Arts & Entertainment
Mixed Magic Brings Gospel To River Island Park (Video)
Mixed Magic Theatre, a theater and gospel group, played their third of three shows at River Island Park on Thursday night.
If you walked by River Island Park last night you may have heard the music through the trees and mistaken it for the sound of angels. If you didn’t venture forth to find the source of the music, then you certainly missed out.
On Thursday night, Mixed Magic Theatre, of Pawtucket, presented their third of three shows at River Island Park in Woonsocket. It was called “Shakespeare in the Spirit” and featured scenes from many of Shakespeare’s plays mixed in with gospel music.
About 75 people gathered on the lawn in front of a make-shift set constructed near the gazebo at the park to take in the performance. Many could be seen singing along or bobbing their head to the beat of the soulful gospel music.
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“It was truly wonderful, we really enjoyed it,” said Dale Frazar, from Florida, who was leaving the show with his wife.
Even some of the Project Night Vision teenagers took in the performance.
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“Made my job easier,” said Craig Dennis, the Woonsocket coordinator for the evening youth program, “I didn’t have to chase them all evening and it opened them up to some new things… Shakespeare plays.”
The event was coordinated by the Woonsocket Main Street Riverfront Initiative and supported by Nation Wide Construction and Woonsocket Health and Rehabilitative Care.
Linda Plays, the event coordinator for the city, said they chose to bring Mixed Magic to the park after one of the group’s leaders, Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, approached her and told her the park would be a beautiful place for his group to perform. So Plays and the Riverfront Initiative booked them from August 2 – 4.
The Pitts-Wileys are large part of Mixed Magic Theatre. For example, Ricardo plays the lead in King Lear, which was directed by Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, with music direction from Kim Morrison Pitts-Wiley. Bernadet Pitts-Wiley was also at the event, serving as a greeter.
“Yes, there’s quite a bit of family here,” said Bernadet Pitts-Wiley after the show.
“Even those of us that aren’t family, feel like family,” added Marilyn Demoranville.
Bernadet said she enjoyed being in Woonsocket.
“The tour was wonderful,” said Pitts-Wiley, “It’s beautiful here at River Island Park.”
