All posts in Sock and Buskin

What to do this week: November 2- 8

By: / November 2, 2015 / No Comments /

what-to-do-this-week1111

Monday, November 2

Event: Python with Paxson
Time: 6: 30 p.m.
Location: MacMillan 117

Learn the basics of coding language, Python, alongside President Paxson! Brought to you by Hack@Brown, this is the first of a three part lecture series. No experience necessary.

Wednesday, November 4

Event: APPLY TO BLOGDH
Time: apps are due at 5:00 p.m.
Location: Apply here!

If you want to talk about campus life, news from College Hill, or the community at large, we want you! We’re recruiting new writers and there are practically a million reasons why you should apply.

Thursday, November 5

Event: The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Stuart Theater

Join Sock & Buskin for a performance “structured around Native American myth.” This show runs through November 15th and you can buy tickets online here.

Friday, November 6

Event: Clothing Swap
Time: 10:00 a.m – 4:00 p.m.
Location: JWW

Need a new wardrobe before the season changes, but don’t want to break bank? EcoReps are sponsoring a clothing swap, where you can trade in your old clothes for new digs. And yes, that sweater does look great on you.

Saturday, November 7

Event: Nicholson File Building Open Studios
Time: 4:00 p.m. – 10:o0 p.m.
Location: 350 Kinsley Avenue

Check out the work of over twenty local artists in one of those famous Providence warehouses you’ve been hearing so much about.

Event: Revival 2015
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Columbus Theatre

Celebrate the third anniversary of the Columbus Theatre! Founded by two Brown alums that comprise the band, The Low Anthem, the Columbus Theatre is a mainstay in the local Providence music scene. They are celebrating their day with local and nationally touring bands alike. Grab tickets here.


Sock and Buskin Presents: 410[Gone]

By: / April 9, 2015 / No Comments /

Trigger Warning: This play discusses and depicts issues of mental illness, as well as suicidal thoughts and action. A list of mental health resources is available here.

"As you note the fire exits and turn off your cell phones, please recall the face of a loved one you are soon about to forget."

“As you note the fire exits and turn off your cell phones, please recall the face of a loved one you are soon about to forget.”

Written by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig ’05 and directed by TAPS Department Chair Erik Ehn, 410[Gone] is a theatrical powerhouse. Set in an arcade located under a mountain in the Shandong Province of China (yes, you read that right), the play whimsically and effectively blends the modern experience of two Chinese-American young adults with ancient lore concerning the Chinese Land of the Dead.

The semi-autobiographical play follows Twenty-One (Kathy Ng ’17) as she pieces together the details surrounding the suicide of her younger brother, Seventeen (Bee Vang ’15). Seventeen’s suicide is rooted in reality for Ya-Chu Cowhig, who lost her own brother to suicide.

Despite a basis in real-life events, much of the play takes place in a fantasy land. Traversing the road from life to afterlife, the siblings encounter the Chinese Land of the Dead, which is stylized in the play as an arcade. This is a land where souls are transformed from life to death through following their footsteps in life as a game of Dance Dance Revolution.

The Land is inhabited by the mischievous Monkey King (Pei Ling Chia ’15), who has been condemned to labor beneath the mountain, and the Goddess of Mercy (Ziyi Yang ’16), who has chosen to live on earth until all beings have been freed from the cycle of rebirth. Ox-Head (Lizzy Callas ’15) is a non-speaking presence who looms onstage for the duration of the show, emerging at the climax of the play to fulfill the role as the bearer of the Soup of Forgetting.

The play’s connection to last week’s events is not lost on the cast and crew. Director Erik Ehn noted: “There is a cloud on campus; we mourn the loss of Hyoun Ju Sohn. Our play concerns issues so close to recent events. We go forward with the play because we believe that the act of making theater can be light that filters through the clouds.”

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BlogDH Presents: The Process: 410[GONE]

By: / March 31, 2015 / No Comments /

Ever seen a show at Brown and immediately wondered: “What did they have to do to make that?” Fear no more. BlogDH presents The Process, a new video column in partnership with Sock & Buskin that highlights the rehearsal process of Brown mainstage productions.

The first installment is for 410[GONE], the last show of the mainstage season. Erik Ehn, chair of the theatre department, brings this poignant and powerful play by Brown alum Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig ’05 to life. 410[GONE] is a tragicomedy that explores loving past all limits and loving to the point of non-attachment, as a Chinese American brother and sister navigate possible histories and possible futures in the face of a sudden, catastrophic death.

410[GONE] opens this Thursday at 8:00 p.m. in Leeds Theatre. Performances are on April 2-5 and 9-12, Thurs – Sat @ 8:00 p.m.

Get your tickets here, in person before the show, or in advance at the Brown Theatre box office in the Leeds Theatre Breezeway. First years and transfers get into Thursday performances free.

Music by Lizzy Callas ’15. 


Sock and Buskin Presents: Sweeney Todd

By: / September 25, 2014 / 2 Comments /

Photos by: Danielle Perelman

It doesn’t look like you’re on Fleet Street when you enter Leeds Theater for Sock and Buskin’s production of Sweeney Todd. It looks more like Wall Street during the Occupy movement. 

Cast members are kicked out of chairs by policemen as the show begins, and soon we see that the show’s villains are the beneficiaries of the income gap, while its heroes (if you can call them that), reside significantly lower on the income bracket.

In the production, director Curt Columbus, the Artistic Director of Trinity Theater down the hill (so he’s kind of a big deal), breaths new life into the old Tim Burton Sondheim tale of a man (Sweeney) returning to London to exact revenge on the judge who sentenced him to life imprisonment on false charges. You all know the meat pie part. 

The set evokes a city on the brink: cardboard signs — one reads, “WHY?” and another reads “MRS. LOVETT’S PIE SHOP” — graffiti, and an enormous ad for McDonald’s that looks like it was reimagined for a horror movie.

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