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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