The award-winning department is committed to providing audiences with a unique theatrical experience. The productions will be in the Robert E. Will Theatre and J Studio of the Fine Arts Center, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston campus.
Be Aggressive by Annie Weisman
In the Southern California community of Vista Del Sol, life should be paradise. But life is thrown into chaos when 17-year-old Laura’s mother is killed in a gruesome hit and run accident. Suddenly thrown into the roles of wife to her distant workaholic father and mother to her precocious younger sister Hannah, Laura struggles to cope with grief, sudden adulthood, and the hell of high school life. Laura throws herself with total abandon into the world of cheerleading when she befriends popular cheerleader Leslie, a girl with a terrifying zeal for all things cheer. Leslie convinces Laura to run away to the “Spirit Institute of the South,” a hardcore, take-no-prisoners school of cheerleading. Armed with her dead mother’s Mobil card and some stolen cash, Laura embarks on a journey to escape her life only to find herself faced with unresolved grief, something from which she cannot escape. A “Valley-girl” take on Greek tragedy equipped with a chorus of cheerleaders, Be Aggressive is the off-beat telling of a classic tale of journey and catharsis in the complicated life of a teenage girl.
J Studio Theatre
Oct 10-12 & 17-19, 7:30 p.m., Oct 13 & 20, 2013, 3 p.m.
$20 General, $15 Seniors, URI Faculty/Staff, $12 Students
How The Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn
How the Other Half Loves is a brilliant farce by the master of the comic genre, Alan Ayckbourn. The play concerns the lives and loves of three couples at different stages in their marriages. William and Mary are newlyweds. Bob and Teresa have a loveless marriage but a new baby. Frank is the boss of the other two men; he is often confused and is married to his long-suffering wife Fiona. Through dinner parties, mistakes, lies and infidelity, the play descends into hysterical chaos. How the Other Half Loves is a wonderful and witty play by a playwright at the very top of his game.
Robert E. Will Theatre
Nov 14-16 & 21-23, 7:30 p.m., Nov 17 & 24, 2013, 3 p.m.
$20 General, $15 Seniors, URI Faculty/Staff, $12 Students
Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley
Down in Mississippi three sisters must “learn how to get through these real bad days” from the past to a future. Beth Henley’s very funny, very touching Crimes of the Heart won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award. The play takes us on a journey which Lenny, the eldest sister, who is about to hit 30 — Meg in the middle who is home from an unsuccessful try at a singing career — and Babe, the youngest, who just shot her husband, must overcome the legacy of self destruction stemming from their mother’s earlier suicide. With the help of the men who love them and their own better natures the sisters reunite with love in this always quirky, unpredictable comedy.
Robert E. Will Theatre
Feb 20-22 & Feb 27-Mar 1, 2014, 7:30 p.m.,
Feb 23 & Mar 2, 2014, 3 p.m.
$20 General, $15 Seniors, URI Faculty/Staff, $12 Students
Chicago Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse; Music by John Kander and
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Devilish and delightful, Chicago is an indisputable Broadway landmark that delivers one big musical showstopper after another. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s now classic score keeps the story of two rival vaudevillian murderesses, Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart moving at a gunshot pace. A multiple Tony, Grammy and Oscar winner, this stinging satire on corruption, crime and celebrity based on true crime stories of the period features Bob Fosse’s steamy and sexy moves during the “jazz hot” 1920’s.
Robert E. Will Theatre,
Apr 17-19 & 24-26, 2014, 7:30 p.m., Apr 27, 2014, 3 p.m.
$20 General, Seniors, URI Faculty/Staff, $15 Students
Tickets can be purchased online at web.uri.edu/theatre. For reservations, call the URI Theatre Box Office at 401.874.5843. For group rate information, call 401.874.2712. For mailing list or additional questions, call 401.874.5921 or 5922. URI’s Theatre Department encourages volunteers to help with its programs. Call 401.874.5922 for more information and to get involved.