Tickets Now On Sale for 15th Annual Philly Fringe

Tickets are now on sale for the 15th annual Philly Fringe, which runs in conjunction with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival from September 2 - 17. In another record-breaking year, the 2011 Philly Fringe will feature over 180 shows in venues throughout Philadelphia for the largest Fringe in the Festival's 15-year history.

The Fringe line-up includes theater, dance, comedy, music, film, poetry, puppetry, visual art, and work that incorporates multiple genres and disciplines, offering audiences the excitement of discovering new work from the region's vibrant performing arts community as well as artists from around the country and world. Highlights from the Fringe include daring dance by BrIan Sanders' JUNK, a scavenger hunt on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway with The Brothers Cromie, a glimpse of Paris through puppetry and storytelling with Sebastienne Mundheim's White Box Theatre, a theatrical experience that begins online and ends face-to-face from New Paradise Laboratories and much more.

Since 1997, the Philly Fringe has featured 10,000 artists in over 2,000 shows, playing to more than 250,000 audience members. The Philly Fringe celebrates live performance by offering festival artists the opportunity to present their work free of a selection process. For many professional companies, the Fringe brings the freedom to try something new and the platform to share their latest work with the Festival's enthusiastic and adventurous audiences. The Festival offers comprehensive administrative support throughout the production development process and encourages artists to give expression to and develop their creative visions in total artistic freedom, without curatorial barriers.

Artists in the 2011 Philly Fringe hail from Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania cities and suburbs, as well as Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina and Utah.

The farthest traveling participants this year are performing artists from Tel Aviv, Israel who will bring two award-winning works to the Festival, presented by the Consulate General of Israel in Philadelphia. Shufra's SMILEY sets the stage with a series of sexually charged monologues in a New Age empowerment workshop, while the Israeli production PAPER CUT follows the creative escape and daydreams of a lonely secretary played by solo puppeteer and object theater performance artist Yael Rasooly.

In conjunction with the Fringe, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival features performances by acclaimed international and local contemporary performing artists who are selected and invited to the Festival. Together, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe draw tens of thousands of people who come to be a part of "Festival time" in the city. Founded in 1997 as the Philly Fringe, the Festival, now in its 15th year, has developed into an internationally recognized presenting organization and performing arts destination, garnering critical praise, national grants, and numerous awards.

TICKETS
All Philly Fringe tickets, along with Live Arts Festival tickets, are now available for purchase online at www.livearts-fringe.org, or after Monday, Aug. 22 for phone and walk-up sales at the Festival Box Office at (215) 413-1318. Philly Fringe show prices vary and are listed with each show description on the Festival website and in the Festival guide. The 2011 Festival Box Office is located at the Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut Street. Box Office Hours: Pre-Festival, Aug. 22 - Sept. 1, 12pm - 7pm; Festival Hours, Sun. - Thu. 12pm - 9pm; Fri. - Sat. 11am - 9pm; Sept. 5 (Labor Day) 12pm - 7pm.

DANCE
The Philly Fringe dance lineup features a broad range of dance styles, including contemporary, ballet, modern, hip-hop and more. The Fringe will see the premiere of Dancing Dead, a new work by the visually captivating and physically daring BrIan Sanders' JUNK, creator of the Philly Fringe hit Flushdance ('08) and Live Arts Festival favorites Sanctuary ('10) and Urban Scuba ('09). Several site-specific dance works will be offered during the Fringe including Lawrence-Herchenroether Dance Company's Awakened Ruins, a performance installation set at Founder's Hall at Girard College; and Revolving Spaces, a journey through the streets of South Philadelphia beginning in Bardascino Park with Colleen Hooper and Frances Gremillion. Other returning dance artists include Green Chair Dance Group, Group Motion Dance Company, Keila Kordova Dances, Leah Stein Dance Company, MM2 Modern Dance Company, Pasion y Arte Flamenco Co., Pink Hair Affair and Xhale Dance Company, among others.

THEATER
With over 100 theatrical productions in the Philly Fringe, the 2011 lineup signifies another strong year for theater in the Festival. Theatre Exile will stage the Philadelphia premiere of playwright Annie Baker's The Alien - the story of two ex-band members who introduce a lonely teenager into their world of alienation and rebellion, staring Jeb Kreager, Sam Henderson and Aubiee Merrylees.

New City Stage Company will present two works by playwright Sam Shepard performed with live musical accompaniment - Savage/Love, a lonely man's quest for love, and Tongues, a passionate fever dream. Many other local favorites will return, including The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, IdRatherBeHere, Iron Age Theatre, Luna Theater Company, OMBELICO Mask Ensemble, Tongue & Groove Spontaneous Theater and Tribe of Fools.

HAPPENINGS
Two interactive happenings invite audiences to play a part in the Philly Fringe. The Brothers Cromie will bring their popular Fringe treasure hunt to Benjamin Franklin Parkway with AFOOT! On the Parkway. Burning Sphere plans to throw Rittenhouse Dance Mob, an open-invitation, collective dance performance in Rittenhouse Square Park.

IMPROV / COMEDY
The Philly Fringe will feature improvisational theater, stand-up, and sketch comedy by groups including Fringe veterans The N Crowd and Philly Improv Theater. Philadelphia sketch comedy troupe The Waitstaff return to the Fringe with audience favorites in The Real Housewives of South Philly Jump the Shark! The two-person improv team Dangerous Fools (Thomas Fowler and Mary Carpenter) impressed audiences with their stamina in the '10 Fringe and return to the Festival with a self-titled piece featuring a fool from L.A., a fool from Philadelphia and no script.

INTERDISCIPLINARY
The Philly Fringe will also showcase interdisciplinary works, such as New Paradise Laboratories' Extremely Public Displays of Privacy, a performance adventure in three acts, that begins online, moves to Center City with a free walking tour, and concludes in a to-be-revealed secret location.

Sebastienne Mundheim's White Box Theatre (Sea of Birds, Live Arts, '08) will offer a reprisal of the kid-friendly puppet show Paris Wheels and The Ready-Maids Present... Not the Henri Rousseau that Some of You Know..., a glimpse of Paris through the eyes of painter Henri Rousseau. Live Your Peace and Central Philadelphia Free Library invite Festival-goers to share messages of peace, passion and prosperity in the daily movie project One Peace at a Time. The Miss Rockaway Armada, a collective of artists from around the country, collaborate with Philadelphia's own Spiral Q Puppet Theater in Let Me Tell You About A Dream I Had, an epic parade from Broad and Pine to Clark Park, culminating in an afternoon of live music, puppetry and theatrical performances.

Additional interdisciplinary artists include HomeSkoolEd Gallery, Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and Tangle.

MUSIC and SPOKEN WORD

The Festival will showcase a range of music offerings, from An Opera a Day with Poor Richards Opera to the popular XFS Philly Song Shuffle with Xtreme Folk Scene, returning for their ninth year with the Fringe. Other musical programming includes work by City Wide Composers Collective, Philadelphia Opera Company, SRUTI The India Music and Dance Society and ZIYA. Spoken word artist Heather Shayne Blakeslee offers The Articulate Landscape, a staged reading with music by Sweetbriar Rose.

VISUAL ART and FILM
Visual art and film have an increased presence in this year's Philly Fringe. Gender Reel Multi-Media Festival will present a series of events within the Fringe exploring gender in film, photography and art. Visual artists Linda Dubin Garfield and Susan DiPronio invite art makers to create a portrait of "home" in A Place To Be.

FESTIVAL BAR + SOCIAL CLUB
Each night of the Festival will end at The Festival Bar + Social Club, a relaxed environment that brings together Festival artists and audiences after-hours. This year, the bar moves to RUBA Club Studios, an intimate bar and performance space at 416 Green Street (one block north of Spring Garden) in Northern Liberties. The Festival Bar + Social Club serves as a versatile space for Festival goers to unwind, enjoy post-show drinks and conversation, late-night cabaret and variety shows hosted by BRAT Productions, live music and deejays. Festival Bar admission is free and 21+. Doors open at 10pm nightly. Visit www.livearts-fringe.org for a full schedule of performers, DJs and other entertainment.

Visit www.livearts-fringe.org for up-to-date Festival announcements.

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