FESTIVAL NO. 15
2011 PHILADELPHIA LIVE ARTS FESTIVAL + PHILLY FRINGE
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Festival Board Richard Vague, President / Jennifer Bohnenberger, Vice President / Robert E. Williams, CPA, Treasurer Conrad Bender / Anthony P. Forte / David Grasso / Lenny Haas / Gail M. Harrity / Liza Herzog Kevin Kleinschmidt / Bernadine J. Munley / Rebecca Quinn-Wolf / Peter C. Rothberg / Stephen Starr Holly Stichka / Nick Stuccio / Audrey Claire Taichman / Marty Tuzman / Paul Wright / Lisa P. Young
Producers Circle Kathryn Doyle and Alex Alexander / Tom and Carol Beam / Marc Chaikin and Sandy Betner / Louis Bluver Miffy and Howard Coonley / Bob Dever / Elizabeth H. Gemmill / David and Linda Glickstein Mr. and Mrs. N. Peter Hamilton / Christie Hartwell / Jane and Steve Heumann / Al and Nancy Hirsig Virginia and Harvey Kimmel / Josephine Klein / Nancy Lanham / Sissie and Herb Lipton / Tom Lussenhop Henry S. McNeil / Thomas M. Miles / Robert Pasquale / Suzanne S. and Ralph J. Roberts Franklyn and Cintra Rodgers / Vesna and Howard Sacks / Andy and Bryna Scott / Christina Sterner and Steven Poses / Lynne and Bert Strieb / Lee van de Velde / Anne and Ed Wagner / June and Steve Wolfson
FESTIVAL NO. 15 “FOR 15 YEARS years we’ve presented artists who are curious about the world and about the boundaries of their art—linking cultural, artistic, and performance-based ideas that are of-the-moment. Still, as much research as we do, we can’t say which themes will ultimately define a Festival until that Festival happens. At least half of the shows are new, and none of the shows have ever been seen here before. Only when September comes— and you see all these shows all at once—are the ideas, explorations, and crazy, creative concoctions of the artists truly revealed. The Festival has a life of its own that cannot be predetermined. It is live in the true sense of the word.” Nick Stuccio Producing Director Philadelphia Live Arts Festival
TICKETS
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Live Arts Tickets are $25–$30* Student and 25-and-under tickets are $15. Members save 20%. Buy tickets now at livearts-fringe.org. *Tickets for Traces (p. 28) are $20–$55. The All-Access Pass ($400 for a one-person pass, or $800 for a two-person pass) grants admission to every Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe show, 20% off for up to 3 additional tickets per performance, and ticket exchange service up to 48 hours prior to show time.
up to four hours before show time, or at the venue starting 30 minutes before show time. The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe does not refund ticket purchases. Exchanges are offered only to Festival Supreme Members, Producers Circle members, and All-Access Pass holders, up to 48 hours prior to show time.
Festival Box Office
Please note new location! Prince Music Theater 1412 Chestnut Street Phone: 215.413.1318
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Pre-Festival Hours Aug 22–Sept 1: 12pm–7pm Festival Hours Sun–Thu: 12pm–9pm Fri–Sat: 11am–9pm Sept 5 (Labor Day): 12pm–7pm
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Photo: Kevin Broos
6 WHaLE OPTICS Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental
22 Zon-Mai Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Gilles Delmas
8 Elephant Room Dennis Diamond Louie Magic Daryl Hannah
24 Canyon John Jasperse
10 Red Rovers Headlong Dance Theater and Chris Doyle 12 Twelfth Night, or What You Will Pig Iron Theatre Company 14
The Method Gun Rude Mechs
16 The Devil and Mister Punch Improbable
26 Namasya Shantala Shivalingappa 28
Traces 7 Fingers
30 Play Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Shantala Shivalingappa 32 The Radio Show Kyle Abraham / Abraham.In.Motion
34 More Mouvements f端r Lachenmann Xavier Le Roy 18 blank 36 Extremely Public Cie. Willi Dorner Displays of Privacy: 20 Lady M Act 1, Extremely Public Swim Pony New Paradise Performing Arts Laboratories
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Wh aLE OPTICS
World Premiere!
Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental Prince Music Theater 1412 Chestnut Street $25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 165 minutes (with 2 intermissions)
Sept 1 at 7pm ($20 preview) Sept 2 at 7pm (opening) Sept 3 at 7pm Sept 4 at 1pm Sept 6–10 at 7pm Sept 11 at 1pm
From the mind of Thaddeus Phillips comes an equally grand and hilarious theatrical epic that connects worldwide telecommunications systems, humpback whales, Carl Sagan, and dinner at Applebee’s. Sitting on opposite sides of a whale-sized stage, audiences witness a modern Moby Dick adventure— with microphones instead of harpoons—as a sound engineer chases a whale song across continents and oceans, libraries and dive shops, to the icescapes of Antarctica. Performed by and made in collaboration with Brian Osborne, Makoto Hirano, Lee Ann Etzold, James Ijames, and Emily Letts. Appropriate for ages 12 and up. Previous Live Arts shows include: ¡EL CONQUISTADOR! (2010), The MeLTING BRiDgE (2008), Flamingo/ Winnebago (2007).
WHaLE OPTICS has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. Additional support was provided by the Live Arts Brewery (LAB) programs, which are supported by The Kresge Foundation. Independence Foundation, and The PNC Foundation through PNC Arts Alive.
Festival Producers Virginia and Harvey Kimmel Festival Co-Producers Marty Tuzman Eileen Heisman Jenkintown Building Services
Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
Photo: © Masa Ushioda SpecialistStock
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“Abstractly this performance is set in the ocean, where sounds, ideas, the past, future, and history float and glide in liquid and submerged form.” Thaddeus Phillips, director of WHaLE OPTICS “Fuses intellect and feeling with an entirely original vision of the world.” Juliet Whittman, Denver Westword
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“That the three of us even agreed to be on the same bill is a miracle—audiences have a right to be excited. Things that you can do with three just aren’t possible with one.” Daryl Hannah, shaman of Elephant Room
Elephant Room
World Premiere!
Dennis Diamond / Louie Magic / Daryl Hannah Plays & Players Theatre 1714 Delancey Place $25–$30 (student + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 75 minutes
Sept 2 at 10pm Sept 3 at 4pm + 8pm Sept 4 at 6pm Sept 8 at 8pm Sept 9 at 10pm Sept 10 at 8pm Sept 11 at 6pm Sept 15 at 8pm Sept 16 at 10pm Sept 17 at 4pm + 10pm
Since the dawn of time mankind has consulted their mystics, their gurus, their magicians, to unlock the secrets of the physical universe. Mankind, look no further. For the first time in the greater Philadelphia area, three world-class semi-pro conjurors Dennis Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
Photo: Gregory Costanzo
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“A big ball of hi-larious and mezmerizing artertainment.� Andy Horowitz, Culturebot
Diamond, Daryl Hannah, and Louie Magic take you on a journey behind the smoke and mirrors and into a secret society. One room. Zero boring stuff. Sub-zero intelligence. It all adds up . . . in the Elephant Room. Appropriate for ages 10 and up. Previous Live Arts shows include: Amnesia Curiosa (2006), all wear bowlers (2005). Elephant Room was commissioned by Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, California, and is presented by special arrangement with Arena
Stage, Washington, DC. Elephant Room is funded in part by the Creative Capital Foundation. Elephant Room was funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. Additional support was provided by the Live Arts Brewery (LAB) programs, which are supported by The Kresge Foundation, Independence
Foundation, and The PNC Foundation through PNC Arts Alive. Festival Creative Producers David and Linda Glickstein Kevin Kleinschmidt Festival Producers Holly and David Stichka Festival CoProducer Nancy Lanham
“The piece was inspired initially by the true story of the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and the humans who drive them.” Amy Smith, co-director of Red Rovers “Fiendishly inventive.” The New Yorker Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
Image: Chris Doyle
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Red Rovers
World Premiere!
Headlong Dance Theater and Chris Doyle Live Arts Studio 919 North 5th Street (at Poplar) Wheelchair accessible Free onsite parking
Sept 2 at 7pm Sept 3 at 4pm + 9pm Sept 4 at 4pm Sept 6–8 at 7pm Sept 9 at 9pm Sept 10 at 7pm + 10pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 70 minutes
Welcome to the Jet Propulsion Laboratories 2011 Rover Driver Conference! Headlong Dance Theater teams up with visual artist Chris Doyle, performers David Disbrow and Christina Zani, and you, conference attendee, to make a short trip to the red planet. Two robotic explorers. One lonely landscape. Wires are crossed. Dust is in the hard drive. Interplanetary yoga. Combining dance theater, art installation, silent films, vintage Donkey Kong, and Mars, Red Rovers is an immersive experience about scientific searching, comical mishaps, and the impossibility of connection across vast distances. Appropriate for ages 12 and up. Previous Live Arts Shows include: More (2009), Explanatorium (2007), CELL (2006).
Red Rovers was generously funded by the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Festival Co-Producers Christie Hartwell June and Steve Wolfson
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TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL Pig Iron Theatre Company
480 South Broad Street (at Lombard) Wheelchair accessible $25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 135 minutes (with intermission)
Sept 1 + 2 at 7pm ($20-$25 previews) Sept 3 at 3pm ($20-$25 preview) Sept 4 at 7pm (opening) Sept 7 + 8 at 7pm Sept 9 at 6pm Sept 10 at 2pm + 8pm Sept 11 at 1pm + 7pm Sept 13–15 at 7pm Sept 16 at 6pm Sept 17 at 2pm + 8pm
It’s Shakespeare, Pig Iron style. Welcome to an uproarious world of drunkards and wine-drenched parties, depressive noblemen and dueling musicians, idiots and veteran jesters, religious zealots and erotic misunderstandings, all set to a live gypsy-rock score. Pig Iron uses its highly physical performance style to embrace one of Shakespeare’s most wicked comedies. With music by Rosie Langabeer and a cast featuring Michael Crane, Blake De Long, Scott Greer, Birgit Huppuch, Charleigh Parker, Andy Paterson, Dito van Reigersberg, Sarah Sanford, James Sugg, and Alex Torra. Appropriate for ages 15 and up. Previous Live Arts shows include: Cankerblossom (2010), Welcome to Yuba City (2009), Isabella (2007), Pay Up (2005).
Twelfth Night, or What You Will has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the William Penn Foundation.
Festival Executive Producers Al and Nancy Hirsig
Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
World Premiere!
13 “I’ve always been fascinated with this eternal struggle between imagination and death that runs through all of Shakespeare’s plays.” Dan Rothenberg, director of Twelfth Night, or What You Will
Photo: Dan Rothenberg
“One of the few groups successfully taking theater in new directions.” The New York Times
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THE METHOD GUN Rude Mechs A co-presentation with The Wilma Theater The Wilma Theater 265 South Broad Street (at Spruce) Wheelchair accessible
Sept 2 at 10pm Sept 3 at 3pm + 8pm Sept 4 at 3pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 90 minutes
From Austin-based Rude Mechs comes a theatrical exploration about the ecstasy and excesses of performing. Alternately hilarious and heartfelt, The Method Gun is based on the methods of Stella Burden, the 60s and 70s actor-training guru, who disappeared in 1972 under mysterious circumstances. Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
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“The show is named for an acting exercise said to have taken the lives of some who attempted it.” Kirk Lynn, writer of The Method Gun
Photo: Bret Brookshire
“Clever and funny and the actors are immensely likeable.” Alexis Soloski, Village Voice
Burden created what became known as the most dangerous acting technique in the world, The Approach. Based on historical documents, the show re-enacts the final months of Burden’s company’s rehearsals for a nine-years-in-the-making production of A Streetcar Named Desire, bouncing between radical rehearsal sequences, haunting interior monologues, and incendiary group interactions. Appropriate for ages 17 and up. Previous Live Arts Shows: Get Your War On (2006), How Late It Was, How Late (2004). The Method Gun has received creation support from Creative Capital Foundation, the Multi-Arts
Production (MAP) Fund, The Orchard Project Theatre Residency Program orchardproject.com, the University of Texas Humanities Institute, The Harry Ransom Center, and The Long Center for the Performing Arts, and touring support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Festival Producer Tom Lussenhop Festival CoProducers Andy and Bryna Scott
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“We can promise puppets and pianos, fingers and hands, crocodiles and sausages. It’s a beautiful and dirty show about love and fighting— not for the squeamish.” Julian Crouch, co-creator of The Devil and Mister Punch
THE DEVIL AND MISTER PUNCH Improbable Christ Church Neighborhood House 20 North American Street (by 2nd + Market Streets) Wheelchair accessible
Sept 8 at 8pm (preview) Sept 9 at 8pm (opening) Sept 10 at 3pm + 10pm Sept 11 at 7pm Sept 13 + 14 at 7pm Sept 15 at 6pm + 9pm Sept 16 at 8pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 75 minutes
The iconic Mr. Punch (of Punch and Judy fame) murders his way through life’s inconveniences. Unsatisfied with mere murder, The Devil and Mister Punch delves into the even darker world of Punch’s manipulators: the puppeteers themselves, and a pair of vaudeville-era theater producers—the Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
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Photo: Courtesy of Improbable
“Improbable . . . is one of the most energizing and provocative forces in British theater.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian (London)
World Premiere!
ever-battling brothers Harvey and Hovey—who have hit rock bottom, reduced to presenting a puppet show that goes wildly off-course. This shadowy, magical world features transatlantic wooden and papier-mâché players, music of the jug band era, a parade of elephants, hangings, beatings, the devil, and—of course—sausages. Appropriate for ages 16 and up. Improbable’s works include Obie awardwinning 70 Hill Lane and Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha with the The Metropolitan Opera. Improbable co-founder Julian Crouch also cocreated the Off-Broadway hit Shockheaded Peter.
The Devil and Mister Punch has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. The Devil and Mister Punch has been commissioned by Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis), Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and Barbican (London). This production
is also supported by Pomegranate Arts. Festival Creative Producers Tom and Carol Beam Festival Producers Vesna and Howard Sacks Festival CoProducers Lynne and Bert Strieb
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blank
World Premiere!
Cie. Willi Dorner Site-specific throughout Old City Starting point at lot at 2nd and Race Streets
Sept 8–10, 16 + 17 from 7pm–8:30pm
Free / 90 minutes (ongoing) Tickets recommended
Within a seven block radius in Old City, Willi Dorner is unleashing 65 dancers down narrow lanes, over archways and support beams, up walls, walking down stairwells that no longer exist, and falling out of windows. In this free Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
“Cool as it looks, kids, don’t try this at home!” Ellen Dunkel, The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Photo: Willi Dorner
“When I walked in Old City, I had the feeling of being in a maze. This architectonical setting allows me to create surprising moments. Also, people unfamiliar with this area can get easily lost.” Willi Dorner, choreographer of blank
outdoor show from the creator of the immensely popular bodies in urban spaces (Live Arts Festival, 2008), audiences roam Old City’s streets and side alleys, passageways and empty lots to discover wild formations of bodies, like anonymous inhabitants, using the city spaces for their own expression. Appropriate for all ages. Previous Live Arts shows: above under inbetween (2009), bodies in urban spaces (2008).
blank has been commissioned by the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival with support from The PNC Foundation through PNC Arts Alive.
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Lady M
World Premiere!
Swim Pony Performing Arts Arts Bank at The University of the Arts 601 South Broad Street (at South Street) Wheelchair accessible
Sept 1 at 7pm ($20 preview) Sept 2 at 7pm (opening) Sept 3, 4 + 6–9 at 7pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 90 minutes
Lady M highlights its demented anti-heroine, played by Barrymore Award winning Catharine Slusar, by heightening the text of Macbeth with voice and movement that is equally extreme. An all-female ensemble explores what might happen if Lady Macbeth summoned Shakespeare’s witches— now a coven of ten—on the heath for her own purposes. The chorus of witches acts out the play’s various roles for Lady Macbeth’s benefit, creating a moveable set out of their bodies while their voices produce layered beds of sound. Like a hive of bees, they alternately serve and overtake their queen. Appropriate for ages 14 and up. Previous Live Arts Festival show: Recitatif (2007). Previous Philly Fringe shows include: Purr, Pull, Reign (2009), The Giant Squid (2008).
Lady M is made possible with support from the Wyncote Foundation, The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and with support from the Live Arts Brewery (LAB) programs, which are supported by The Kresge Foundation, the Independence Foundation, and The PNC Foundation through PNC Arts Alive. Lady M is also supported
by The Charlotte Cushman Foundation Trustees in memory of their treasured colleague, Norma Testardi Egendorf Pomerantz. Festival Producers Anne and Edward Wagner
Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
“I want this piece to feel like watching a gladiator battle or an athlete on the verge of collapse— visceral, dirty, and so intense you almost feel yourself standing up to scream back at what’s happening.” Adrienne Mackey, director of Lady M
Illustration: Lisi Stoessel
“Affecting and thought-provoking.” J. Cooper Robb, Philadelphia Weekly
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“The Zon-Mai was actually like a reunion: mobilizing all these dancers around one project, in one place and getting them all to dance together and at the same time.” Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, co-creator of Zon-Mai
“Loosely-knit episodes that are stuffed with allusions to history, mythology, everyday life, and inner desires. “ Sanjoy Roy, The Guardian (London)
Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
Photo: Kader Benamer
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ZON-MAI
Gallery Opening!
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Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Gilles Delmas Former Pumping Station 140 North Columbus Boulevard (at Race Street Pier)
Sept 2–17 Weekends and Labor Day: 12pm–8pm Weekdays: 5pm–8pm Gallery opening: Sept 8 from 5pm–8pm
Free / Ongoing
Inside a former pumping station, opposite the new Race Street Pier, is a house—some 20 feet high and wide—built of screens. Films of dancers are projected on all sides of the house. These dancers, who all have experience with immigration and displacement, perform in their homes—in their bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, under and above their furniture, by their windows and refrigerators. Choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and filmmaker Gilles Delmas traveled across numerous countries to make films of these 21 dancers, and to create performances within the dancers’ most intimate and personal spaces. Appropriate for all ages. Festival Spotlight Series: Zon-Mai creator Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui performs alongside Shantala Shivalingappa in their dance Play (p. 30).
The presentation of the Zon-Mai in the 2011 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance. Produced by the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration (Paris, France), Zon-Mai travels in France and abroad as an emblem of this cultural institution, whose
purpose is to spread the history of immigration and acknowledge the input of immigrant cultures in building the French nation and society over the last two centuries.
Canyon
World Premiere!
John Jasperse The Wilma Theater 265 South Broad Street (at Spruce) Wheelchair accessible
Sept 9 + 10 at 8pm Sept 11 at 2pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 70 minutes
From groundbreaking New York choreographer John Jasperse comes a collaborative new work that captures the wonder of the ineffable. Six dancers, including Jasperse, create a space where the supremacy of the intellect is humbled into a state of awe, where you lose yourself in the transformative power of pure visceral experience. Integrating an evocative musical score and striking stage design, Canyon plays with engineered disorientation, sensory overload, spaciousness, fractured connectivity, and rapture. Appropriate for ages 16 and up.
MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Canyon is commissioned Foundation and The Andrew as part of the BAM 2011 Next W. Mellon Foundation. Wave Festival, and is Canyon is commissioned co-commissioned by the through Meet The Wexner Center for the Arts. Composer’s Commissioning Canyon is made possible Music/USA program and by by the New England the American Music Center Foundation for the Arts’ Live Music for Dance National Dance Project, with Program. Canyon is lead funding from the Doris supported, in part, by the Duke Charitable Foundation. National Endowment for the Canyon is supported by The Arts, the Bossak/Heilbron
Charitable Foundation and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Canyon was developed in residencies at MANCC, MASS MoCA and CPR. Festival Co-Producers Henry S. McNeil Sissie and Herb Lipton
Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
Photo: Alex Escalante, Image Editing by Tony Orrico © 2011
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”The need to make work is like an itch that needs to be scratched. It is felt and acted upon more than it can be understood.” John Jasperse, choreographer of Canyon
“When John Jasperse makes a new work, it should be seen: end of story.” Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times
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“The greatest driving force is the sheer joy and thrill of the moment of dancing itself.” Shantala Shivalingappa, creator of Namasya
Photo: Laurent Philippe
“Shantala’s dance is like the dancing glow of a flame.” Vogue Paris
Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
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NAMASYA Shantala Shivalingappa Presented in association with the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Arts Bank at The University of the Arts 601 South Broad Street (at South Street) Wheelchair accessible
Sept 11 + 12 at 8pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 60 minutes
From the classical Indian dance form Kuchipudi to contemporary movement, Namasya is a virtuosic and very personal dance work. Dancing nearly uninterruptedly for an hour and maintaining the highest level of concentration and energy, Shantala Shivalingappa invites the audience into her smallest gestures, while also moving with impossible speed and grace. The evening is made up of four solos choreographed by Ushio Amagatsu, Pina Bausch, Shivalingappa, and Savitry Nair (Shivalingappa’s mother). Appropriate for ages 12 and up. Festival Spotlight Series: Shivalingappa also performs alongside Flemish-Moroccan choreographer and dancer Sidi Lardi Cherkaoui in Play (p. 30), and appears in the multi-media installation Zon-Mai (p. 22).
The presentation of Namasya in the 2011 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.
Festival Co-Producers Miffy and Howard Coonley
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Traces 7 Fingers Presented in association with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Merriam Theater 250 South Broad Street (between Locust + Spruce) Wheelchair accessible
Sept 15 at 7pm Sept 16 at 8pm Sept 17 at 2pm + 8pm Sept 18 at 2pm
$20–$55 (students + 18–25 tickets $15, 17-and-under tickets 1/2 price)* / 90 minutes
Traces is high-energy urban acrobatics—poetic and explosive, humorous and thoughtful—from 7 Fingers, a Montreal-based circus arts company founded with the goal of presenting circus on a human scale. Circus feats—including traditional Chinese acrobatics, tumbling through hoops, and leaping between giant poles—combine with skateboarding and parkour, and mix with theater, music, and contemporary dance. As their acrobatics become more physically daring, their stories become more personal, and the audience finds itself intensely bound to the fate of the individuals on stage. *Tickets for Traces are sold ONLY through the Kimmel Center box office at www.kimmelcenter.org, 215-839-1999, or in person at the Kimmel Center, 300 South Broad Street. Appropriate for all ages.
Festival Producers Mark and Tobey Dichter Larry Spitz and Carol Klein David Seltzer and Lisa Roberts
Festival Honorary Producers Cat, Annie, and Steven Bohnenberger
Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
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Photo: Cyrus McCrimmon
“A gorgeously pure, loose, and personal circus.” Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune “Beautifully choreographed and hugely impressive.” Steve Oxman, Variety
“The thrill comes from the vulnerability the audience shares with the performers.” Gypsy Snider, co-director of Traces
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“Dance is always a temporary drawing, it disappears when the movement ends. So the drawing can be written over, or rewritten at any time. Each performance has to be drawn again the next evening.” Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, performer/choreographer of Play
Play
U.S. Premiere!
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Shantala Shivalingappa Prince Music Theater 1412 Chestnut Street Wheelchair accessible
Sept 15–17 at 8pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 75 minutes
Welcome to a vast playground, a place for experiments between two riveting performers with seemingly opposing styles: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, the sinuous western contemporary dancer whose movements ride a wave of chaos, and the Indian dancer Shantala Shivalingappa, whose exquisite control of movement comes from her mastery of the classical Indian form Kuchipudi. Role-play, Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
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Photo: Koen Broos
“Cherkaoui is . . . one of the bright young stars of contemporary European dance. He has . . . consistently blurred the boundaries between dance, theater, and music.� Susan Josephs, The Los Angeles Times
seduction, imitation, human-sized puppets, blindfolds, masks, music: all are employed to win the other over, to test boundaries, and to express the joy of communicating through dance. Appropriate for ages 12 and up. Festival Spotlight Series: Shivalingappa also performs her solo work Namasya (p. 26) and is featured in the multi-media installation Zon-Mai (p. 22), which was conceived of by Cherkaoui.
The presentation of Play in the 2011 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance. Funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts. NDP is supported by lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation, and the Boeing
Company Charitable Trust. This presentation of Play was also funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Festival Co-Producers Marc Chaikin and Sandra Betner
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“The cast of seven, Mr. Abraham included, was as fierce as the choreography.” Claudia La Rocca, The New York Times Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
Photo: Steven Schreiber
“I’ve seen audiences dancing before, during intermission, and after the show.” Kyle Abraham choreographer of The Radio Show
THE RADIO SHOW
Bessie Award Winner!
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Kyle Abraham / Abraham.In.Motion Presented in association with the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Zellerbach Theatre 3680 Walnut Street Wheelchair accessible
Sept 16 + 17 at 8pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 75 minutes (with intermission)
With a mix of classic soul and hip-hop and classical compositions, The Radio Show creates a rhythm that is hypnotic and unpredictable. This high-energy dance performance investigates the effects of the abrupt discontinuation of a black radio station on its community. Memories are met with disruption and loss, yet not without a fight. The cast of seven includes Abraham, one of the most captivating movers dancing today. Appropriate for ages 12 and up. The Radio Show is made possible by the generous support of The Heinz Endowments and with funds from the 2009–2010 Danspace Project Commissioning Initiative with support from the New York State Council on the Arts. Additional support for the commissioning and development of The Radio Show has been provided through The Kelly
Strayhorn Theater and the Harlem Stage Fund for New Work, which has received support from the Jerome Foundation. The Radio Show was created during a residency provided by The Joyce Theater Foundation, New York City, with major support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Radio Show world premiered at The Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh in January 2010.
Festival Producer Elizabeth H. Gemmill Festival Co-Producer Bob Dever Festival Honorary Producer David Lipson
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MORE MOUVEMENTS FUR LACHENMANN Xavier Le Roy A co-presentation with Bowerbird Arts Bank at The University of the Arts 601 South Broad Street (at South Street) Wheelchair accessible
Sept 16 + 17 at 8pm
$25–$30 (students + 25-and-under tickets $15) / 70 minutes
A cello solo alternates between inaudible notes played with large visual gestures and loud, cacophonous sections performed in complete darkness. A musical ensemble plays a score, then puts their instruments down, and plays it again with only movement. German composer Helmut Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
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“He approaches dance intellectually, but with a wry humanity.” Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
Photo: Reinhard Werner
“The experience of listening and watching. When seeing becomes hearing and vice versa.” Xavier Le Roy, choreographer of More Mouvements für Lachenmann
U.S. Premiere!
Lachenmann’s physically demanding compositions form the basis for French choreographer Xavier Le Roy’s poetic and fascinating version of a contemporary music concert from the point of view of someone obsessed with movement. Musicians include members of the Austrian new music ensemble Klangforum Wien. Appropriate for ages 14 and up.
The presentation of More Mouvements für Lachenmann in the 2011 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.
bowerbird
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EXTREMELY PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF PRIVACY: New Paradise Laboratories extremelypublicdisplays.com (log in for show)
Sept 2–Oct 1, all hours
Free / ongoing
Fess and Beatrix meet online. In the real world, Fess is a mother and a school teacher who writes amazing songs that nobody hears. Beatrix is a cool hunter, a performance artist, a mysterious entrepreneur. Beatrix sweeps Fess off her feet and into a surreal landscape that gets all too extremely public; all too extremely real. Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
“New Paradise Laboratories is a wild, sensory, erotic experience. Astonishingly acrobatic. Mindbending. Fearless.” The Louisville Courier-Journal
ACT 1, EXTREMELY PUBLIC
World Premiere!
Part musical, part illusion, part real-life drama, Extremely Public Displays of Privacy is a performance adventure in three acts. Follow Act 1 wherever you are—at home, at work, in a coffee shop, on a train, anywhere you have internet access. Find Act 2, Displays, and Act 3, Privacy, in the Philly Fringe. Appropriate for ages 16 and up. Previous Live Arts shows include: FREEDOM CLUB (2010), FATEBOOK (2009), BATCH (2007).
Extremely Public Displays of Privacy has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, the National Endowment for the Arts, the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Wyncote Foundation.
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Photo: Fess Elliot
“We sleuth the world today with online investigatory tools. We live in a dataverse that is at our fingertips . . . we wanted to make a piece not about the internet, but inside the internet.” Whit MacLaughlin, director of Extremely Public Displays Of Privacy
PRODUCERS CIRCLE RIM E NTATI O N XPE LE
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SHARE YOUR ARTISTIC VISION SUPPORT A LIVE ARTS SHOW OF YOUR CHOICE RECEIVE PREMIUM FESTIVAL BENEFITS The Producers Circle is a group of dedicated Festival leaders who show their commitment to creative experimentation in Philadelphia through gifts of $500 and above. Become a Producer today. Call Anneliese Van Arsdale at 215-413-9006 x20.
Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318 / Festival Members save 20%
Photo: Courtesy of Improbable
For Fes c om p le t pi c ival a te P h k n i ww up a d Ph i lad el p w.l Fest ll y F hia i ve r a rt s iv al G ing e i Live A r - fri u ide nfo n ge rm a ts o r .or g vis t it ion , .