Arden Theatre Company to Host Free Performances, Beg. 7/6

On the First Friday of each month, Arden Theatre Company will host a different Philadelphia artists or group of artists to present short, free performances to enhance Old City's First Friday activities rooted in the visual arts. Located at 40 N. 2nd Street, the Arden was recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for Arden First Fridays, to support this opportunity for local performing arts groups to showcase their work.

Additional partnerships with local cultural groups, food vendors, tourist attractions, and more will make the Arden a destination for hundreds of attendees each evening. All 21+ attendees receive a free beer sample from a local brewery as well.

Details for First Friday, July 6, 2012 :

Bang
Conceived/created/performed by Charlotte Ford
Co-created/performed by Lee Etzold and Sarah Sanford
Directed by Emmanuelle Delpech

A hilariously bold and dangerously inventive comedic-clown-theater-spectacular, Bang answers the question-under the glow of a pink neon sex show sign-what happens if you get what you want?

A preview of the production appearing September 4-12 in the 2012 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival.

Charlotte Ford is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist who creates avant-garde slapstick performance art that celebrates sublime stupidity with joyful abandon. She and her Bang cohorts Lee Etzold and Sarah Sanford are known for their superb comedic performances. Bang is the first show that the three have collaborated on together.

Additional performers will be announced shortly. Those interested in performing can complete an application on the Arden's website: https://www.ardentheatre.org/salons/firstfriday_form.html
For the past two years, the Arden has grown its programming for First Fridays, providing artistic outlets for its guests, frequently along with beer or wine samples. With the help of the Knight Foundation, we will consistently offer an artistic platform for our sister performing arts organizations across the city. As we've experimented with this new format for providing content to First Friday participants, we've partnered with Headlong Dance Theatre, 11th Hour Theatre Company, the N Crowd improv group, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, and The Berserker Residents. Each event has drawn over 150 spectators, who watched from both inside the Arden's building and from outside through the Arden's floor-to-ceiling windows at 2nd and Cuthbert Streets. With the support of the Knight Foundation, we will be able to cast the net even wider, and provide stipends to the groups who perform as part of this program. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Knight Arts Challenge is a $9 million initiative funding innovative projects that engage and enrich Philadelphia's communities.

Arden Theatre Company is located at 40 North 2nd Street in the heart of Old City, Philadelphia.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit KnightFoundation.org.

About the Arden
Founded in 1988, Arden Theatre Company is dedicated to bringing to life the greatest stories by the greatest storytellers of all time. We stage five productions each season as part of our mainstage series and two productions through Arden Children's Theatre, the city's first resident professional children's theatre program. We create and produce new work through our new-work development program, the Independence Foundation New Play Showcase. The Arden Professional Apprentice program trains future theatre leaders, and our theatre classes through Arden Drama School teach children and teens about the craft of making plays. Our access program, Arden for All, makes our work available to the entire community through subsidized tickets and books for economically underserved young people. We also offer sign language-interpreted, captioned and audio described performances and Pay-What-You-Can final dress rehearsals that benefit other nonprofits.

The Arden has received seven Philadelphia Magazine "Best of Philly" Awards, the Arts and Business Council's Arts Excellence Award, five City Paper "Reader's Choice" Awards, four Philadelphia Inquirer "Theatre Company of the Year" citations, 57 awards and 272 nominations from the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, and was named "Best Theatre Company" by Philadelphia Weekly in 2009.

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