at a glance 2010 Philadelphia September 3 – 18 Live Arts Festival livearts-fringe.org

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Festival Board Richard Vague, President / Jennifer Bohnenberger, Vice President / Robert E. Williams, CPA, Treasurer Tom Lussenhop, Secretary / Conrad Bender / Gabe Canuso / Tony Forte / David Grasso / Lenny Haas Gail M. Harrity / Liza Herzog / Kevin Kleinschmidt / Bernadine J. Munley / Rebecca Quinn-Wolf Peter C. Rothberg / Stephen Starr / Holly Stichka / Nick Stuccio / Audrey Claire Taichman Marty Tuzman / Paul Wright / Lisa P. Young

Producers Circle Tom and Carol Beam / Sandy Betner and Marc Chaikin / Robert M. Dever / Tobey and Mark Dichter Elizabeth H. Gemmill / David and Linda Glickstein / Joe and Jane Goldblum / Christie Hartwell Al and Nancy Hirsig / Harvey and Virginia Kimmel / Josephine Klein / Joseph H. Kluger and Susan E. Lewis Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest / Sissie and Herb Lipton / Thomas M. Miles / Beth and Barry Mitchell Elizabeth Anne O’Donnell / Anne S. Ravert, J.D. / David Seltzer and Lisa Roberts / Andy and Bryna Scott Carol Klein and Larry Spitz / Lynne and Bert Strieb / Malin VanAntwerp / Anne and Ed Wagner

16

days

of nonstop

wild creativity and

daring

performances

2010 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival

Tickets are on sale now at www.livearts-fringe.org Live Arts Tickets are $25–$30 Student and 25-and-under tickets: $15 / Buy tickets to two or more shows and save 20%. / The All-Access Pass ($325 for a one-person pass, or $650 for a two-person pass) grants admission to every Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe show. / Groups of 10+ save 25%. Contact dan@livearts-fringe.org for group orders. Contact molly@livearts-fringe.org for student group orders. / Discounts cannot be combined. / Tickets for each performance are on sale at the Box Office until two hours before show time. Remaining tickets are sold at the venue (cash only), beginning 30 minutes before show time. / Web and phone orders may be picked up until two hours before show time at the Box Office, or starting 30 minutes before show time at the venue.

Box Office at The Hub, SW corner of 5th Street + Fairmount Avenue in Northern Liberties (free onsite parking) Phone: 215.413.1318 Pre-Festival Hours: Aug 23–Sept 2: 1pm–7pm Festival Hours: Sun–Thu: 12pm–9pm Fri–Sat: 11am–9pm Sept 6 (Labor Day): 12pm–7pm

Festival Membership Your membership in the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe puts you at the center of the city’s greatest— and most adventurous—cultural event. Your participation ensures that the Festival continues to foster the best in contemporary performing arts. Visit liveartsfringe.org/membership to choose your membership level.

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe does not offer exchanges or refunds on ticket purchases. For complete Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe information, pick up a Festival Guide or visit www.livearts-fringe.org.

Photo: Nathaniel Tileston

6 Dance

24 Romeo and Juliet

Lucinda Childs 8

Sanctuary Brian Sanders’ JUNK

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Cankerblossom Pig Iron Theatre Company

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FREEDOM CLUB New Paradise Laboratories & The Riot Group

14 CHICKEN Charlotte Ford

Nature Theater of Oklahoma 26 Bang on a Can Marathon: Philadelphia 28

Jérôme Bel 30 8 eight choreographers / eight new works 32

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Heidi Rodewald 34 Decadere BoánDanz Action Company

First Love by Samuel Beckett Gare St Lazare Players Ireland

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20 Release Vijay Iyer and Bill Morrison 22

¡EL CONQUISTADOR! Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental

Stew and The Negro Problem with

16 TAKES Nichole Canuso Dance Company

Cédric Andrieux

 he Sun Also Rises T Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway Elevator Repair Service

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Journey to the West: Reinterpreting Tradition Series Danny Yung

Dance Lucinda Childs Sol LeWitt, film; Philip Glass, music Three masters of minimalism—choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer Philip Glass, and conceptual artist Sol LeWitt—collaborated to construct this seminal work of dance, one of the purest examples of interdisciplinary art-making ever created. An exploration of musical movement, rhythm, and harmony, Dance is a bold statement on the nature of movement. 

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“Dance . . . conveys the elemental desire to move to music, to dance.” The New York Times

Photo: Nathaniel Tileston

The Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts 300 South Broad Street (at Spruce) Wheelchair accessible Sept 10 + 11 at 8pm Sept 12 at 3pm 60 minutes The reconstruction of Dance was commissioned by the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, with additional support from The Yard, a colony for performing artists on Martha’s Vineyard, Wendy Taucher, artistic director.



Dance by Lucinda Childs was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Dance Initiative, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts. The presentation of Lucinda Childs’s Dance in the 2010 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.

Tickets to Dance must be purchased at www.kimmelcenter.org, 215.839.1999, or in person at the Kimmel Center box office, unless you are purchasing tickets to Dance and other Live Arts shows simultaneously. See Festival Guide or website for Dancerelated film screenings, panel discussions, and master class.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

Sanctuary Brian Sanders’ JUNK This is where the lost take charge. Take a wall fourteen feet high and one hundred and twenty feet long and make it into a stage. Celebrated choreographer and Festival favorite Brian Sanders brings an exquisitely choreographed mix of danger, force, and beauty to this wide visual expanse. Sanctuary is an exploration of intense movement, ritual, and mistaken assumptions about the past. Dancers include Sanders, Gunnar Clark, Greg Holt, Amanda Lenox, John Luna, Shadou Mintrone, Sinéad O’Neill, Connor Senning, Dujuan Smart III, and Billy Robinson.



Previous Live Arts Festival shows: Urban Scuba (2009), Patio Plastico (2005), AdShock (2004), and many others! This performance may include nudity.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

Photo: Steve Belkowitz

Theater East at The Hub SW Corner of 5th Street + Fairmount Avenue Wheelchair accessible Free onsite parking Sept 3 at 9pm Sept 4 at 4pm Sept 5 + 9 at 7pm Sept 10 at 9pm Sept 11 + 12 at 4pm Sept 16 at 9pm Sept 17 at 7pm Sept 18 at 9pm 45 minutes

World Premiere!

“The dancers don’t simply defy gravity; they challenge the very construct.” Andrew Parks, Philadelphia City Paper “Somehow history got a little mixed up.” Brian Sanders, choreographer of Sanctuary 

“Sometimes Pig Iron’s work is meant to be challenging. Sometimes it’s pure pleasure. This one is gonna be pure pleasure.” Dan Rothenberg, director of Cankerblossom “Inventive staging and sublime displays of whimsy.” The New York Times

Cankerblossom Pig Iron Theatre Company Welcome to a dark fairy tale for kids aged 9 to 90. Pig Iron has teamed up with cartoonist and pioneering puppeteer Beth Nixon, whose fantastical cardboard creations work alongside stop motion animation, live music, and the ensemble’s signature physical style to create a shadowy fairytale land called Flat World—a planar landscape populated by characters whimsical, sinister, and as flat as pancakes. With Hinako Arao, Beth Nixon, David Sweeny, and Alex Torra. 10

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

World Premiere!

Photo: Kevin Monko

Christ Church Neighborhood House* 20 North American Street (by 2nd + Market Streets) Wheelchair accessible Sept 1–3 at 7pm ($20 previews) Sept 4 at 7pm (opening) Sept 5 at 3pm + 6pm Sept 8 + 9 at 7pm Sept 10 at 8pm Sept 11 at noon + 8pm Sept 12 at 3pm + 6pm Sept 14–16 at 7pm Sept 17 at 6pm + 9pm Sept 18 at 4pm + 8pm 80 minutes

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*Now with airconditioning and elevator access. Previous Live Arts Festival shows: Welcome to Yuba City (2009), Isabella (2007), Pay up (2005), and many more!

by the Charlotte Cushman Foundation. Cankerblossom was originally workshopped in a residency at La Jolla Playhouse.

Cankerblossom has been developed with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes a great nation deserves great art; by the William Penn Foundation; and Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

FREEDOM CLUB New Paradise Laboratories & The Riot Group A deliriously savage comedy about American extremism, FREEDOM CLUB moves from a dream-play involving Abraham Lincoln and assassin John Wilkes Booth to Virginia, 2012, where a dissolving band of wannabe extremists tries to get more radical. The Riot Group, known for their potent barrage of language, and New Paradise Laboratories, famous for their physicality, collaborated to create this lyrical and provocative work. Written by Adriano Shaplin and directed by Whit MacLaughlin, the play features Drew Friedman, McKenna Kerrigan*, Jeb Kreager*, Mary McCool*, Paul Schnabel, Adriano Shaplin, and Stephanie Viola. *Appearance courtesy of Actors Equity Association. Arts Bank at The University of the Arts 601 South Broad Street (at South Street) Wheelchair accessible Sept 1 + 2 at 7pm ($20 preview) Sept 3 at 10pm Sept 4 + 5 at 3pm + 7pm Sept 8 + 9 at 7pm Sept 10 at 7pm + 10pm Sept 11 at 2pm 80 minutes

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FREEDOM CLUB is made possible with the support of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Previous New Paradise Laboratories Live Arts Festival shows: FATEBOOK (2009), BATCH (2007), and Don Juan in Nirvana (2004). Previous Riot Group Live Arts Festival show: Hearts of Man (2007).

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“New Paradise Laboratories is a wild, sensory, erotic experience. Astonishingly acrobatic. Mind-bending. Fearless.” The Louisville Courier-Journal

Illustration: Emory MacLaughlin

“It felt right to tell a story about little groups of extremists, little tyrants.” Adriano Shaplin, writer of FREEDOM CLUB

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World Premiere!

World Premiere!

“Funny and startling and thought-provoking and just plain weird.” Toby Zinman, The Philadelphia Inquirer “I like it when people act really serious about calling each other stupid things.” Charlotte Ford, creator of CHICKEN

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CHICKEN Charlotte Ford Deep beneath the icy swells, a nuclear powered submarine carries three morons in charge of a highly classified mission. A buzz-cut she-beast, a Casper Milquetoast somnambulist cross-dresser, and a passiveaggressive Elvis devotee share bunk beds, safety goggles, and poopie suits. CHICKEN is an expressionistic clown play that magnifies our most intimate fears into coliseum-sized spectacles: molehills become mountains, kitchen sink drama becomes gladiatorial bloodbath. With Charlotte Ford, Mikaal Sulaiman, and Jay Dunn.

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Photo: Jay Dunn

Live Arts Studio 919 N 5th Street (at Poplar) Wheelchair accessible Free onsite parking Sept 3 + 4 at 7pm + 11pm Sept 5 at 3pm + 7pm Sept 6 at 4pm Previous Live Arts Festival shows: Flesh and Blood and Fish and Fowl (2008) and as a creator/ performer in Welcome to Yuba City (2009).

CHICKEN was funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, an Independence Foundation fellowship, and with support from the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival as part of the Live Arts Brewery Fellowship Program.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

TAKES Nichole Canuso Dance Company Enter a genre-bending exploration of dance, video installation, and film and experience the full intensity of how remembered moments live within us. In a large cube wrapped in semi-transparent screens, two people (Canuso and Dito Van Reigersberg) dance fragments of their lives. Captured by video, the two reappear on the screens in large black-and-white films. At turns hypnotic, visceral, and intimate, TAKES creates multiple layers of visual movement between the live performers and their projected selves. By day, visit the TAKES performance space and follow instructions spoken through an iPod to perform your own show within the cube. Theater West at The Hub SW Corner of 5th Street + Fairmount Avenue Wheelchair accessible Free onsite parking Sept 3 at 7pm Sept 4 at 9pm Sept 5 at 4pm Sept 7 + 8 + 10 at 7pm Sept 11 + 17 at 9pm Sept 18 at 4pm + 7pm This performance includes nudity.

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Previous Live Arts Festival shows: Wandering Alice (NCDC, 2008) and Autopilot (Lars Jan, 2006). The creation and development of TAKES is made possible in part by a grant from The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through Dance Advance, by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal

agency, a residency at The Maggie Allessee National Center for Choreography (MANCC), The Swarthmore Project (Theater), Amherst College, and with support from the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival as part of the Live Arts Brewery Fellowship Program.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“A gifted choreographer who makes dancing seem inherently meaningful, social, and compelling.” The Dance Insider

World Premiere!

“We are inviting the audience to navigate the gallery-like space, absorb the cinematic images, and experience the live unfolding of the dance in real time.” Nichole Canuso, choreographer of TAKES

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Photo: Lars Jan

“Conor Lovett’s supremely funny performance in First Love . . . is such a pleasing triumph because its gallows humor emerges so organically.” Jason Zinoman, The New York Times “A lot of people, I think, try to understand Beckett’s meaning. I think it’s better to just read it or listen to it or watch it and let it wash over you.” Conor Lovett, performer of First Love

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First Love by Samuel Beckett Gare St Lazare Players Ireland A young man, expelled from the family home, takes refuge on a bench by a canal. There he meets a woman who takes him home. She is his first— perhaps only—love and a major hindrance to his desire to rid himself of contact with others. Under the direction of Judy Hegarty Lovett, Conor Lovett’s solo performance of Samuel Beckett’s novella First Love is a masterpiece of tragicomedy, featuring the bone-dry humor of a character who says terrible things in a beautiful way and beautiful things in a terrible way.

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Photo: Ros Kavanaugh

480 South Broad Street (at Lombard) Wheelchair accessible Sept 3 + 4 at 8pm Sept 5 at 3pm + 7pm 80 minutes

First Love was created with funding from The Arts Council of Ireland. International touring is supported by Culture Ireland.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“Pianist Vijay Iyer[’s] keyboard prowess and epic vision place him in a category by himself among jazz soloists.” Chicago Tribune

Release Vijay Iyer and Bill Morrison A co-presentation with Eastern State Penitentiary Jazz composer and pianist Vijay Iyer will play a concert in the octagonal observatory room of Eastern State Penitentiary, where the art installation Release plays next to Al Capone’s old cell. Created by filmmaker Bill Morrison from archival footage from the day of Capone’s “release” from the prison, the film is scored by Iyer.

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Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

Image: Bill Morrison

As a separate event, Morrison’s film Decasia will be screened in one of the Penitentiary’s cellblock corridors. The celebrated avant-garde film was created from old film stock warped by decay. Features a score by Michael Gordon of Bang on a Can. Decasia screening Sept 10 at 8pm 70 minutes Vijay Iyer concert Sept 11 at 8pm 70 minutes Wheelchair accessible Ongoing exhibit open Daily 10am–5pm

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Release has been funded by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Berwind Fund, Carole Haas Gavagno, and The Barra Foundation.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

¡EL CONQUISTADOR! Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental Shot and developed in Bogotá, ¡EL CONQUISTADOR! is a hilarious and ingenious mash of live theater and film. Thaddeus Phillips portrays Polonio, a doorman whose peaceful days spent conjuring up his make-believe telenovela stardom become ensnared in the nefarious plots of the building’s residents. With video-only residents portrayed by actual Latin American telenovela stars (including the famed Víctor Mallarino), there are beautiful women, dangerous criminals, illicit love affairs, long lost twins, and fate in the form of a frying pan.

480 South Broad Street (at Lombard) Wheelchair accessible Sept. 8–10 at 7pm Sept 11 at 3pm + 7pm 80 minutes

¡EL CONQUISTADOR! is performed in Spanish with English supertitles. ¡El Conquistador! was co-produced by Ysarca Arts Promotions (Spain) & New York Theatre Workshop in collaboration with Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental. Initial funding was

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provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative and the Jim Henson Foundation. Previous Live Arts Festival shows: The MeLTING BRiDgE (2008) and Flamingo/ Winnebago (2007).

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“An ingenious one-act, one-man show about a hapless Colombian doorman who is hooked on a telenovela and talks to his potted plant.” Anita Gates, The New York Times

Photo: Melibea Garavito

“The story is a mix of Hamlet and the latest Latin American soap opera.” Thaddeus Phillips, creator of ¡EL CONQUISTADOR!

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“Expect to be in floods of teary laughter midway through.” Charles Isherwood, The New York Times “It’s a story everyone THINKS they know, until they get started telling it and then all hell breaks loose really.” Kelly Copper, co-creator of Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet Nature Theater of Oklahoma

Hello. Can you tell me the story of Romeo and Juliet? A series of phone calls were placed to people who were asked to tell the story of Romeo and Juliet. Far from recounting the identical story, the participants wound up creating scenes and characters that never existed in the original. Using only the words of their responders, Nature Theater of Oklahoma has staged their own Romeo and Juliet, a wild theatrical foray into the nature of how and why we tell stories. 24

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

Photo: Nature Theater of Oklahoma

Plays and Players Theater 1714 Delancey Place Wheelchair accessible Sept 8 + 9 at 7pm Sept 10 + 11 at 8pm 95 minutes Previous Live Arts Festival show: No Dice (2007).

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Romeo and Juliet is a production of Internationales Sommerfestival/ Kampnagel Hamburg, Salzburger Festspiele in co-production with Kaaitheater Brussels/ Workspace Brussels/ Buda Kunstcentrum, Noorderzon Festival/ Grand Theatre Groningen, and the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“The country’s most provocative and consistently entertaining new-music event” The Village Voice “New music is in the business of refreshing the world.” David Lang of Bang on a Can

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Bang on a Can Marathon: Philadelphia Ten hours of nonstop music. Buy one ticket and come and go all day long to this super-mix of music by today’s most adventurous players and composers from around the globe—and around the corner. As artistically inclusive as it is audiencefriendly, the Marathon is a wild gathering of genres, styles, innovation, and radically new sounds, delivered as one open mega-concert. Music by Louis Andriessen, Björk, Goran Bregovic, David Byrne and Annie Clark, Uri Caine, Michael Gordon, Annie Gosfield, Pelle GudmundsenHolmgreen, Kamran Ince, David Lang, Paul Lansky, Thomas Mapfumo, Meshuggah, Charles Mingus, Thurston Moore, Yoko Ono, Tarik O’Regan, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, Stew and Heidi Rodewald, Frank Zappa, Evan Ziporyn, and more. Performances by Asphalt Orchestra, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Uri Caine, The Crossing, Free Form Funky Freqs (Vernon Reid, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Calvin Weston), Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Matmos, Normal Love, Signal, So Percussion, Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra, Sun Ra Arkestra, and more. World Café Live 3025 Walnut Street Wheelchair accessible Sept 12 ongoing 2pm–midnight

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The presentation of the Bang on a Can Marathon: Philadelphia is funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“Bel’s work is genuine . . . exciting, smart, and great, great fun.” Dance Europe

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Photo: Jaime Roque de la Cruz

“It is like a documentary about a dancer’s life—a worker, like all of us in the audience.” Jérôme Bel, director of Cédric Andrieux

Cédric Andrieux Jérôme Bel Whether you’ve danced professionally, taken a dance class, or frankly worked any job in your life, you can’t help but empathize with the gloriously unglamorous details of the everyday existence of a dancer. In Cédric Andrieux, a touching and humorous examination of the life of a dancer, Cédric himself narrates and dances his way through his career from training to stage. With excerpts from Trisha Brown’s Newark, Merce Cunningham’s Biped and Suite for 5, Philippe Tréhet’s Nuit Fragile, and Jérôme Bel’s The show must go on.

480 South Broad Street (at Lombard) Wheelchair accessible Sept 14–16 at 7pm 75 minutes Previous Live Arts Festival shows: Pichet Klunchun and myself (2008) and The show must go on (2008).

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Cédric Andrieux is produced by Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Festival d’Automne (Paris), and R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris). This work is supported by Centre National de la Danse (Paris), La Ménagerie de Verre (Paris), and Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York). With thanks to Thérèse Barbanel, Trevor Carlson, and Yorgos Loukos. R.B Jérôme Bel is supported by the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles d’Ile-deFrance, French Ministry for Culture

and Communication, and by Cultures France, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, for its international tours. Funded in part by FUSED: French-U.S. Exchange in Dance, a program of the National Dance Project/ New England Foundation for the Arts and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York with lead funding from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the French American Cultural Exchange and the Florence Gould Foundation.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

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Photos: Kevin Monko

World Premiere!

8 eight choreographers / eight new works Experience the ultimate dance-sampler of what’s new and bold. Eight rising Philly choreographers have been commissioned to stage eight major new works for the Festival: Megan Mazarick, Meg Foley, Olive Prince, Shavon Norris, Daniele Strawmyre, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Jumatatu Poe, and Eun Jung Choi. Come see their creations.

Program A Neon Gothic (Megan Mazarick) Match vs. Match (Meg Foley) Sept 7 + 8 at 8pm Program B I desire (Olive Prince) the body in lines (Shavon Norris) Sept 9 at 8pm + Sept 12 at 3pm

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Program C Kaidan (Daniele Strawmyre) Or Maybe My Mother was an American Chameleon? (Jaamil Olawale Kosoko) Sept 10 at 8pm + Sept 11 at 3pm Some performances may include nudity.

Program D Unstuck (Jumatatu Poe) All My Socks Have Holes (Eun Jung Choi) Sept 11 + 12 at 8pm Live Arts Studio 919 North 5th Street (at Poplar) Wheelchair accessible Free onsite parking 60 minutes

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“Stew’s endlessly inventive music draws on rock, gospel, soul and blues. . . . A winning tribute to the diversity of the black musical experience.” Hollywood Reporter “We offer a blend of storytelling songwriting with an unexpected sense of improvisation that makes every show its own thing.” Stew, performer and co-songwriter

Stew and The Negro Problem with Heidi Rodewald Happy to be back on the live concert stage, Stew and Heidi Rodewald and their band will be dishing out numbers from their Broadway rock musical Passing Strange (which earned Stew a 2008 Tony Award for “Best Book of a Musical”), debuting songs from their upcoming collaboration Brooklyn Omnibus, and performing selections from The 32

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

Photo: Nick Suttle

Negro Problem’s repertoire. Best described as an Afro-Baroque cabaret ensemble, the group is coveted for their literate precision, sly humor, and deep emotional resonance, hovering between the divergent worlds of rock and theater. World CafÊ Live 3025 Walnut Street Wheelchair accessible Sept 13 at 8pm 60 minutes

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Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

Decadere BoánDanz Action Company It’s an abandoned place, where abandoned people meet. They are trying to recreate the routines of their former lives—their work, their culture, their food, their speech, their dancing. Mixing contemporary dance, salsa, disco, Beethoven, pedestrian actions, masks, real-time video, real-time processed sound, speech, and pop music from Latin America and the US, Decadere takes its dancers (Bethany Formica and Scott McPheeters with Colombian dancers Carolina del Hierro and Marcelo Rueda) through a whirlwind interdisciplinary performance. Live Arts Studio 919 North 5th Street (at Poplar) Wheelchair accessible Free onsite parking Sept 15–18 at 8pm 60 minutes

Decadere is supported by grants from the Independence Foundation and The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.

Previous Live Arts Festival show: Voyeur (2007).

This show includes nudity.

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Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

“I am fascinated by the ways our bodies are pushed by ideology and push back, by the spaces in between the rules and off the grid, where bodies come together, settle, and sometimes dance.” Marianela Boán, creator of Decadere

Photo: Marianela Boán

“The Cuban-born veteran choreographer of international stature combines wit, craft, and serious techno-smarts.” Lisa Kraus, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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“Elevator Repair Service works with intelligence and imagination.” Variety

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Photo: Alex McKnight

“When we read The Sun Also Rises, I was struck by the humor and rhythm of the dialogue. That pleasure I got from hearing this dialogue aloud was what inspired me.” John Collins, director of The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway Elevator Repair Service Acclaimed New York ensemble Elevator Repair Service transforms Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises into a full theatrical production using only the novel’s words. A stage littered with wine bottles seamlessly changes from the bistros of Paris to the banks of the Irati River; a bar table roars to life and charges a champion matador; an out of control dance party takes off during a night of nonstop revelry. Festival audiences were thrilled with 2007’s Gatz, and the company’s stage interpretations of classic American novels have garnered critical praise around the world. Arts Bank at The University of the Arts 601 South Broad Street (at South Street) Wheelchair accessible Sept 15–17 at 7pm Sept 18 at 3pm 195 minutes (including intermission)

The Sun Also Rises, a co-production with ERS and New York Theatre Workshop, was commissioned by the Ringling International

Arts Festival, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL in association with the Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY. This presentation was co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival with support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. Additional support for the development of this production granted from ArtsEmerson: the World on Stage, Boston, Massachusetts.

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Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

Previous Live Arts Festival show: Gatz (2007).

Journey to the West: Reinterpreting Tradition Series Danny Yung

480 South Broad Street (at Lombard) Wheelchair accessible Sept 13 at 6pm Sept 17 at 8pm Sept 18 at 3pm 65 minutes Each show is a distinct program. See the Festival Guide and livearts-fringe.org for details.

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Journey to the West was made possible with support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance. Zuni Icosahedron is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Tickets: livearts-fringe.org + 215.413.1318

Photo of Tears of Barren Hill: Zuni Icosahedron

From China’s preeminent experimental theater artist Danny Yung come three ruminations on the experiences of significant Chinese opera artists who have traveled to the West. It is an investigation of where the ultra-traditional and avant-garde meet, national art forms journey to new lands, and the boundaries of culture become blurred. Each program mixes conversation, video, and live demonstration by performer Shangping Xiao, who has trained in traditional Chinese Kun and Beijing Opera performance methods.

“From one culture to another, from one discipline to another, from one school to another, from one stage to another, I learn joyfully via traveling.� Danny Yung, creator of Journey to the West

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Cover and back cover photo: Herman Sorgeloos

For complete Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe information, pick up a Festival Guide or visit www.livearts-fringe.org.