Mixed Magic Theatre is a non-profit theater and performance venue at Lorraine Mills in

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket ( ) is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence, Rhode Island, Prov ...

. Mixed Magic Theatre was founded in 2000 by Bernadet and Ricard Pitts-Wiley. It was originally located in

North Kingstown, Rhode Island North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. Its population was 27,732 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. North Kingstown is the birthplace of American ...

. The theatre relocated to

, in 2005. In 2007 Mixed Magic officially altered its mission to "bring diverse stories to the stage." The theatre added an outdoor amphitheater in 2017. In addition to producing plays, the theatre acts as a venue for local and national performers. Mixed Magic also produces a set of regular programs, including Rise to Black, a theater series featuring scenes from the works of black artists and the Exult Choir, the theatre's resident choir, formed in 2006. The theatre has attracted international attention for producing ''Moby Dick: Then and Now'', an interpretation of Herman Melville's novel

Moby Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...

by Ricardo Pitts-Willey. The production featured two casts, an adult company that portrayed the Melville version of the story, and a youth cast where the actors portrayed a story where the white whale is

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

. The play traveled to the

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

in Washington, D.C.,Gray, Channing. "Mixed Magic's Moby Dick to play Kennedy Center." Providence Journal (RI), All ed., sec. Lifebeat, 6 Oct. 2008, pp. D-01. NewsBank, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/1524251E736A6638. Accessed 10 July 2019. and the International Melville Conference held by the Melville Society in Poland in 2007.

References

Theatres in Rhode Island Music venues in Rhode Island