A rousing 'Ain't No Mo'' poses a provocative question

I’m unsure if I’ve ever been as moved, devastated and simultaneously entertained as when I watched Front Porch Arts Collective and SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of Jordan E. Cooper’s “Ain’t No Mo’” (through Feb. 8).

The play starts with a spirited sermon delivered by Pastor Freeman behind a kente-striped podium. It’s 2008, and Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States. The pastor, an excellent De’Lon Grant, tells church mothers donning bejeweled hats — cooling themselves with paper fans — that on account of the election, things are changing. He is giving a sermonic eulogy of sorts for the funeral of Brother Righttocomplain. Now that Obama is president, there will be no more “discrimination, holleration or hateration,” he explains. Read more.

Gold Dust Orphans apply their trademark touch to a horror classic

A frightening horror film might not be the first thing that comes to mind when conjuring up theatrical holiday fare to share onstage, but theater company the Gold Dust Orphans and writer, actor, and cofounder Ryan Landry aren’t keen on doing what’s typical. Year after year, the Orphans crew takes on classic tales and reinvents them using their distinctive brand of shtick. This year’s feature, “Rosemary’s Baby Jesus,” adapted from the popular 1968 Roman Polanski movie “Rosemary’s Baby,” is no exception. Landry and the Orphans have pulled out all the stops to create a hilarious extravaganza with numerous costume changes, musical numbers, and backdrops. Read more.

Putting the Public in Public Art: How participatory projects are bringing Bostonians together

A couple of years ago, I raced out of work and onto the Rose Kennedy Greenway’s walking path in search of lunch. On the way to the food trucks, I saw people lounging on colorful blankets and chairs. After grabbing my meal, I joined a group on the grass and listened to a lush soundscape by Dzidzor. From speakers, declarations of liberation and openness spoken over ambient sounds washed over me under summer’s sun. I dropped my tense shoulders and laughed with strangers.

The event, inPUBLIC: Rest, was organized by the Design Studio for Social Intervention in Dorchester—whose work sits at the “intersections of design thinking and practice, social justice and activism, public art and social practice, and civic/ popular engagement”—as part of a series featuring poems, music, family portraits, and more. Read more

Lenelle Moïse's 'K-I-S-S-I-N-G' is worth e-m-b-r-a-c-i-n-g at the Calderwood

Occasionally, we are lucky enough to stumble upon unexpected beauty: a song or artwork that resounds in the heart or a story that leaves the soul brimming with emotion. This sentiment holds true for Lenelle Moïse's exquisite play "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" at the Boston Center for the Arts' Calderwood Pavilion through April 2.

The first few minutes of the play are jarring. But don't fret; it'll soon switch gears. Moïse's summer tale of a teenage love and lust triangle between Lala, Dani, and Albert isn't what it seems. It's more. Moïse's writing captures the luminous shine that marks youth, love's promise of feeling seen and the discovery of fine art, while simultaneously engaging pain, loss and more. But joy is most abundant.

The production is a joint effort between the Huntington Theatre Company and Front Porch Arts Collective. And Front Porch's heart-forward, community-centered aesthetic sings here with Dawn Simmons' masterful direction. It's wildly funny and culturally specific without being exclusionary. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" has been in development for a while, with workshop productions in 2014 and 2018 and readings in between. It was worth the wait. Read more

What Can an EDI Consultant Do for a Play?

Artist and entrepreneur Kira Troilo leads with empathy and heart.

She has employed both attributes in her work with Boston’s SpeakEasy Stage Company, which recently staged three plays with intricate narratives centering on characters of color: Sanaz Toossi‘s English, Hansol Jung‘s Wild Goose Dreams, and Jackie Sibblies Drury‘s Fairview. These productions—with themes of division, racism, identity, and more—respectively took audiences to a classroom in Iran, to the bustling city of Seoul, and into the home of a suburban Black family readying for a birthday party.

Showgoers at these productions may not have realized how much work went into trying to get them right, but directors and actors from the shows say the behind-the-scenes work of Kira Troilo, an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) consultant and the founder of Art & Soul Consulting, was particularly helpful in handling the cross-cultural issues raised by these plays with sensitivity and care. Read more

In a London pub, ‘The Wife of Willesden’ isn’t holding back

There’s a feeling that British actress Clare Perkins gets when she reads an intriguing role, a “fire” of sorts that makes her want to take part. So when she learned of the character Alvita, the leading lady of author and essayist Zadie Smith’s book and first play, “The Wife of Willesden,” which the American Repertory Theater is presenting Feb. 25-March 17, Perkins knew it would be “a good character to bring to the stage.”

Alvita, a Jamaican woman in her mid-50s, is Smith’s adaptation of Alison, the “Wife of Bath” in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales.” And though Chaucer’s Alison, a European woman who talked of her desires and multiple husbands, and Smith’s Alvita appear to be quite different at first glance, “the spirit is the same,” Smith writes in the book’s introduction. Read more

10 winter theater productions that urge us to take action

Imagining a better world or fearing a markedly worse one is often at the center of sci-fi narratives both onstage and off. As the omicron variant continues to spread in this nearly two-year-long pandemic, many of us might find ourselves imagining what it’s like to be free of it. Recently, the variant’s impact has forced theaters, locally and beyond, to suspend some new productions and hasten the end of the runs of a few existing ones. It’s apropos then that this winter season, many companies — some who still have virtual options in addition to in-person — will continue to host panels centering important conversations and feature stories that contend with the issues that plague us, from climate change to identity, disease, and dystopian futures. Here are 10 productions that aspire to push theatergoers to consider cultivating new ways of thinking and spur them to action. Read more.

ART’s ‘The Arboretum Experience’ is the balm

Park-goers at the Arnold Arboretum sat cross-legged on the grass, hovered over the seats of bikes, and rested beneath the trees across from the arch of the Bradley Rosaceous Collection rose garden on a recent Saturday. The crowd and curious passersby stopped to hear the multicultural musical group Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys, whose dark lyrics outlining pain and dreams of death seem to belie their cheerful presence.

The concert was part of “The Arboretum Experience,” a months-long venture between the American Repertory Theater and the Arnold Arboretum that aims to activate the park with audio plays, meditation and movement, and pop-up performances. The work aspires to center wellness, healing, and resilience. What resonated most with me is that the availability of the plays and meditation maps allowed me to explore, wander, and discover the park in ways I hadn’t before. Read more.

‘Mentoring Murals’ shows off generations of Black artistic talent

When it comes to art, movement matters.

At the unveiling of his latest work on Blue Hill Ave. last week, artist Paul Goodnight said that “good art anywhere has to move or move you.”

His most recent mural does just that. “No Strings Detached,” a collaboration between Goodnight and artist Larry Pierce, pulses with dance and music. With its yellow, red, cobalt, green, and brown colors, it feels like a melding of the ancient and contemporary. Brown bodies writhe as they play stringed instruments while younger, more sharply defined modern figures sporting hoodies and sneakers burst from sun-colored circles.

Read more.

Larry Pierce, left, and Paul Goodnight kicked off the project with a temporary mural called "No Strings Detached."MATTHEW J LEE/GLOBE STAFF

Netflix Soars To The Top With August Wilson's 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'

It’s clear within the first few minutes of "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom" that two alphas are jockeying for the spotlight: Viola Davis’ Rainey and the late Chadwick Boseman’s Levee, a cornet player in her band. The film quickly takes viewers from a tent show in Barnesville, Georgia to The Grand in Chicago where Rainey and her band are performing. As soon as there’s a pause, Levee, looking for his turn in the sun, steps into the spotlight, sparking the legendary blues singer’s anger. Read more

Artist Nick Cave’s Vibrant 'Augment' Inflatables To Come Down

A year before “Black Joy Day” was declared in Boston, prolific Black artist Nick Cave led a “Joy Parade” from the South End to Upham’s Corner in Dorchester. Aspiring to bridge the two communities, hundreds of local artists, costumed street performers and members of the public flooded the streets with exuberance. The event was part of a larger effort spearheaded by nonprofit Now + There in collaboration with Design Studio for Social Intervention (ds4si) among others to engage the public around Cave’s multipart work “Augment,” anchored in togetherness, assemblage and finding joy in sadness. Full of bright billowing inflatable spiders, birthday cakes, horns and more, the piece — first displayed at the Boston Center for the Arts’ Cyclorama and now at Upham’s Corner — feels both joyful and dark. Soon though, on Oct. 19, Cave’s celebrated larger-than-life inflatables portion of “Augment” will come down.

But what does it mean for a neighborhood when art is removed or uninstalled?

Lori Lobenstine, program lead at ds4si says, “I think there's a sense of loss.” But the process around the removal matters too. That’s why Lobenstine and her team along with Now + There have been trying to get the word out. She was relieved to hear that the second part of “Augment,” the bold building wrap at 555 Columbia Rd. in which Cave incorporated the art of local residents, “is staying up as long as it looks good,” she says. Read more.

Get Under The Covers Or Crawl Into The Closet — It's All Part Of A Gripping 'Baby Jessica' Play

Curled beneath my dining room table in the dark, I listen to a montage of news stories. The news — and accompanying music — centers on 18-month-old Jessica McClure who fell into a well in Midland, Texas. More than 30 years ago, the toddler, dubbed “Baby Jessica,” became trapped 22 feet below the surface. The nation prayed for Jessica, donated money to her family and watched hourly updates about her harrowing encounter. Jessica’s fall and 58-hour rescue is the inspiration behind WalkUpArts’ “Baby Jessica’s Well-Made Play,” an experimental, ambitious show that packs an emotional wallop. Hours after I participated in it, I was still thinking about it.

The interactive play is a five-act conversation about fear, hope, culture, and memory that begins the moment Jessica falls into the well. Due to COVID-19, instead of a stage, costumes, lighting and onlookers, “Baby Jessica’s Well-Made Play,” relies solely on the actor and the audience — an audience of one. The entire show by playwright and WalkUpArts co-founder Philip Santos Schaffer is performed for one person at a time over the phone. Taking place over two nights, the show includes audio, live performances and a mysterious fifth act. Read more.

Imagine There's No Virus — The Huntington's Radio Plays Look To The Future In 'Dream Boston'

Jacquinn Sinclair

If you close your eyes and listen, local spots like the Boston Public Library, MIT’s Great Dome and the North Bridge in Concord come to life in the lushly layered soundscapes of the Huntington Theatre Company’s new audio micro-plays, "Dream Boston." Four of the area's leading playwrights answer the Huntington’s call to “imagine their favorite locations, landmarks and friends in a future Boston, when we can once again meet and thrive in our city.” There are footsteps, cannons, cheering and other elements of Valentin Frank's rich sound design that help set the scenes.

Kate Snodgrass and Brenda Withers tackle loss from different angles, and Melinda Lopez looks to the past only to push us to think more about the future. 

The reading room in the Boston Public Library. (Courtesy Huntington Theatre Company)

Medford's Electrical Boxes Are Now Covered With Plants And Animals Of The Mystic River Watershed

On a recent evening, artist Sophy Tuttle meets me in the parking lot in Medford. It’s not quite dusk, but the ominous gray clouds make it feel much later. Tuttle wants to show me three of her newest mini-murals painted on electrical boxes here before we start our short jaunt to see the other seven. In the grass lining the lot’s edge, an electrical box is covered with a patch of red wild mushrooms. A blue belted kingfisher is set against a rich forest green background.  Surrounding Medford Square, the Medford-based artist's latest installation, titled "Electrical Box Landscapes," depicts native and invasive flora and fauna that populate the nearby Mystic River ecosystem.

Each painting features a haiku from poet Gary Roberts. One box shows a great horned owl with blue flag iris flowers on an orange background; another illustrates an ornate dragonfly holding onto a branch near yellow oyster mushrooms. There's a monarch butterfly atop milkweed and an endangered New England cottontail rabbit (not the ones we find in our gardens, which are usually eastern cottontails) with dark berries. Her painting of a blue heron and water lily is one of Tuttle’s favorites. This work sits close to the sidewalk’s edge and gets nicked by car doors. Read more.

Medford's Electrical Boxes Are Now Covered With Plants And Animals Of The Mystic River Watershed

With 'I Am A Man,' Castle Of Our Skins Rewrites The Narrative Of Black Masculinity

Fed up with low wages and poor working conditions, more than a thousand black sanitation workers flooded the streets of Memphis on Feb. 12, 1968. The men, pushed to the breaking point by the death of their colleagues, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, who were “crushed by a malfunctioning truck,” went on strike. They protested with bold signage that decried "I AM A MAN."

That declaration demanding dignity and equality is at the center of Castle of Our Skins’ (COOS) latest project, “I AM A MAN 2019,” premiering June 2. Through music, film, history and more, “I AM A MAN 2019” examines that historical moment through the lens of contemporary concerns of black masculinity and humanity. Read more

'Black Odyssey Boston' Mixes African-American Oral History With Homer's Classic Tale

“Ulysses learns to confront his past, to confront the dark parts of himself, and in doing so, brings out more of his light.”

— Brandon Green (Ulysses)

At Central Square Theater in Cambridge, about a dozen creatives of color sit at tables in a black walled room to rehearse. The actors’ voices boom and change timbre as they read their characters’ lines in preparation for an upcoming performance. The vibe of the group, members of The Front Porch Arts Collective, a black-led theater company, feels more like a gathering of old friends at dinner than a rehearsal.

They're working on the epic play, “black odyssey boston,” which runs April 25 through May 19. This subversive take on Homer’s classic tale by playwright Marcus Gardley, combines the elements of Boston, informed by interviews with key residents of color, with Greek mythology, African-American oral history and music.

The basic gist of Odysseus’ (Ulysses in Roman myths) story remains the same. But, in "black odyssey boston," directed by Benny Sato Ambush, Ulysses Lincoln, (Brandon Green), is a Gulf War veteran presumed dead who fights to find his way back home — both physically and metaphorically — to wife Nella Pell (Elle Borders, who is Green's real-life wife), and son Malachi. During the journey Green says, “Ulysses learns to confront his past, to confront the dark parts of himself, and in doing so, brings out more of his light.”

In the midst, intrusive gods, Great Grand Daddy Deus (Johnny Lee Davenport) and Great Grand Paw Sidin (Regie Gibson) struggle to control Ulysses' fate, as bits and pieces of the diaspora — like Afro Cuban chants, references to Martin Luther King Jr. and Tina Turner — add color and depth. Read more.

Marsha Parrilla Fights Oppression And Trauma Through Dance

“¡Juntos!” ("Together!"), says Marsha Parrilla good naturedly as she watches members of her company, Danza Orgánica, work through a piece at the Tony Williams Dance Center in Jamaica Plain. Company members practice movement and together with Parrilla, choreographer and founding artistic director, decide how to best embody the work. This inclusive approach makes their performances powerful and their social justice work resonant.

The contemporary dance theater company, launched in 2007, uses dance as a tool for social change by creating work with diverse narratives and engaging various communities in "Dance For Social Justice Workshops." The workshops — with curriculum informed by Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” — are open to everyone, but sometimes center around themes like environmental justice or cater to specific populations such as indigenous groups or women of color. Parrilla cultivates a space where people can talk about what's on their hearts, including personal trauma. There, they can be heard and then express ideas through movement. Read more.

With 'Code Listen,' A Violinist Brings Police And Citizens Together To Address Gun Violence And Race In Boston

On the third floor of the Center for Teen Empowerment in Roxbury, more than a dozen people, including youth, local police officers and moms who’ve lost their children to gun violence, gather in a too warm room. In the bright, cobalt blue and brick-walled space, they embrace, devour pizza and chat easily before the official agenda. Once it begins, smaller groups form to recite poems, monologues and stories around grief, forgiveness and motivation.

"I became a police officer so there’d be one less of those [kinds of cops] on the street," says Jeremiah Benton, as he recalls getting harassed by police as a teenager in Dorchester.

Benton, a member of the force for nearly 30 years, and the others have been working together — with classical violinist and composer, Shaw Pong Liu — to find common ground through the "Code Listen" project.

Liu's civic arts initiative leverages the transformative power of music, storytelling and performance to support healing and spark dialogue around gun violence, race and law enforcement practices in Boston.

At The Gardner, Choreographer Peter DiMuro Creates Dancing Tour In The Vibrant Spirit Of Isabella

When Peter DiMuro, executive artistic director at The Dance Complex in Cambridge, was tapped as the first choreographer-in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, he sought to illuminate the complicated life of its founder and namesake and animate the collection she spent her life amassing. He wanted to tell the story of the Gardner with love and respect and to highlight everything, “warts and all through dance,” DiMuro said.

The resulting work is a series of tours, called “The House of Accumulated Beauties,” that runs through Oct. 25 and aims to balance the sadness of loss — Isabella’s son, John, died before his second birthday — with her kaleidoscopic, art-filled existence. Read more

KIM EDWARDS: The November Cover Story PLUS New VideoBy

Wisdom and experience have helped shape singer/songwriter Kim Edwards’ Lovers and Loners EP, which was released September 25, into a soul-bearing listen on unrequited love, broken hearts and determination. Her first album, Wanderlust, was funded through Kickstarter dollars and was a little brighter and bit more cheerful. But her new EP cuts through tough subject matter with clean, clear vocals, beautiful production and a dash of whimsy. One of the most vibrant moments is the end of “The Sweetest Sound,” with a dizzying array of strings urgently warning listeners to let their guards down and give in to love’s tug. Read more.