OLNEYVILLE, THE OPERETTA! comes to AS220’s Black Box November 30 through December 3. Performances are Thursday and Friday at 7pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.  GET YOUR TICKETS HERE! The Manton Avenue Project (MAP) is excited to stage its next performance: Olneyville, The Operetta! Olneyville, The Operetta! is the culminating performance of The Manton Avenue Project’s TAG TEAM […]

The Manton Avenue Project’s mission is to nurture the unique potential of young people living in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood, one of the city’s lowest income neighborhoods, by unleashing their creative voices and uniting them with professional artists to create original theater.

Through our long-term, after-school playmaking programs, The Manton Avenue Project (MAP) sparks an ever-expanding sense of possibility by building each child’s capacity for personal and academic success. MAP gives young people tools to become tomorrow’s creative thinkers and community leaders. Studies tell us that after-school arts programming improves kids’ academic and social skills, and MAP believes that […]

Emily Lewis holds a BA in English, and community and organizational studies and an associates degree in foreign language. Emily is a highly regarded actor in Rhode Island. Notable roles include Frankie from Frankie and Johnie in the Clair De Lune, and Ivy in August, Osage County, both at Second Story. Emily has acted in numerous productions […]

The Manton Avenue Project’s company of actors, designers, directors, dramaturges and classroom assistants come from a pool of incredibly talented volunteers who are involved in Providence’s lively performing arts community in many capacities, and work with other local groups like Elemental Theatre, Wilbury Group, Strange Attractor, Gamm Theatre, and Trinity Repertory, to name a few.

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After learning playwriting basics, each child is teamed with an adult director/dramaturge and two adult actors. They write a short play specifically for their actors. The shows are open to the general public and tickets are free.  

This time, in addition to teaming each with a dramaturge/director-and-two-actors trio, we ask the children to introduce a third, “cameo” character into each of the plays. A single adult actor plays all of the cameo roles.  

Children brainstorm together as teams. At the Playwriting Weekend, they collaborate to write a full-length play. To keep things especially interesting, every time the scene changes, the actors playing the three characters change as well.  

Each child partners with an adult actor. The two ultimately co-star in a play based on a storyline developed by the younger playwright that they write together. The added twist: neither knows which of them will be playing which character until after the play is completed!