Fest Bets (I-Z)

Short Previews

	print	email	reply

Published: Aug 27, 2008

Steve Weinik

At last year's Fringe, Mascher Space Cooperative presented Fresh Juice, showcasing works-in-progress by several members of its studio, which is developing into a busy incubator for local independent dance-makers. Response was positive enough that this year, Mascher was invited to participate in the Live Arts Festival. Being part of the curated event is akin to receiving a stamp of approval from certain performing arts taste-makers with clout here in Philadelphia.

Naturally, Mascher co-founder Liza Clark is excited that the co-op's In Flux series, featuring works by four emerging choreographers, passes muster. "The first five years out of school are really critical for getting support and inspiration to keep on with your art," she asserts, and the Live Arts spotlight goes a long way in providing motivation to keep on keeping on.

In Flux includes dances by Sarah Gladwin Camp, Rebecca Lloyd-Jones, Erica Saben and Kathryn TeBordo. Clark observes that "Kathryn and Sarah are bringing in more humor and tongue-in-cheekiness; Rebecca and Erica's pieces are more personal and intimate." She says that while all of these choreographers work in the modern/postmodern genre, "each work is really different," and, whereas last year's series highlighted works-in-progress, the Live Arts program features finished pieces.

Aug. 29-30, 10 p.m.; Aug. 31, 3 p.m.; $25, Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad St.

Julie Lemberger

You know something's gone awry when Paris Hilton's starring in a McCain ad and having her DUI arrest covered by ABC News. Janet 2.0, a postmodern dance performance by Keila Cordova Dances, explores this blurring of celebrity culture and current events. Janet Jackson may live in Rhythm Nation, but we live in a nation where the Terminator can become governor. The dance troupe transports us 40 years into the future, where a clone of Janet — the ultimate pop star — is president. The non-narrative storytelling performance incorporates live singing, recorded music, text, improv acting ... and, of course, dance steps to classic Janet songs. When you're done getting "Nasty," grab your bow tie and make like a "hurricane," — Janet 2.0 is presented in conjunction with The Weather Project, a revived number that analyzes the movements of weather reporters.

Sept. 7 and 10, 9 p.m., $10, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St.

LIVE! LIVE! LIVE! Hoity Meets the 'Hood teams the urban puppeteers at Little Bunny Voodoo and hip-hop cartoonist Jamar Nicholas. We know LBV's 2007 Fringe offering, Late Night at the Tiki Bar, was a visual delight. To quote CP's review: "We could watch these puppets watch paint dry," and we've been following Nicholas' street-smart hip-hop comix for years. The concept here is a "design mashup" with LBV's Alisa Sickora Kleckner and husband Chris Kleckner working with Nicholas to bring his creations to life. "They took my half of the project and really gave my ideas wings," says Nicholas.

Sept. 4 and 6, 7 p.m.; Sept. 4-6, 8 and 9 p.m.; Sept. 5-6, 10 p.m.; free, The Institute, 549 N. 12th St.

Aaron Birk

Aaron Birk, curator of Clandestine Cinema, wants you to go retro. "A lot of film has gone digital and we were trying to brainstorm ways to bring back the warmth of proper film," says Birk (the "we" being him and Rotunda Director Gina Renzi). With the help of a 16 mm projector, Clandestine Cinema brings together local and international filmmakers with a social-justice bent and a love for celluloid. Their first event, "Lost Animation of the Twentieth Century," features work by Birk and South African filmmaker William Kentridge. "You need to start with animation because it's handmade," says Birk. "Somebody got grit under their fingernails, someone got sweat and blood on those puppets. You can almost see the fingerprints in the clay, or the eraser marks. It's a labor of love."

Sept. 5, 8 p.m., free, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St.

Randi Rosenblum

Karl Rove, Jim McGreevey and Ann Coulter will likely never be spotted tangoing in sushi restaurants or singing with gay filmmakers, but the politically satirical play The Maguffin ponders what would happen if they did. The show employs broad farce and a few musical numbers to tell the tale of an ultraconservative politician who fights to revive the issue of gay marriage amid a presidential election. The Maguffin, produced by Stone Soup Theatre Arts, premiered last year in New York; the company decided to relocate the show to a swing state — Pennsylvania — during the election year, updating the script with more topical jabs at the left and the right.

Aug. 30-31, 7 p.m.; Sept. 1, 4 p.m.; Sept. 5, 7 p.m.; Sept. 6, 4 and 7 p.m.; $10, Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.

Michele Kopec

OK, so you like your art interdisciplinary, musical, movement-oriented, big-time theatrical and it would be nice to throw in motion-capture animation along with aerial stunt work. Sounds like a tall order, but not too tall for Indigenous Pitch, which digs organizing eclectic, mix-and-match shows featuring local artists who want to share their energy with like-minded creative types. Hip-hop is a big part of the bill, which includes Binc, Illadelphlave, Lauren Mandilian, Stephen Welsh/Swerve, Underground Dance Works and Surge.

Sept. 5-7, 7 p.m.; Sept. 6, 2 p.m.; $15, Mandell Theater, Drexel University, 3300 Chestnut St.

William Starr

Thaddeus Phillips is worried. Well, he's been worried since at least 2004 when his America's Trilogy kicked off with !El Conquistador!, but this time it's worse. THE MeLTING BRiDgE, the series' third and final installment, looks at the future of the Americas through its native cultures — and the prognosis isn't pretty.

"When you start looking at indigenous cultures, what's interesting is, you can look for answers to problems we're having now," says Phillips, who is presenting the show with his artistic collective, the Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental. Like last year's Flamingo/Winnebago, THE MeLTING BRiDgE playfully but poignantly handles some weighty environmental issues. The story follows a slick businessman — played by Phillips, who acquired his fortunes selling toilet paper made from Amazon eucalyptus leaves — as he searches for his missing father. Once a by-the-books archaeologist, pops became obsessed with shaman prophecies and the 2012 apocalypse theories before disappearing. The hunt takes Phillips' character (well, one of them, at least) on a trip from Alaska to the Amazon basin, complete with Mexican luchadores and an original score by Colombian rocker Juan Gabriel Turbay, who will be onstage.

If you caught Flamingo at last year's Fringe, it's easy to imagine getting lost in Phillips' crafty sets and multitalented conspiritors. Unfortunately, when you start to look at the Mayan civilization for answers in 2008, there's little room for optimism. "The thing is, when we're looking at a collapse now, we're looking at something global," says Phillips.

Sept. 10-11, 7 p.m.; Sept. 12, 7 and 11 p.m.; Sept. 13, 7 p.m.; $25, Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place.

Deborah Boardman

After watching more men's Olympic synchronized diving than is healthy, it's clear as pool water that watching two identical (and identically toned) bodies twisting and contorting in midair is a hella good time. Enter Twins & Friends Dance Company, composed of twin brothers Eng and Ant Matthews, making their Fringe debut with what they describe as "breakdancing/modern dance fusion." We'll give it a 10.

Sept. 6, 6:30 and 8 p.m.; $15, Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 N. Broad St.

Jacques-Jean Tiziou/jjtiziou.net

Sebastienne Mundheim wowed kids and adults with her freaky-inventive history lesson Currently Franklin in '06. Now she's back with more spooky puppetry — this time "fragile paper sculpture animated by dancers" — enhanced by live music, video projection, moody lighting and Mundheim's soothing narration. Expect something delicate, intense and otherwordly.

Aug. 29 and Sept. 2, 9 p.m.; Aug. 30-Sept. 1, noon; Aug. 30-31, 4 p.m.; Aug. 30, 6 p.m.; Sept. 2, 7 p.m.; $25, ICE BOX Projects Space, 1400 N. American St.

"A serial dog shaver terrorizes Media, Pa." — not another puppy-mill horror story, but S.H.A.V.E.D. , by playwright and actress Tara Ahmadinejad. Yes, her name is the same as a certain Iranian president, but no, they're not related. Born and raised near Philadelphia, she developed S.H.A.V.E.D. at Brown University, then teamed with director Willow Norton to première the show at HERE Arts Center in New York earlier this summer. "The fact that I'm Iranian and doing a solo performance might make people expect some sort of aggressive political attempt to give a general voice to all Iranian-Americans," she admits, but main character Nargice deals with more internal issues. "Because of my personal experience with the constant shift between insider and outsider status, I'm able to give Nargice her own idiosyncrasies and associations that couldn't be mistaken for the voice of an entire population."

S.H.A.V.E.D. , Ahmadinejad confesses, isn't an acronym for anything — or, at least, it's up to us to decipher. "Nargice is preoccupied with the way people see situations from afar, and the meanings they ascribe to people and their actions." Nargice believes the FBI watches her from behind her bathroom mirror, and maybe they do — and maybe everything has multiple meanings.

Fortunately, Ahmadinejad and Nargice approach the issues of paranoia and identity with humor. "I try to take some real worries and fears to a slightly absurd place in order to reveal their ridiculousness," she explains, exploring "how surveillance can foster exhibitionism, how a young person might covet the FBI's attention rather than find it strictly menacing." And why anyone would shave dogs.

Aug. 29, 9:30 p.m.; Aug. 30, 6 and 9:30 p.m.; $10, Pageant: Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge St.

Nick Jones

Straight Up Vampire began with Nick Jones of Jollyship the Whiz-Bang and Zak Vreeland conceiving a show "that no one would ever produce, watch or participate in," explains fellow collaborator Peter James Cook. The goals: a jukebox musical with a period setting (1760s Philadelphia) about vampires, with "several boldly phrased but poorly considered things to say about American democracy." The vision coalesced when they set it all to Paula Abdul, strip-mining the lyrics for alternative meanings. "Thrillingly wrongheaded," Cook admits, but also "a huge, baffling success" when it premièred in Brooklyn last year. Just a goof? Or "secretly an experiment in aesthetics"? I can't wait to find out.

Sept. 6, 3 and 9 p.m.; Sept. 7, 6 and 9 p.m.; $10, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St.

Steve Belkowitz

Who hasn't felt like Tania Isaac at some time or another — too much to do, too many people pulling at you, too little time? Isaac, a dancer-choreographer, teacher, company manager and mother, remembers feeling overwhelmed (understandably). "I realized I was in a stupor," she says, "and I felt I needed to make a piece about how overwhelmed I was." Out of this life moment, she created Stuporwoman, in which she uses dance to express her frustration and exhilaration with her own complicated life.

Over the last few years, Isaac has presented Stuporwoman excerpts as a solo in a series of a dance theater exploration of her personal overcommitment. She combines Caribbean movement, borne from her St. Lucia upbringing, with the latest modern experimentation. For Live Arts, Isaac is ready to fly with the full-length version, just short of an hour. No longer a solo, it's become a work for nine dancers with original music and costumes. "In a way," she muses, "it is about the absurdity of being overwhelmed by what I'm doing. It's my choice, and my life. This is a journey for me, an expansion of one particular moment in my life. And I am riding out that moment."

Sept. 4-5, 9 p.m.; Sept. 6, 3 p.m.; Sept. 7, 7 p.m.; $25, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St.

When I say waterboarding, what comes to mind? Some of you will just look quizzically (and to you, I say, go read the news, man). And some of you will see the Hollywood-created, Jack-Bauer-approved version of America's favorite torture tactic, a dramatic spectacle of routinely dunking some alleged terrorist's head into a vat of water while asking, "WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?!"

That's not exactly how it works. But if you're interested in the simple act that's stirred up investigative reports and re-enactments across the land, check out Find Art Collective's Thee Spectacular Waterboarding Adventure, a carnival-like street performance exploring the tactic that's tarnished America's reputation.

During the show, viewers get to see how amazingly easy waterboarding is: It just involves lots of straps, a cloth over the mouth and nostrils, and a few splashes of water to induce the body-writhing, panic-inducing feeling of drowning. As Bryan B. Billingsley, the show's creator, says: "It's much simpler and more psychological than you realize."

Aug. 29, 6 p.m.; Aug. 30-31, noon, 3 and 6 p.m.; free, Third and Arch streets.

Zebra Visual

Danse4Nia takes its name from the fifth principle of Kwanzaa, which means "purpose" in Swahili. The two-year-old dance group, which made its Fringe debut in 2006, this year will première Through Their Eyes, pieces by six African-American male choreographers about how they see women. The pieces range from the serious (female friendships and jealousy) to the definitely comic (the stereotype of the overextended "superwoman") and will be performed by Danse4Nia's 10 female company dancers plus four apprentices (including one male). Creator, CEO and artistic director Antoinette Coward-Gilmore wants to give men a chance to speak from their perspective. "I wanted them to have their moment, to say this is how we feel. ... This is their moment to exhale."

Sept. 13, 8 p.m., $25, Freedom Theatre, 1346 N. Broad St.

John Doyle

Socrates died nearly 2,500 years ago, forced to drink hemlock for speaking his mind by a government that bragged of tolerating free speech. Parallels between Athens and a certain contemporary democracy may be drawn in the world première of veteran Philadelphia actor Steve Hatzai's Waiting for the Ship from Delos: The Last Days of Socrates. As Socrates defends himself against charges of impiety and corrupting youth, we're drawn in like a Greek version of a passion play, becoming active participants in his trial. Don't let the American Philosophical Society location scare you: Iron Age has a superb record of revealing the human side of historical situations in past Fringe successes Marx in Soho and The Interrogation of Nathan Hale, so Waiting promises much more than Socratic debate.

Aug. 31, 5 and 7 p.m.; Sept. 4, noon, 6 and 8 p.m.; Sept. 6 and 13, 3, 6 and 8 p.m.; $15, Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut St.

Dan Plunkett

Six years ago, Idratherbehere producer Eric Balchunas threw a party to celebrate his return to the Philadelphia area. He bought a few foot-long hoagies and called the celebration "Wawapalooza." The name popped up again last year when his show hit the Fringe, and it's back this year for the sequel: Get Shorti. This year's 70-minute show is made up of eight seven-minute pieces — four stage sketches, three short films and two standup routines. Need more specific reasons to go? Sketches include a match.com spoof in which two guys try to create the perfect online profile; and a film dedicated to updating the classic song "Under the Boardwalk," drawing inspiration from New Jersey's own Wildwood.

 

 

Steve Weinik

Luna Theater Company's production of Line last season whetted appetites for under-appreciated American playwright Israel Horovitz, known more today for having fathered Beastie Boy Adam. Green Light Productions answers the call with the Philadelphia première of The Widow's Blind Date, a ménage à trois of sex, violence and humor (always a delicious combination). "Horowitz never tries to be politically correct," notes Greenlight Artistic Director Alex Dilks Pandola. "He gives an honest, unsanitized look into the lives of three very raw people." She's particularly moved by title character, Margie, played by Kirsten Quinn, who returns home after 20 years to confront two men from her past: "She's complex and determined, confused and focused, contained and raging — an amazing array of real emotion. She's one of the most honest women ever written."

 

 

Cory Frisco

Georg Büchner's creepy unfinished 1837 play has been turned into a cacophonous opera by 12-toner Alban Berg, a film by Werner Herzog, and many, many other things. Based on the true-ish story of a sensational 1820s murder trial, Woyzeck tells the story of a hapless German soldier who finances his ill-fated love affair and illegitimate child by allowing a local doctor to experiment on him. When Woyzeck's baby mama ditches him for a drum major, he loses it, with tragic results.

Philly's EgoPo joins a more-than-150-year-old tradition by attempting to bring this unfinished work to life, doing justice to its perverse genius. And there's probably nobody in Philadelphia more suited to the job: EgoPo is a repertory ensemble specializing in modernist and expressionist classics. When they relocated from New Orleans to Philly post-Katrina, some of the road-ready pieces they brought with them included their distinctive takes on Genet's The Maids, Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening and Beckett's Company, the last performed with the audience blindfolded and lying on their backs. As far as Woyzeck is concerned, the hook is the location; staged in the library of the German Society of Pennsylvania, the show will take full advantage of the musty 19th-century environs to create the look and feel of a Victorian medical experiment.

 

Crowded House
All The World's a Stage
Six Degrees of Pig Iron
Pop Shop
Have It Norway
What's My Line?
Along Came a Giant Spider
Of a Certain Age
Fest Bets (A-H)