September 2- 8, 2004

cover story

Unconventional!

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

by Lori Hill

We told you this would happen. Nick Stuccio spilled the beans to CP last year about the pending changes to the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, his labor of love for the last seven years.

And 12 short — or long, if you're Stuccio and co. — months later, Philly gets two arts festivals for the price of one.

Everyone, meet the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and the Philly Fringe.

They should look familiar: one set of shows featuring big-name artists curated by festival programmers, and its ruffian younger sister, offered assistance from her sibling but left largely to her own fantastically rebellious devices.

Will the Great Schism really make a difference to the average Fringe-goer on the street? Well, probably not. Ticketing remains the same, and the venues still range from the hole-in-the-wall gallery to Philly's biggest stages — with the notable addition of the mighty Kimmel Center. The divide mostly marks a philosophical change on the part of the Fringe creative staff and programmers that will likely, as the years go by, make it easier for everybody to see what this little experiment — started way back in 1997 by a frustrated-with-the-system Stuccio — has become: a world-class, always anticipated yearly starburst on the city's cultural calendar.

What else is new this year?

The box office has been dropped smack in the middle of Tourist Town, at the corner of Sixth and Chestnut. You'll have to make your way through the out-of-towners in their Lights of Liberty daze, but what's Fringe without a little incongruity, right?

Cap off your nights with a pint and a good ol' fashioned variety show, as that wonderful blend of performance art, comedy, music and all-around naughtiness known as The Cabaret takes over the old Poor Henry's Brewery.

Taking advantage of the Festival Plus discussions with the talent and the programmers should be high on any self-respecting Fringe-goer's list of priorities. There's no reason to miss Philly's own Roko Kawai discussing the beauty of butoh with the great Akira Kasai, or Headlong Dance Theater revealing the secrets of their sure-to-be dazzling show set in (yes, in) the Sheraton Society Hill's swimming pool.

In the following pages, you'll find out what struck us as the most interesting and relevant events in this years' festivals: We'll give you the scoop on shows with a political bent, shows with veteran Philly performers — even a show without any live actors at all.

Then there's the official guide. As easy as it seems, its new flip-it-over format still puzzled some in the CP office — but we're not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. The guide will bring a couple of things to your attention. You'll notice some shows are more expensive (c'mon, whaddaya expect, it's Shen Wei and the Kimmel! Together!) but most are reasonably priced, and some are even free. You'll also notice the sometimes infuriatingly vague and trying-too-hard show descriptions in the Fringe half of the guide. Nothing new there, but we're here to help with that — our picks (see For Your Consideration, p. 28) should help you navigate the exciting but overwhelming number of shows, by, hopefully, identifying the good from the, well, not-so-good. To that end as well, we'll once again be updating www.citypaper.net/fringe daily with our post-show analyses.

We've also considered the insanely busy schedule we know you'll be keeping in the coming three weeks, so at the end of our Fringe picks we've tacked on the shows' running times. Stick that in your Blackberry and smoke it.

--Lori Hill