing close enough to the amps that you can feel the bass vibrate in your sternum.

When those moments strike, you will be lucky if SweatLodge happens to be playing the Living Room, or an illegal basement show near you. Consisting of Jonathan Wisehart on vocals and guitar, Eric J Grieshaber (also of the Chine Stars) on drums, and Mike Grigelevich on the bass, SweatLodge brings a raw, stripped-down, oddly hypnotic sound to the Providence music scene. The band was formed in 2005 when Jonathan and Eric met working at downtown bar and restaurant the Red Fez, and they’ve been bringing their brand of driving, feedback-filled “post punk” to clubs, basements, and loft spaces in and around the Ocean State ever since. Mike joined them after his previous band, Hulk-Out, toured with them in the summer 0f 2007.

Their sound is unapologetically cacophonic and violent. SweatLodge is not for everyone, and they don’t try to be. The music focuses on establishing a mood rife with frustration and anger. Jonathan, who writes the majority of the songs, admits, “I got a lot of rage.” Mike and Eric have a palpable chemistry as they create solid, winding rhythms, some of which sound strangely Middle Eastern. Jonathan layers long, held chords and notes, crunchy riffs, and consciously utilized feedback over them. He doesn’t sing so much as rant and scream. Songs like “Easterland” and “Useless Hinge” start off moody and understated, building to a purgative climax as steady and compelling as a heartbeat.

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