East End Theatre — Attraction in East Providence

This past Saturday and Sunday nights I had the opportunity to watch Shrek the Musical preformed by a talented cast of singers and directed and put on by some of the bigest nincompoops I have ever met. Don't get me wrong, I cannot say enough good things about the show, the cast, and their talent. They truly did amazing. But this review is not about the show or the cast but about JDP. I heard rumors that they were making stupid decisions behind the scenes and boy did it show during the performance! Using face paint on the cast that was clearly fading and washing off during scenes. Adding to that they were not properly reapplying it inbetween scenes. While some of the cast came out great, others came out with spotty facepaint thay clearly showed costuming directors were not up to the task. While the main cast was given facepaint that had to be reapplied, some actors playing multiple parts were still painted when they no longer needed to be. One young boy who was painted green for the first scenes was a different character in the last scene was still green! Clearly JDP dropped the ball! As for the the costumes. Many of them were oversized and some I heard were supposed to be custom pieces. How do you custom make a costume when you have measurements and it come out 5 sizes too big? I wish I was exaggerating. The cast took these issues and did a phenomenal job regardless of what they were given to work with. As for the show itself, when it comes to story and plot it was clear that questionable decisions were made on the part of the directors. Some cast was severly under utilized. Others were hidden behind everything making it hard to see them. Some little plot ideas were confusing to see. There was a side story between Papa Bear and the Mad Hatter that after two showings I am still confused about. Whoever directed this did not know what they were doing! One of the best examples of a dumb decision was the use of the dragon prop and actress. The prop was never on stage at all and was hidden in a corner hard to see. The actress was under utilized completely. The scenes involving dragon would have made a lot more sense to have her out there more. For example, they had her alongside Donkey singing I Believe in the finale, but at no point did the actress interact with any of the cast during the show especially Donkey. And even when the prop was used it was missing its cues to come out frequently. I love Shrek. And this cast was superb. However they were truly working harder than they needed to by having a production company and directors who had no clue what they were doing. I would love to see this cast again doing anything, but not with...

I cannot say enough good things about East End Theatre & Performing Arts. This was our first experience in theatre and it was amazing! I had no idea how to get my daughter into acting but with this company the audition process was fun, comfortable and stress-free. Jess and Jillian made us feel so welcome and answered all my questions. The rehearsals were very well planned out down to the minute and my child couldn’t stop saying how much fun she was having! They provided team building, vocal coaching, character development, and dance training throughout the rehearsal process. My child loved all of the staff and felt supported even when this was her first time singing on a main stage. She gained so much confidence! They make all of their sets and the end result of the stage and costuming was very impressive. My family and friends also commented on all of the talent and how much they enjoyed the show! It was a great experience for all of us I cannot wait to do it all again. I highly recommend...

I cannot say enough about the East End Theater company. My daughter was interested in exploring Theater, and signed up up for the First Act production of Frozen Kids. She was cast as Elsa, and learned so much throughout the process. Each week, she came home excited about the rehearsals, from the line reading, the dancing and singing, costumes, mikes, and Tech week, she loved it all. The Directors and DIT's (Directors in Training) were so kind, patient, and fun to work with. The company has an extremely organized drop off and pick up procedure. They kept families up to date on any changes, and were responsive to questions. And to top it all off, she became good friends with the girl cast as Anna. So she's leaving her first Theater experience with confidence, new friends, and awesome memories of the entire experience. As she put it, she's got the Theater bug now, and can't wait to...