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The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe is just days away, and we want to make sure you’re fully prepared for the 16 days of festival madness.

As always, we’ll be helping you out with a series of guides to events, plus spotlights on some of our favorites, to assist you in choosing what to attend.

First up was our guide to free events. Now check out our roundup of family-friendly Fringe shows, in date order:

• Zon-Mai: September 2-17, Former Pumping Station, 140 M. Columbus Boulevard. Opposite the Race Street Pier, inside a former pumping station, is a house of screens 20 feet high and wide. You walk around looking at films of dancers performing in their homes, from bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, furniture, by their windows and more, playing with notions of what home life means to them.

• Run Grunt Sing: An Open Air Theatric: September 2-11, Liberty Lands Park, 913-61 N. 3rd Street. A commedia show that offers daring feats of comedy in fantastical masks at breakneck speed, set to stompin’ live music in three languages, this show takes place ouside at Northern Liberties’ Liberty Lands Park. It’s suitable for all ages, excellent for picnic-bringing and free!

• Elephant Room: September 2-17, Plays and Players Theater, 1714 Delancey Place. Three world-class semi-pro conjurors Dennis Diamond, Daryl Hannah and Louie Magic take you on a journey you never even knew existed. Prepare to be confounded, amaze; but only if you’re 10 years old or older.

• Red Rovers: September 2-10, Live Arts Studio, 919 N. 5th Street. Headlong Dance Theater and Chris Doyle present the Jet Propulsion Laboratories 2011 Rover Driver Conference! You’ll need to don a name tag and get ready for action. The show combines dance, silent film, art installations and more, with plotlines including sending a text 19,000,000 miles and robotic explorers. It’s wacky; perfect for kids.

More, below.

• All Places From Here: September 2-17, Loading Dock, 1236 Frankford Avenue. Bright Light Theatre Company brings to life the work of Mohsin Mohi-Uh-Din’s Lollipops Crown Youth Arts Initiative. Meet the extraordinary children of Tangier, Morocco, as they share their stories, dreams, and nightmares.

• Water Bears In Space: September 3-16, Circle of Hope, Broad & Washington. Is it possible for life to exist in the vacuum of space? Join a team of scientists, puppets, musicians, and dry aquatic invertebrates as they search for the answer. It’s a sci-fi fantasy spectacular where the cosmic and microscopic worlds collide.

• Revolving Spaces: September 9-11, Bardascino Park, 10th & Carpenter Streets. Beginning in South Philadelphia’s Bardascino Park, Revolving Spaces uses dance and music to reflect the neighborhood bocce ball court and park’s role in the community. Inspired by history and cultural trends, the piece travels through side streets and ends in the Italian Market. Wear comfortable shoes!

• Paris Wheels and the Ready-Maids present…Not the Henri Rousseau that Some of You Know: September 10-18, Crane Old School, White Space, 1417 N. 2nd Street. Performed to sold-out audiences at the Kimmel Center art part of PIFA, White Box Theatre and Sebastienne Mundheim bring this piece to Philly Fringe, and through dance, puppetry, music and storytelling, bring Paris — as seen through the eyes of painter Henri Rousseau — to life.

• Namasya: September 11-12, Arts Bank at the University of the Arts, 601 S. Broad Street. Namasya is a Sanskrit word which means to pay homage or reverence, adoration.
From the classical Indian dance form Kuchipudi to contemporary movement, Namasya is a virtuosic and very personal contemporary dance work. The evening is made up of four solos, appropriate for ages 12 and up.

• TRACES: September 15-18. Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad Street. This high-energy urban acrobatics show — “poetic and explosive, humorous and thoughtful” — from 7 Fingers, a Montreal-based circus arts company, includes stunning circus feats, traditional Chinese acrobatics, skateboarding and more.

• More Mouvements für Lachenmann: September 16-17, Arts Bank at the University of the Arts, 601 S. Broad Street. The piece is French choreographer Xavier Le Roy’s poetic and version of a contemporary music concert from the point of view of someone obsessed with movement. This dance for eight extraordinary virtuoso musicians, including members of the Austrian new music ensemble Klangforum Wien, breaks down the work of making music by uncoupling sounds and movements, sonic events and silences, actions and stillness.