2008 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe Showcases 21 Events in University City
Theater, Dance, Music & Visual Arts from August 29 – September 13
PHILADELPHIA – The 2008 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, with support from the University of Pennsylvania, brings another exciting year of festival performances to University City. For sixteen days, from August 29 – September 13, the Festival will run in venues throughout the city, showcasing some of the most sought after and talked about performing arts events in the region. This year, 21 productions make their home in University City, with performances at a variety of venues including The Rotunda, International House, Studio 34, the Community Education Alliance and even the parking garage of the local Fresh Grocer.
The Live Arts Festival features three cutting-edge dance performances set in University City. Two-time Bessie Award-winner Miguel Gutierrez will make his Live Arts Festival debut with Everyone (August 29 – 31), a playful, warm-blooded work of dance that indulges in the simultaneous wonder and banality of being alive and realizing that you are one among many. Held at Drexel University’s Mandell Theater, Everyone features nine performers who attempt to create a hyper presence that inspires an intimate connection between the performers and the audience.
Site-based choreographer Kate Watson-Wallace will present Car (August 29 – 31, September 2 – 7 & 9 – 13) at Parking Garage #40 at 4009 Walnut Street, above Fresh Grocer. Car is a performance for three audience members at a time who literally take the back seat as Watson-Wallace and her anonymous bodies dancers use a vehicular landscape to unravel the secrets and history of car culture. As part of her American Spaces trilogy, Watson-Wallace continues to bend the rules of what performance and venue can be.
Leah Stein Dance Company in collaboration with the renowned Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia will present the World Premiere of Urban ECHO: Circle Told (September 6 & 13), a mesmerizing integration of 100 singers and eight dancers moving together within the crumbling grandeur of West Philadelphia’s Rotunda. Part of Stein’s city-wide project On Site Philadelphia, Urban ECHO explores the historic Rotunda, built in 1911 originally as a house of worship. The space’s natural resonance offers the opportunity to experiment with echoes, bouncing sound, reverberation and sound’s relationship with space to help define the sonic experience.
The Philly Fringe, which provides opportunities for artists to present self-produced work, will feature 18 productions in University City.
The Community Education Alliance is home to four Fringe works including Nora Gibson Performance Project’s Net Worth, a dance performance exploring the corporate world, and the dark, comic drama Beyond Closed Doors by A Haja Production.
Philly Song Shuffle, presented by XFS and Small Boned Creatures, will return to World Café Live, and long-time Festival photographer JJ Tiziou will bring his interactive photo project How Philly Moves to Studio 34. Two Fringe performances will take place at Drexel University, including Manic Swell, a dance performance by Indigenous Pitch, held at the Mandell Theater.
In addition to Leah Stein Dance Company’s Live Arts Festival performances, The Rotunda is also home to five Fringe productions, including Clandestine Cinema’s Lost Animation of the Twentieth Century, a screening of strange journeys on 16mm film, and Climbing PoeTree’s The Hidden Messages in Water which explores the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina through spoken-word, poetry, video projection, dance and shadow art.
Additional University City venues include: University of Pennsylvania’s Houston Hall, International House, Danger Danger Gallery, Drexel University’s Disque Hall, and Avant Gentlemen’s Lodge.
[A full list of Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe shows in University City follows below.]
PROGRAM INFO/TICKETS
The Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival runs from August 29 – September 13, 2008. Tickets for most shows cost between $10 and $25. Some shows are free. This year, ticket buyers who purchase tickets to multiple shows can save 20% when they buy tickets to 2 or 3 shows and 25% for 4 or more shows. Students and Festival goers 25 and younger pay $15 for Live Arts Festival tickets and receive $5 off Philly Fringe tickets.
All Live Arts Festival tickets are available for purchase now at www.livearts-fringe.org, or after August 18 by calling the Box Office at (215) 413-1318, or visiting in person. The Festival Box Office location will be announced in early August. Philly Fringe tickets will go on sale online in July. The Festival guide, which includes descriptions of each performance, in addition to dates, times, locations, and other Festival information, will be widely available throughout the city beginning August 1, 2008.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival features performances by acclaimed contemporary dance and theater artists who are selected and invited to the Festival by Producing Director, Nick Stuccio. While some Live Arts artists are based in Philadelphia, many come from other parts of the U.S. and from around the world. The Philly Fringe is the “unfiltered” portion of the festival, where new and established artists of all kinds may choose to present their own work, free of a selection process. Together, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe bring audiences sixteen days of the most stimulating, provocative new art being created in Philadelphia, across the U.S., and around the world.
The Presenting Sponsor of the 2008 Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe is PNC Bank.
Live Arts Festival Shows in University City
Live Arts Festival TICKET INFO: Call (215) 413-1318 or go to www.livearts-fringe.org.
Single Tickets: $18.75 - $25 - the more Festival shows you see, the more you save.
Students and Festival goers 25 and younger: $15; Groups of 10+: $20
Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People
Everyone
Dance • 75 minutes
Mandell Theater at Drexel University, 3300 Chestnut Street
Aug 29 – 31 at 10pm
Kate Watson-Wallace/anonymous bodies
Car
Dance • 60 minutes
4009 Walnut Street (Parking Garage #40)
Aug 29 – 31, Sept 2 – 7, Sept 9 – 13
Daily performances every half hour from 7:30pm – 10:30pm
Leah Stein Dance Company + Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia
Urban ECHO: Circle Told
Dance – Music • 60 minutes
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
Sept 6 at 2pm & 4pm
Sept 13 at 2pm & 4pm
Philly Fringe Shows in University City Philly
Fringe TICKET INFO: Call (215) 413-1318 or go to www.livearts-fringe.org. All Philly Fringe shows range from FREE - $25 and are priced individually. |
Clandestine Cinema
Lost Animation of the Twentieth Century
Visual • 90 minutes • $10
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
Sept 5 at 8pm |
The Hidden Messages in Water, Climbing PoeTree
Hurricane Season
Interdisciplinary • 180 minutes • $15
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
Aug 29 at 7pm |
Light of Unity Association
Arsenic Pizza
Interdisciplinary • 120 minutes • $10
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
Sept 5 at 7pm |
Lili Bita/The Theater Cooperative
Women of Fire and Blood
Theater • 75 minutes • $15
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
Sept 6, 12 + 13 at 8pm
Sept 13 at 3pm |
Western Narrative Company
i love you
Theater • 60 minutes • $10
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
Sept 7 – 9 at 8pm |
Full Circle Theater
Guaranteed Overnight Theater
Theater • 120 minutes • $10
Community Education Alliance
3500 Lancaster Avenue
Sept 13 at 8pm |
A HaJa Production
Beyond Closed Doors
Theater • 120 minutes • $20
Meetinghouse Theatre at the Community Education Alliance
3500 Lancaster Avenue
Sept 9 – 12 at 8pm |
Ad Hoc
The Destruction of the City
Theater • 75 minutes • $10
Meetinghouse Theatre at the Community Education Alliance
3500 Lancaster Avenue
Sept 5 at 8pm
Sept 6 at 7pm + 10pm |
Nora Gibson Performance Project
Net Worth
Dance • 50 minutes • $10
Meetinghouse Theatre at the Community Education Alliance
3500 Lancaster Avenue
Sept 4 at 7pm + 9pm |
Indigenous Pitch
Manic Swell
Dance • 90 minutes • $15
Mandell Theater at Drexel University
3300 Chestnut Street
Sept 5 – 7 at 7:00pm
Sept 6 at 2pm |
Squid Inc.
The Giant Squid
Theater • 78 minutes • $10
Disque Hall, Drexel University
32nd + Chestnut Streets
Aug 29 + 30 at 10pm
Sept 5, 6 + 10-13 at 10pm |
JJ Tiziou Photography
Photo Shoot: How Philly Moves
Dance • ongoing • FREE
Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Avenue
Sept 12 from 12pm – 7pm
Sept 13 + 14 from 10am – 6pm |
Milkie Citie
Moth in Love
Theater • 80 minutes • $5
Avant Gentlemen’s Lodge
4028 Filbert Street
Sept 4 + 8 at 8pm
Sept 6 at 6pm
Sept 7 at midnight
Sept 11 at 7pm
Sept 12 at 10pm |
Music & Motion Dance
Continents: A Global Voyage
Dance • 60 minutes • $10
Hall of Flags, Houston Hall, University of Pennsylvania
3417 Spruce Street
Sept 6 at 2pm, 7:30pm |
Stephen Scott Smith
Project ME9
Visual • ongoing • FREE
International House Video Lounge
3701 Chestnut Street
Sept 1 – 4 + 8 – 11 from 12pm – 5pm
Sept 5, 6, 12, 13 from 12pm – 8pm |
|
| Also presented at the Painted Bride Gallery Café (230 Vine Street) and Crane Arts Building (1400 North American Street) |
Daniel Huntley Solon
Sex, With Benefits
Theater • 105 minutes • $10
Danger Danger Gallery
5013 Baltimore Avenue
Sept 1, 3, 10, 11 at 7:30pm
Sept 5, 12 at 8pm
Sept 7 at 3pm |
XFS and Small Boned Creatures Present
Philly Song Shuffle
Music • 180 minutes • $20
World Café Live
30245 Walnut Street
Sept 5 at 7pm |
Release Date: Thursday, August 21st 2008
