Prarthana Jayaram is a Philly-based writer and regular Festival Blog contributor. She talked to Rich Kirk, the chairman of the board for the Cavalry United Methodist Church. The West Philly church, located at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, hosts the Cavalry Center for Culture and Community, which in turn hosts Curio Theatre Company and Crossroads… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Music
The Beat on Brat
“I lost the best actress award to Lynn Redgrave, which is awesome!” says Madi Distefano, of her 2004 Barrymore Award nomination for Popsicle’s Departure, 1989. That show was also nominated for outstanding new play at that year’s Barrymores, but got even greater plaudits when it moved to the Edinburgh Fringe: best solo show. Madi, the… Read more »
Crossing Boundaries
Prarthana Jayaram is a Philly-based writer and regular Festival Blog contributor. “Limitations in our minds are connected to those in our bodies,” says Michal Waldfogel, a Philadelphia native and local musician. These self-imposed limitations are the subject of her new Fringe show, Crossing Imaginary Lines, in which she combines yogic practices with music to engage… Read more »
Ricky Lake Jackson Needs to Get Back Home
Most of my exposure to so-called Southern Rock has been through either the biker part of my family (no joke, despite, or is it because of? my family origins in northwest Pennsylvania), Midwestern friends who played such things during drunken nights in college in a nostalgia for a time that never was and that they… Read more »
Late Night Fringe-ing: Where The Wild Things Are
Wolf-suited Max, from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, is sent to his bedroom for mischievous behavior; little does his mother know that the real mischief begins at a boy’s exile post. As the moon rises outside his window, so does Max’s threshold for indoor foliage: his nightstand becomes a bush, and trees grow… Read more »
“The Middle of the Alphabet”: A Conversation with BodyFields Performance Collective
Briel Driscoll wears her hair parted down the middle, in two small buns behind and below her ears; it’s playful, I think. She shifts on the tufted cushion of a faux-Victorian couch to face Nikki Roberts, co-collaborator of movement group BodyFields Performance Collective whose Experiencing people as really kind of huge is part of this… Read more »
This Is a Photo of Ricky Lake Jackson Flirting with My Daughter
Much as I like this job, once in a while, it has a creepy pitfalls. Luckily, Ricky Lake is not Wee Zee’s type. Ricky Lake is stranded here in Philly with his band Jawbone Junction, and you can help send him back whence he came at the 2012 Philly Fringe. Jawbone Junction: Live at the… Read more »
Philly Fringe Vital Stats: David Orlansky, Joshua Levin, and Zachary Kind (BetaMale Productions)
A betamale is an underdog of sorts. At least when it comes to women (or men): seducing them, dating them, and avoiding being rejected by them are all difficult tasks for the betamale to master, or manage to do one time. Luckily, a betamale has the arts (and computer science), and this is a field… Read more »
Jawbone Junction Needs Your Help!
Jawbone Junction definitely, definitely needs help. Jawbone Junction: Live at the Twisted Tail runs September 9, 16, and 23 at the Twisted Tail, 509 S. 2nd Street, Society Hill. –Nicholas Gilewicz
Call Me Crazy Dancers’ John Curtis On Music, Tap Dance, And Being Married To Your Co-Director
“The creative process for our show begins with the music,” wrote singer, dancer, choreographer, and NYC resident John Curtis, when we exchanged e-mails this past week. John is co-directing Call Me Crazy Dancers’ 2012 Philly Fringe submit Day for a Dream; a version of the show (titled Daydreams) is coming off a run at the… Read more »
Umer Piracha, Straddling Pakistan and Philadelphia
Prarthana Jayaram is a Philly-based writer and regular Festival Blog contributor. “The way people connect with art and music is the same everywhere,” West Philly musician Umer Piracha observes. Umer’s music is concerned with the nature of things: “It’s about accepting the world as it is and being on a journey of exploration,” he says…. Read more »
Weekender: What You’re Doing And Why
The holy writ has been revealed by the proverbial prophets, angels, and nagas! That is, the 2012 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival + Philly Fringe Guide is out ‘n about: TONIGHT, grab a guide inside the Arden Theatre Company (40 North 2nd Street) from 5pm to 8pm. COME AND GET IT (re: Badfinger below). You can… Read more »
Philly Fringe Vital Stats: Melissa Nally and Andrew Hanley
Melissa Nally, 24, and Andrew Hanley, 23, of Green Elephant Theatre Co. premiered their musical adaptation of Orpheus & Eurydice at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Now they’re bringing the (brotherly) love to Philly Fringe, and not looking back; take note ill-fated (and now, melodious) Orpheus. Name: Melissa Nally and Andrew Hanley. Show Title: Orpheus… Read more »
I Like America and America Likes Me: A Meditation on Performance and Violence
“When you’ve begun to think like a gun / the days of the year are already gone.” —John Cale, “Gun” “John Kennedy shot John Wilkes Booth in the heart. Booth went to a farm bleeding. He ate a live cow. Kennedy found him and shot him with Kotex. He shot him in the Goddamn fucking… Read more »
The Weekender: What You’re Doing and Why
Late Friday edition! Me, I’m recovering from a week of running all over town and talking to artists. OK, and one night of staying up too late with a crew of people listening to the worst songs we could remember on YouTube. Did you ever hear the David Lee Roth bluegrass version of “Jump”? No?… Read more »
