2018 Winter + Spring Guide by FringeArts

Winter + Spring 2018

Calendar

JANUARY

3 | 8pm Sp3 <fidget>

APRIL

MARCH 3 | 7pm, 8:30pm, 10pm Bechdel Test Fest 3 | 11pm Bechdel Test Fest Open Mic (Free) 5 | 7pm Scratch Night (Free) 9 | 8pm Gala Jérôme Bel

FEBRUARY

16 | 10:30pm Get Pegged Cabaret

1 | 8pm Sp3 <fidget>

20 | 8pm First Person Arts StorySlam

2 | 8pm Sp3 <fidget>

19 | 8pm Roomful of Teeth

2 | 7pm Scratch Night (Free) 7 | 10am Stockhausen’s KLANG Elizabeth Huston, Analog Arts, and Musikfabrik 8 | 10am Stockhausen’s KLANG Elizabeth Huston, Analog Arts, and Musikfabrik 18 | 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! (preview) Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation 19 | 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! (preview) Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation 20 | 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! (opening) Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation 20 | 10:30pm Get Pegged Cabaret SADONNA: Miguel Gutierrez 21 | 2pm, 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation 22 | 2pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation

FringeArts Home of convention-smashing contemporary performing arts. 23 | 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation

18 | 10:30pm Get Pegged Cabaret John Jarboe

24 | 8pm First Person Arts StorySlam

JUNE

25 | 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation

22 | 8pm First Person Arts StorySlam

FringeArts + La Peg 140 North Columbus Boulevard (at Race Street) Philadelphia, PA 19106

1 | Hand to Hand: A FringeArts Circus Festival

26 | 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation

Valet parking available. No onsite parking. Street parking is metered in Old City and on Columbus Boulevard. Parking lots are nearby. Subway at 2nd and Market Streets.

2 | Hand to Hand: A FringeArts Circus Festival

Tickets

27 | 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation

3 | Hand to Hand: A FringeArts Circus Festival

Purchase at FringeArts.com or call 215.413.1318. Tickets available at the door one hour before show time.

4 | 7pm Scratch Night (Free)

28 | 2pm, 8pm ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation

MAY 7 | 7pm Scratch Night (Free) 10 | 8pm Séancers Jaamil Olawale Kosoko 11 | 8pm Séancers Jaamil Olawale Kosoko 12 | 8pm Séancers Jaamil Olawale Kosoko

12 | 8pm First Person Arts StorySlam 16 | 12pm–midnight FringeA-Thon 2

FringeArts would like to thank William Penn Foundation; Wyncote Foundation; Independence Foundation; The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage; Raynier Institute and Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; Philadelphia Cultural Fund; New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation; The Harvey and Virginia Kimmel Arts Education Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation as recommended by Harvey and Virginia Kimmel; and Anton Charitable Trust for their generous support.

Membership Join now at FringeArts.com/membership. Members save 30% on tickets plus receive priority access to tickets and seats, and enjoy VIP treatment at all events.

La Peg, the restaurant and bar at FringeArts Dinner 5pm–10:30pm Monday–Thursday 5pm–11:30pm Friday and Saturday 5pm–10pm Sunday Brunch 11am–2pm Sunday Happy Hour Monday–Friday, 5pm–7pm Bar open late every night. Cover photo: Kate Raines | Plate3.com

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Scratch Night

Art in the making.

First Monday of the month, artists perform samplings of new material. Scratch Night is a fast-pacedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;each piece runs about seven minutesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and fun opportunity to see experiments in contemporary theater, dance, performance art, and everything in between. Features up to six artists/companies. FREE / Photo of Microtone by Murmuration Theater: David Pagliarulo

JANUARY 8, FEBRUARY 5, MARCH 5, APRIL 2, MAY 7, JUNE 4 AT 7PM

Photo: Hallie Martenson

Get Pegged Cabaret

Curated and hosted by John Jarboe

Cabaret unrestrained, uncensored, intimate, and not a little dangerous. Enjoy stimulating entertainment fromÂ the sexy, satirical, daring, delightful, queer, and wildly talented performers from Philadelphia, New York, and beyond. JANUARY 19 FEBRUARY 16 MARCH 16 APRIL 20 MAY 18

Raja Feather Kelly, Suli Holum Adrienne Truscot, Jackie Soro Special Guest! SADONNA: Miguel Gutierrez John Jarboe

La Peg stage Standing Room: $5 Table: $15Â per seat*

Photo: Malgorzata Kasprzycka Check FringeArts.com for Get Pegged updates on additional performers.

*Tables must be bought in full. Therefore, a 4-seat table costs $60. Additionally, each person is required to order a $15 minimum of food or drink from La Peg.

ALL SHOWS AT 10:30PM

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Fashion Machine

Theatre SKAM (Canada)

SPARK: Fringe for Young Audiences “Whatever Theatre SKAM touches seems to turn to theatrical gold.” John Kaplan, NOW Magazine Following a week of training from Theatre SKAM artists, 28 local children circulate among the audience and select seven lucky, brave patrons to be taken into the Fashion Machine and have their outfits completely remade by kids. Photography captures up-close images of the kids at work, broadcasting in real time on a giant screen while videos introduce audiences to these youthful denizens of couture. The audience circles the perimeter of an open workshop and observes the process—interviews with subjects, brainstorming sessions, sewing machines, scissors, buttons, ribbons, fabric, needles and thread, and finally a showcase of the remade outfits with commentary by the young fashion artists. $29 general $20.30 member $15 student (and 25-and-under) $5 12-and-under FringeArts.com/Fashion 90 minutes

Fashion Machine runs in conjunction with the International Performing Arts for Youth Conference.

JANUARY 23 AT 6:45PM JANUARY 24 AT 4:30PM JANUARY 25–26 AT 6:45PM JANUARY 27 AT 2PM

Victoria, Canada, based Theatre SKAM presented Louis and Dave at the very first Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 1997, with subsequent shows Zastrozzi (1998) and The Black Box (2001).

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Dear Diary LOL

AntiGravity Theatre Project

SPARK: Fringe for Young Audiences “The text is deliciously naive, sincere, and honest, delivered with joyful reference.“ Phindie.com You are invited to a comedic theater performance born verbatim from real-life tween-teen diaries of middle school girls, most of whom are in the show’s cast. Cringe, laugh, and cry at their most earnest desires, deepest fears, secret shames, and terrible poetry written in the late 90s/early 2000s. These tumultuous coming-of-age years are explored from a female perspective, providing an intimate portrait of the ways these young girls come to understand the world around them, form a self, and use their voices as they experiment with their malleable identities and budding adulthood. Recommended for audiences aged 12+. $15 general $10.50 member FringeArts.com/LOL 60 minutes

Features Alicia Crosby, Sarah Knittel, Francesca Montanile Lyons, Gina Elizabeth Murdoch, Jenna Strusowski, Megan Thibodeaux, and Michael T. Williams. Lead artist Francesca Montanile Lyons also co-directed the work with Michael T. Williams. Photos: Tim O’Donnell

JANUARY 25, 26 AT 9:30PM

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Sp3 World Premiere!

“The mood of the piece started to feel very related to our perception of the world around us right now—tension-filled, edgy.” Megan Bridge, choreographer space pulse pattern presence Reflecting upon the times, Sp3 takes an abstracted look at alienation and the technologized body and calls into question the concept of “presence.” With patterns that loop and evolve, Sp3 weaves sound and movement into a fabric of shifting performance qualities, approaching “presence” as material to be shaped. Six dancers create clear, formal architectures with densely textured, almost post-human movement while the music— oscillating between analogue and digital synthesis—produces a layered, multifaceted score of pulse pattern minimalism. $29 general / $20.30 member $15 student and 25-and-under FringeArts.com/Sp3 60 minutes

Developed in residence at FringeArts, Sp3 features a score by lead artist Peter Price, choreography by Megan Bridge, and dancers Megan Bridge, Marie Brown, Ann-Marie Gover, Megan Wilson Stern, Zornitsa Stoyanova, and Kat Sullivan. Photos: Bill Hebert

FEBRUARY 1–3 AT 8PM

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Clock that Mug or Dusted

Cherdonna Shinatra

“How does one be a queer feminist today? It ‘is’ many things—but it’s always changing.” Jody Kuehner This conceptual and inspirational homage to feminist performance artists—from Anna Halprin to Janine Antoni—plays on the body as a canvas for social change, rebellion, and personal expansion. Hyperbolizing the normal humiliations of human existence, Jody Kuehner’s beloved drag/dance bio-femme icon Cherdonna Shinatra uses birthday cake, paint, and found objects to produce a work of that’s part contemporary dance, part performance art with a stage that becomes a living canvas. Drawing on vintage feminist ideals, Clock that Mug or Dusted looks for what present day queer/drag feminism might be. $29 general $20.30 member $15 student (and 25-and-under) FringeArts.com/Cherdonna 65 minutes

Jody Kuehner/Cherdonna Shinatra is a Seattle-based dance artist, director, and 2015 Stranger Genius Award winner, who uses clowning, drag, theater, comedy, performance art, pop culture, absurdity, and subversive commentary to make art. Her choreography has been presented throughout the U.S.

The presentation of Clock that Mug or Dusted was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Photo: Lou Daprile

FEBRUARY 22–24 AT 8PM

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

The Bechdel Test Fest “We are excited for the theater people, the music nerds, the dancers, the comics, the singers, the clowns, the actors, and all the goofs to come together, meet each other, collaborate and celebrate comedy.” Beth Eisenberg, festival co-organizer The comedy festival that celebrates Philadelphia’s funniest women and trans comedians returns with stand up, improv, sketch, musical comedy, solo character bits, clown—and anything else funny. Celebrating its third year, The Bechdel Test Fest is expanding to a three-day festival, March 2–4, taking place at three different venues across the city, including these Saturday night performances at FringeArts. $10 per show/$25 day pass (general) $7 per show/$17.50 day pass (member) FringeArts.com/Bechdel

MARCH 3 AT 7PM, 8:30PM + 10PM (TICKETED) OPEN MIC AT 11PM (FREE)

The Bechdel Test Fest (bechdelfest.com) grew out of Philadelphia’s female online comedy community, Improvaries, and received its name from Dykes to Watch Out For, Alison Bechdel’s iconic comic strip.

Gala

Jérôme Bel

“We have to be open to new performers, new behaviors, new cultures.” Jérôme Bel “It’s a tour de force, wildly entertaining, and through the deliberate exploitation of conventional form, truly radical.” Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times The adored 2016 Fringe Festival show returns. A spectacle that celebrates the act of dancing, and the act of trying to dance, Gala showcases the desire to dance without complexes. About twenty dancers take the stage, from professional dancers to first timers—including children, teenagers, pensioners, people with disabilities. Interpreting a series of dances across a range of eras, their performances reveal each person’s desire to move, to strive for joy, perfection, to transform with unabashed expression. With a simple framework, like an end of year assembly, audiences become deeply connected to the individuals on stage, their dance revealing a world of their own imagination. $29 general $20.30 member $15 student (and 25-and-under) FringeArts.com/GALA

Star Producers David Seltzer & Lisa Roberts Photo: José Frade

R.B. Jérôme Bel is supported by Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile- de-France, French Ministry for Culture and Communication, and by the Institut Français, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, for its international tours.

MARCH 9 AT 8PM

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

ROOMFUL OF TEETH “Besides having the visceral appeal of beautifully produced vocalism, the repertoire often shows antecedents in traditional hymns, folkish songs, and the Beach Boys while spiraling into uncharted harmonic galaxies and timbres.” David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer This Grammy-winning vocal ensemble is dedicated to re-imagining the potential of the human voice. Roomful of Teeth creates richly complex and beautifully vibrant music while commissioning new works to continually expand their repertoire and vocal artistry. Led by artistic director Brad Wells, the eight-voiced ensemble has perfected such wide-ranging techniques as Tuvan throat singing, yodeling, belting, Inuit throat singing, Korean P’ansori, Georgian singing, Sardinian cantu a tenore, Hindustani music, and Persian classical singing—all in service of creating their own unique sounds.

$29 general $20.30 member $15 student (and 25-and-under) FringeArts.com/Teeth 60 minutes MARCH 19 AT 8PM

Photo: Bonica Ayala

A pause.

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Stockhausen’s KLANG

Elizabeth Huston, Analog Arts, and Musikfabrik

Between 2004 and 2007, Karlheinz Stockhausen created an astonishing work: a series of pieces, each representing an hour of the day—KLANG: Die 24 Stunden des Tages (SOUND: The 24 Hours of the Day). The intention was for the work to consist of 24 chamber music compositions called “Hours,” but it was left unfinished due to the composer’s death. This is a production of all 21 completed pieces. KLANG embodies an entire day in music and probes the meaning of time as framed by Stockhausen’s unusual view of spirituality. With performances by Cologne’s MusikFabrik, light paintings by Thomas Dunn, and sound projection by Dolph Kamper. $40 one-day / $75 two-day general $28 one-day / $52.50 two-day member The program is the same both days, but the $75 ticket allows audience members to spread out their experience if they so wish.

FringeArts.com/KLANG 14 hours (with breaks)

The performance has four curated collections featuring parts of each of the three sections so that a sampling can be experienced in a handful of hours if full-day attendance is not possible. Audiences are able to leave and return during the day. During breaks, scholars will be present to answer questions and foster conversation, musicians and researchers will give lectures, and there will be dedicated areas for further reading and listening.

APRIL 7, 8 AT 10AM (ONGOING TILL MIDNIGHT)

This project was made possible by support from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage provided to Elizabeth Huston, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Goethe Insitut, and the Penn Treaty Special Services District.

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! ¡Bienvenidos! Welcome! Right this way! Can we offer you a top-up on that mojito? Oh that? Don’t worry, that’s just a long history of exploitation. Cuban and American history converge in this original play exploring economic oppression, race, embargos, conquistadores, and the relationship between two countries that are really, really close together. Led by Cuban-American director Alex Torra and created by an international cast including real Cubans from actual Cuba, imported legally via airplane. Performed in Spanish with English Subtitles. $29 general $20.30 member $15 student and 25-and-under FringeArts.com/BLANCOS 80 minutes

Alex Torra and Team Sunshine Performance Corporation ¿Cómo te va? Esa descripción allá es para los americanos. Entre tú y yo, ellos no saben que están tomando mojitos aguados…. . Esta obra examina la manera en que las fuerzas extranjeras han formado la historia cubana. Desde el turista hasta el futuro empresario, muchos de estos extranjeros han sido de países “blancos”, seducidos por el delirio de una isla caribeña; es decir, seducidos por Cuba. Sus deseos y manos toquetonas han tenido un papel en la formación de la identidad cubana y de una cultura bella, pero a la misma vez, dolorosa. Creado en español con subtítulos en inglés. Photos: Kate Raines // Plate3 Photography

Major support for ¡BIENVENIDOS BLANCOS! OR WELCOME WHITE PEOPLE! has been provided to Alex Torra by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Wyncote Foundation, the Network of Ensemble Theaters, and the Puffin Foundation.

APRIL 18, 19 AT 8PM (PREVIEWS) APRIL 20 AT 8PM (OPENING) APRIL 21 AT 2PM + 8PM APRIL 22 AT 2PM APRIL 23, 25–27 AT 8PM APRIL 28 AT 2PM + 8PM

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Séancers

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko

“What does it mean to defend the dead? To tend to the Black dead and dying: to tend to the Black person, to Black people, always living in the push toward our death?” Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being With majesty, opulence, and agency, Séancers examines how the American racialized body uses psychic, spiritual, and theoretical strategies to shapeshift through loss and oppression. This journey into the surreal and fantastical states of the Black imagination traverses the “fatal” axis of abstraction, illegibility, and gender complexity with a collapsing of lyrical poetry, movement forms, and discursive performance. $29 general $20.30 member $15 student (and 25-and-under) FringeArts.com/Sceancers 65 minutes

MAY 10–12 AT 8PM

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko is a Bessie Award nominated Nigerian–American curator, poet, and performance artist. Séancers includes sound artist Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste and video installation by Andrew Amorim.

Séancers was created with commission support from Abrons Arts Center and Danspace Project with additional funding support from MAP Fund, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Princeton Arts Fellowship, and the Jerome Foundation.

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Hand to Hand: A FringeArts Circus Festival 2018 FringeArts Circus Festival Presented by PNC Arts Alive

Three-day festival of circus art, from performances on the FringeArts stage to outside in Haas Biergarten, high levels of artistry and ability and for the whole family. From aerials to acrobatics and everything in between. The Montreal-based Barcode (shown in photos) will headline a daring line up of contemporary circus artists and troupes. Includes an afternoon of outdoor, free admission performances from presented artists and family-friendly outdoor workshops by Phillyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own Circadium School of Contemporary Circus. $10 general / $7 member FringeArts.com/Circus

JUNE 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3

FringeArts.com + 215.413.1318

Our first dance party fundraiser was so much fun weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing it again! June 16, 2018 See you on the dance floor.

ut O t r A r u o #DanceY

12 hours of Dance Party Madness. The 2017 FringeA-Thon was a blast. Special thanks to our sponsors, we hope you'll come back again! Penn Medicine, The Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Woods Foundation, FS Investments, FetchIt360, Evolve IP, Sugar House Casino, Masters Group Design, PECO, Campus Apartments, Saint Benjamin, Coca-Cola, Drexel University, Essentia, Tiffin, The Childhood Resilience Foundation, WXPN 88.5, Purell, Independence Foundation, Philly Surf Crew, AT&T, Beneficial Bank, PlantBottle, Hersha, The Philadelphia Eagles, Signarama, Insomnia Cookies, Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young, LLP, United Parcel Service (UPS), OneDigital, Stateside Urbancraft Vodka, Melinda and Gabe Conuso & Tricia Notte.

PHOTO: CHRIS STRING

Raise money for FringeArts and Philly artists and their companies.

We know what art can do â&#x20AC;&#x201D; how it can change perspectives, and even change lives. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why the PNC Foundation developed PNC Arts Alive, a multi-year, multi-million-dollar initiative that supports the arts in local communities. Through this initiative, we continue to challenge visual and performing arts organizations to put forth their best, most original thinking while expanding audience participation and engagement. Because when art thrives, everybody benefits. To learn more, go to pncartsalive.com CCRD PDF 0616-0101

140 N Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19106 FringeArts.com

“FringeArts has curated a lineup of programming that you won’t be able to catch anywhere else.” Allie Volpe, Philly.com Photo: Amanda Jensen