The Wilbury Theatre Group is a nonprofit theatre located in the

Olneyville Olneyville is a neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island bordered by Atwells Avenue to the north, U.S. Route 6 to the south and Rhode Island Route 10 to the east. The Woonasquatucket River runs through the southern portion of the neighborhood. ...

neighborhood of

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. It is known for its experimental theater and its annual fringe festival,

FringePVD FringePVD is a fringe arts and theater festival in Providence, Rhode Island, founded in 2014. In recent years it has been located in the Olneyville neighborhood of the city. To date it is the largest fringe festival in New England. FringePVD was f ...

. Wilbury Theatre Group was founded in 2010. The name is a reference to the

Traveling Wilburys The Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. Originating from an idea discussed by Harrison and Lynne during the sessions for Harrison's 1987 album ...

. After years performing in warehouses and unconventional performance spaces throughout Providence, the group became the theatre company in residence at the Southside Cultural Center in 2013. The group moved from the Southside Cultural Center to its own space in Olneyville in 2017. They moved again in 2021 to the WaterFire Arts Center in Providence's Valley Arts District. The group's artistic director, Josh Short, has been with the Wilbury Theatre since it began. Since its founding, the Wilbury Theatre Group has produced over 100 shows. Productions have included

Fun Home ''Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic'' is a 2006 graphic memoir by the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For''. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, United States, fo ...

, Spring Awakening, and

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'' is an absurdist, existential tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's ''Hamle ...

, and works by prominent Rhode Island artists like Darcie Dennigan, Christopher Johnson, Vanessa Gilbert, and Vatic Kuumba, and Rebecca Noon. The theater also supports the creation of new works through its Studio W program, offers acting classes, actor and playwright residencies, and community outreach. The Wilbury Theatre Group started Rhode Island's fringe festival, FringePVD, in 2014. It is the largest fringe theater festival in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

References

{{authority control Theatre in Rhode Island Theatre companies in Rhode Island Non-profit organizations based in Rhode Island