Steve Kidd News

Occasionally the name Anton Chekhov invokes the same kind of anxiety one may get from Shakespeare or other heavy literary writers who we feel like we should go see to appear educated/ arty, but who no one really enjoys. Unfortunately, that makes people forget one of the reasons Chekhov and Shakespeare are great--they know how to balance humor and drama in that way that feels very human and well-rounded. It activates all the parts of the viewer's brain, and leaves one feeling thoroughly entertained and thought-provoked at the end. The Gamm's production of UNCLE VANYA, translated and directed by Curt Columbus' manages to communicate volumes, while keeping everything accessible and relatable. The moments of humor are genuine and serve to heighten the tension in other scenes. Gamm regulars will have seen these actors in a dozen other roles over the years, yet they all managed to adopt their new personas in a way that feels so genuine it's like this world has always existed, and the audience managed to wander in at exactly the right time.

THE SANTALAND DIARIES, based on the essay of the same name by David Sedaris, tells the story of his working as an elf at Macy's Santaland in the early 1990's. Those who are familiar with Sedaris's writing can imagine the witty and wry observations he took away from such an experience, but like all his work, there is a bit of heart as well. This play has been performed at the Gamm three times in the last ten years, but despite the fact that the actor (Steve Kidd) in this one man show never changes, the sets and script are slightly different each time. This time, the set is far more expansive than the 2009 production, but still manages to feel intimate, in part due to Kidd's excellent use of the space physically, and delightful sets and Christmas decorations that make the audience feel like they are in Santaland. The script is showing its age a bit (the essay was originally read on NPR in 1992), but it's still thoroughly entertaining, and Steve Kidd manages to keep his performance high energy and fresh.

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) has just announced a two-week limited engagement of The SantaLand Diaries by award-winning humorist David Sedaris, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello.

The Wilbury Theatre Group opens it's new Olneyville performance space with Harold Pinter's groundbreaking 1960 work, The Caretaker, tonight. Check out a first look at the show below!

The Wilbury Theatre Group opens it's new Olneyville performance space with Harold Pinter's groundbreaking 1960 work, The Caretaker.

Dark humor can be a challenge at times, but when it works, it can be so completely satisfying that it sticks in your mind long after the show is over.  A SKULL IN CONNEMARA is one of those shows, and not only is author Martin McDonagh's writing is a delightful exploration of the twisted and macabre, but the outstanding performances of Jim O'Brien, Jonathan Fisher, Wendy Overly and Steve Kidd deliver McDonagh's words to the audience and leave them laughing until it hurts.  This is a play that's strange and sinister, but so thoroughly hilarious that it's hard to describe, and director Judith Swift captured the spirit of it perfectly.

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre(The Gamm) presents Martin McDonagh's dark comedy A Skull in Connemara.The production marks The Gamm's final staging of the Anglo-Irish playwright's celebrated Leenane Trilogy of plays set in a mundane village in Ireland's County Galway. The Olivier and Academy Award winner, who first exhilarated audiences with his satires in the 1990s, is currently earning accolades for his new play Hangmen premiering in London's West End.

Happy Holidays! It's the last week to vote for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 18. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31!

Time is running out to vote for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 18. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31!

Voting is fully underway for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 11. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31.

Voting has opened for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of November 27th. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31.

Voting has opened for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Rhode Island Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of November 27th. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is one of those plays that is so ubiquitous it's almost become a cliche. Like one-liners from Casablanca or references to Citizen Kane, we become so used to the shorthand, it's almost easy to forget the masterpiece that embedded those lines and images into everyone's brain.  That's why it's refreshing and borderline surprising to be reminded of exactly why certain works become classic.  Through the near-flawless execution of this masterpiece, The Gamm takes us back to 1947 and the heartbreak in The French Quarter.

Door-slamming farce can be a tough beast to tame. There's often so much going on, so much quick-moving action, doors opening and closing, characters literally running from place to place, that it can easily devolve into a confused mess. And there are usually so many witty retorts and double entendres, also often delivered very quickly, that they can sometimes be missed altogether. Luckily, in the hands of Trinity Repertory Company, A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau, is handled with near-perfect precision.

Trinity Rep continues Season 51: The Necessity of Human Connection with Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear, directed by Associate Artistic Director Tyler Dobrowsky, with a new translation by Curt Columbus. A Flea in Her Ear runs now through April 26, 2015 in Trinity Rep's Dowling Theater. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

Trinity Rep continues Season 51: The Necessity of Human Connection with Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear, directed by Associate Artistic Director Tyler Dobrowsky, with a new translation by Curt Columbus. A Flea in Her Ear runs tonight, March 26 through April 26, 2015 in Trinity Rep's Dowling Theater.

Trinity Rep continues Season 51: The Necessity of Human Connection with Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear, directed by Associate Artistic Director Tyler Dobrowsky, with a new translation by Curt Columbus. A Flea in Her Ear runs March 26 through April 26, 2015 in Trinity Rep's Dowling Theater.

An audience member sitting by me at the Gamm's performance of Morality Play mentioned that one of the reasons she loves the company is their penchant for putting on plays that are daring, challenging and different. They do not just do the same old thing, she said, and she's absolutely correct. It is one of the characteristics of the Gamm that make it stand out among the theatrical crowd, that they take on plays that are more unique or risky than other companies might dare to produce. Morality Play is, arguably, a bit of a risk. While successful at being something unique, it is not as successful at being an entertaining, compelling or enjoyable piece of theater. Based on a novel of the same name, by Barry Unsworth, Morality Play is adapted for the stage by the Gamm's Tony Estrella. The story revolves around a roving troupe of actors, traveling the harsh English countryside in the winter of 1361. This gang of thespians are among the earliest practitioners of theater, actors who performed morality plays, one of the three major types of drama in the Middle Ages (the other two being miracle plays and mystery plays). In morality plays, a figure representing the common man, often called something like Everyman, is tempted by the personification of qualities such as Vice, Avarice or Lust, but is then saved by the appearance of, for example, Truth, Faith or Conscience. In the case of this play, our actors have just suffered the death of one of their company. Almost immediately, they meet a runaway priest who they allow to join them as a player, to take on the roles of the dead actor. Shortly thereafter, the troupe, very short on funds, arrives at a town where they will perform one of their morality plays. After that play fizzles, they decide to perform a new kind of play, one based on an actual real-life event, a true crime that has just occurred, the murder of a young boy. While doing so, they begin to solve the crime and put their own lives in jeopardy. If that sounds like an interesting idea, actors solving a crime using their powers of performance, it truly is. Unfortunately, this play is more of a collection of interesting ideas and concepts than an engaging piece of theater. Much of the play's early going feels like the Theater History 101 class that every theater major takes in college. It's as if the professor said, “Come up with a morality play and put it on for the class, just how the actors of the time would have.” And I'm willing to give Estrella and director Tyler Dobrowsky the benefit of the doubt that they have accurately recreated the feeling of the times and created an accurate and true recreation of the drama of the Middle Ages. Still, most of it is fascinating but boring and uninspired, not likely to excite many audience members, other than those who took that class in college. After getting through all of the “this is what theater was like in the 1300's” stuff (and it takes a long time), we finally reach the play's central story, the true-crime murder mystery. Unfortunately, this part of the play just demonstrates how many times we've seen all of this before. It quickly becomes an episode of C.S.I.: Broadway, with actors, instead of scientists, running around investigating and solving the crime. And in the third act, there are enough twists and turns to fill a season's worth of Law & Order episodes, with everything from corrupt heads of state to pedophiles and mysterious diseases. Yes, I realize that part of the point is that things that happened way back then are still relevant today, but in this case, they just make for a dull, predictable mystery, rather than an exciting and compelling story. One reason why it's not compelling is that we never really get to know any of these characters, not well enough to really connect with or care about them. The runaway priest, Nicholas Barber, is given a bit of backstory here and there, but not enough (he also may suffer from the fact that he is no longer the central character and narrator of the story, as he is in the novel). The “master player,” Martin Bell, also has some hints thrown his way about a possible checkered past, but not enough is provided to really make us feel for him. The other players are almost nameless and mostly interchangeable. Most of the rest of the characters, the King's Justice, for example, are just stereotypes, given no depth whatsoever, as they are only there to further the plot. Not helping is the actors milling about before the show, interacting with the audience as themselves, not in character, as far as I can tell. It adds to the feeling that we are watching Providence actors giving us a demonstration of early drama, not watching real, developed and believable people who lived at that time. Having said that, the Gamm has assembled an all-star team of some of the area's best acting talent. The dashing and charismatic Jesse Hinson makes his Gamm debut as the priest, Nicholas Barber. Hinson is masterful in the role and provides a number of the play's highlights, from his scene with the accused woman's father to another scene with the acting troupe's “whore,” who is about to get out before it's too late. Hinson makes every moment count and is impossible to not watch when he's in a scene. On the other end of the “who is the protagonist?” tug-of-war is Martin Bell, played by Tony Estrella. Bell is the leader of the troupe of actors, their motivator and moral compass, or at least he tries to be. Estrella, as usual, plays all of the nuances with skill and dexterity. At times, he is the seeker of truth and justice, and at other seems like a bit of a snake-oil salesman. It's a balancing act that he's able to pull off better than most. Our travelling troupe of performers are played by an excellent ensemble, all giving fine performances, even if they aren't ever given the chance or reason to dig very deep emotionally. Steve Kidd is a standout as Stephen, as is Elliot Peters as Springer. Jed Hancock Brainerd is also wonderful, though given a bit less to do. All three shine especially bright during the scenes when the troupe puts on their plays, from the biblical story of Adam to the true-crime tale of murder. All of the movement and physical action in those scenes is especially interesting and partly due, I assume, to Normand Beauregard, who plays one of the actors, Tobias, but is also one of the area's best fight choreographers. In what seems at times like a cast of thousands, a number of other actors appear and vanish. The wonderful Jeanine Kane, as the Innkeeper and wearing a hat she stole from Pharrell Williams, is mostly wasted. Jim O'Brien also gets little to do but does give a brilliant turn in one scene as the weaver, the father of the accused woman. And that woman herself, who is deaf and mute, is played by Clara Weishahn, providing one of the show's best performances. Her scene with Estrella, where they communicate without words, is beautiful and mesmerizing. It's unfortunate that the rest of play could not be as spellbinding or entertaining as that one scene. Instead, it relies of far too much speechifying and talking a lot about big ideas. Much of it is also heavy handed, as if they really want to make sure the audience gets the message, loud and clear. There are certainly some interesting themes and messages for the audience to ponder as they leave the theater, but the rest of the production may leave them cold and wanting more.

David M. Wax, managing director for The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm), announces the resignation of Education Director Steve Kidd, effective August 25. Kidd, who is also a Gamm resident actor, will be joining the faculty at Moses Brown School in the fall, where he will teach performance studies and direct the upper-school theater productions. Education and Outreach Coordinator Susie Schutt will be promoted to Education Director upon Kidd's departure, ensuring a smooth transition and continued growth of the theater's robust education programming.

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) Education Department has concluded its 'Macbeth Project,' which has been augmenting standard curriculum with dynamic teaching tools at 12 area middle- and high schools since November. The collaboration between Gamm teaching artists and educators in select Pawtucket, Central Falls and Providence public and charter schools has served more than 500 students. The project was supported by a prestigious $25,000 Shakespeare in American Communities grant managed by Arts Midwest in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).