Philadelphia Live Arts Festival Final Week Features 5 Openings, Runs 9/15-19

The 13th annual Philadelphia Live Arts Festival heads into its final week of innovative and highly interdisciplinary programming and performances. In its final stretch, the Festival, which opened on September 4 and runs through September 19, will see the U.S. and Philadelphia Premieres of five productions from internationally renowned directors, choreographers and performers.

Tuesday evening kicks off the preliminary round of The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2009 (9/15-9/19, 8pm; Arts Bank at The University of the Arts, 601 S. Broad St.), a presentation made possible by The Live Arts Festival in collaboration with The Joyce Theater Foundation, The Dance Center of Columbia College, and On the Boards in Seattle. In Philadelphia, twelve area choreographers chosen for their ability to create inspirational and inventive contemporary dance will compete to win $10,000. The unique performance-based competition provides a platform for emerging artists to present their work, and for audiences to be exposed to and participate in the development process for the next wave of American choreography. For four nights of the Festival's final week, a new round of the competition will run, culminating in a final performance on the closing night of the Festival.

Opening on Wednesday is the Philadelphia premiere of small metal objects (9/16-9/19, The 40th Street Field, University of Pennsylvania, 40th Street between Walnut and Locust). Back to Back Theatre of Geelong, Australia, will examine how respect is withheld from "outsiders" in this piece, performed amid the surging pedestrian traffic of a public space in University City. Equipped with headphones, the audience is wired into an intensely personal drama. Back to Back's creations come from the minds and experiences of an ensemble of actors with disabilities, giving voIce To social and political issues that speak to all people.

Also hailing from the land down under is the highly acclaimed Melbourne-based Chunky Move. The company promises a cutting-edge fusion of technology and dance in the U.S. premiere of Mortal Engine (9/17-9/19, The Wilma Theater, 265 South Broad St.), an intensely physical, sensual, and visually daring work that melds laser and video projections to the shape-shifting motions of live dancers. "My theme... is human duality, trying to come to terms with what seems to be irreconcilable aspects of our one self," says Chunky Move Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek. "The video creation of semi-autonomous human shadows and images both entering and emanating from the moving body on stage, provide a unique visual metaphor for this theme."

In the World premiere of Postcards from the Woods (9/16-9/19, ICE BOX Projects Space, 1400 North American St.), Bessie award-winning choreographer Merián Soto/Performance Practice offers a dreamlike installation of light and sound as performers dance with branches, some 25 feet long, set against a backdrop of video projections of nature in extreme close-up. "I want to bring the outside inside," says Soto, whose new work is a part of her States of Gravity & Light series that has included the Wissahickon Park Project.

Finally, New York based songwriters Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips, formerly of the indie band Luna, will perform the Philadelphia premiere of 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests (9/18, 7 & 9pm; Arts Bank at The University of the Arts, 601 South Broad St.) during the final weekend of the Festival. The musicians composed an original soundtrack and created, along with The Andy Warhol Museum, a live multi-media presentation, providing a new context for experiencing Warhol's films. "When you are composing for film, you have to serve the picture," said Wareham. "Part of our task was to figure out the mood of each Screen Test."

Continuing their Live Arts performances during the final week will be New Paradise Laboratories with FATEBOOK and the Pig Iron Theatre Company's production of Welcome to Yuba City. The final chapter of the Festival Plus program will feature a panel discussion of technology as performance on the last day of the Festival, September 19 at 1pm at the Arts Bank at The University of the Arts, 601 South Broad St.).

This week is also a last chance to visit the Festival Bar, a unique experiential venue which premiered at the 2008 Festival as a place to let loose after a full day of Festival events. Against a backdrop of art installations, The Festival Bar serves as a versatile after-hours space for Festival-goers to interact with artists, socialize with one another, grab a cocktail, enjoy music and more at the end of each Festival day.

All tickets are available for purchase at www.livearts-fringe.org or by calling the Box Office at (215) 413-1318.

 

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