Promoting women playwrights since 1995, Perishable Theatre has chosen from 190 submissions the winners for the International Women’s Playwriting Festival October 2-November 2. All three groundbreaking playwrights will have their new works produced and fully staged at Perishable Theatre and are presented with performances by other local artists. Each performance will include a post show talk back.

• October 2-October 5:  Lazarus Disposed by Desi Moreno-Penson
• October 9-October 12:  Lizzy Izzy by Holly Jensen
• October 16-October 19:  Biography of a Constellation by Lila Rose Kaplan

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A childhood favorite- Princess Bride.

When: tonight when it gets dark.

Where: Outside Tazza

Michaela Zacchilli is an amazing graphic artist and sender of insane missives like the one below. If I were you I’d be scared not to go to this, she’d probably show up at your house and start drawing on your face. 

hello hello hello, dear friends!
plz join us @ narwhal arms (mathewson/washington–above blake’s) this SATURDAY may 3rd 11am-3pm for DIRTY/CHEAP PRINT-BRUNCH (a tiny
fundraising event for as220 community printshop!), which involves FREE
brunchy-type food items (like, HELLO, vegan LENTIL SOUP not brunchy
more lunchy but whatevs, free COFFEE i’m gonna drink it all so watch
out BAGELS which are hard to come by i hear and really brutal PANCAKES
personally flipped by yours truly that may or may not be gluten free
just to keep it alt-lyfe u know; anyway) and besides all the free
food, bring your dolla$$$$ ‘cuz we going to have a wicked cheap print
sale (some nice prints&posters from $3-$15!!!!!!!!!!!) AND a RAFFLE
(raffle is the new keg party) for a print and a fish pillow (which
bleeds authentic fire). it’s going to be really special (friends).
p.s. ALL $$ from prints sold goes to p-shop (aka as220 community
printshop).

Oh, there’s more… more »

What a hilarious letter from Scott Wolfe in today’s Projo:

I was recently in Providence at the lovely Providence Place mall, where it finally dawned on me. As I walked around, I was happy and yet depressed, because I was so angry that Worcester had absolutely no upscale place for me to shop and offers no quality of life whatsoever, as Providence does.

The wonderful thing about Providence is that it is small enough to get around without any hassles. When I compare Worcester and all its ugly triple-deckers and bombed-out factories with idle smoke stacks, I cry.

Yep. That’s Providence for you. No bombed out factories whatsoever. No ugly buildings right downtown (certainly none like in the picture above). Who needs working infrastructure and living wages when you have the glorious upscale shopping of the Providence Place Mall?

I keep on forgetting to post about Sundays at Local 121 — The Colonel spins R&B, reggae, and new wave, and the whole Sunday night crew formerly of Talk of the Town hangs out a bar-tends. Best way in town to spend a Sunday night.

10pm-1am, 121 Washington St.

join us TODAY january 26th, from 5pm-9pm at the AS220 Community Print Shop for our POST HOLIDAY CRAFT PARTY PARTY REDUX (a wholesome crafty get-together).

Make some post-holiday presents and cards or tigers or whatever using pom-poms and glitter and pipe cleaner ’cause you haven’t since shortly after you were a fetus!!! “F” ART LETS GET CRAFTY!!!!!!!!!!! BYOB and BYOS (bring your own supplies!). We will provide AWESOME food and drink! AND we have an IPOD!!! Also, it ENDS AT NINE so you can enjoy your regularly scheduled presumably less-than wholesome Saturday night!

FYI, AS220 Community Print Shop is located at 95 Mathewson St. #210 in sunny downtown Providence, Rhode Island! Buzz #210 and come up to the 2nd fl, first star on your right and straight on til morning! For more info on the print shop, call Morgan (401.831.9327 x 112), email Morgan (morgan@as220.org), visit the myspace or the official website, or stop by for a quick peek!

We’ve posted about this before, but I thought a reminder was in order, given our explosive growth and all. There’s no better way to kill an afternoon than by perusing Providence Yesterday over at GCPVD. It’s the Downtown Providence 1970 plan, drafted in 1961, and is chock full of photos and kooky ideas.

How about this, from page 136:

The proposal for a downtown heliport is Downtown Providence’s link to the future. Railroad and highway travel have developed fully, whereas air travel is, relatively speaking, still in its infancy. Direct heliport access to the nerve center of the State is of obvious benefit, and should further strengthen the position of the downtown area.

The Projo’s reporting on the proposal for a Ferris-wheel-ish parking structure on Weybosset St:

PROVIDENCE — A Florida company is proposing what may soon be the strangest part of the Providence skyline: a pair of 13-story, translucent parking towers that operate like Ferris wheels, loading cars at the ground level and then moving them high up into the structure for storage.

The Weybosset Street project would be the first public parking garage of its kind in the continental United States, said Douglas Dodd, chief operations officer of Mechanical Vertical Parking, Inc., the West Palm Beach, Fla., company backing the project.

Here’s footage of one of these things at work:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8plkhJM4Qwo&feature=related]

The 216 spaces that the project would house amount to maybe 10% of those that downtown needs right now. (It’s an awkward situation: I’d rather people not drive, but in order to make downtown a place where people want to work and live — which will mean more density there, and a better public transit system — we need more parking first.)

Is just how much my aesthetic sensibilities end up lining up with David Brussat’s. (My eyes are a bit friendlier to modernism, abstractly. But not in Providence, in practice.)

So let’s forget his more broadly neo-conservative politics, and throw a few hits his way:

David Brussat: Roses and roseberries for 2007

THE SEVENTH YEAR of the first century of the third millennium (Anno Domini) saw the near-completion of four major new building projects downtown. Because Dr. Downtown handed out a “bottomless bucket” of raspberries for GTECH last year, he is going to take a leaf from the book of fisheries management and dispense only roses this year so that the raspberry crop will be able to supply what the doctor fears will be needed next year.

So this year, let’s make roses out of raspberries.

In a local music scene so dominated by Noise Rock and other genres with screamy, spit-laden vocals, where do The Stone Enders fit in? I think for most music lovers, there will always be a soft spot for all things pure. The Stone Enders use little effect in their recordings and you can hear all your old friends—real drums, guitar, and piano and a little violin. Their sound can be described as a mixture of American Trad Rock, Folk, and Jam. And while these genres may seem like a thing of the past, there is this melodious folly that is hidden under the surface of the songs, you can’t help but smile and feel in on some very imminent fun. The Stone Enders’ music is truly new and unique–all song written by Providence’s sons, Daniel Cohen and Benjamin Tilchin.

The Stone Enders are celebrating their CD release with the event of the year. The festivities are at 131 Washington Street, Providence, with a sign at the door that reads “Questions Entertainment” next to the Dreyfus Building downtown this Saturday, December 29^th, doors at 8pm. This space is above the old Cuban Revolution and is the former location of the Black Rep Theater. Gossip on the street is that AS220 has their eye on this building, too, so come check it out before for your I-knew-it-when mental image.

$20 at the door gets you entry, a copy of their new CD “Lights Are Flashing,” and a non-stop source of booze and snacks to keep you satiated the whole night through. Ellis Ashbrook will join in to play a set inbetween two Stone Ender sets.

So, pull off your tight jeans, your neon colored wristbands and other hipster wear, don your lumberjack flannel coat and maybe a knit cap and enjoy the show! You’re going to love it.

Providence Art Windows is pleased to announce the opening of nine new art installations in windows downtown.

The opening is at Design With Reach, 210 Westminster Street, on Saturday, December 8th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. The installations are free, open to the public and on view 24 hours a day through March 14, 2008.

Other downtown events that day include the Providence Preservation Society¹s annual Benefit Street Stroll, which will cross the water and head down Westminster Street beginning at around 4:30, and the Mayor’s tree lighting at City Hall at 6:00 pm. Please join us for a glass of something nice, pick up a copy of our art map, and walk the six block loop to see work by Eric Hovermale, Scott Indermaur, Lee Bergwall Hanks, James Mercer, Christine Serchia & Julie Epstein, Anna Shapiro, Caleb Portfolio, Andrew Sloan and School One.

Providence Art Windows is sponsored by the Providence Foundation, Fidelity Investments, Verizon, the Providence Tourism Council, and the Rhode Island State Council On the Arts. Windows are donated by Trinity Repertory ompany, University of Rhode Island¹s Providence Campus, Rhode Island Housing, Cornish Associates, Jim Winokur and Newbury Management.

The city’s most happening neighborhood association has its annual fundraiser on Friday:

When: December 7th, 2007 @7pm until closing
Where: Bravo Brasserie, 135 Empire Street, Providence RI
What: $30 per ticket includes:
• Free entry into door prize raffle
• One complimentary glass of red/white wine or soda
• Delicious festive fare
• Fabulous entertainment provided by DJ Nick de Paris
• A chance to support a downtown charity, PICA, this holiday season
• Plus…

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DECEMBER 2007!!! The brutal month before JANUARY 2008, horrifying!!!!! The print shop still breathes, heavy, thirsting for new friends and classmates. Clawing through the ink-soaked rags of downtown Providence, drooling education and reeking of a strange allure, a distorted, musky scent, familiar and yet distant, the indescribable waft of learning and fun, disgusting yet delicious. What fate will the print shop hold?? What crusty tears have dried on thine eyes of lead?
Located at 95 Mathewson street, two floors above the darkened hallows of Local 121 in the castle Dreyfus, the print shop lays in patient wait. Wait for what? For WHOM? Only time will tell. more »

Watch out! AS220’s community print shop is now open for the public to use!

The print shop, located at 95 Mathewson Street #210 downtown in the Dreyfus Building offers affordable introductory classes is many forms of printmaking; including but not limited to: silkscreen, letterpress, intaglio, monoprinting and relief printing! People of all ages are encouraged to come and take a class or two!

The print shop also offers blocks of time in which someone can sign up to print, provided they already know how. There is a print shop “open house” the first Monday of every month at 6pm, anyone who is interested should come and check it out!

The shop is open daily from 1pm to 1am. For more information and classtimes, please email morgan@as220.org, call 401-831-9327, or visit our myspace page.