Uwishunu.com

Tweet

 

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

There will be more than 180 dance, theater, visual arts, music and spoken-word presentations performed in venues of every stripe, from traditional stages to street corners, cars, galleries, cabarets and restaurants.

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

First up, our guide to free events:

• Afrikaner: Friday, September 2, 8 p.m. World Cafe Live. South African musician, producer-singer-songwriter ZIYA explores an aural fest of mood and texture in an unusual blend of styles incorporating Afrikaans and African elements.

• Zon-Mai: September 2, 6-9, 12-16, 5-8 p.m.; September 3-5, 10, 11, 17, noon-8 p.m. Former Pumping Station. 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, 6 p.m. Liberty Lands Park. It’s being called a “commedia” show, meaning you can expect daring feats of comedy in fantastical masks at breakneck speed, all set to stompin’ live music in three languages.

• Let Me Tell You About a Dream I Had: Saturday, September 3, 6 p.m. Clark Park. In collaboration with Spiral Q Puppet Theater, the nationally recognized artist collective The Miss Rockaway Armada will parade from Broad and Pine Streets to Clark Park followed by live music, a puppet show and theatrical performances. It’s organized by the Philadelphia Art Alliance as part of a series of artistic presentations, including a sculptural flotilla on the Schuylkill this weekend.

More free events, below.

• Bodies of Text III: September 3, 4 and 7 p.m. Clark Park. Stone Depot Dance Lab and Melissa Diane interpret artist books by Center for the Book artists in collaborative outdoor dance performances. Performances are accompanied by exhibits of artist books.

• We the People: September 4-5, 2, 2:30 and 3 p.m. Washington Square Park. Traveling through Washington Square Park where hundreds of Revolutionary War soldiers rest, this dance piece reflects on political polarization and the struggle for democratic ideals. Game-like improvisation moves between conflict and cooperation, making creative use of the terrain and including some optional audience participation. The event is free but donations are welcome.

• Kinesthetic Empathies & The Politics of Compassion: September 11, 4 p.m. Live Arts Studio. This is a danced lecture by performer Susan Foster, a truly unique experience. All while dancin, whether on stage or in the audience, she explores the topic of the dancing body and the nature of movement.

• Voice of this Generation: Love Lost: Saturday, September 17, 7 p.m.; Sunday, September 18, 2:30 and 7 p.m. First Unitarian Church. Six young Philadelphia composers are reinventing the concert experience with fresh new songs hot off the presses. Come casual. Expect edge.

• Extremely Public Displays of Privacy, Acts 1: Ongoing, September 2-October 1. Online. New Paradise Laboratories pushes the bounds of theatrical performance once again. Fess is a mother and a school teacher who writes amazing songs that nobody hears. Beatrix is a performance artist and mysterious entrepreneur. Online, Beatrix sweeps Fess off her feet. In Act 1, you join them online as they get to know each other. In Act 2, an audio file will guide you on a self-guided walking tour of Fess’s extremely public displays. Act 3 is a ticketed final piece of the performance series in which audience members will gather at a Rittenhouse Square intersection and see what happens when Fess begins to question who Beatrix really is.