2021-2022 Virtual
Experience PPAC Performances
Experience PPAC is a statewide education initiative that was launched during the 2019-2020 season at the Providence Performing Arts Center. This program enables 10th grade students from across Rhode Island to attend matinee performances of select touring Broadway productions with their high school at no cost, with busing provided. Due to COVID-19, we have been challenged to re-imagine this program and what it looks like but have been creative and resilient with our ideas.
For our 2021-22 Experience PPAC season, the Providence Performing Arts Center has selected four (3) amazing, pre-recorded performances for you to choose from. These titles all tie to high school (10th grade) curriculum, but for this year, all high school students can participate in viewing our virtual offerings. One (1) is from the Broadway cannon and the other two (2) are rooted in culture.
NOVEMBER 29 – DECEMBER 17, 2021
PAIGE IN FULL: A B-GIRL’S VISUAL MIXTAPE
*VIRTUAL OFFERING*
Paige in Full is a visual mixtape that blends poetry, dance, visual arts, and music to tell the tale of a multicultural girl growing up in Baltimore, MD. The production explores how a young woman’s identity is shaped by her ethnicity and popular culture, telling a personal, yet universal, story through the lens of hip-hop.
To create Paige in Full, sibling-duo Paige Hernandez (writer and performer) and Nick tha 1da (musician) worked with Danielle A. Drakes (director) and Bryan Joseph Lee (dramaturg) to develop a story that speaks to a dynamic hip-hop influenced generation. Paige in Full draws upon a range of creative disciplines such as literary, musical, and visual arts.
Curriculum Connections: Fine Arts, Biography, Culture, Self-Esteem, Character Development, Dance and Storytelling.
Runtime: Approximately 60 minutes
JANUARY 10 – JANUARY 24, 2022
DISNEY’S NEWSIES: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL
*VIRTUAL OFFERING*
Set in New York City at the turn of the century, Disney’s Newsies: The Broadway Musical is the rousing tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and the leader of a ragged band of teenaged ‘newsies’, who dreams only of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices at the newsboys’ expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and rallies newsies from across the city to strike for what’s right.
Disney’s Newsies: The Broadway Musical features a Tony Award-winning score with music by eight-time Academy Award®-winner Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman, a book by four-time Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein and is produced by Disney Theatrical Productions. Disney’s Newsies: The Broadway Musical is directed by Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, who won a 2012 Tony Award for his work on the show. Since opening on Broadway in 2011, Newsies has played 1,711 performances between Broadway and the North American tour, to more than 2.5 million audience members in 65 cities across the country.
Curriculum Connections: Fine Arts, Social Studies, Language Arts, History, Dance and Storytelling.
Runtime: Approximately 2 hours and 29 minutes
FEBRUARY 4 – FEBRUARY 18, 2022
TURNING 15 ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM
*VIRTUAL OFFERING*
Turning 15 On the Road to Freedom tells the inspiring true story of Lynda Blackmon, who celebrated her 15th birthday on the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965. Jailed nine times before the march and badly beaten on Bloody Sunday, Lynda and her neighbors fought alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to secure the right to vote for African Americans. She believed that “a voteless people is a hopeless people”, and put her life on the line, non-violently, to prove that anyone can change history no matter how young or powerless they seem. The show features an ensemble of African American actor-singers who bring the 1960s to life through soul-stirring music of the Civil Rights Movement.
Curriculum Connections: Fine Arts, Biography, Language Arts, History, Culture and Storytelling.
Runtime: Approximately 50 minutes
2021-2022 In-Person
Experience PPAC Performances
(Student Attends with Parent/Guardian)
We have also selected four (4) touring Broadway shows from our season that 75 students (per title) will be able to register for, with a plus-one ticket for a parent/guardian to accompany them. These tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, and will be available for the following performances:
JANUARY 14, 2022
RENT
*LIVE PERFORMANCE – LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE*
For a quarter of a century, Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece RENT has inspired us to choose love over fear and to live without regret. Its immeasurable emotional impact has forever changed the world of musical theatre.
RENT follows a year in the lives of a diverse group of artists and friends struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. This powerfully resonant phenomenon has become more than a musical – it’s a cultural touchstone, a rite of passage and a source of joy and strength for millions. The extraordinary RENT fan community spans every continent and every generation – including many born over a decade after the show opened on Broadway.
Whether you’ve never seen RENT or have completely lost count, you can’t miss it this time around – the 25th Anniversary “Farewell Season of Love” is your FINAL CHANCE to experience this illustrious touring production.
Curriculum Connections: Fine Arts, Social Studies, Language Arts, History, Culture, Music and Self-Expression.
Runtime: Approximately 2 house and 40 minutes including intermission
FEBRUARY 18, 2022
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
*LIVE PERFORMANCE – LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE*
A SWEEPING ROMANCE THAT LIFTS YOU UP WHERE YOU BELONG!
Based on the Oscar-winning film, An Officer and a Gentleman is the timeless love story that celebrates triumph over adversity. The new musical features an iconic score including the Grammy and Oscar-winning #1 hit “Up Where We Belong” (Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warnes), and your favorite 80’s hits including “Higher Love” (Steve Winwood), “Owner of a Lonely Heart” (Yes), “Love is a Battlefield” and “Invincible” (Pat Benatar), “Lost In Your Eyes” (Debbie Gibson), “Right Here Waiting” (Richard Marx), “Venus” (Bananarama), “I Can’t Hold Back” (Survivor), “Never Surrender” (Corey Hart), “Do The Walls Come Down (Carly Simon), “Fly By Night” (Rush), “Hold On to Your Dream” (Rick Springfield), “Overkill” (Men at Work), “Renegade” (Styx), and more!
Zack Mayo has the raw talent and strength for the US Navy’s Officer Training School; but his arrogance is out of step. Graduating from the elite program will secure Zack’s career and future, but can he endure the relentless commands of Drill Sergeant Foley? On his journey of self-discovery, Zack finds comfort in the arms of a strong-willed local factory worker. When tragedy befalls a fellow candidate, Zack learns the importance of friendship and honor, finds the courage to be his best self and wins the heart of the woman he loves.
Curriculum Connections: Fine Arts, Social Studies, Culture, Self-Esteem and Character Development.
Runtime: Approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes including intermission
MARCH 9, 2022
THE PROM
*LIVE PERFORMANCE – LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE*
Everyone’s invited to the joyous Broadway hit that New York Magazine hails as “smart and big-hearted” while The New York Times declares it “makes you believe in musical comedy again!” The Prom is a new musical comedy about big Broadway stars on a mission to change the world and the love they discover that unites them all.
Variety raves, “It’s so full of happiness that you think your heart is about to burst.” And The Hollywood Reporter cheers, “It’s comic gold!”
You belong at The Prom!
Curriculum Connections: Fine Arts, Social Studies, Language Arts, History, Culture, Self-Esteem and Self-Expression.
Runtime: Approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes including intermission
MARCH 23, 2022
OKLAHOMA!
This is OKLAHOMA! as you’ve never seen or heard it before – reimagined for the 21st century, and the Tony Award-winner for Best Revival of a Musical. Direct from an acclaimed run on Broadway comes an OKLAHOMA! that looks and sounds like America today. Funny and sexy, inviting and illuminating, “A smashing OKLAHOMA! is reborn. Daniel Fish’s wide-awake and altogether wonderful production is thrilling!” (The New York Times)
Without changing a word of text, this bold interpretation “lets us experience Rodgers and Hammerstein’s greatness anew.” (The New Yorker)
Curriculum Connections: Fine Arts, Social Studies, Language Arts, History, Culture and Dance.
Runtime: Approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes including intermission
For more information on Experience PPAC, please contact Dana Brazil, Director of Outreach and Engagement, at dbrazil@ppacri.org or (401) 574-3132.