PHILADELPHIA — A host of independently produced productions from new and established artists of all disciplines make an array of Philadelphia neighborhoods part of the 18th annual Fringe Festival, running September 5 to 21. Tickets for the 2014 Neighborhood Fringe, presented by FringeArts, are on sale now, in addition to tickets for the festival’s annual selection of Presented Fringe performances by internationally renowned contemporary artists.

The network of over 120 shows activates local communities around a flurry of artistic happenings that encompass theater, dance, spoken word, visual art and more. The anticipated event is a reflection of Philadelphia as a city of neighborhoods, filling theaters, nightclubs, rowhouses, parks, cemeteries and other unique venues from West Philadelphia to Northern Liberties.  

Highlights of this year’s Neighborhood lineup include new work from 1812 Productions, BalletX,Brian Sanders’ JUNK, Aaron Cromie and Mary Tuomanen, Group Motion Multi Media Dance Theater, Leah Stein Dance Company, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, Tangle Movement Arts, The Xtreme Folk Scene, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, Tribe of Fools, and The Waitstaff among many others. (More details and a full list of 2014 Neighborhood Fringe Festival shows by discipline follow below. Visit FringeArts.comfor up-to-date Festival announcements.)

Since 1997, the Fringe Festival has provided an unfiltered platform for new and developing work from emerging artists under the auspices of a structured festival, but free from curatorial barriers to creativity. Together with curated Presented Fringe productions, the Fringe Festival offers audiences the opportunity to experience the best of local, national and international contemporary art.  

Coinciding with this year’s Fringe Festival Opening Night is the grand opening of La Peg at FringeArts, acclaimed Philadelphia chef/restaurateur Peter Woolsey’s brand-new waterfront brasserie, representing the culmination of FringeArts’ years-long evolution from a two-week festival producer to a bustling year-round destination for artistic and social activity.

TICKETS
All Fringe Festival tickets are now available for purchase online at FringeArts.comor by calling (215) 413-1318. Festival show prices vary and are listed with each show description on the Festival website and in the Festival guide.

THEATER
Both up-and-coming and established theater presenters offer a rich slate of new works, modern adaptations and Philadelphia premieres that make up the majority of this year’s Neighborhood Fringe shows. Jennifer Childs and Tony Lawton star in 1812 Productions’ Intimate Exchanges, letting the audience dictate the outcomes from eight possible endings. Art and medicine collide in a physical theater exploration of painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec as Aaron Cromie and Mary Tuomanen return to the festival with The Body Lautrec. Meanwhile, Two Street – A Tale of Star Crossed Mummers from Tribe of Fools stages a love affair between rival Mummer brigades and Poor Richard’s Opera brings the Philadelphia premiere of Speed Dating TONIGHT!.

Many more presenting theater artists and companies include Headlong Dance Theater and University of the Arts, Found Theatre Company, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, Laurencio Ruiz, Leila and Pantea Productions, SmokeyScout Productions, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre and many more.

DANCE
Company dancers from BalletX will perform improvisational solos inspired by some of the 400 original paintings on display for the Bridgette Mayer Gallery’s annual Benefit Exhibition in BalletX at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery, while Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery hosts the Leah Stein Dance Company for another site-specific work exploring Jeremy Holme’s ribbon-like wood sculpture installation. Dance performances at this year’s Neighborhood Fringe range from the erotic, with work presented by Brian Sanders’ JUNK, Annie Wilson and Jasmine Zieroff, to the traditional Indian form Bharathanaatyam from Naatya Seva and the Academy of Indian Classical Dance.

Additional dance artists include BalletFleming, Birds on a Wire Dance Theatre, Dancefusion & 360° Dance Company,Gunnar Montana, andMM2 Modern Dance Company, among others.

INTERDISCIPLINARY
Tangle Movement Artsembrace and escape the knots of human relationships in a dynamic circus-theater show, Loop. Interdisciplinary performances are held everywhere from a South Philly row house, with Grace Mi-He Lee and Leslie Elkins’ What Narwhals Talk About When They Talk About Love, to new discoveries in Rittenhouse Square with Mirroring Sky – A Soundscape from InVersion Theatre.

Other interdisciplinary presenters include the AntiGravity Theatre Project, Amancay Candal Tribe with Hilary Pierce and Claire Pitts, Group Motion Multi Media Dance Theater, Rocky Wilson, the teen SHADOW Company and more.

COMEDY/IMPROV AND SPOKEN WORD
Sketch comedy troupe The Waitstaff returns to the Neighborhood Fringe with a new original show; more comedy and improv appearances are from The Wingmen and Salamé Studios who transport Benjamin Franklin to the modern day—where only a colonial tour guide believes his story.

A spoken word performance from Joey Novick explores what happens when a stand-up comedian applies the rules of improv to his newfound political career inComedian Elected to Town Council in New Jersey. Additional spoken word artists include Brian Kelly and the 34th Street Poets.

OTHER
Encompassing more than traditional festival genres, the Neighborhood Fringe includes live music, visual art, and other events. REV Theatre Company returns to Laurel Hill Cemetery, bringing free cocktails and the toe-tapping songs of lost souls with The Way Of All Flesh (Show): A Graveyard Cabaret; The Xtreme Folk Scene remounts Philly Song Shuffle with 55 artists presenting 4-minute sets; along with Movin’ Melvin Brown, Children’s Opera Box, A Change of Harp, and visual artist Linda Dubin Garfield’sBest Friends in which participants create a mixed media piece and tell their stories.

2014 Neighborhood Fringe Shows by Discipline

[artists and show titles subject to change]

Show Title, Artist/Company Name

COMEDY + IMPROV
Ben to the Future, Salamé Studios
The Waitstaff Sh*ts the Bed!, The Waitstaff Sketch Comedy Troupe
The Wingmen Present: The Neighborhood, The Wingmen

DANCE
(re)visions, Other Case Notes Ensemble
After the Summer Sun, BalletFleming
Another Word For Missing,New Street Dance Group
aqua.thermal vs. The Selfie, Katrina Atkin
BalletX at the Bridgette Mayer, BalletX
BREATH, MM2 Modern Dance Company
Broken Road, Joanne McBride
Capture, PhysiKal Bodies
Concert 2014, Dancefusion & 360° Dance Company
From Our Living Room, Birds on a Wire Dance Theatre
International Dance Stars, The Rock School for Dance Education
Lovertits, Annie Wilson
Margam, A Classical Splash, Naatya Seva & the Academy of Indian Classical Dance
Necessary Efforts, The Naked Stark
Not Your Mother’s Moth, Megan Flynn & Teresa VanDenend Sorge
Project - Through an Aperture, Exosphere
Resurrection Room, Gunnar Montana
Splice, Leah Stein Dance Company
Suspended, Brian Sanders’ JUNK
The Back Door, Jasmine Zieroff
the four seasons, Katie Horton and artists
Transference, Megan Lynn/Asterial Dance & Alyson Laury Dance Company
Would I lie to you?, RealLivePeople

HAPPENINGS
The Way of All Flesh (Show): A Graveyard Cabaret, (REV Theatre Company)

INTERDISCIPLINARY
#shamanicinterfaces, Group Motion Multi Media Dance Theater
2 For 1: Elementals in Motion & More Nothing More, Amancay Candal Tribe & Hilary Pierce & Claire Pitts
Borneo Odyssey, Skowmon Hastanan
Kabbalah: The Musical, Shechinah, Inc
Loop, Tangle Movement Arts
Mirroring Sky - A Soundscape, InVersion Theatre
Nellie/Nellie, AntiGravity Theatre Project
Project Reclamation, Spiral Nexus
Reinventing Fania (a work in progress), Fania Maria Tsakalakos
The H-O-T Series of Philadelphia, curated by Flandrew Fleisenberg & Loren Groenendaal
Through the Glass Ceiling, Factory Productions featuring Ann Artist
What Good Has Come Out of Camden?, Rocky Wilson
What Narwhals Talk About When They Talk About Love, Grace Mi-He Lee & Leslie Elkins
Yip and Al, More Than a Dime Ensemble
________ Vs. ________, SHADOW Company

MUSIC
14 Sequenzas, A Change of Harp
Hansel and Gretel, Children’s Opera Box
Paradox, Ziya
Philly Local IMPACT Live!, Philly Local IMPACT Live!
Philly Song Shuffle, The Xtreme Folk Scene
The Ray Charles Experience - Live!,Movin’ Melvin Brown

SPOKEN WORD
Comedian Elected to Town Council in New Jersey, Joey Novick
Graveyard Voices, 34th Street Poets
The Story of You, Brian Kelly

THEATER
“… the rags of time…”:J Robert Oppenheimer, Exclamation Theater, Inc.
(some) LOVE AND (some) INFORMATION, Headlong Dance Theater and University of the Arts
# (hashtag), ETC Theater
ABSOLUTELY LAST NIGHT AT VON DAHM’S KARAOKE PALACE, Actors International Theatre
AE$OP, Drexel Players
Alternative Theatre Festival, iNtuitons Experimental Theatre
Anna K, Chris Davis
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Temple Theaters
BENT, Truth Be Told Productions
Broken People, David DelBianco
Broken Wing, Leila and Pantea Productions
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Silver Stage Company
By You That Made Me, Frankenstein, Philadelphia Opera Collective
Chalk Board Artists, Chris Richards
Closure, Aleksandra Berczynski & MB Grupa Realizacji
Deep Blue Sleep, Found Theater Company
Desperately Seeking the Exit, Peter Michael Marino
Double Batman, Frank Perri
Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium
Fando y Lis by Fernando Arrabal, A new translation by Emily Schuman
Flim Flam Phantom Sham, Ombelico Mask Ensemble
Human Fruit Bowl, Andrea Kuchlewska & Harmony Stempel
iHamlet, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre
Incongruous, Laurencio Ruiz
Intimate Exchanges, 1812 Productions
It Was All Downhill After Fleetwood Mac, Brian Shapiro
Kill Shakespeare: Live Graphic Novel, Revolution Shakespeare & Hear Again Radio Project
Kim Coles: Oh, But Wait… There’s More!, Kim Coles / Dir. Scotch Ellis Loring
Living in Exile: A retelling of the Iliad, Philadelphia Experimental Theatre Ensemble
Mad Blood and Other Beauties, A Plague On Both Your Houses
Marbles, Hannah Van Sciver
Morir Sonyando, Power Street Theatre
Mount Airy Home Companion, Saint Mad
Nightmares in Neverland, Bri Shaw & Brian Clores & Brey Barrett & Haygen Walker
No Place Like, Kaleid Theatre
Oedipus The Musical, Van.Martin Productions
Paper Phoenix, Lori Reed
Passport by Gustavo Ott, IShowNYProductions & Yajaira Paredes
Peter Pan is Dead, Brandon Monokian
Poe-a-thon, Night Hawks
Rainbowtown, Two Ducks Theatre Company
Safe Space, Apocalypse Club
Sephro: Earth’s Revenge, Fantasy Weavers
Sisters of Ellery Hollow by Stephen Spotswood, RHolt Productions
Skin In The Game, Foreverlore
SLIDESHOW, SmokeyScout Productions
Snyder v. Phelps, an original musical, Underbite Theatre Company
Speed Dating TONIGHT!, Poor Richard’s Opera
Splatter, Manayunk Theatre Company
Stand Back I’m Gonna Uke: An Evening of Old-Timey Music, Seth Reichgott
Susan’s Undoing, Susan Chase
The Body Lautrec, Aaron Cromie & Mary Tuomanen
The Disappearing Quarterback, Plays & Players
The Hunchback of Notre Dame…A Mute Play, The Renegade Company
The Last Five Years, Blue Suede Productions
The Orgasm Chronicles, OneTaste Philly
The Rape of Lucrece, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective
The Yellow Wallpaper, Wild Plum Productions
Theorem, Greg Kennedy
They Call Me Arethusa, Colie McClellan & Mark Kennedy
Till Birnam Wood…, John Schultz
Tongue & Groove, Tongue & Groove Spontaneous Theater
Two Street - A Tale of Star Crossed Mummers, Tribe of Fools
Underground Episodes, Run Boy Run Production
V, Butter & Serve
We Are Proud to Present, The University of the Arts
Wendy and Peter, Bloom & Fly Theatre Company
Women Un Plugged, Dretwin productions

VISUAL ART
Best Friends, Linda Dubin Garfield
Untitled: What You See or What Do You See, Krie Alden of KrieArt