FringeArts Announces The Met Philadelphia As Festival Presenting Sponsor

Two organizations committed to presenting premier performance events in Philadelphia come together: FringeArts proudly announces that the 2018 Fringe Festival will feature the soon-to-open, incredible new live entertainment venue The Met Philadelphia as a Presenting Sponsor.

Now in its 22nd year, the annual Fringe Festival is a pillar of Philadelphia's arts and culture sector, bringing world-renowned artists to the city while also showcasing its remarkable homegrown talent. This year's festival will run September 6-23 and feature over 150 works of theater, dance, music, circus, and other performing arts from artists across the globe and from all sectors of Philadelphia's arts communities.

"As the future home of some of the city's premier performance events, The Met Philadelphia makes an ideal partner for the Fringe Festival," says Nick Stuccio, President and Producing Director of FringeArts. "It looks set to be a local landmark in live entertainment for years to come."

Located on the corner of North Broad Street and Poplar Street, The Met Philadelphia, the former Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House, is set to open December 2018 and will bring an entirely new live performance experience to the city. Originally built in 1908 by opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein, The Met Philadelphia is currently undergoing a $56 million restoration in partnership with Live Nation, Eric Blumenfeld and Holy Ghost Headquarters to transform the historic theater into the crown jewel of North Broad Street's renaissance, which has seen a neighborhood revitalization through several major restoration projects.

"As we prepare for the opening of The Met Philadelphia, a venue which will redefine live entertainment in Philadelphia, we're thrilled to sponsor the Fringe Festival, a wonderful home for contemporary performance and world-class art that expands the imagination and boldly defies expectations," said Geoff Gordon, Regional President, Live Nation Philadelphia. "The Met Philadelphia will be a magnificent new home for live musical performances on North Broad Street that, like Fringe Arts, will push the boundaries of art and advance the artistic landscape in our great City of Philadelphia. We look forward to expanding our relationship with the Fringe Arts Festival, as we near The Met Philadelphia's opening later this year."

"The shows this year showcase experiential art that traverses the full spectrum of human emotion," says Nick Stuccio, President and Producing Director of FringeArts. "Thanks to Live Nation Philadelphia and The Met Philadelphia for helping to make this Festival possible."

Tickets to FringeArts Curated programming are on sale at FringeArts.com or via phone at 215-413-1318. All Festival shows will be on sale by August 1.

The 2018 Fringe Festival features 15+ works curated by FringeArts, showcasing artists from Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, France, Germany, England, Lebanon, Australia and elsewhere. Hundreds of local and regional artists, including some of the city's leading dance and theater groups, will independently produce shows at venues in all corners of Philadelphia.

At the heart of the 2018 Fringe Festival programming are a host of works that invite patrons to play an active role-as decoder, as participant, as performer. Connecting with residents on a massive scale is Montréal-based choreographer Sylvain Émard with his landmark public dance work Le Super Grand Continental. This new iteration of a 2012 Festival favorite gathers 200 local dance enthusiasts at the foot of the PMA steps to realize Émard's sensational choreography. Also getting audiences moving at the PMA this September is Monica Bill Barnes & Company's participatory aerobic dance piece The Museum Workout, which takes audiences on a fast-paced reimagining of the museum tour that will have them sweating and seeing art in an entirely new light. Offering patrons freeform ambulatory experiences are The Bearded Ladies Cabaret with their globe-spanning history of cabaret extravaganza Do You Want a Cookie?, as well as the world renowned International Contemporary Ensemble, showcasing transcendent new works centered around Christ Church's new pipe organ for In Plain Air.

Mounting multiple works in the 2018 Festival are two exciting International Artists who have carved distinct, influential niches in the world of live performance and art. Revered German composer and theater artist Heiner Goebbels will make a rare appearance in the United States-and his first in Philadelphia-to share his singular hybrid blend of theater, installation, and experimental composition with two works supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Stifters Dinge-a show with no performers save for an enormous, autonomous performative installation-and Songs of Wars I Have Seen-a work of orchestral music theater that borrows text from Gertrude Stein-are emblematic of Goebbels penchant to avoid didacticism in favor of creating a space for viewers to reflect and find their own meaning, despite the fact that they achieve this feat through starkly different means. Engaging audiences in a far more direct manner is Lebanese live artist Tania El Khoury, presenting five works as part of ear-whispered: works by Tania El Khoury, co-presented with Bryn Mawr College. The pieces explore issues of displacement, political oppression, and justice, utilizing a variety of media-including interviews, found sound, video, letters, dirt-to viscerally confront audiences with the human toll of political upheaval.

Along with the aforementioned works by Émard and Barnes, the 22nd Fringe Festival features several dichotomous dance pieces that, together, offer a nuanced survey of the possibilities of contemporary dance. Choreographer Trajal Harrell returns to the Festival with Caen Amour, a slyly lascivious work which anchors itself in the exploitative, appropriative turn-of-the-century dance known as the "hoochie-coochie." Also returning is Boris Charmatz, a French choreographer known for redefining dance's possibilities through formal constraints, turning his attention not to the legs and arms of his dancers, instead favoring their mouths, in manger. Striving to honor the memory of and expose a new generation to the influential New York dance artist John Bernd, who died of AIDS in 1988, Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez present an elegiac reimagining of some of Bernd's most essential works with Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and other works by John Bernd. Also mining grief and loss in search of something transformative is Philly-based dance artist Meg Foley, manifesting these all-consuming emotions through exploratory movement practices in The undergird.

"We're presenting a rich diversity of dance this year," says Stuccio. "These are all veteran makers, but they are also disparate in comparison. They all work from their own rather unique artistic frameworks, whether their work is informed by historical research, personal experiences, or the possibilities of movement. If you like dance, even if you tend to approach it apprehension, this is the perfect year to dive in."

Each September, hundreds of artists fill Philadelphia's public and private spaces with original art in the true spirit of the international "fringe" movement. This 17-day celebration of art making offers an unparalleled opportunity to see a cross section of the world's greatest arts experimenters at one time, in one city. The Fringe Festival attracts tens of thousands of attendees each year, hungry for artistic experiences that break the mold, push boundaries, and advance the international conversation surrounding performance.

Ticket sales cover just 16% of FringeArts' festival cost, so the organization relies on support and sponsorship from organization like The Met Philadelphia.

Tickets are on sale now for FringeArts' curated programming. A full schedule of Festival events, performance dates, times and locations will be announced soon. Visit FringeArts.com for up-to-date Festival information.

The 2018 Fringe Festival runs September 6-23rd, 2018. Ticket prices range from free to $49. Students and Festival-goers age 25 or younger receive $5 off tickets to all shows priced above $10 and pay $15 for tickets to FringeArts Curated shows. Discounted tickets are available to Members. Members save 30% on all shows (including year-round programming), can exchange tickets, and receive admission to exclusive artist receptions and other special events. Groups of 10+ save 25%.

Tickets to the FringeArts Curated shows are on sale at FringeArts.com or via phone at 215-413-1318. Tickets to all other 2018 Fringe Festival shows will go on sale by the end of July.

The Met Philadelphia, a Live Nation Venue, is a $56 million restoration project in partnership with Live Nation and Eric Blumenfeld. The Met will revive the Philadelphia Opera House, originally built by Oscar Hammerstein in 1908 and once the largest theater in the world. The Met will be the crown jewel of North Broad Street's renaissance. Find out more at TheMetPhilly.com.

Live Nation Entertainment is the world's leading live entertainment comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster.com, Live Nation Concerts, Artist Nation Management and Live Nation Media/Sponsorship. For additional information, visit livenation.com/investors.

EB Realty Management Corp. (EBRM) was founded in 1995 and is solely owned by its principal Eric Blumenfeld. EBRM in one of the premier real estate management firms in the City of Philadelphia. EBRM focuses its efforts on repositioning assets in the Philadelphia marketplace. It has specialized in developing anchor properties that serve as a catalyst for further development in underdeveloped communities.

FringeArts is Philadelphia's home for contemporary performance, presenting progressive, world-class art that stretches the imagination and boldly defies expectation. FringeArts' center on the Delaware River waterfront offers a year-round series of innovative dance, theater, and music performances. And for 17 days each fall, the organization fills every nook and cranny of the city with contemporary performances during the annual Fringe Festival. FringeArts believes in art-making that inspires new ideas, engages artists and audiences in unique ways, and advances the global dialogue about art. For more information, visit fringearts.com.

A full schedule of Festival events, performance dates, times and locations will be announced soon. Visit FringeArts.com for up-to-date Festival information.

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