‘Rebellious Subjects’ at Mixed Magic through May 22

Posted 5/6/16

A high school drama teacher told his class one day, “Everything you’ll ever need to know in life, you can learn in the theatre. If one believed that it can lead one to ask, “What is going …

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‘Rebellious Subjects’ at Mixed Magic through May 22

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A high school drama teacher told his class one day, “Everything you’ll ever need to know in life, you can learn in the theatre. If one believed that it can lead one to ask, “What is going on?”

That was a question Ricardo Pitts-Wiley has asked often during almost 45 years of life in the theatre.

How did a poor black kid who grew up in a small country town in Michigan win an acting scholarship to college on the strength of one small part in a high school play? How did he get a job with Trinity Repertory Company with a half-page long résumé and wind up in the company of some of America’s most gifted actors? A company that had a mad-genius director.

How did he write, and direct a musical without any background in music or musical theater?

How did he keep a wife for 40 years and raise two sons?

How did he become an adapter of classic literature including Moby Dick and Frankenstein and teach at MIT?

Was this all a fantasy, a dream, or just a life in the theater?

“What is going on?”

“Rebellious Subjects,” written and performed by Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, is a journey through more than four decades of the highs and lows, joy and pain of the unique world that an actor must navigate while chasing a career on the stage.

“Rebellious Subjects: A Life in Theatre” will be at Mixed Magic Theatre, 560 Mineral Spring Ave., Pawtucket, through May 22. Tickets are $20. Call 305-7333 or visit www.mmtri.com.

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