Philadelphia Fringe Festival And Cannonball Return With A Month of Theatre All Over The City

The annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival and works of theatre are well known partners. Cannonball, the largest hub of the Philadelphia Fringe has an explosion of theatre throughout the entire month of September.

From comedy to drama, solo shows and full productions, and scripted works to devised pieces,  Cannonball will surely be a treat for theatergoers around the region. Artists participating in the festival include returning Cannonball favorites, Fringe veterans, artists fresh off successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, local theatre favorites and more. Cannonball is running at four venues this year. Cannonball returns to the Maas Building, 1320 N. 5th St, where the festival started. 

Cannonball also returns to the Icebox Project Space, 1400 N American Street. New this year will be an intimate space at Fidget, 1714 N Mascher St,  Plus, Cannonball is debuting a space just for family-friendly programming at Liberty Lands Park, 913 N 3rd St. Cannonball runs September 1-30 and truly features something for everyone. Tickets are on sale now.

 Tickets and more information can be found at the hub’s website https://www.cannonballfestival.org/. Tickets and more information about the Philadelphia Fringe Festival can be found at www.fringearts.com, by phone at 215-413-1218, or in person at the Fringe Festival Box Office at FringeArts (140 N. Columbus Blvd) August 28-September 24. 

Now in its third year, Cannonball has revitalized the Philly Fringe with an influx of festival energy. Presenting shows back to back, audiences can see multiple offerings every night at each of Cannonball’s four venues (the slowest night at Cannonball this year will feature 13 different productions!), enjoying a drink at the Garden Bar in between each show, and running into friends, artists, and other fringe-goers. Theatre is a central part of Cannonball, each year artists have produced new works or brought favorite works to the hub to present it to new audiences.

Theatre at Cannonball includes: 

 

Fidget Living Room, 1714 N Mascher St

Half Magic

Joseph Ahmed
September 1 - September 23

Created by Joseph Ahmed and directed by Cat Ramirez, Half Magic swirls together autobiographical physical theater with inventive juggling and object balancing to create a hilarious, heartfelt, magical journey into what it means to be mixed race, to search for community, and to hold the things we love with care and criticality. Part theater, part circus, it is a “a poignant, critical work that ought to be viewed, documented, and revisited, especially by immigrant parents, children of immigrants, and those with a biracial identity.”

 

Misket

 

Faysal Can Dakni

September 2-September 30

Two koceks (traditional male dancers) have been dancing to Turkish Folk Music and entertaining audiences to make a living in a Pavyon called Misket in Ankara, Turkey. However, the love they share has been a secret that they've had to conceal from the conservative society in Turkey for a long time. Now, after returning from their mandatory military service, it is time for them to address the unspoken and make a decision.  An immersive experience in a traditional nightclub where people drink, dance and witness the story of the impossible. 

The Dangers of Tobacco

 

Justin Jain

September 3-September 11

A wild Filipino-American adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s solo play, The Dangers of Tobacco. This lesser-known one act by the renowned Russian playwright is a lecture given by a dusty old professor about the harms of smoking. However, he is neither a professor or a non-smoker, and we come to realize he is being forced to give this lesson by his wife. What starts as a simple and funny bumbling speech evolves into a revelation of a life lived, complete with regrets, sorrow, and a looking-back at the ever-present “what could have been.” I’m going to deconstruct this text and structure to overlay my own familial story and journey as a first-generation queer Filipino-American, playing with the fine line between performer, character, and clown, as well as pushing the boundaries of performance and audience.

 

Split Bill: A Musical Anatomy/Messy Perfectionism

 

Mohit Patel/Sarah Owens
September 6-24

A Musical Anatomy is a one man musical, or as close as I can get by myself. A few years ago I wrote this play for a festival that I then adapted into a musical. I was never happy with it, though, so I'm going to put it on again and dissect it a bit. I'm going to talk about musicals. I'm going to talk about storytelling. And all the while I'll be playing every part of a show that definitely should have more than one actor.

Messy Perfectionism: Ingredients - movement, visuals, poetry, truth, lies, emotions, and facades. Option to replace facades with smoke and mirrors. Can omit the truth entirely. Steps - 1. Blend 2. Consume. Best if shared.

Everyone Loves Dick

 

Ernest Hemmings
September 7-10

Dick Ripper left a sleepy trailer park in Lubbock, TX for a new life in Las Vegas. The rearview mirror was aglow with the bridges he burned as his foot stomped on the accelerator of his unregistered Ford LTD. Dick drove across the desert, keeping hydrated with an ever-warming case of Miller High Life, and a single bottle of water. He ripped a tiny piece of the stuff from the tinfoil envelope and placed it under his tongue. The acid, he figured, was stronger and cheaper than coffee. Dick only had two cassette tapes to make the 13 hour trek. The fourth time through "Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits" is what caused his mind to finally crack. All the radio would give him on a consistent basis was religious talk and angry conservatives. The air conditioning stopped working somewhere around Albuquerque.

Everyone Loves Dick is a new performance piece by Ernest Hemmings about identity crisis, hubris, and the new American West.  A "modern Western" in one act.

Good Person

 

Brett Robinson
September 22-24

Are you a good little boy? A sweet baby girl? Patricia! Is rich, she’s white, and shes a Good Person. In the world of social justice, social media, callout culture and snowflakes, everyones looking and everyones good. But who is really good and who gets to decide? In this sharp and biting satire, Patricia! Will hold your nose, open your throat and give you the dose of goodness you deserve.

A Scar is Born

 

Lorelei Zarifian
September 21-24

A Scar is Born is the humorous story of one misfit’s hopeful audition. She reviews for the casting director important moments of her life and her journey from France to America. In the face of rejection, she never gives up her passion for performing the music of words and language. A cycle of songs recounting life in Marseille, Paris, New York and Florida, intertwined with sketches about the absurdity of modern existence.
 

Split Bill: To Dance with A Purple Goblin/ My Life With Shmike

 

Red Nosed Roommates / GRATon40 Collective
September 6-22

Catto's life is a bit odd. He's been deferring on his rent for 20 years, he has bulging muscles that only he can see, and his one friend is some guy named Shmike. Worse yet, Catto can't remember anything about who he was before meeting Shmike. In a ridiculous and raucous journey of self discovery, two clowns attempt to retrace their steps from the pits of stupidity and figure out how they got to be so foolish. Will Catto and Shmike learn to appreciate living senselessly or will they reform to be law abiding citizens?

When unconsciously prompted to question your own beliefs, values, and lived ordinance, you feel an awakening of the grotesque protectant: the purple goblin. Living within the self in bad reputation, it controls and hypnotizes the conscious mind. How can we learn to accept and integrate this suppressed part of ourselves? Through dance, polyphonic singing, and other vocal soundings, To Dance with A Purple Goblin explores mindful meditation, physical embodiment, and the practice of loving acceptance.

 

Tiny Witch

 

Izzy Sazak
September 17-26

Tiny Witch is a one-witch adaptation of the old and much translated folktale, Bluebeard. Part cabaret, part fantasy fiction stand-up, Tiny Witch is a queer trans allegory, a ritual exorcism and just a damn silly time.

Tiny Witch lives in a portal under your pillow. Every night they leave the 7th dimension and enter ours through this portal to battle away the nightmares that plague your subconscious with a broom they've made from your discarded eyelashes. Tiny Witch is very old and tired, and doesn't have time for your nonsense. They are here to give a lecture on how to be a good Tiny Witch, as per the request of the Interdimensional Academy for Fighting Evil.

 

Unplanned Obsolescence

 

Strong Branch Productions
September 4-9

Machines break. So do people. Both can be replaced. Jax is a failing children's performer who has just received some bad news: there's a 50% chance that they're about to die. Their wife begs them to take it seriously, but Jax believes that one of their best qualities is never taking anything seriously for their whole life. Unable to cope with the prospect of their own death, they train a household robot to replace them in hopes that their wife won't notice when they're gone. With two coin flips that determine the course of the play, this performance has four different iterations. There's a 50% chance it will end in tragedy. Written by Alex Kingsley. Performed by Grace Griego, Jaymes Rodriguez, and Alex Kingsley.

 

Das Sofortvergnügen (THE INSTANT PLEASURE)

 

Cosimo Pori and Travis Amiel
September 2, 2023 - September 4, 2023

A dance-theatre spectacle about insatiable desires, [in]convenience, [im]patience, and the need to get things now. THE INSTANT PLEASURE is a fast paced and silly joy-scroll, searching for what’s beyond the constant craving to want more, within the contrasts of queer existence in a capitalist society.

The show recontextualizes memes, idioms, bits, and personal anecdotes while borrowing from a versatile artistic legacy that includes Pina Bausch, Steve Reich, The Simpsons, SpongeBob Squarepants, and Laurie Anderson.

Magic Lagoon

 

Karen Orrick & Dwight Dunston
September 11, 2023 - September 30, 2023
 

Magic Lagoon asks us what ancestral lineages and current conditions can we face and transform to lay foundations for more just + easeful futures? How can we keep joy at the center of our inner revolution? What healing is possible for ourselves and our communities in this lifetime, and what must be left behind for the next generation to take on?

My Grandmother's Eyepatch

 

Julia VanderVeen
September 5, 2023 - September 12, 2023

What happens when an idiot leads a memorial service for a long-deceased family member? In this off-the-wall-comedy, comedian and improviser Julia VanderVeen leads the audience through wild stages of grief as she attempts to honor her beloved Grandmother. At this particular memorial service, what can go wrong, does, and ends up revealing VanderVeen's deep humanity.

 

Split Bill:johann johann: or thee wurst dinner partie / Tom Achilles: Guillotine

 

eat purple theatre co / Tom Achilles

September 5, 2023 - September 10, 2023

Welcome to the wurst dinner partie you've ever been invited to.This immersive staging of a raunchy 14th century (older than Shakespeare!) sex comedy follows Johann: an angry little man whose wife is having an affair. It also follows Johann: the (chad) priest she’s having an affair with. Our re-imagining of this Renaissance-era piece turns the dial up on drama, desire, and drag. There will be live music, and there will be one unforgettable story about what it means to be Catholic and horny at the same time.

And buckle your seatbelts. Turn on your jetpacks. Let’s lose our minds... together. Tom Achilles performs a cavalcade of original characters, poems, and mind f-cks that leaves the audience wondering, “Is this comedy?” Guillotine features a half hour of tightly written dadaist performance art and stream of consciousness wordplay. The display of disorienting setups and surrealist punchlines will give audiences a new definition of unorthodox.

All My Little Words

 

Ashley Hollingshead

September 24, 2023 - September 27, 2023

ALL MY LITTLE WORDS looks at what it means to fail at art. Or what it's like to be afraid of failing at art. Which is to say, what it means to be an artist - though that depends upon the definition of "artist" that you use.

Using their long-time collaborator's unfinished graduate playwriting thesis as a jumping off point, Ashley Hollingshead explores the idea of artistic failure, practice, and success. All the while examining their changing relationship with their own artistic practice in this interactive performance/lecture/essay. 

 

Birth. Sparkle. Death.

 

Hannah Parke
September 2, 2023 - September 18, 2023

Hannah is a rising star. Hannah has a rare brain disorder. Hannah is disabled. A stand up/cabaret/video installation mash-up diving down the kaleidoscopic, surrealist rabbit hole of the stages of grief that come with the life altering diagnosis. Filled with trippy, defective medications, bloody brain surgeries, and know-nothing doctors. She is left unlatched and alone inside of the one thing that is broken: her own mind. With each original song, new feelings will be born and will die, just like her. From the enfeebled brains of the creators of the camp Fringe hit Close Your Legs, Honey!

She Who Must Not Be Named

 

Mitchell Nease
September 16, 2023 - September 17, 2023

A ritual summoning by the Bouffon of the world's most beloved auth-, I mean the most powerful dark wiz-, I mean queen of the TERFs-, I mean the de facto leader of the "Gender Critical" Movement. Truly the Chosen One. Her powers have faded, but are quickly growing, and she needs your support before it's too late. You may know her as J.K. Rowling. Or maybe Robert Galbraith. But we just call her She Who Must Not Be Named.

 

Today the sun is red.

 

Kristen Brown
September 4, 2023 - September 17, 2023

Part fever dream and part dramatic essay, “Today, the sun is red” is a meditation on the climate crisis.

The show unfolds as a lyrical monologue told by Kab, a twenty-something-year-old living in a global lockdown. In the year 2029, relentless wildfires destroy landscapes, degrade air quality, and endanger everyday survival. Going outside is a matter of life and death, and the government’s persecution of environmentalist writers only accelerates political tensions. Smoke engulfs the world, and Kab has something to say about it.

Taking place in a lonely apartment, Kab must find the hope in a better tomorrow and find the courage to embark on a new dawn.

 

IceBox Project Space, 1400 N American Street

Manflor

Santi Castro
September 4, 2023 - September 27, 2023

Zeta's peyote fueled gender journey moves him to a truth he never imagined for himself. With the help of his best friend Heatdeath, The Genderweird, the King of Cumbia, and even Billie Joe Armstrong of Greenday- Zeta journeys through all of Philadelphia on a quest to untangle his identity knot that's been preventing him from being his true self. Radically magical queer and LatinIndigenous voices. Chaos, glitter, and a whole lot of cumbia. Produced in Cannonball Fest as a 2023 Bipoc New work grant recipient!
 

Carnelian

 

Spare Titles
September 5, 2023 - September 9, 2023

Carnelian is an eclectic musical written by Lex Brown and co-composed by Samuel Beebe. In the course of a day, three mythical figures – Necyria, Bicyclus, and Orachrysops – await the imminent arrival of a cataclysmic event: the “Boom.”  Throughout 8 songs, each character contends with their own definition of power, whether it be natural, political, technological, or spectacular. Carnelian's debut at the Fringe brings these genre-bending songs to life with the original cast and a 5-piece band, led by Beebe on the piano and Brown playing the character of the Auctioneer.
 

Koal
 

Jacinta Yelland

September 13, 2023 - September 21, 2023
 

Koal is an interactive solo-show, performed by Jacinta Yelland and directed by Trey Lyford, that immerses the audience in the middle of the 2019 Australian bushfires. The show follows two eyewitnesses to this climate catastrophe; Koal, a baby koala recovering at a wildlife sanctuary after being severely burned, and Stevo, a career coal-miner trapped in a collapsed mine hundreds of meters underground. Woven throughout is the story of Minah, an Indigenous girl who was removed from her home and interned by her government during WWII. Using documentary theatre, clown, and audience interaction, Koal takes the audience from laughter to tears as it explores what is lost when your home is erased. Koal has been developed with the assistance of The Work and The Puffin Foundation.

MOMMA i RODE THE BEAST!

 

Jordan Deal
September 5, 2023 - September 20, 2023

MOMMA i RODE THE BEAST! is a hyper meta-physical dive into the indulgences of undercurrents that shapes our social and political landscapes, and stores itself in BODY. Through a series of horrific metamorphoses and ruptured happenings as a gothic queer existential necromantic wrestling inquisition with the BULL OF CHAOS, Jordan Deal questions the fugitivity to come thereafter~after it’s rode good.

Bite The Dust

 

inFLUX Theatre Collective
September 1, 2023 - September 13, 2023

2021 Fringie winners are back - this time taking on the big one: the final farewell, the big adios, the kick of the bucket - DEATH! In Bite the Dust, inFLUX dives into the fascinations and fears that bubble to the surface as we confront life’s biggest unknown. Join Bill Morty, a friendly volunteer art docent, as he attempts to confront his impending death. As he struggles to cope, absurdity ensures - maggots will tango, deer will dance their way to cellular oblivion, and more. Bite the Dust takes audiences on a romp through the anxiety of slipping away into nothingness. Bite the Dust continues inFLUX’s mission to create meticulous and raucously uninhibited new works of live performance. inFLUX’s 2021 Fringie winner, The Choice, went on to   a New York debut in 2022. They are back premiering Bite The Dust in Philly! Join them and have some fun with death!

The Secret Life of Gym Girls

 

Anna Azizzy
September 25, 2023 - September 29, 2023

Anna Azizzy’s “The Secret Life of Gym Girls” is an absurd and hilarious multimedia performance depicting a fictional gymnastics team, their coach, and moms. The characters’ experiences exaggerate the artist’s as a former gymnast and queer person. Azizzy reimagines their team’s stories, giving them secrets and exposing their most shameful (queer and unusual) desires.

 

707 Hazardous Moves

 

New Paradise Laboratories
September 9, 2023 - September 12, 2023

Whit MacLaughlin throws caution to the wind. He fell painfully in love with Stéphane Mallarmé’s puzzling poem A Throw of Dice Will Never Abolish Chance (1897) over a decade ago. Seeking answers to this mysterious affliction, he traveled to France to sit at the feet of enigmatic philosopher Quentin Meillassoux, invented an unpredictable sport crossing sumo with jousting, took a bullet in a street mugging, gave up theater, returned to theatre to create an audience hallucination in Turkey, and finally, after an OCD diagnosis, failed to stage the poem in multiple attempts. In 707 Hazardous Moves, MacLaughlin, all by himself and in his 70th year, details why he gives such an enduring f**k about such a strange old poem.

Updated with new anecdotes relating to the cosmic nature of chance. Web app to accompany the show: https://hazardous-predictions.web.app/

The Ledge

Allison Kelly & Grace Gilmore

September 2, 2023 - September 9, 2023

Two sisters arrive on a rock in the middle of the ocean. They are grieving. It is a funeral, but also a reunion. In Irish and Scottish folklore, selkies are seals that can transform into women on the 13th day of the month. They remove their skins and hide them away. They assume their human forms until they adorn their seal skins once again. If their skins are lost or stolen, they are cursed to remain human forever. In our story, these two women are not cursed. Or maybe they are. They are not seals. Or maybe they are. This is a love letter to the coast. Or maybe it isn’t.

Maas Cottage, 1320 N. 5th St

Earth: A Guide

Khalil Lesaldo
September 22, 2023 - September 29, 2023

Humans are interesting creatures, and Earth is a singular place to see. This is a lecture - how to blend in on Earth, based on my own experiences. Don't get found out.

Adam Sandler Jury Duty

 

GamePlay Theatre Lab
September 10, 2023 - September 24, 2023

Adam Sandler Jury Duty is a 35 minute campy interactive romp with an all trans/gender nonconforming cast that aims to pit you against your friends in an ideological debate over the morality of Adam Sandler, creating a theatrical experience that’s equally stupid as it is introspective.
 

My Soul is in Command: a tragi-comic musical creep show

 

Robert Carlton

September 17, 2023 - September 22, 2023

Step into a mesmerizing world where the boundaries of reality blur, as "My Soul is in Command: a tragi-comic musical creep show" takes center stage. Conceived, written, and performed by Robert Carlton, with guidance from Jennifer Johnson, “My Soul is in Command…” invites you on a captivating journey of introspection and hilarity. Developed at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts, this performance weaves together elements of the absurd and the pathetic, transporting the audience into a realm of dark humor filled with unexpected emotions.

My Wicked, Wicked Garden of Desire

 

Jim Julien
September 11, 2023 - September 15, 2023

An extremely wicked gardener confronts the consequences of their wicked schemes when three spirits appear to address all this vile wickedness. Presented in a very intimate setting, this original shadow puppet show, created, crafted and performed by Jim Julien, will feature a variety of puppetry styles with multimedia elements that will bring a wickedly foul presence to a gentle garden setting. A delightfully dark garden will be planted from cursed seeds. The wickedness grows right up from the roots.

Maas Garden, 1320 N. 5th St

She Was A Conquistawhore

Rachel O'Hanlon-Rodriguez & Pardners
September 5, 2023 - September 28, 2023

An absurd, radical, and deeply personal exploration of gender identity, intergenerational trauma, and healing. She Was A Conquistawhore takes audiences into a world where the Wild West is a wild night out, where humor is the best tool to examine wounds, and where sometimes vaginas grow up to be cowboys.

Directed by Cat Ramirez, written and performed by Rachel O’Hanlon-Rodriguez, with artistic support provided by Die-Cast, She Was A Conquistawhore collides comedy and poetry with theatricality for a self-reflective queer story to be shared in non-traditional performance spaces. The show explores harsh themes in soft and delicate ways to find laughter in the absurd cruelty of circumstance because sometimes life writes itself, and maybe we ought to laugh at our demons, if only, to gently hold them up to the light.

Who’s Listening

 

Betty Jean Nobles Thompson
September 3, 2023 - September 17, 2023

This dramatic story takes place in a middle-class Black family home, in the aftermath of the Pandemic and George Floyd’s murder. The main characters are the spouses, Kadeem, and Malia. They are both hardworking. They have career goals, social and economic goals. They have two adorable grade school daughters. Will Kadeem and Malia be able to recognize that there is a problem in their relationship, parenting, self-care? Will they be able to save their relationship? Will they figure out what’s important about life?

Eve

 

Kat Siciliano
September 4, 2023 - September 17, 2023

In this folk-musical retelling of the well known Bible story, Eve's heart wanders away from the man she was created for and toward a mysterious being in the garden. This story will explore the expectations behind relationships, free will's double edged sword, and self-sacrifice in the name of love. Written by Kat Siciliano.

Waiting for Ganol

 

Alex Marcus

September 7, 2023 - September 24, 2023

A South Philly backyard. A gender reveal. A giant cannoli. What could go wrong?

Spend an afternoon with the Cosentino family in a comedy that explores the shape of parental love and the paths we choose to lay out for our children.

Split Bill: Cloistered C/Sounding Spaces

 

Aram Aghazarian / Barry Sharp
September 10, 2023 - September 19, 2023

Cloistered C is an absurd meditation on moving through walls and changing locations.

Sounding Spaces is an improvised solo show by composer and musician Barry Sharp that integrates acoustic instruments and industrial ambiences into a dynamic and psychedelic performance experience.

 

Maas Studio, 1320 N. 5th St
 

Ohnonononononoooo9/11MANComesREALLYreallyhardTONIGHT

Sohrab Haghverdi
September 3, 2023 - September 25, 2023

A true to the definition 9/11 meditation, ceremony, ritual that takes you really way high up in the sky and smash your head into the glass windows of reality. The performance will most likely feel like we are all on the same ride but definitely have different destinations in mind. There might be a slight struggle as to who picks the route. What is certain however, as it always is, is that some of us will be the heroes of this journey, some will be the victims and some will never forget. 

The idea of this performance came to Sohrab when in a rehearsal someone asked "where were you on 9/11?" and he felt a strong impulse to make sure everyone knows that he was 8 at the time and home watching TV. 

In Ohnonononononoooo9/11MANComesREALLYreallyhardTONIGHT, Sohrab will be the middle eastern Sewer Rat he's been deep down but forgot to express to his friends. 

Vile

 

Francesca Montanile Lyons
September 7, 2023 - September 15, 2023

Francesca Montanile Lyons brings you a kaleidoscopic solo performance that rides the line between pleasure and disgust, where clown and buffon hold a funhouse mirror to the artist’s self. Here, the laughter is tinged with nausea, and the nausea is tinged with relief. If you’ve ever hated yourself and/or everyone in the world, welcome.

Vile is composed of highly physical performance states that are deeply pleasurable to perform in part because they are born from the most unpleasant parts of the artist. Lightly inspired by modern interpretations of the seven deadly sins, ingredients include: the decay of late stage capitalism, a skewering of rape culture, the hilarity of depression, plus greasy toes, a balloon penis, and extra cheese. Maybe a dash of sincerity. Collaborative support and design by Alicia Crosby.

Whore’s Eye View by Kaytlin Bailey

 

Kaytlin Bailey, Old Pros
September 24, 2023 - September 26, 2023

Whore’s Eye View is a 75-minute mad dash through 10,000 years of history from a sex worker’s perspective. Equal parts history lecture, stand up comedy, and personal storytelling, Kaytlin Bailey masterfully unpacks the age-old stigma surrounding the oldest profession. Her eye-opening performance weaves together compelling facts from history and hard won wisdom from lived experience, with comedic flair.

Testing Site

 

Ubin Movement Theatre
September 24, 2023 - September 28, 2023
 

Testing Site is about a being who is summoned into a white room and finds out that he is a subject in a series of experiments relating to phobias, conducted by a godlike mystery. While undergoing these experiments, the test subject begins to wonder if there is more to this test than he was told.

Family Acid Trip

Hannah Mitchell + Nathan Repasz
September 21, 2023 - September 22, 2023

Family Acid Trip is a collaborative work of experimental theater and music about a family trying to heal themselves through a shared psychedelic experience. Utilizing elements/influences of clowning, liturgical chant, bouffon, musical theatre, folk music, and noise, the show will explore themes of ego death, decomposition, rebirth, rewilding, and bird calls. The family finds themselves in the perfect spot, a field beside a river, where the natural world speaks vividly to them as they wait expectantly for this mysterious, unfamiliar experience to unfold. The work explores the power of this time of waiting, and what blooms within it. We engage with this subject matter through play and music, in the process dislodging old ways of seeing, and finding a new vision of what constitutes sanity.

Just Like Hollywood

Melanie Stewart/Blind Faith Theatre
September 10, 2023 - September 17, 2023

JUST LIKE HOLLYWOOD continues the decades-long collaboration between Melanie Stewart and John Clancy (KILL ME NOW, A SIMPLE FACT OF PAIN, STICKY) working at the crux of contemporary dance and theater practice. Joined by performers Kylie Westerbeck and Dane Eissler this new work centers on, explores and explodes the entrapment and degradation of a young woman in contemporary America.

On a bare stage, using only props supplied by a demanding and impatient master of ceremonies, Westerbeck must justify her continuing survival and prove her worth, her right to exist. Is she a beauty queen? An obedient dog? A willing lover or a wanton whore? What is the combination, what is the key to unlock the cage she exists in, she has been born in and she will die in if she cannot escape?

A rigorous and playful study of status and the eternal male/female dance and duel, JUST LIKE HOLLYWOOD (I SEE YOU WATCHING ME) examines the trap ensnaring so many women today, an invisible but all-encompassing prison she is raised in and taught to accept, if not embrace.

They’ve All Gone And We’ll Go Too

 

100th Meridian
September 5, 2023 - September 10, 2023

After premiering at the NJ Fringe Festival in 2019 and traveling to Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, 100th Meridian – a company dedicated to theatrical explorations of how rock and roll shapes our lives - brings a one-woman show, They’ve All Gone & We'll Go Too back home to Philadelphia.  The cast features two-time Barrymore Award winner Charlotte Northeast as Thompson, a woman desperate to get a ticket to the final show of her favorite band, the Tragically Hip. The Hip ended their career as a touring entity after the death of their lead singer and lyricist, Gord Downie, from glioblastoma in 2017. Written by Jared Michael Delaney from a concept by Northeast, and directed by Philadelphia Artists Collective Producing Artistic Director Damon Bonetti, They’ve All Gone... explores what it means to be Canadian in an American world, how music can save your life and how the universe is a far stranger and beautiful place than we give it credit for.

Upline: It’s Not a Show, It’s an Opportunity

 

Megan Stern
September 6, 2023 - September 19, 2023

Welcome to the party, future Boss Babes! Come travel the glamorous world of Varmon – the multi-level marketing beauty empire that has the best skincare products around and is also an irresistible business opportunity. Varmon is your ticket to Eternal Youth and Financial Freedom!* Upline is the recent winner of both the Audience Pick and Critics’ Choice awards in the Atlanta Fringe, as well as the Artist Pick for Encore in the Cincinnati Fringe. By the end of this absurd and interactive solo comedy, you’ll be ready to sign up and become a Varmonista yourself. Just don’t call it a pyramid scheme.

Banana

Michael Galligan
September 14, 2023 - September 18, 2023
 

Is he man? Or is he banana? The Cavendish banana is stuck in a shipping box, with only his sexy, more flavorful cousin Gros Michel to help him escape. But does the Cavendish even want to leave? Stand-up, physical comedy, magic, striptease and more in this Banana Burlesque, a solo clown show exploring themes of isolation, denial, and the human need for connection. The performance touches on themes of capitalism, shipping crises, mental health, and audience participation, using comedy as a tool to process painful realizations and truths.

Funkokomo

Mimebaby
September 4, 2023 - September 15, 2023

Do you like funky? Hot tubbin' with your hot cuzzin' vibes. Jucuzzin' with your favorite 'coozins. Featuring bikini line bumps, bumpin' lines off bikini bums, and the dangers of shaving. We all die together. We all resurrect together. Welcome to Door City. Dorsel Fin City. Infinitely. A new work that illuminates the absurdity of cruise ships, orange traffic cones, the falsities that we believe, and the false prophets we follow. Funkokomo asks: what's the difference between dystopia and utopia? My topia and your topia? And that topiary shaped like a phallus?

Funkokomo comes straight from the brains and bodies of the people who wrote the last few sentences. An absurd, experimental performance of dance, theater, clown, bouffon, hybrid, remote, actually in-person, organic calamity.

It’s Time We Pay Them A Visit

Anissa Weinraub + Practice Space
September 7, 2023 - September 26, 2023

The earth isn’t dying. People are killing the earth. And those people have names and addresses. It’s time we pay them a visit. Join a group of adventurers in this allegory for getting unstuck and taking action to stop the imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. The show sits atop our dying world, and explores what it will take for us to hear our instincts and follow our impulses to take a collective next step to confront and dismantle the systems that are destroying us. It lands somewhere between performance and practice space for envisioning economic and social transformation. Also, it’s a comedy. (Always cite your sources: We pull from lineages of Black feminisms, abolition and communism, like bell hooks, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Paulo Friere, Utah Phillips, Mariame Kaba, and others.)

With more than 160 shows, over 600 performances, across four venues, shows in Cannonball account for over half the independent side of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Audiences can see everything available during Cannonball at the hub’s website www.cannonballfestival.org.

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