2004_2005 Season

June 2005 - Whimsy, Wonder and Waiting

June International Festival of New Plays

Featuring original pieces by:

Andrew Black, John Bolen, Gayl DeCoursey, Tom Grady, Kolby Granville, Michael Griffo
Ry Herman, Jill Elaine Hughes, Kim Kelly, Greg Machlin, Joe Musso and Dennis Schebetta

Join NewGate Theatre as we present an evening of original short pieces that run the gamut from absurdly comic to intensely dramatic. Whimsy, Wonder and Waiting is sure to hold something to keep every audience member happy, whether it's a good laugh, a heart-touching moment, or just a night of good theater!

(and, hey, it's a short play festival, so if you don't like something...just wait ten minutes and it'll be over)

NewGate continues in its mission to bring exciting new theater to Rhode Island audiences and support the new work by playwrights, This year's festival: Whimsy, Wonder and Waiting features plays selected from over 300 submissions from playwrights across the US and abroad.

Reserve your tickets now!

Past Performances

April 2005 - Polish Joke
by David Ives

Follow the journey of Jasiu Sadlowski, a Polish-American who has been taught that to be Polish is to be doomed to 'agony, heartbreak and despair'. Attempting to escape his fate, Jasiu tries to change his identity, first to a generic American, then to a Catholic priest and finally, to an insanely happy Irishman. Throughout his travels he encounters long lost relatives, unsympathetic strangers, crazed travel agents and the ghost of an 18th century Polish patriot (among others).

Will Jasiu find happiness? Will he escape his fate? Will he ever get on the bus he is running to catch?

You'll have to catch "Polish Joke" to find out!

June 2004 - The Sacred and the Profane:
A festival of new, short plays

NewGate Theatre's "The Sacred and the Profane". A series of short original plays were performed June 11 - 27.

April 2004 - Spinning into Butter
by Rebecca Gilman

Set on the campus of a secluded New England college, "Spinning into Butter" explores the dangers of both racism and political correctness in America today in a manner that is at once profound, disturbing, darkly comic, and deeply cathartic. A liberal dean of students named Sarah Daniels investigates the pinning of anonymous, clearly racist letters on the door of one of the college's few African American students. The stunning possibility that there is a virulent racist on campus forces Sarah, along with other faculty members and students, to explore her feelings about racism, leading to surprising discoveries and painful insights.

October 2003 - An Empty Plate at the Café du Grand Boeuf

What happens when the daily specials at the finest restaurant in the world include the works of Ernest Hemingway, a cornucopia of adjectives and ideas, thoughts of suicide and…no food? NewGate theater launched into the Fall season with Michael Hollinger’s darkly comic "An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Bouef". Mr. Hollinger’s play is a funny, twisted and thoughtful look at the search for nourishment and sustenance for the body, the heart and ultimately, the soul.

June 2003 - The Food Chain

"The Food Chain" is Nicky Silver’s hilarious look at the potential traps of self-help, self-improvement and self-absorption. It tells the story of four hilariously dysfunctional relationships and the sparks that are sent skyward when they all collide in the play’s ingeniously chaotic conclusion. Along the way playwright Nicky Silver manages to shoot some well-aimed barbs through the ideas we are constantly ‘force-fed’ of beauty, body image and conventional relationships. The result is equally poignant and laugh-out loud funny.

This past June NewGate returned to the Providence theater scene with a dynamic and compelling production of Nicky Silver’s outrageous play ‘The Food Chain’. The biting social commentary, insightful exploration of our common foibles and non-stop hilarity all interwoven into this bold and brash work proved the perfect piece to thrust NewGate back to the forefront of compelling, socially conscious theater in Providence.