The Live Arts & Philly Fringe Festival in U. City
Posted by Samantha Lazar on September 13, 2009
It’s early September, which means the Live Arts & Philly Fringe Festival is in full swing! Every year the festival inundates the city with two weeks of experimental and edgy performances spread across the whole metropolitan area. Luckily, many of the shows are happening at venues throughout West Philly.
I was lucky enough to catch the Live Arts experimental dance/performance art piece “STORE” this past weekend. A world premiere, it was the third and final piece of the “American Spaces Trilogy,” following on the heels of past years’ fringe productions “HOUSE” and “CAR.” An interdisciplinary performance company, Kate Watson-Wallace/Anonymous Bodies, took over the former Rite Aid on 42nd and Walnut and turned the empty store into an overwhelmingly surreal space full of clothes scattered everywhere, television screens, thudding and sputtering speakers, and video projections. As the audience settled into their seats, colorful hooded figures slowly began rising from the morass and moving rhythmically. The dancers pranced and gyrated, conveying messages of over-consumption, pointless spending, and drone-like obedience. The piece was an hour-long fantasia of consumerism, media, and sensory saturation, punctuated by frequent spastic seizures on the part of the dancers. There was also lots of audience interaction, as there is in many festival shows – at one point a performer pranced over to me, plopped herself down in my lap, and proceeded to pat my friend in the face!
If you weren’t able to catch “STORE” during its short run, don’t despair! There are many more awesome shows going up. I’m most looking forward to “El Duelo,” a Flamenco performance staged in the mansion at The Woodlands, and “Small Metal Objects,” which will be performed on the field at 40th and Locust. The latter is being presented by the Australian company “Back to Back Theatre,” which is composed entirely of people with disabilities. The audience will be seated in silence on risers in the middle of the field and equipped with headphones. The performers will slowly emerge out of the midst of unsuspecting passersby, and the audience’s ears will be privy to the plot as it unfolds. I’m also psyched for “Missed Connections: A Craigslist Fantasia”, and “Ubu Roi,” Alfred Jarry’s absurdist masterpiece. These two performances are going up at Curio Theatre’s Calvary Center at 48th and Baltimore. Check out the Live Arts & Philly Fringe Festival’s website for show times, tickets, and more info on these shows as well as all the other festival performances going up west of the Schuylkill and around the whole city. Fringe time comes but once a year!
Live Arts & Philly Fringe Festival
http://www.livearts-fringe.org/
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