My mother tells a story about a time when I was young—3-years-old or 4—and I was trying desperately to get the swing I was seated on moving. My little legs kicked and kicked but I stayed motionless. After a minute or two, an adult came over and gave me a push and that’s all it took. I caught the momentum and I was swinging! As she tells it, I turned to the little boy on the swing next to mine and exclaimed in a giddy, high-pitched voice “I was getting so frustrated! Were you getting frustrated, too, Brooksie? I was getting so frustrated!”
View More NOTES from the INCUBATOR (Simpatico): Entry Two: Getting So FrustratedCategory: Previews
Upcoming theater and arts in Philadelphia
BLEED (FringeArts): Tere O’Connor’s dance embraces all
The much-talked-about BLEED, running this weekend only as the next page in FringeArts’ idiosyncratic year-round programming, opened in New York last year to what seems like universal praise. The dance piece is the culmination of two years of work and three other dance pieces, which O’Connor made, then digested and collapsed into BLEED.
View More BLEED (FringeArts): Tere O’Connor’s dance embraces allTHE WEST Comes to Town: Interview with Creator Alex Bechtel
THE WEST is ensemble-devised musical theater, described as “an absurdist western music hall drama about the gun that killed Billy The Kid, the gun that didn’t, and truth and fiction in history, human relationships, and our day-to-day lives.”
View More THE WEST Comes to Town: Interview with Creator Alex BechtelNOTES from the INCUBATOR (SIMPATICO): Entry One: The Collective Spirit
Writing this play has been hard. It feels like squinting into the distance at an object that I think I should be identifiable but is just too blurry. Luckily, I have a cohort on this trek. If you met Lena (Barnard) and I, it would feel a lot like an episode of Gilmore Girls or the West Wing. We talk over each other and make obscure references and laugh at inside jokes that no one else gets. Being around Lena makes me feel entirely secure. I can be myself with her. I like to think the feeling is mutual. Who else will get all her Julie Andrews references?
View More NOTES from the INCUBATOR (SIMPATICO): Entry One: The Collective SpiritPassion and Art in the Philadelphia Flamenco Festival
What better way to welcome the coming spring than with flamenco? Flamenco, which means “flame-colored,” is a genre of Spanish folk dance and music traditionally characterized by sensual choreography and bold, complex guitar rhythms. In Philadelphia, dance company Pasión y Arte is bringing the spirit of modern flamenco to the Philadelphia Flamenco Festival, which runs from March 1st through March 16th.
View More Passion and Art in the Philadelphia Flamenco FestivalUpdate on White Pines: A New Home and a Full Slate
On March 1, White Pines Productions, which had been without a headquarters since its displacement from historic Elstowe Manor in 2013 (read about the displacement…
View More Update on White Pines: A New Home and a Full SlateThe fault, dear Brutus, is Super Racism: Makoto Hirano Criticizes Lantern’s Julius Caesar
“Will it be in yellow face,” my friend asked when I told him about Lantern Theater Company’s decision to stage Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in feudal Japan, when what the meant was “in kimonos with some Japanese screens and music” seemed somehow culturally tone deaf.
View More The fault, dear Brutus, is Super Racism: Makoto Hirano Criticizes Lantern’s Julius CaesarA NICE AND FRESH sendoff: John Rosenberg’s last show in Philadelphia
Phindie has been a long-term champion of playwright John Rosenberg and his Hella Fresh Theater. There are pretty much no companies in Philadelphia focused on full seasons of original work, certainly none of the caliber reached in Rosenberg’s best plays, 2013′s Hannah and 2012′s Alp d’Huez.
View More A NICE AND FRESH sendoff: John Rosenberg’s last show in PhiladelphiaFree Beer. Have I said enough? Scratch Night returns at FringeArts
For several years now, the FringeArts Scratch Night series has been an in-the-know favorite on the Philadelphia performing arts scene. Each Spring and Summer in the lead up to the Fringe Fest, the organization hosts a monthly event to showcase in the works performances by LAB fellow, Fringe favorites, and other local artists.
View More Free Beer. Have I said enough? Scratch Night returns at FringeArtsThe Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie and exciting news from the world of improv
This weekend sees an enticing line-up of non-improv sketches at PHIT’s new home. The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie perform a variety of offbeat sketches.
View More The Incredible Shrinking Matt & Jacquie and exciting news from the world of improvPhoto Essay: Kyle Cassidy captures DANCING AT LUGHNASA (Curio Theatre)
Photographer Kyle Cassidy is a Philadelphia treasure. He has been documenting American culture since the 1990s, photographing goths, punks, cutters, politicians, metalheads, dominatrices, scholars, and…
View More Photo Essay: Kyle Cassidy captures DANCING AT LUGHNASA (Curio Theatre)Life Between the Bones: The Mütter Museum presents its first-ever dance performance
The Mütter Museum, with its macabre glass cases of organs and bones, makes for an unlikely venue for a dance performance. However, this week only, choreographer Jae Hoon Lim takes on the challenge with his new work and master’s thesis, Life Between.
View More Life Between the Bones: The Mütter Museum presents its first-ever dance performanceSeven dancers. 200 Surveys. 4-inch Leather Boots. SORRY, I’M JUST HUMAN.
Sebastian’s dance-music-theater creations draw from each art without being confined to easy definitions. This Saturday’s Sorry, I’m Just Human marks a culmination of two years of choreographic, musical, and theatrical experimentation.
View More Seven dancers. 200 Surveys. 4-inch Leather Boots. SORRY, I’M JUST HUMAN.On the Universality of Shakespeare: Roman History through a Shoji Screen in the Lantern’s THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR
Director Charles McMahon, founding artistic director of the Lantern Theater Company, asserts that all of Shakespeare’s plays, whenever or wherever they’re set, are in fact observations about contemporary England. By shifting the locales to places outside of his homeland.
View More On the Universality of Shakespeare: Roman History through a Shoji Screen in the Lantern’s THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESARThe City of Brotherly Bard: Revolution Shakespeare returns with a show and a webseries
Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better Philadelphia’s newest Shakespeare company, Revolution Shakespeare, will present the second offering of its inaugural season on…
View More The City of Brotherly Bard: Revolution Shakespeare returns with a show and a webseriesMake a date with dance: BalletX Winter Series
If you still think of ballet as inaccessible formalist movement to stuffy classical music, you have not seen BalletX. With an inviting Winter 2014 program spanning Valentine’s Day, this is a great opportunity to make a date with dance.
View More Make a date with dance: BalletX Winter SeriesTHE ROOM NOBODY KNOWS (FringeArts): Put your secret emotions, dangerous illusions here
Enter the world of Japanese Japanese theater company Niwa Gekidan Penino: claustrophobic, hallucinatory, voyeuristic, surreal. Niwa is the Japanese word for “garden.” For over a decade…
View More THE ROOM NOBODY KNOWS (FringeArts): Put your secret emotions, dangerous illusions hereCare to Dance? The Philadelphia dance scene is alive and well in 2014, catering to classical palates and avant-garde tastes alike
The Philadelphia dance scene is alive and well in 2014, bringing forth a series of diverse performances catering to classical palates and avant-garde tastes alike
View More Care to Dance? The Philadelphia dance scene is alive and well in 2014, catering to classical palates and avant-garde tastes alikeBreaking Bad, sketch comedy style
I never saw Breaking Bad, but lots of people love it. Then again, lots of people love crystal meth, and I thought it was awful. A much better bet for your cold December evening is BREAKING BAD SANTA by Philadelphia’s funniest sketch comedy troupe,
View More Breaking Bad, sketch comedy styleConsidering A CHRISTMAS CAROL
You might call me a scrooge. The Philadelphia theater scene goes on hiatus in July and August, as most companies take a season break. And…
View More Considering A CHRISTMAS CAROL