Arts

Present laughter

Trinity throws a Twelfth Night party
Director Brian McEleney returns to Trinity Repertory Company for a raucous Twelfth Night that hums with energy, drollery, and a makeshift score that meshes Shakespearean ditty with such seasonal fripperies as "Auld Lang Syne" and the Mariah Carey hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

By CAROLYN CLAY | February 09, 2010

Flanagan’s empire

Native son Bill Flanagan — novelist and MTV executive — discusses big books, musical longevity, Irish Catholicism, and Behind the Music .
Once a staple of the pages of The NewPaper (original incarnation of The Providence Phoenix ), Warwick-born Bill Flanagan went on to become a prominent rock journalist whose credits include U2: At the End of the World , the definitive portrait of one of the world's biggest bands.

By MICHAEL ATCHISON | February 05, 2010

Excerpt: Evening’s Empire by Bill Flanagan

In this chapter, "The Drugs Don't Work," aging rock star Emerson Cutler and his manager, Jack Flynn, are seeking inspiration — and desperately trying to jumpstart his career.

By BILL FLANAGAN | February 05, 2010

J.D. Salinger: 1919 - 2010

In Memoriam
J.D. Salinger was 91 when he died in his New Hampshire home on January 27, 45 years after he published his last known story, "Hapworth 16, 1924," in the New Yorker .

By STEVE VINEBERG | February 05, 2010

Earnestly funny

2nd Story fulfills its Comic Potential
Considering that Alan Ayckbourn may be the most staged living English playwright besides Shakespeare, as some accounts declare, why isn't he produced more often in American theaters?

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 03, 2010

Living history

Bert Gallery turns 25
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Bert Gallery, which Catherine Little Bert and her father-in-law Hugo Bert (who'd run Cottage Gallery in North Providence) opened in the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Providence in 1985.

By GREG COOK | February 03, 2010

Review: Patti Smith's Just Kids

The small prophecies of Patti Smith
How do you get to be the Godmother of Punk? Pure dumb luck, for starters.

By CARRIE BATTAN | February 08, 2010

Cabin Fever

Elemental’s ‘the father, the son and the holy go.go’
Sometimes a solitary cabin in the woods is just a solitary cabin in the woods, Freud might have said, but sometimes it's epitomizing psychological isolation and yearning for human connection.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 27, 2010

Heart keeps beating

Novelist (and RIC professor) Thomas Cobb recalls the origins of Bad Blake
Storytelling is largely about character, and writer Thomas Cobb came up with a doozy when he conceived Bad Blake.

By JIM MACNIE | January 27, 2010

The torment within

The Gamm’s intense 4:48 Psychosis
In dramatic terms, it doesn't really matter whether the female protagonist of 4:48 Psychosis commits suicide at the end of the play.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 20, 2010

Beautiful garbage

‘Trash’ — and more — at AS220 and Project Space
"Trash" at AS220's Project Space (93 Mathewson Street, Providence, through January 29) focuses on our love-hate relationship with garbage

By GREG COOK | January 20, 2010

Searching for Stephen King

A new biography presents facts but not a full story
In 1983, Doubleday published yet another book from the increasingly renowned Stephen King, whose Carrie and The Shining (to name just two) were already popular books and movies.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 13, 2010

The art of horror

A coffee table book that might scare you awake
While Lisa Rogak's Stephen King biography might be labeled "for fans only," it's unclear whether Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King should carry the same marker.

By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 13, 2010

Photos: Stephen King-inspired artwork

Images from Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King
Artwork from Stephen King's novel covers and more

By CENTIPEDE PRESS | January 14, 2010

Cries and whispers

The Gamm finds the balance in 4:48 Psychosis
Mental illness is a touchy subject, one that needs to be handled sensitively on stage or not at all.

By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 13, 2010

Visions of hope

‘Coming Out’ at Firehouse 13; Dery and Easton at 5 Traverse
Shannon Heuklom of Providence spent the past two summers helping at a rural clinic, serving some 2000 HIV-positive patients, that is run by the nonprofit Hope Through Health in the West African nation of Togo.

By GREG COOK | January 13, 2010