13th Annual Philly Fringe Presents Biggest Line-up In Festival History; Festival Features 185 Artists

The 13th annual Philly Fringe, which runs in conjunction with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival from September 4 - 19, will host 185 artists during sixteen days of performances in over 80 venues throughout Philadelphia. The 2009 Festival is the largest Philly Fringe in Festival history, topping 2008’s record breaking number of artists. Showcasing the work of Festival veterans and first-time participants, the diverse line-up includes theater, dance, comedy, performance art, music, poetry, puppetry, visual art, and work that incorporates multiple genres and disciplines, offering audiences the excitement of discovering new work from the region’s vibrant performing arts community as well as artists from around the country.

“The Philly Fringe presents performance with a sort of anything goes ethos and an I’ll just do it myself attitude - that’s the essence of the Fringe,” says John Emory, Philly Fringe Coordinator. “Shows pop up in unexpected places, like where you get your hair cut or where you go to get a beer. The Festival is not just an opportunity to watch a show - it’s a chance to be a part of the show. Just walk down the street in early September and you know it’s happening all around you.”

The Philly Fringe is an “unfiltered” Festival, where new and established artists of all kinds may present their work, free of a selection process. For some, participating in the Festival is a once-a-year or once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a show; for the many professional companies participating, it can be an opportunity to work through new concepts and ideas and join the fray. Artists receive box office and marketing support, and additional support from the Fringe Coordinator. The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival features performances by international and local acclaimed contemporary dance and theater artists who are selected and invited to the Festival. Together, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe draw over 40,000 people who come to be a part of “Festival time” in the city, to see innovative work, meet new people, and interact with artists.

All Philly Fringe tickets, along with Live Arts Festival tickets, are now available for purchase online at www.livearts-fringe.org, or after August 24 by calling the Box Office at (215) 413-1318, or visiting in person. The Festival Box Office at The Hub is located at 626 North 5th Street (SW Corner of 5th and Fairmount Streets) in Northern Liberties and features free parking. For Box Office hours and additional ticketing information, visit www.livearts-fringe.org/box-office-ticket-info.cfm.

The 2009 Festival welcomes the great number of new and visiting artists presenting in the Philly Fringe. Kevin Thorton will travel from Nashville, TN to perform his one man show - a bold and racy rites-of-passage tale hailed as a “sexual and romantic odyssey” (EDGE Los Angeles), and New York based Japanese artist Mayumi Ishino will offer It's Not Me It's You, an interdisciplinary performance which challenges the romantic notion of self-portraits. The Berry & Nance Dance Project of Durham, NC returns to Philadelphia with Enlightenment, an African dance performance. Other artists traveling to Philadelphia include Art Riot Theatrical Company of Silver Spring, MD, Burvil Hoist of Newport, RI, and Choreographic Sketches of Detroit, MI, among others.

The Philly Fringe will also see the return of many local Festival favorites including Melanie Stewart Dance Theater, who will present the theater piece Who Will Carry The Word?, a survivor’s play about twenty women in Auschwitz. MSDT will also present Kill Me Now as part of the Live Arts Festival’s dance program.

Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental/Thaddeus Phillips (LSI), The company behind the ’07 Live Arts Festival hit Flamingo/Winnebago and ‘08’s THE MeLTING BRiDgE, will present two World premieres in the Fringe, including Microworld(s) Part #1, a solo theater work about a man in Tokyo, set within a 3' by 3’ by 8’ white box, powered entirely by renewable energy. With Digital Effects {performed with the fingers} LSI joins forces with celebrated magician and actor Steve Cuiffo to present a demonstration of deceitful cleverness using only two hands and a deck of cards. Both productions are also part of Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental’s Off the Grid, The company’s new eco-conscious Festival which will run concurrently with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe.

Several theater artists rising in Philadelphia’s performing arts community return to the Fringe including EgoPo Productions, who relocated to Philadelphia from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. EgoPo will Present Company, an interactive theatrical Samuel Beckett slumber party, which has played to sold-out audiences in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. IdRatherBeHere, The company behind the sold-out ‘07 and ’08 Fringe favorites Wawapalooza and Wawapalooza 2: Get Shorti, will offer the parody Wawapalooza 3: The Dark Roast. Additional 2009 Fringe theater artists include B. Someday Productions, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, Inis Nua Theatre Company, Iron Age Theatre, Tongue & Groove, Pink Hanger Presents, and Vagabond Acting Troupe among others.

Philly Fringe Festival dance highlights include Poof! by Pink Hair Affair, a magical world of dance where the rewards are enchanting and the dangers dark, and In Flux by Mascher Space Cooperative, featuring four new works by local dancers (TBA). Returning Fringe dance artists include Alchemy Dance Company, Annex Dance Company, Dance4Nia Repertory Ensemble, Indigenous Pitch, keila kordova dances, Music & Motion Dance, Pasion y Arte, Vada Dance Collective, and Xhale Dance Company.

Two interactive visual arts events will be offered including the Bike Part Art Show by Neighborhood Bike Works, which challenged over a hundred local artists to create new work inspired by bike parts and cycling, and Muralmorphosis, a continuously evolving sequence of images which will be drawn and painted live at 2nd and Race Streets throughout the festival in a project presented by the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program in collaboration with Sean Stoops.

A popular destination for improvisational theater, stand-up and sketch comedy, the Philly Fringe will include comedy and improv from groups such as The N Crowd, Rare Bird Show, The Waitstaff Sketch Comedy Troupe, The Sixth Borough, and Philly Improv Theater, who will present the 24 Hour Improv Marathon: Dazed and Amused featuring Festival favorite Karen Getz (Disco Descending ’08, Suburban Love Songs ’06 Live Arts Festival).

The Fringe will also showcase many other performing arts disciplines including music from Center City Opera Theater, PLP TheUnity (Peace, Love & Power) and Xtreme Folk Scene, with interdisciplinary work from New Philadelphia Poets, Philadelphia Capoeira Arts Center and Scribe Video Center, among others.

To celebrate “Festival Time” in the city, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe will also host the 2nd annual Fringe Festival Preview Series (in conjuction with The Plays and Players’ OnStage Philadelphia series) in August, and the afterhours Festival Bar during the Festival run. OnStage Philadelphia’s Fringe Festival Preview Series will feature a collection of sneak-peak performances from a wide variety of this year’s Fringe artists, offering audiences a behind-the-scenes look inside over 20 upcoming Fringe productions and the opportunity to meet and discover new artists. On Monday, August 17, the Festival will present the first installment of the series held at Plays & Players (1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia). Additional preview events will take place on August 24 and 31. All preview events will be held beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 and are available from Plays & Players online at www.playsandplayers.org or by calling (215) 735-0630.

A unique experiential venue which premiered at the 2008 Festival, the Festival Bar serves as a versatile space for Festival goers to interact with artists, socialize with one another, grab a cocktail and enjoy delicious food, music and more at the end of each Festival day. Located again within The Warehouse at 626 North 5th Street (SW Corner of 5th and Fairmount Streets) in Northern Liberties, now known as The Festival Hub, the Festival Bar will this year be joined by the on-site Festival Box Office and the Festival Theater. Festival Bar admission is free and 21+. The Hub features free on-site parking.

The Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival runs from September 4 - 19, 2009. Tickets for most shows cost between $10 and $30. Some shows are free. Ticket buyers who purchase tickets to multiple shows can save 20% when they buy tickets to 2 or more shows. Students and Festival goers 25 and younger pay $15 for Live Arts Festival tickets and receive $5 off Philly Fringe tickets which are priced above $15.

All Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe tickets are available for purchase now at www.livearts-fringe.org, or after August 24, 2009 by calling the Box Office at (215) 413-1318, or visiting in person. The 2009 Festival Box Office will be located at The Festival Hub at 626 North 5th Street (SW Corner of 5th and Fairmount Streets) in Northern Liberties. The Hub will also be home to the Festival Bar, and Festival Theater, and feature free on-site parking.