Also this issue: World Warp At Arcadia, the art of making subtle changes. -Robin Rice Inga Saffron Reading -Mike Gainer Critical Mass -Deni Kasrel Traveling Wares -Helen i-lin Hwang Red Dot -Debra Auspitz Lure of the West -Debra Auspitz The Magic Fire -David Anthony Fox

December 19-25, 2002

artsbeat

compiled by Debra Auspitz

Last-minute shopping alert: If you've still got people on your list, theater tickets are always a snazzy gift. But, you say, I have no idea what show to get tickets for! Fret not. The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia is offering a generic theater gift certificate that can be used toward tickets or workshop fees at participating member companies (at press time the list included the Wilma, Arden, People's Light, Mum Puppettheatre, InterAct, Philly Shakes and a number of others). To buy certificates or for more info, call 215-413-7150 or visit

www.theatrealliance.org.

Speaking of gifts, the end-of-the-year grant announcements have been rolling in. The biggest, shiniest present of the season came last month when Gov. Mark Schweiker announced the awarding of $43 million to nine bigwig arts organizations (the Art Museum, the Mann Center, the Woodmere Museum, Moore College of Art & Design, National Museum of American Jewish History, Settlement Music School, the Franklin Institute, Walnut Street Theatre and the Central Philadelphia Development Corp. to improve lighting on the Parkway near the museums). But individual artists and smaller companies that might not have "cultural institution" status also received well-deserved funds. Last week the Independence Foundation awarded a total of $76,000 in $3,000-$10,000 grants to 11 local performing artists. The grantees include Brat Productions' Madi DiStefano, who will use her money to go to Ireland to work on her one-woman play, Popsicle Departures ­ 1989. DiStefano read from her work-in-progress at Tapestry Theatre's recent Female Funny Fest. Also awarded were Nicole Cousineau, who will choreograph a new work with Carol Brown and actress Grace Gonglewski, who will study at three prestigious workshops: Shakespeare and Company in Lennox, Mass., Anne Bogart's SITI Theatre in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Pontedera, Italy.

Off-Broadway-bound: Philadelphia Theatre Company's production of Daniel Stern's Barbra's Wedding, the story of a washed-up actor living next door to Babs during her spectacle of a wedding to James Brolin, will open off-Broadway at Westside Arts Theatre in February. The play premiered here last season to mixed reviews.

Countertenor David Daniels' performance at the Kimmel last weekend was cancelled due to illness. The rescheduled date is Sun., Jan. 5, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets for the first show will be honored, but now there's a chance for those who may have missed out the first time to jump on the bandwagon.

Wonders never cease. A Travel Channel documentary recently named the Kimmel one of the "Modern Seven Wonders of the World," citing its acoustics and architecture and putting it in the same company as Spain's Guggenheim Museum, Dubai's Burj Al Arab Hotel and the renovated Reichstag.