8 Best Performing Arts in Providence, Rhode Island

Formerly the Dunkin' Donuts Center, this 14,000-seat arena hosts major rock, R&B, country, and other musical acts, as well as Providence College basketball games and the American Hockey League's Providence Bruins.

This independent movie theater on Thayer Street, near Brown University, screens primarily art-house, independent, and foreign films. The College Hill theater's art deco styling dates back to its opening in 1938.

Every winter, Brown University's graduate playwriting program presents the Writing is Live festival of new plays. Dance performances take place in the Ashamu Dance studio and in the Stuart Theatre.

This neighborhood art-house cinema and café screens foreign and independent films. Seating is on couches and old-school theater chairs. The concession stand sells beer and wine.

The 3,100-seat center, which opened in 1928 as a Loew's State Theater, hosts concerts, national tours of hit Broadway shows, and other large-scale performances and events. Major renovations to this building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, restored the stage, lobby, and arcade to their original splendor. The mighty Wurlitzer organ is a particular source of pride.

Historic Benefit Street is an appropriate location for the oldest continuously running little theater in the U.S. The Players have been taking the stage every year since 1909 and at the Barker Playhouse since 1932---a pretty good run for an amateur theater group. The actors may not get paid, but performances are nothing short of professional: talent fairly leaps off the stage at the former church built in 1839. Past shows have included everything from Shakespeare to Christmas plays, original works by Providence playwrights to Stephen Sondheim musicals.

This 1,900-seat auditorium has a proscenium stage and an exquisite interior; it hosts concerts, operas, and comedy and dance performances. From September to May, the Vets is the home of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.

A past Tony Award winner for outstanding regional theater company, this troupe presents classic plays, intimate musicals, and new works by young playwrights, as well as an annual version of A Christmas Carol—all in a renovated former vaudeville house. Shows are presented on two separate stages: the 500-seat Elizabeth and Malcolm Chace Theater and the recently-renovated 250-seat Sarah and Joseph Dowling, Jr. Theater.