Trinity Repertory Company

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Trinity Repertory Company
Trinity Rep
Trinity Reperatory Company theatre, Providence, Rhode Island.jpg
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Trinity Repertory Company
Location within Rhode Island
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Trinity Repertory Company
Trinity Repertory Company (the United States)
Former namesEmery's Majestic Theatre
Address201 Washington Street [1]
Location Providence, Rhode Island, US [1]
Coordinates 41°49′19″N71°25′1″W / 41.82194°N 71.41694°W / 41.82194; -71.41694
OwnerThe Foundation for Repertory Theater of Rhode Island, Inc.
TypeRegional theatre [1]
Capacity Chace Theater: 500 [1]
Dowling Theater: 300 [1]
OpenedMarch 21, 1963 (1963-03-21)
Website
www.trinityrep.com
Trinity Square Repertory Theatre
Built1917 [2]
Architect William R. Walker & Son
Architectural styleBeaux Arts
Part of Downtown Providence Historic District (ID84001967)
NRHP reference No. 72000004 [3]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJune 5, 1972
Designated CPFebruary 10, 1984

Trinity Repertory Company (commonly abbreviated as Trinity Rep) is a non-profit regional theater located at 201 Washington Street in Providence, Rhode Island. [1] The theater is a member of the League of Resident Theatres. [4] Founded in 1963, [1] the theater is "one of the most respected regional theatres in the country". [5] Featuring the last longstanding Resident Acting Company in the U.S., Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works, including an annual production of A Christmas Carol , for an estimated annual audience of 110,000. [1] In its 52-year history, the theater has produced nearly 67 world premieres, [1] mounted national and international tours and, through its MFA program, trained hundreds of new actors and directors. Project Discovery, Trinity Rep's pioneering educational outreach program launched in 1966, annually introduces over 15,000 Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut high school students to live theater through matinees as well as in-school residencies and workshops (See: YASI). As of 2016, Trinity Rep's educational programs serve students in around 60% of Rhode Island schools, and it has a 9 million USD annual budget. [1]

Contents

History

Trinity Rep was founded when a small group of Rhode Island citizens sought to create a professional resident theater company in Providence. Incorporated as "The Foundation for Repertory Theater of Rhode Island, Inc." on March 21, 1963, [6] the group hired Adrian Hall, a New York-based director originally from Texas. At Trinity United Methodist Church, [1] located in Trinity Square, the first production The Hostage by Brendan Behan, opened on March 14, 1964. [7] In 1968, Trinity Rep performed at the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland, the first American theater company to do so. [1] The company received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater Company in 1981, produced four television productions for PBS, toured India and Syria, [1] and has a strong commitment to the development of new works.

The Trinity Rep Conservatory opened in 1977, serving as a training ground for actors. A partnership in 2001 between Trinity Rep and Brown University created the Brown/Trinity Rep three-year MFA program for degrees in theatrical arts for actors and directors. Operating along with the MFA playwriting, it has emerged as one of the nation's best theater conservatories, continuously ranked top-five schools with NYU, Yale, Juilliard and ACT. [1] [8] [9]

The dismantled pieces of the prefabricated ANTA Washington Square Theatre were purchased by Yale University for the Trinity Repertory Company, one which artistic director Adrian Hall later called a "bold, silly move". It was done a way to save costs on construction, but it never materialized. [10]

From its roots in Providence's Trinity United Methodist Church, Trinity Repertory Company moved in 1973 to its present home the Lederer Theater Center in downtown Providence. [1] Formerly a historical vaudeville performance house known as the Emery Majestic Theatre, the historic building houses two performance spaces: the 500-plus seat Chace Theater and the 300-seat Dowling Theater, as well as offices, production shops, and rehearsal halls. [1] The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Artistic directors

Pell Awards

Trinity Repertory has held the Pell Awards since 1997. The awards are named for Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell, a patron of the arts who was instrumental in the founding of the National Endowment for the Arts. Awards are given for lifetime achievement, distinguished achievement in the arts, New England excellence in the arts, and leadership in the arts. The event also serves as a fundraiser for the theater. [11]

Winners of the Pell Awards have included Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Viola Davis, Robert Redford, John Krasinski, and Debra Messing; Rhode Island award winners have included Richard Jenkins, Rose Weaver, Umberto Crenca, John Chan and Len Cabral. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

Barbara Anita Meek was an American actress best known to television viewers for playing the character of Ellen Canby for two seasons on Archie Bunker's Place. Since 1968, Meek was an active member of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, and appeared in more than 100 Trinity Rep stage productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Jenkins</span> American actor (born 1947)

Richard Dale Jenkins is an American actor. He is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series Six Feet Under (2001–2005). He began his career in theater at the Trinity Repertory Company and made his film debut in 1974. He has worked steadily in film and television since the 1980s, mostly in supporting roles. His eclectic body of work includes such films as The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Little Nikita (1988), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), The Mudge Boy (2003), Burn After Reading (2008), Step Brothers (2008), Let Me In (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Bone Tomahawk (2015), The Last Shift (2020), The Humans (2021), and Nightmare Alley (2021).

Amy Van Nostrand is an American actress. She has appeared on Broadway in The Hothouse by Harold Pinter; off-Broadway, she appeared in Pearl Theatre's Dance With Me.

Oskar Eustis has been the Artistic Director at the Public Theater in New York City since 2005. He has worked as a director, dramaturg, and artistic director for theaters around the United States.

Eugene Edward Lee was an American set designer who worked in film, theater, and television. He was the production designer for Saturday Night Live from the show's premiere in 1975 until his death, with the exception of seasons 6-10 (1980-1985). Lee became resident designer at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1967.

The Providence Black Repertory Company (Black Rep) was a 501c3 non profit arts organization based in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. It offered programming inspired by the cultural traditions of the African Diaspora in Theater, Education, and Public Programs. It operated from 1996 till 2009.

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Majestic Theatre or Majestic Theater may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Emigh</span> American academic

John Emigh is Professor Emeritus from the Departments of Theatre, Speech and Dance and of English at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Emigh taught at Brown from 1967 to 2009. Since his retirement, he has mainly been teaching and directing in the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asolo Repertory Theatre</span> Professional theatre company in Sarasota, Florida, associated with Florida State University

The Asolo Repertory Theatre or Asolo Rep is a professional theater in Sarasota, Florida. It is the largest Equity theatre in Florida, and the largest Repertory theatre in the Southeastern United States. Asolo Rep is a resident regional theatre company which also invites in guest artists. It works in conjunction with Florida State University's MFA Acting program, the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. It is currently housed in the Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts, a multi-theater complex, located on the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art property. The 2008–2009 season marked Asolo Rep's 50th anniversary.

The Young Actors Summer Institute is an arts enrichment summer program in New England. Held annually since 2005 at the Tony Award-winning Trinity Repertory Company, in Providence, Rhode Island, YASI is taught by the theater's resident acting company and education staff. Students are able to choose from a variety of different classes, including playwriting, painting and drawing, improvisation, Shakespeare, film and more.

Curt Columbus became Trinity Repertory Company’s fifth artistic director in January 2006. He is also the artistic director of the Brown/Trinity MFA programs in Acting and Directing. His directing credits for Trinity include Macbeth, Ragtime,Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, Middletown, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Merchant of Venice, His Girl Friday, Camelot, Cabaret, Blithe Spirit, A Christmas Carol, Cherry Orchard and the world premieres of Stephen Thorne's The Completely Fictional, Utterly True, Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe and Jackie Sibblies Drury's Social Creatures. Trinity has been home to the world premieres of three of his plays, Paris by Night, The Dreams of Antigone, and Sparrow Grass. Trinity has also produced his translations of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard and Ivanov, as well as Feydeau’s A Flea in Her Ear and Lope de Vega’s Like Sheep to Water .

Adrian Hall was an American theater director. His directing style was described as "bold" by the New York Times, and his work was considered part of the first and second generation of the regional theater movement of the 1960s and late 1980s. He was the founding Artistic Director of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island from 1963 to 1986, and the Artistic Director of Dallas Theater Center in Dallas, Texas from 1983 to 1989. He is considered to have created major and divisive change within both institutions.

Mary O'Leary is an American television producer, and the former producer of the daytime television dramas Guiding Light, Another World, One Life to Live, General Hospital and The Young & The Restless.

Deborah Salem Smith is an American poet and playwright. She is the playwright-in-residence at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island and is a Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow.

Amanda Dehnert is an American regional theater director and professor at Northwestern University.

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Maria Manuela Goyanes is a first-generation Latina theatre maker, chiefly known for her work at The Public Theatre in New York City, as well as her September 2018 appointment as the artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington D.C.

Rose Weaver is an American actress, singer, director and writer in Rhode Island. Weaver is described as a "major figure in Rhode Island entertainment," and she is known for her role in the film Poetic Justice.

Rebecca Gibel is an American film, television and stage actor.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 "About Trinity Rep". "A Christmas Carol" Program: 26. 2016.
  2. "Majestic Theatre also known as Trinity Repertory Company". Guide to Providence Architecture. Providence Preservation Society. Archived from the original on December 6, 2023. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
  3. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  4. Drotar, Stephanie (2012). "LORT Member Theatres". League of Resident Theatres. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
  5. Trinity Rep's history
  6. "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations – Public Browse and Search". state.ri.us. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  7. Coale, Sam, editor, Adrian Hall: The Man, The Muse, and the Moments at Trinity Rep, Meridian Printing, East Greenwich, Rhode Island, ISBN   0-9668540-0-4
  8. "Brown University and Trinity Repertory Company". American Theatre (September). Theatre Communications Group. 2001 via TheFreeLibrary.
  9. "Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA program". Trinity Repertory Company. 2012. Archived from the original on December 10, 2005. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
  10. Zeigler, Joseph Wesley (1973). Regional Theatre: The Revolutionary Stage. ISBN   9781452911427.
  11. Rourke, Bryan. "An evening to honor artists and their patron" (registration required). The Providence Journal (RI), All ed., sec. News, 23 May 2006, pp. A-01. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current. Accessed 18 Dec. 2019.
  12. "Pell Awards Gala – Trinity Repertory Company". www.trinityrep.com. Retrieved December 18, 2019.