Podcasts about fringearts

THE HALF-GOD OF RAINFALLBY INUA ELLAMSDIRECTED BY LINDSAY SMILINGFebruary 11 – March 2, 2025Nigerian-born British poet and playwright Inua Ellams blends Yoruba and Greek mythologies into an incredible story of a demigod-turned-NBA superstar in The Half-God of Rainfall. The epic poem follows a half-Nigerian mortal, half-Greek God named Demi, who possesses extraordinary powers yet is burdened by the expectations of his lineage. Demi's powers grow as he leaves his West Nigerian village for the bright lights of the NBA, where he emerges as an all-world talent driven by passion, power, and destiny. Under the directorial vision of Wilma Co-Artistic Director Lindsay Smiling, (recently seen on stage in Fat Ham and My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion) The Half-God of Rainfall features the HotHouse Acting Company and explores the intersection of patriarchy, imperialism, and American basketball.Suli Holum (she/her) received a Helen Hayes nomination for her role in The Wilma's My Mama and the Full Scale Invasion (co-produced with DC's Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co). Co-Founder Pig Iron Theatre Company and Stein | Holum Projects (SHP). Awards: Drama Desk Award, TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, Barrymore Award, Independence Fellowship, NEFA Touring Grant. Solo performance: Chimera and The Wholehearted (SHP) presented by FringeArts, HERE/Under the Radar, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group (LA), Z Space and The Gate (London). In development: The Woman Question, Pew supported commission for Peoples' Light with HotHouse member Melanye Finister. Wilma: Romeo and Juliet, Dance Nation, Minor Character, Cherry Orchard, Twelfth Night. Off-Broadway: Hot and Throbbing (Signature Theater); Regional: Born Yesterday (Arena Stage); International: A Doll's House (FringeArts/Oslo Opera House); TV/Film: Baby Grief, The Fourth Wall, Ghostlight, Law & Order SVU, Mare of Easttown. FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION: https://wilmatheater.org/event/thehalfgodofrainfall/

Co-owners and ChefsTara Buzan-Hardy and Alex Hardy joined forces to open At The Table BYOB, beginning in a cozy venue. Since opening they've created a balance between savory comfort foods and gastronomic artistry for all discerning palates. The results speak for themselves, as their restaurant's popularity grew. Now, they've expanded into a larger venue and added cocktail offerings; happy hour specials; raw bar; and more. The couple, whose respective backgrounds also reflect their duality for their guests' dining experiences, are constantly developing new dishes to entice their guests and their own culinary imaginations.Our next guest, Kenneth Bush, is both Executive Chef & Owner of FringeBar in Philadelphia. Chef Kenneth joined us to further discuss the artistry behind cultivating a menu reflective of the venue space and his expertise. FringeBar, which is located within the contemporary FringeArts performance theatre, offers multiple cuisines: One which is focused on a more innovative menu, and the second via a stationary food truck named Pumphouse Pizza. Chef/Owner Kenneth has a long history within the culinary community, working within the kitchens of Peter Woosley. Now, Chef Kenneth not only owns and runs FringeBar, he also co-owns the newly opened restaurant, The Morris. Fresh is best, something that Ben Beaver, who works as the Executive Chef at Ever Grain Brewing Company, Ever Grain Farms, and their recently opened Wild Rabbit Pies and Pints stands by. Ever Grain's owners have a strong focus on offering creative and innovative beers using farm-fresh produce--in fact, they've sourced their ingredients from the plants that Chef Beaver and their support staff have grown at Ever Grain Farms. In addition to the craft brews, Chef Beaver incorporates the beers, produce, and proteins from the farm to create the menus for both the brewery as well as at Wild Rabbit Pies and Pints! So, if you want to learn more about the delightfully creative restaurants that joined us this week--be sure to tune in to Food Farms and Chefs Radio Show at 6PM on WWDB and WPEN today if you live in the Philadelphia listening area, or Friday at 1pm on WMLD 103.7 FM if you live in the New York, Connecticut, and Northern New Jersey regions, or you can stream us at any time by searching for us on your preferred streaming platform!

Happy Friday it's podcast day. Thank you for all of your support. Today's blog we will be discussing the following topics:CannonballFringe FestThe ArtsChildren and Mental health and more................................We have Sam Tower Program Manager and Performance for Young Audiences Cohort Artistic Producer as we talk about Cannonball Fest..............................Cannonball has doubled down on offering something for everyone this year. As the size of the hub has exploded, so has the hub's ability to showcase programming for younger audiences. Philadelphia Fringe Festival goers of all ages will find a treasure trove of back-to-back circus, dance, theatre, puppetry, music, and interactive installations all month long . Audiences can find free outdoor performances at Liberty Lands, 913 N 3rd St, every Friday-Sunday September 8 - 30, plus sliding scale tickets for all shows at the MAAS Building, Icebox Project Space, and Fidget Living Room throughout the month.. 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/cannonballkids. 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.Follow Cannonball Fest on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok and if you can't attend but want to donate please do. ....................As always you can fine me on socials as Toitimeblog and on the blog.

IN THEIR SILENCE(formerly, They'll Neglect to Tell You)by TS Hawkinsdirected by Reva StoverSeptember 15-October 1 *limited engagementClick here for Sept. 15th - 24th; tickets available at FringeArts!Click here for Sept. 29th - Oct 1st; tickets available at Allens Lane!ABOUT THE PLAYGrace is a burgeoning therapist. Merci dangles for freedom at the bottom of a bourbon glass. College sweethearts and newlyweds, they elope to Philadelphia for a fresh beginning. Stumbling into polarizing landscapes, they struggle in the margins of heart and home.Listen to the Moodlist on Spotify!Read about Grace & Merci's journey!CAST(She/They) Sabriaya Shipley as GRACEJaylyn Anderson as MERCIJameka Monet Wilson as THE CITYCREATIVE & CREW(They/Them) TS Hawkins - Playwright, Dramaturg, & Marketing CoordinatorReva Stover - Director(He/Him) Josh Hitchens - Allens Lane Art Center Artistic Director, Stage Manager, Sound Designer, & Costume ManagerCJ Higgins - Intimacy DirectorSabrena Wishart - Set DesignerSiobhan Ehresmann - Lighting DesignerMegan Edelman - Prop ManagementSPONSORSDorothy Lewis-Hawkins, Black Theatre Alliance of Philadelphia, and Prime Act Media LLCFRINGE RECOMMENDS:Cannonball - https://www.cannonballfestival.orgHum N' Bards - http://www.humnbards.comMind The Gap - https://fringearts.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0S6e00000h3ZATEA2Links:TS POETICS: https://www.tspoetics.com/2022/09/events-in-their-silence-by-ts-hawkins.htmlALLENS LANE ART CENTER: https://allenslane.org/theater/TIX at Allens Lane: https://allenslane.org/theater/TIX at FRINGE ARTS: https://phillyfringe.org/events/in-their-silence/

Dante Green (they/he/she) is a Black, Queer, multi-hyphenate born and raised in rural Pennsylvania. They are an alumnus of The Headlong Performance Institute as well as The University of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Directing, Playwriting, and Production focused on writing and directing for Musical Theatre. Dante is the Founding Artistic Director of the evolving company The Makers' Ensemble, which recently acquired its own flex performance/rehearsal space in Bushwick. Dante is a Network of Ensemble Theaters member, a Princess Grace Award Finalist, and the inaugural New Directions Fellow at Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. Dante's work has been seen at Ars Nova, Pig Iron Theater Company, FringeArts, and other places. Dante has worked internationally with companies such as The Public Theater, Virgin Voyages, Lantern Theater Company, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, The Assembly, and others. When Dante isn't working professionally, they are an Instructor of Theater at Wesleyan University, New York University, and Sheridan College in Toronto, Canada. www.dantegreen.com Instagram: Ally is a queer triple-threat performer and creator born and raised in Toronto, ON. They are a recent graduate of the Honours Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance program at Sheridan College. As a dramaturge and director, they are interested in cultivating new musical theatre works that feature dance and the ensemble in new and innovative ways. As a performer, they are most interested in how we can use music and dance to amplify the extremes of the human experience. https://www.allychozik.com/ This cutting-edge electro-synth pop musical takes audiences on an electrifying journey exploring life, death, and life after death. Following a global announcement of the exact time the Earth, as we know it, will cease to exist, a community of friends and lovers gather together for one last rager. We invite you into a glance at the last party on Earth --interweaved through a retrospective of cherished and tragic memories-- to celebrate and mourn the delights and deceptions of the human experience. We've all been through our own nightmare, so why not go out with a bang? This cutting-edge electro-synth pop musical takes audiences on an electrifying journey exploring life, death, and life after death. Following a global announcement of the exact time the Earth, as we know it, will cease to exist, a community of friends and lovers gather together for one last rager. We invite you into a glance at the last party on Earth --interweaved through a retrospective of cherished and tragic memories-- to celebrate and mourn the delights and deceptions of the human experience. We've all been through our own nightmare, so why not go out with a bang? AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF ALL THE THINGS I'M GOING TO MISS WHEN THE WORLD IS NO LONGER: is a cutting-edge electro-synth pop musical that takes audiences on an electrifying journey exploring life, death, and life after death. Following a global announcement of the exact time the Earth, as we know it, will cease to exist, a community of friends and lovers gather together for one last rager.  https://makersensemble.org/list

This September, Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series will present the first career retrospective of theater artist Annie Dorsen titled Algorithmic Theater. The retrospective is part of a residency advancing Dorsen's work and examining the consequences of digital communications through theater. Algorithmic Theater brings Dorsen's work to Philadelphia audiences for the first time and features four of her past projects, including Hello Hi There (2010), Spokaoke (2012), A Piece of Work (2013), and Yesterday Tomorrow (2015). Together, these works tell a story about advancing technology, encroaching artificial intelligence, and post-anthropocentric art-making that attempt to reckon with the last decade of history.Dorsen is a New York-based theater director and artist who works at the intersection of algorithmic art and live performance. Since 2010, she has built a body of work in what she's referred to as “algorithmic theater,” creating custom algorithms that perform in lieu of or alongside human performers. The pieces position the digital world's influence on our everyday lives in dialogue with classical dramatic forms to confront the consequences of our increasing entanglement with information technologies.Algorithmic Theater will begin with a presentation of A Piece of Work on September 9 at 8 p.m. at McPherson Auditorium. Mixing live performance with algorithms and interfaces, A Piece of Work flips the switch between man and machine in a digital version of Hamlet for a post-humanist age. The spectators are absorbed in a swirl of connections amongst memory, language, and technology, implicating both the past and future of theater itself. New scenes, songs, scores, and visuals emerge from an intricate and ingeniously programmed web of technology that uses Shakespeare's original text as data.The next piece, Spokaoke, will be hosted on September 10 at 10 p.m. at the Marie Salant Neuberger Centennial Campus Center. Spokaoke is a participatory event that invites people to perform speeches as they would ordinarily perform songs in a karaoke bar. Speeches are, after all, songs of persuasion, argument, consolidation, or motivation. Over 90 speech videos are loaded into a karaoke system and arranged in a catalog for audience members to peruse. Participants will read various forms of public addresses, including political speeches, award acceptance speeches, press conferences, theatrical monologues, eulogies, and trial testimony. An additional presentation of Spokaoke will take place at FringeArts on September 16 at 10 p.m. as a part of this year's Fringe Festival, featuring a special guest host.The third piece, Hello Hi There, will be presented on September 10 & 11 at 8 p.m. at Hepburn Teaching Theater. Dorsen uses the famous television debate between philosopher Michel Foucault and linguist/activist Noam Chomsky from the 1970s as inspiration for a dialogue between two custom-designed chatbots. Material from the debate, along with additional text culled from YouTube, the Bible, Shakespeare, and western philosophy, is inputted into computer programs designed to mimic human conversation to create a new, “improvised” dialogue at each performance.Finally, Algorithmic Theater will conclude with Yesterday Tomorrow at McPherson Auditorium on September 15 at 8 p.m., September 16 at 6 p.m., and September 17 at 8 p.m. In Yesterday Tomorrow, three singers receive computer-generated music and lyrics both aurally and visually. The algorithmically-produced score begins with the Beatles' hit song “Yesterday” and slowly transforms into “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie. Inspired by an artificial intelligence known as evolutionary computation, Yesterday Tomorrow gives a unique experience of the complexity and unpredictability of the present tense contrasted with the known past and the imagined future. Each night, the spatial and musical path from the past to the future is different; neither the singers, creative team, nor the audience knows the route the performance will take them.Free tickets will be available to students from the Tri-College Consortium (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore) and can be reserved by calling 610-526-5300, or emailing reservations@brynmawr.edu.General admission tickets for Algorithmic Theater performances will be available online for $20, $18 for seniors (65+), $10 for students (not from the Tri-College Consortium), and $5 for children under five.In addition to presenting performances, Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series will release an accompanying publication titled Algorithmic Theater: Essays and Interviews, 2012-2022. The publication highlights the last decade of Dorsen's work, and a limited number of copies will be available to the public for free. Edited by writer and theater critic Tom Sellar, the book features essays by Dorsen as well as illuminating conversations with her collaborators. It also includes a collection of essays previously published in journals, monographs, and anthologies by Miriam Felton-Dansky, Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Sarah Bay-Cheng, W.B. Worthen, and Johannes Birgfeld.ABOUT ANNIE DORSEN:Annie Dorsen is a director and writer whose works explore the intersection of algorithms and live performance. Her most recent project, Infinite Sun (2019), is an algorithmic sound installation commissioned by the Sharjah Biennial 14. Previous performance projects, including The Slow Room (2018), The Great Outdoors (2017), Yesterday Tomorrow (2015), A Piece of Work (2013), Spokaoke (2012), and Hello Hi There (2010), have been widely presented in the US and internationally.FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://anniedorsen.digital.brynmawr.edu and https://anniedorsen.com/

Today on the podcast, GUNNAR MONTANA returns to talk about the latest FringeArts offering, BATHHOUSE. Here is my interview with Gunnar Montana.Designed as a temple to the fluid nature of sexuality, BATH HOUSE is a deeply sensory immersive theatrical experience dripping with erotic energy from start to finish. BATH HOUSE fuses dance and movement to create an atmosphere where guests are free to indulge their deepest desires, and perhaps even discover new ones.VIP Packages Available: The VIP Table Experience is the ultimate way to get up close and personal with Gunnar and the BATH HOUSE cast. The Experience includes (4) VIP table seats, (4) official BATH HOUSE t-shirts, a bottle of champagne for your table, and a post-show meet and greet with the cast. Check ticket page for VIP options.FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.gunnarmontana.com

Suli Holum is a theatre artist whose work has been supported by the Orchard Project, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, the Playwright's Center, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and HERE, and presented by FringeArts, The Public Theatre/UTR, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Z Space and The Gate in London.  As a member of Philadelphia's Wilma Hothouse she has appeared in Romeo and Juliet and Dance Nation. Other acting projects include Sweat at Philadelphia Theatre Company, On the Exhale at Theatre Exile, The Few at Theatre Horizon, and Cabaret at the Arden, and an appearance on HBO's Mare of Eastown. As a writer and director, she is a longtime collaborator with choreographer Nichole Canuso and has developed commissions for the National Constitution Center and the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. A founding member of Pig Iron Theatre Company, she went on to co-found Stein | Holum Projects with Deborah Stein where she co-created and performed the Drama Desk-nominated Chimera, and The Wholehearted.  She recently launched Suli Holum/The Work, a Philadelphia-based incubator for live performance. A recipient of a Drama Desk Award, a TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, and a Barrymore Award, she is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College where she was the recipient of the 2020 Engaged Artist Award.

“Feastival” is back! KYW Newsradio's Hadas Kuznits chats with Joanne Marder of Fringe Arts about their culinary fundraiser of the year — and the changes they've made to it because of COVID-19. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to Happy Hour on The Fringe. April Rose, the independent artist programs manager at FringeArts sits down with Evan Neiden of Candle House Collective, an experimental theater company that creates performances takes place over the phone for one audience member. The two discuss how this work is made, what inspires the work, and how to engage with audiences remotely, which we're all have been doing for the first time.

On tonight’s into the absurd, we talk with Christopher Munden, editor of the arts and theater website Phindie, and the Philly Fiction series of short story collections. Phindie provides independent coverage of Philadelphia theater and arts, with a focus on independent theater. Articles provide critical reaction to new works and publicize events of interest to fans of theater and arts in Philly.Chris has also written and edited for Visit Philly, FringeArts, the National Constitution Center, the Historical Society of Philadelphia, Science History Institute, the Philadelphia History Museum, and other local institutions.He is a cofounder of the sports non-profit Kensington Soccer Club and a cohost of the theater podcast Chosen by Committee. Find him @cpmunden.

For our final episode of 2020, Marketing Manager Raina Searles and Individual Giving Manager Jennifer Shorstein sit down with Juliana Carter, our newest Board member and co-chair of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. We cover the ups and downs of 2020, where FringeArts is headed, and what we're ready to leave behind this year. Learn how you can support the work of FringeArts this year at FringeArts.com/support.

Collaborators and performing arts alumni Chelsea Cylinder, Danie Moore, and Hannah Spear are just days away from the premiere of a new digital piece! Crossover: A New Pop Musical runs September 24 - September 26 as part of the 2020 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Current students at the University of Pennsylvania can enter our lottery to snag free tickets! For more about the show and to purchase tickets, visit FringeArts.com/Crossover. Check out the producing company, Green Light Group Productions, and find all of our alumni online! Follow Danie on Instagram @Danie.Moore, visit Chelsea on Instagram at @cecylinder and on ChelseaCylinder.com, and keep an eye out for Hannah's ongoing project with the Women's Theatre Festival. Facebook: PlattHouse and UPenn.PAC.Shop Instagram: @PennPlattHouse and @PACShop4100 Our theme music is Retro Climb, by Peter Lu. This podcast was edited by Sara Outing, and produced by Platt Student Performing Arts House at the University of Pennsylvania.

Theatre artists Ben Behrend and Logan Schulman join me on the internet to talk about the Philadelphia theatre scene, art and grief in the age of COVID, their newest collaboration coming to screens near you! Their new virtual show, Welcome to the Shiva House, runs September 10 - September 27 as part of the 2020 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Tickets are free! For more information and for tickets, visit FringeArts.com/Welcome-to-the-Shiva-House. You can find Ben online at benjaminbehrend.com, and Logan at loganschulman.net. Facebook: PlattHouse and UPenn.PAC.Shop Instagram: @PennPlattHouse and @PACShop4100 Our theme music is Retro Climb, by Peter Lu. This podcast was edited by Amanda Labonte, and produced by Platt Student Performing Arts House at the University of Pennsylvania.

Today on the podcast artistic producer Katy Dammers speaks with Adrienne Mackey, founder and artistic director of Swim Pony, as well as Lizzie Hessek, a Program Manager of Trails and Recreation at the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. Adrienne and Lizzie discuss how Swim Pony and the PEC came together to collaborate alongside Toaster Lab and Michael Kiley to create the unique project that is TrailOff, which will be launching via the TrailOff app as part of the 2020 Fringe Festival. TrailOff is an immersive augmented reality audio performance which presents ten original audio narratives, each connected to paths within the Philadelphia region’s expansive Circuit Trails network. In this conversation, Lizzie and Adrienne discuss how their project grapples with environmental injustice by centering experiences that connect with communities traditionally underserved by environmental programming. Learn how you can download the TrailOff app, and find out more about the collaborators involved in this project by visiting the TrailOff event page on the FringeArts website: https://fringearts.com/event/trailoff/

In this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe Marketing Manager Raina Searles talks with Rachel Gita Karp and Joseph Amodei whose production Packing and Cracking will run from September 23-September 30 as part of the 2020 Fringe festival. Packing and Cracking will be presented via zoom, and is an interactive mapmaking event which explores how politicians choose their voters through gerrymandering. Packing and Cracking combines critical cartography, gerrymandering history, and interviews with today’s politicians and reformers to reveal how easy and disenfranchising gerrymandering can be and to ask participants the critical question of “what, if anything, we should do about it?” Listen to Raina, Rachel, and Joseph discuss the making of Packing and Cracking, Gerrymandering in Pennsylvania, and what you can expect as a participant in Packing and Cracking. To Learn more about Packing and Cracking and how to get involved you can visit the event page on Fringearts.com: https://fringearts.com/event/packing-and-cracking/ Visit the Packing and Cracking website here: https://www.packingandcracking.com/ Learn more about the creators and their other projects by visiting their websites: https://www.jamodei.com/ https://www.rachelkarp.com/

Maren continues the story of Seduction's Servant, which was written during a production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. She also delves into the significance of the bodice as a metaphor for the restrictions society puts on us (and the ones we put on ourselves), and tells a painful personal story about her childhood.TW: childhood trauma, sexual abuse(If you want to skip ahead, Seduction's Servant begins around the 11-minute mark)If you are a survivor of child sexual abuse and need or would like help, visit The Younique Foundation https://youniquefoundation.org/ for resources in your area, or call 800-656-HOPE (4673) for confidential support.Follow Maren on Instagram: @supermarenFacebook: https://facebook.com/maren.montalbanoPurchase Maren's debut book, Pandemic Passion: A COVID-19 novella on Kindle: https://amzn.to/3guGck0Transcript and Show Notes: http://www.bodiceripperproject.com/e004/

Artistic Producers Katy Dammers and Zach Blackwood sit down with the team behind the Elephant Room 2, a sequel to FringeArts' previous presentation of Geoff Sobelle, Trey Lyford, and Steve Cuiffo's magical clown show. From the artists that brought you Festival favorites like HOME and The Accountant, Elephant Room 2: Dust from the Stars puts magicians Daryl Hannah, Dennis Diamond, and Louie Magic out in space! Listen up as Geoff, Trey, and Steve talk about what audiences can expect in this second installment, and how they might experience Elephant Room 2 on Zoom! For more information about Elephant Room 2: Dust from the Stars, visit our website www.fringearts.com/2020-fringe-festival/ on Monday, August 10th! Tickets available August 14th.

During the global pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can’t gather, we’ll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during the pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Marketing Manager Raina Searles and Artistic Producer Katy Dammers chat with Kitsie O'Neill, Executive Director of the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts. The three discuss how PSCA is continuing to teach classes amid the pandemic, why being connected during this time is so important, and tightrope walking with chalk! To learn more about PSCA and how to take classes, visit their website at http://phillycircus.com/

In this episode, Marketing Manager Raina Searles chats with three incredible advocates and activists from the Institute on Disabilities: Jamie Ray-Leonetti, Kim Singleton, and Lisa Sonneborn. The Institute on Disabilities was last working with FringeArts in early 2019 for the presentation of their show A Fierce Kind of Love in the inaugural High Pressure Fire Service festival. Listen in on this smart and incisive conversation about the way the Institute has had to pivot their work in the time of the coronavirus, and how the pandemic has intersected with the experience of those living with disabilities. If you're interested in learning more about policy initiatives at the Institute, visit their website here. To learn more about their Personal Directed Services: Stories project, visit the page here.

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Marketing Manager Raina Searles and Artistic Producer Katy Dammers chat with Anne White, dancer and Education/Community Relations Specialist at BalletX, Philadelphia's premiere contemporary ballet company founded in 2005. The three discuss what it takes to keep dancing during lockdown, the essential nature of the arts, and how hope for a brighter future is instilled through togetherness and creativity. 

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Marketing Manager Raina Searles and Artistic Producer Zach Blackwood chat with Greg Maughan, founder and Executive Director of Philly Improv Theater. Hear about how PHIT made the switch to a weekly roster of Zoom comedy shows, adjusting to a virtual comedy festival, and using the shift to digital to allow for creativity in show design. Learn more at https://phillyimprovtheater.com/.

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Marketing Manager Raina Searles and Artistic Producer Zach Blackwood chat with Hugh Wilikofsky and Kevin McKinney about their quarantine creation, Real Deep Radio. The group talks about how Real Deep Radio came to be, how it has organically grown throughout quarantine, why radio is experiencing a renaissance, how memes can exist in the audio sphere, and the ways in which passion keeps us together in times of isolation. Subscribe to Real Deep Radio's newsletter for updates on their programming.

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Marketing Manager Raina Searles and Artistic Producers Zach Blackwood and Katy Dammers chat with FringeArts Ambassadors Tobie and David about the ways in which they are staying connected to the arts and their communities during this time.

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Marketing Manager Raina Searles chats with Keila Perez-Vega, Marketing Associate for Kun-Yang Lin Dancers. They discuss KYLD's recently streamed, previously archived show, SANTUARIO, and how the decision to stream it came to be. They also delve into what it means to be in a dance company during the pandemic, and ways to stay connected to your body during this time of isolation.

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Community Engagement Manager Tenara Calem chats with Elicia Gonzales, Executive Director of the Women's Medical Fund. They discuss the nuanced ways in which abortion needs and access are impacted by the pandemic, and what our community can do to help. Check out their website, Twitter and Facebook to learn more, and take a look at the Women’s Medical Fund’s upcoming events here.

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Community Engagement Manager Tenara Calem chats with Christina Gesualdi of the Philadelphia Tenants Union. They explore the priorities of the Philadelphia Tenants Union during this time, the importance of organizing your neighbors on a foundation of trust, and how Christina's experience as a dancer intersects with her work in the union. As mentioned in the episode, here are some additional resources: PTU's Tenant Organizing guide for guidance during the pandemic Information on the illegality of evictions (until May 31st) Article on the housing crisis/waves of eviction Threat of forced evictions A bill to cancel rent and mortgage payments How landlords are concerned with optics For Tenants Only Office Hours

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Community Engagement Manager Tenara Calem and Artistic Producer Zach Blackwood chat with Eric Jaffe, full-time drag performer and organizer of queer communities in Philadelphia. They delve into their corona-catalyzed consolidation effort to gather information about digital performances by other queer artists into an accessible weekly list, as well as ways for you to help and get involved. Check out their Facebook page, website and YouTube channel for more information - and be sure to tune in to Digital Drag Brunch every Saturday at 12pm EST.

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Community Engagement Manager Tenara Calem chats with Nancy Hill, museum manager at the Mütter Museum, and Beth Uzwiak, research director at Ethnologica about their collaboration with Blast Theory for the pandemic exhibit Spit Spreads Death last summer. In Spit Spreads Death, the team organized a processional to commemorate the victims of the 1918 Flu Pandemic in Philadelphia. Tune in to hear about the intersection of public health and art, and learn about what we have to be optimistic about during this dark time.

During the global coronavirus pandemic, FringeArts is pivoting the focus of our podcast to checking in with our artists, our audiences, and our community partners during these unprecedented times. Since we can't gather, we'll chat remotely about how we respond to this crisis, and how the role of art during a pandemic shifts. In this episode, FringeArts Community Engagement Manager Tenara Calem chats with Blast Theory, a performance company based in the United Kingdom that creates interactive art to explore social and political questions. Blast Theory was in Philadelphia last summer in 2019 for the opening of the Mutter Museum's pandemic exhibit Spit Spreads Death, in which they organized a processional to commemorate the victims of the 1918 Flu Pandemic in Philadelphia. Tenara chats with Blast Theory artists Matt Adams and Nick Tandavanitj about the prophetic nature of their project and how art can imagine a different future. Plus - look out for a special Part 2 episode on April 8th with two of the brains behind the Spit Spreads Death exhibit about the role of community organizing and performance in the medical humanities.

Health and safety are our number one priorities here at FringeArts, and in compliance with CDC recommendations for staying safe during the Covid-19 pandemic, we will be postponing our 2020 High Pressure Fire Service presentations, including BOY PROJECT. More information will be available soon about when HPFS will take place. Happy Hour on the Fringe will continue to come out with podcast episodes about our artists and community partners, so don’t fear — FringeArts is still kicking! Community is crucial in this time of crisis, so please do not hesitate to reach out. In this episode, artist Nell Bang-Jensen and student Samiha Hadeed-Moore sit down to talk about their upcoming piece, BOY PROJECT. Supported by a professional team of theater artists and designers, youth from a variety of backgrounds perform a playful and revelatory new work, the culmination of months of outreach, story circles, and workshops. Through games, fantasies, original songs, and in-the-moment contemplation of questions of desire and power, BOY PROJECT strips away the structures of traditional theater to examine and redefine our expectations of masculinity. An exploration of a new generation, BOY PROJECT invites us to ponder how young men can express their gender in a way that privileges vulnerability and the full range of human emotions. Listen to this candid conversation between Nell and Samiha to hear a new perspective on gender, sexism, and how these phenomena have presented differently over time.

I’m here today to bring you a very special episode that I recorded with my amazing friend Jennifer Blaine. If you’re a long-time listener, you’ll know that Jennifer has been on the show twice before, but this is my first time getting to interview her. We had the most amazingly deep conversation about creativity that had us both in tears by the end. I honestly didn’t want it to end and I think we could have talked for at least another hour, but I am so so proud of what we managed to capture here. I hope this conversation gives you good things to think about if you’re stuck at home waiting out the coronavirus like me and everybody else.  This episode is for the artists and creatives out there, especially the artists like me who sometimes struggle for a reason to keep making art. It’s for writers who have lost the plot, painters who are procrastinating and actors who aren’t sure if they can do one more audition. So strap your headphones on extra tight and enjoy the show! About Jennifer Blaine Jennifer Blaine has been performing one-woman shows for 25 years. Her original writing, performing, and comedy delve into serious and socially relevant issues and provides audiences the opportunity to unite in laughter. Jennifer has opened for George Carlin, and performed with Chris Rock and Joe Piscopo.  She has worked with iconic actors such as Glenda Jackson, Laura Linney, Joanne Woodward, and Paul Newman. She was featured on ABC’s Philly After Midnight: Women Comedians and has lent her voice to hundreds of voiceover projects. According to the Philadelphia Daily News “not even Sybil can compete with Blaine’s cast of characters. Her comic genius is like Lily Tomlin and Tracey Ullman.”  Jennifer  was the resident Theatre Arts Instructor at the Showstoppers program at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts from 2013-2018 in which she created four original plays on topical issues from bullying to civil rights. She produced the “5,000 Women” festival, showcasing artists and social activists, in 2011 and 2012 and in Philadelphia in 2014.  Her multiple FringeArts solo works include Sorry, White Flight, Hearing Voices, and Ridiculous and Dirty Joke which she created with Vashti Dubois, founder of The Colored Girls Museum. Blaine has toured her solo work throughout the country to colleges and theatre festivals -- highlights include The OpenStage of Harrisburg, The White Privilege Conference, PIFA, and the Annenberg Center for the Arts. She currently performs The Vicissitudes of Travel, which depicts a family traveling through brain surgery, in art galleries, museums, theaters, and recently performed The Vicissitudes for Jefferson’s Health and Humanities department and Wesleyan University. For more information visit  www.jenniferblaine.com Warmly, Brennen & Cynthia Episode Music Credits It Meant Everything to me by Le Gang Nostalgia by Johny Grimes Nostalgia by Tobu

Happy Hour on the Fringe hosts Raina and Tenara sit down with Georgia Schlessman, Technical Director, and Evelyn Swift Shuker, Master Electrician, to talk about the upcoming Theater Technician Job Fair at FringeArts (Monday, February 10th!), the relationship between technicians and artists, and the role of design in an audience's experience. To RSVP for the Job Fair, visit our website at www.FringeArts.com.

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, hosts Tenara Calem and Zach Blackwood give you the inside information on the Blue Heaven 2020 lineup, who's who, where you've seen them, what to look out for, and what even is "going blue"? Blue Heaven Comedy Festival runs February 7 & 8, 2020 at FringeArts with acts starting at 7pm.

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, we sipped tea and spilled the tea with Dito van Reigersberg AKA THE Martha Graham Cracker, Drag Queen King of Philadelphia. As one of the founders of Pig Iron, Dito shares his experiences with the very first Fringe Festival, his artistic journey since, and the development of Martha Graham Cracker as we know her today. No two performances are ever the same, which is good because you can see Martha twice in a row at FringeArts this December 19–20, 2019! Thursday, December 19 features a Choral Extravaganza, and Friday, December 20th will be the final Martha Graham Cracker performance of 2019 AND of the decade...make sure you don't miss out! Tickets at FringeArts.com. Intro features "Let Me Sit On It" from Martha Graham Cracker's newest album out December 12, Lashed But Not Leashed. Available to stream on Bandcamp.

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe we talked with John Jarboe, creator of Get Pegged and founder of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret about the Get Pegged performance at FringeArts on November 15, and the curatorial process behind Get Pegged. Listen as we talk about the people who have inspired him, along with the origins of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret.

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, we sat down with some of the people who help give life to the arts in Philadelphia and FringeArts as an organization. Jane Pepper and Christie Hartwell are longtime Fringe fans who are also a part of the FringeArts Producers Circle, a cohort of dedicated supporters who help us present the most ambitious performances while expanding our audience and accessibility to the broader community. Jane and Christie share their introductions to FringeArts, back when we were just the Fringe Festival, their favorite experiences over the years, and the importance of supporting the arts.

The PSPCA’s Gillian Kocher joins Kristen in studio, along with Nancy Barton, owner of Philadelphia Brewing Company. The two organizations have teamed up to plan the First Annual ‘Dine Out for Pet’s Sake’ all-day fundraising event to benefit the PSPCA’s lifesaving mission. On Wednesday, September 18th, 2019, more than 20 restaurants throughout the city will step up to help Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable animals! The concept is simple: Participating establishments will be donate 5%-10% of their sales (or more!) to the Pennsylvania SPCA. DINE OUT on Wednesday, September 18th (all day!) at participating restaurants, and a portion of every bill will help animals in Philadelphia and throughout the state! Check out the Facebook Event and the PSPCA’s website for more info.  Also, Gillian brought a very cute pup to the studio with her. Her name is Diana and she’s available for adoption at the PSPCA’s Erie Avenue location. She is a beautiful pittie (with the coloring of a Bernese Mountain Dog!) and super sweet and just wants to be loved. Will you take her home today? E-mail Kristen@957benfm.com for more information and photos of this wonderful gal.  Then, Kristen is joined by David Levy, Vice President of Artistic Operations for Opera Philadelphia to talk more about the third annual opera festival, O19! Festival O19 brings 12 days of opera to Philadelphia from September 18-29. Be there as Opera Philadelphia debuts its daring new opera, Denis & Katya at The Suzanne Roberts Theatre, see The Love for Three Oranges at the Academy of Music, Semele at the Perelman Theater, Let Me Die at FringeArts, Curtis in Concert at the Curtis Institute of Music, plus so much more. This year, Opera on the Mall kicks off the festival on Saturday, September 14th with La boheme right on the grass of Independence National Historic Park. Opera on the Mall is FREE to the public, but registration is encouraged. Register and learn about all twelve days of Opera at Operaphila.org or call 215-732-8400. 

Kristen is first joined by David Levy, Vice President of Artistic Operations for Opera Philadelphia to talk about the 3rd Annual Opera Festival, O19! Festival O19 brings 12 days of opera to Philadelphia from September 18th-29th. Be there as Opera Philadelphia debuts its daring new opera, Denis & Katya at The Suzanne Roberts Theatre. See The Love for Three Oranges at the Academy of Music, Semele at the Perelman Theater, Let Me Die at FringeArts, Curtis in Concert at the Curtis Institute of Music, and so much more. This year, Opera on the Mall kicks off the festival on Saturday, September 14th with La boheme right on the grass of Independence National Historic Park. Opera on the Mall is FREE to the public, but registration is encouraged. Register and learn about all 12 days of Opera at Operaphila.org or call 215-732-8400.  Then, Jess Ames, Outreach and Events Director for Angel Flight East, joins Kristen in studio with one of Angel Flight East’s volunteer pilots, Andrew Morrison. The mission of Angel Flight East is to provide free air transportation to qualified patients and their families by arranging flights to distant medical facilities, delivering supplies to disaster areas, and reuniting families during desperate times. Join Angel Flight East at their Wings N' Wheels event on Saturday, September 7th from 11am-4pm at Wing Field (1501 Narcissa Road. Blue Bell, PA 19422). The event has vintage and antique cars AND aircraft - plus flight demonstrations, food, music, kids activities, crafts and airplane rides! Learn more here - https://angelflighteast.org/ Finally, Tonya Guy, Associate Director of Communications for Canine Partners for Life joins Kristen in studio (along with Hunts, the service dog) to talk about their upcoming Open House and COW BINGO at their location in Chester County (334 Faggs Manor Rd. Cochranville, PA 19330). The event is FREE - Saturday, September 14th from noon to 4pm with wine and beer, food trucks, a puppy kissing booth, and COW BINGO - a game of chance that pits your luck against the cow “doo”ing her business. Learn more and buy your Cow Bingo tickets at https://k94life.org/.  Mark your calendar to join BEN-FM AND Canine Partners for Life at this year’s National Dog Show Walk at Wilson Farm Park in Wayne on Sunday, October 13th. 

The Antidote has created an unapologetic love letter to David Lynch - Red Lodge, Montana - for this year's Fringe Festival (September 7-15). Co-created by the ensemble - including Philly favorite Amanda Schoonover, Anthony Crosby, Kelly McCaughan, Josh Hitchens, and others - the show is a live-action nightmare staged in the former girls' locker room at Bok in South Philadelphia.

We hope you’re all getting ready for art to blossom throughout the city of Philadelphia in September! Speaking of blossoming, three events will be sprouting up in LOVE Park. We share a drink with Marc Wilken from Parks and Recreation and three independent Fringe Festival artists: Dana Suleymanova (Dear qupid), Eric Thayer (Give Your Heart), and Leah Stein with Asimina Chremos (RISE: Relationship is Self Existing). All of the performances are participatory and engage with the City of Brotherly Love as they explore love, the beating heart, and how human bodies share space in LOVE Park this September. Dear qupid will run September 9, 15 + 22nd. Give Your Heart will run September 9, 11 + 14th. RISE: Relationship is Self Existing will run September 14th. Fringe Festival tickets are on sale now! To purchase tickets, visit www.fringearts.com or call 215.413.1318. Tickets and also be purchased through the FringeArts app available on App store and Google store.

The FringeArts Ambassador Program is a cohort of volunteers, artistic participants, long-time fans of FringeArts, and community stakeholders from all professional and personal backgrounds who serve as connectors between FringeArts and new audiences. Ambassadors work with the Audience Engagement Coordinator, Tenara Calem, to bring new audiences to FringeArts. Ambassadors are active volunteers in the organization, filling a variety of roles and representing a wide range of Philadelphia communities. In this week's episode, Tenara clinks glasses with two Ambassadors to celebrate another year of the Fringe Festival and what they're looking forward to seeing this year. If you are interested in learning more about the Ambassador Program, please reach out to Tenara at tenara@fringearts.com. Fringe Festival tickets are on sale now! To purchase tickets, visit www.fringearts.com or call 215.413.1318. Tickets and also be purchased through the FringeArts app.

Looks like another pair of Fringe hosts are phoning it in this week! Raina and Katy talk to Nature Theater of Oklahoma's Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper about their latest Fringe offering, Pursuit of Happiness. Liska and Copper discuss how reality TV and the current state of American politics have influenced this part-dance, part Western movie, and part comedy of manners. Pursuit of Happiness will run from September 20-21st at the Mandell Theater in West Philadelphia. For tickets, visit us online at Fringearts.com. Tickets and also be purchased through the Fringearts app.

Zach and Tenara phoned it in this week (drink orders not included), but you wouldn't know it as they talk with the Half Straddle's Artistic Director, Tina Satter, about her production, Is This a Room, for this year's Fringe Festival. Is This a Room is a dramatization of the transcripts of Air Force linguist, Reality Winner, who was charged with leaking evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election, as she was arrested at her home by FBI agents. Is This a Room will run from September 13-15 at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Pennsylvania's campus. For tickets, visit www.fringearts.com or download the Fringearts app.

The 2019 Fringe Festival is just around the corner...or subway tunnel...or a refinery. Who knows? Raina and Katy are ready to take an adventure with award winning artist and designer Mimi Lien, as they explore unknown depths with Superterranean, a collaboration with Fringe Festival veterans, Pig Iron Theatre Company. Superterranean is a new work of visual theater driven by Lien’s fascinations with urban infrastructure and the human body’s place within it. Superterranean runs from September 5-15th. For ticketing information, visit us at Fringearts.com, or download the Fringearts app.

In this episode, we depart from our usual watering hole and join the founder and President of FringeArts, Nick Stuccio, to toast The Wilma Theater's Artistic Director, Blanka Zizka, on her newest production, There: In the Light and the Darkness of the Self and the Other, adapted from the poem by Lebanese-American poet Etel Adnan, with visual art by renown artist Rosa Barba. There is one of the curated shows premiering in the 2019 Fringe Festival and performed by Wilma's Hothouse Company. There: In the Light and the Darkness of the Self and the Other will be at The Wilma Theater this September 11–22.

Are you the first person to dance at a wedding? Do you turn the music up at a block party? Are you interested in community building? JOIN US THIS SUMMER FOR ÚUMBAL: NOMADIC CHOREOGRAPHY FOR INHABITANTS, a 100-person participatory dance piece that moves through the streets of Philadelphia! Part of the 2019 Fringe Festival in September, Úumbal is an exercise in meeting, recognizing, and celebrating a community gathered for the joy of movement and exploring new ways of moving through public space. The choreography of Úumbal is developed of, by, and for Philadelphia residents who donated their best dance moves to the project, and helmed by lead artist Mariana Arteaga and a local choreographic team. FringeArts seeks Philadelphia residents of all communities, abilities, ages, and experiences to perform in this nomadic dance piece that includes movement, choreography, and choreographic actions in public space along the streets, parks, and sidewalks of South Philadelphia. You do not have to have a dance background in order to participate. Recommended for ages 13-75+. Information Session and Workshop Audition Please join us for Úumbal’s open auditions. Come dressed in clothes comfortable to move in. You do not have to prepare anything in advance. The audition dates are as follows: Tuesday, June 25, 6-8:30pm All auditions will meet at Mifflin Square Park. To register for the auditions, please visit uumbal.fringearts.com, or email tenara@fringearts.com.

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko is a Nigerian American poet, curator, and performance artist originally from Detroit, MI. He is a 2017-2019 Princeton Arts Fellow, a 2018 NEFA National Dance Project Award recipient, a 2018-20 New York Live Arts Live Feed Artist-in-Residence, a 2019 Gibney DiP Artist-in-Residence, a 2017 Jerome Foundation Artist-in-Residence at Abrons Arts Center, a 2017 Cave Canem Poetry Fellow, a 2016 Gibney Dance boo-koo resident artist, and a recipient of a 2016 USArtists International Award from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. His previous work #negrophobia (premiered September 2015, Gibney Dance Center) was nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award and has toured throughout Europe having appeared in major festivals including Moving in November (Finland), TakeMeSomewhere (UK), SICK! (UK), Tanz im August (Berlin), Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival (Norway), Zurich MOVES! (Switzerland), Beursschouwburg (Belgium) and Spielart Festival (Munich). His current work, Séancers, premiered at Abrons Arts Center in December 2017 and has toured nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. Recent highlights include Mousonturm (Frankfurt, DE), FringeArts (Philadelphia, PA), Sophiensaele (Berlin, DE), and the Wexner Center (Columbus, OH). In 2019, Séancers will have engagements at the Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX) and Montréal Arts Interculturels (Montréal, CA), among others.American performance venues include: Abrons Arts Center, Joyce SoHo, DTW, FringeArts, Dixon Place, Dance Theater Workshop, Bennington College, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, the CEC Meeting House Theater, Wexner Center for the Arts, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, LAX Festival, Miami Theater Center, Art Basel Miami, and the Painted Bride Arts Center, among others.He was a Co-Curator of the 2015 Movement Research Spring Festival and the 2015 Dancing While Black performance series at BAAD in the Bronx; a contributing correspondent for Dance Journal (PHL), the Broad Street Review (PHL), and Critical Correspondence (NYC); a 2012 Live Arts Brewery Fellow as a part of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival; a 2011 Fellow as a part of the DeVos Institute of Art Management at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and an inaugural graduate member of the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) at Wesleyan University where he earned his MA in Curatorial Studies.His work in performance is rooted in a creative mission to push history forward through writing and art making and advocacy. Kosoko’s work in live performance has received support from The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through Dance Advance, The Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative, The Joyce Theater Foundation, and The Philadelphia Cultural Fund. His breakout solo performance work entitled other.explicit.body. premiered at Harlem Stage in April 2012 and went on to tour nationally. As a performer, Kosoko has created original roles in the performance works of Nick Cave, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Keely Garfield Dance, Miguel Gutierrez and The Powerful People, and Headlong Dance Theater, among others. In addition, creative consultant and/or performer credits include: Terry Creach, Lisa Kraus, Kate Watson-Wallace/anonymous bodies, Leah Stein Dance Company, Emergent Improvisation Ensemble, and Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako (The Democratic Republic of Congo).Kosoko’s poems can be found in such publications as The American Poetry Review, Poems Against War, The Dunes Review, and Silo. In 2009, he published he chapbook, Animal in Cyberspace, and, in 2011, he published his own collection, Notes on an Urban Kill-Floor: Poems for Detroit (Old City Publishing). Publications include: The American Poetry Review, The Dunes Review, The Interlochen Review, The Broad Street Review, Silo Literary and Visual Arts Magazine.Kosoko has served on numerous curatorial and funding panels including the Brooklyn Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, MAP Fund, Movement Research at the Judson Church, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and the Baker Artists Awards, among others. In 2014, Kosoko joined the Board of Directors for Dance/USA, the national service organization for dance professionals. He is also a founding advisory board member for the Coalition for Diasporan Scholars Moving.He has held producing and curatorial positions at New York Live Arts, 651 Arts, and The Watermill Center among others. He continues to guest teach, speak, and lecture internationally.

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, we had drinks with Ben Grinberg, Artistic Director of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, instructor at Circadium and Pig Iron, and the curator and host for Test Flights, a circus scratch night. Join our conversation about how Ben found his way into circus, the growth of contemporary circus in Philadelphia, Almanac's 5 year anniversary celebration season, and a teaser for who you may see at this July's Test Flights! Learn more about Hand to Hand Circus Festival, running June 28—July 1, at FringeArts.com. Also, this weekend (May 24th) check out the final performances of "Communitas: Five Years Later" by Almanac Dance Circus Theatre at https://www.thealmanac.us/.

On this episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, listen to Team Sunshine Performance Corporation artist Benjamin Camp discuss getting older with his four year old daughter Sydney. Make sure to get your tickets for Team Sunshine's third installment of their 24 year performance experiment, The Sincerity Project #3 (2019), a meditation on the passage of time that draws from the real lives of its creators, running at FringeArts from June 4 - 8.

Tenara and Zach sit down with FringeArts ambassador and Le Super Grand Continental alum Cecily Chapman. The trio discuss the importance of public practice performances and Cecily goes into detail about her personal experience as a performer in a large-scale production. She talks about the physical, mental, and social aspects of the process and even gives some advice to those who are curious about performing in the future. The conversation acts as wonderful insight for people interested in getting involved in the 2019 Fringe Festival participatory piece, Úumbal: Nomadic Choreography for Inhabitants. Learn more about Úumbal and how to participate in the Step Library here!

You’ve heard from many of the artists and community members who have worked with FringeArts this year; why not learn more about the people on the other side of the mic? On this very special end-of-year episode of Happy Hour on the Fringe, all four hosts, Raina, Zach, Tenara, and Katy, sit down together and reflect on their journeys to FringeArts, what they’ve accomplished over the course of the last year, and what they hope 2019 holds in store for them. Sit back and relax over your holiday break and get to know our hosts a little better, then let us know what your 2019 resolutions are! Show Notes: Learn more about the upcoming FringeArts’ programming mentioned on this episode: Blue Heaven: https://fringearts.com/event/blue-heaven-comedy-festival/ High Pressure Fire Service: https://fringearts.com/programs/high-pressure-fire-service/ Learn more about FringeArt's exciting new accessibility initiatives: https://fringearts.com/accessibility/ Follow FringeArts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat and visit us on the web at https://fringearts.com. Leave a comment or share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #HHOF.

Recorded in the midst of Fringe Festival 2018, so please forgive the audio as FringeArts headquarters was in full preparation mode, Christine Gwillim join hosts/artistic producers Zach and Katy discuss the Festival arts landscape as it looks at present, where it’s going in the future, and what FringeArts’ future looks like with the introduction two brand new festivals.

We, here at FringeArts, have had the opportunity to meet and hear about the amazing work that so many different people and organizations in Philadelphia are doing to make life better for their fellow Philly residents. Today, Nora Litz, the Director of Arts and Culture at Salud de Puentes in South Philly, and Danny Cortés, the Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff of Esperanza, take time out of their busy schedules to tell us about the work that they do. Learn more about their work, and we encourage you to learn more about what you can do to support these wonderful organizations and individuals at the links below. - Show Notes: Puentes de Salud (Bridges of Health) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that promotes the health and wellness of Philadelphia’s rapidly growing Latino immigrant population through high-quality health care, innovative educational programs, and community building. Please learn more at: http://www.puentesdesalud.org. Nora Litz is a Mexican-American artist who works to empower and revitalize the Mexican community through the artistic exploration of immigration and social justice in the United States and Mexico. At Puentes Nora is the director of all art related initiatives and art partnerships. In 2011, Nora created El Viaje de los Niños (The Journey of the Children), a project that tells the stories of Mexican immigrant children who have crossed the border to come to Philadelphia. In 2013-2014 Nora traveled to Mexico to create a version of El Viaje de los Niños with children from Puebla, San Lucas Atzala, San Andrés Calpan, and San Mateo Ozolco whose parents left them in order to find work in the U.S. Puentes highlighted Nora’s during the International Metropolis Conference held at the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) in Mexico City in September 2015. - Esperanza a faith-based nonprofit organization driven by the biblical mandate to “serve the least of these.” They strengthen Hispanic communities through education, economic development, and advocacy. Please learn more at: http://www.esperanza.us. As Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff, Reverend Danny Cortés is responsible for the creation and implementation of new projects throughout the organization. Nationally, he has supervised projects focused on housing, youth mentoring, and capacity building and training initiatives. Rev. Cortés has been integral to securing, distributing and managing national grants totaling over $3 million in technical assistance and $25 million in capacity building, assisting faith and community-based organizations in 53 cities throughout the United States. Recently, Rev. Cortés focus has shifted towards supporting and expanding Esperanza’s educational portfolio, which includes Esperanza Academy Charter Schools, AMLA music school, Workforce Development programs, and Esperanza Cyber Charter School. - Follow FringeArts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat and visit us on the web at https://fringearts.com. Leave a comment and let us know what you thought of this podcast.

Voguing may have come to prominence in 1980s New York, but it’s very much alive and well here in present-day Philadelphia. Assistant Director of the First Person Arts Festival show Legendary by Kemar Jewel, Tori Gillis, stops by Happy Hour on the Fringe to give us a rundown of the voguers that we should be following, share how she became involved in Legendary, and explain the difference between a ‘dip’ and a ‘shwam.’ **Hint: If you don’t want to be embarrassed at your next Ball, this episode is required listening. Enjoy! Legendary runs Nov 14 - 16 at FringeArts. To purchase your ticket, visit https://fringearts.com/event/legendary/2018-11-14/. Show Notes: To see more of Kemar Jewel's work, check out his YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/MrKemarJewel, and follow Kemar on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mars.jewel1. To see the full First Person Arts Festival line up visit https://firstpersonarts.org. Follow FringeArts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat and visit us on the web at https://fringearts.com. Leave a comment and let us know what you thought of this podcast.

This week Kristen speaks with Rob Saxon, the Director of External Affairs at MANNA about this incredible organization currently in the middle of their biggest fundraiser of the year, Pie in the Sky. MANNA is selling six different delicious flavors of pie (Aberdeen Apple Pie, American Airlines Sky Pie, Berry Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, and Sweet Potato Pie) just in time for Thanksgiving, with the proceeds helping to provide nourishment to people in the area battling life threatening illness. You’re more than likely going to be eating pie at Thanksgiving this year, so why not do some good while you’re at it? Purchase your MANNA pies before November 16th at https://mannapies.org/. Then, Kristen meets Jamie Brunson, the Executive Director of First Person Arts and Dr. Neil Bardhan, the Manager oF Applied Storytelling at First Person Arts. First Person Arts is a not for profit organization that believes everyone has a story to tell, and allows folks in the area the opportunity to share those stories. They hold storytelling competitions called StorySlams throughout the year, culminating with a ‘GrandSlam’ StorySlam (coming up November 17th at the FringeArts building). The First Person Arts Festival is happening now (November 4-18th), with a number of performances and events scheduled throughout the area. Buy tickets at FestivalFirstPersonArts.com. Love beer? Want to go to Belgium to drink AND brew beer? Philly Loves Beer, the non-profit organization responsible for the super fun Philly Beer Week in Philadelphia each June is hosting a fundraiser with a trip to Belgium as the grand prize. Listen as Christina Dowd, the Executive Director at Philly Loves Beer and Brandan Szeker, the Membership Director give the details on the contest and a bunch of other prizes you can win both in person at City Tap House in Logan Square on November 15th, and from the comfort of your own home (or internet connection) here: https://philly-loves-beer.myshopify.com/ . Get 1 ticket for $5 - or 5 for the price of 4 for $20. Good luck, and cheers!    

Director of upcoming First Person Arts Festival's show Pa'lante, Gabriela Sanchez stops by the FringeArts office with Pa'lante actors Ivan Vila and Virginia Sanchez (also known as Gabby's mother) to discuss the creation of the piece, traditions and what Pa'lante truly means. Enjoy! Pa'lante runs Nov 11 + 12 at FringeArts. To purchase your ticket visit https://fringearts.com/event/palante/2018-11-11/. Show notes: Learn more about Power Street Theatre at https://www.powerstreettheatre.com. To see the full First Person Arts Festival line up visit https://firstpersonarts.org. Follow FringeArts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat and visit us on the web at https://fringearts.com. Leave a comment and let us know what you thought of this podcast.

Jamie J. Brunson, the executive director of First Person Arts as well as a talented storyteller, poet, and playwright in her own right, stops by the FringeArts offices to give us a preview of this year's First Person Arts Festival, tell us a Halloween story, and explain why she believes that real life makes the best drama. Shownotes: First Person Arts Festival runs Nov 4 through 17. To learn more and purchase your ticket visit firstpersonarts.org. Also, follow First Person Arts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. To take a look at what shows will be presented at FringeArts visit FringeArts.com. Follow FringeArts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat and visit us on the web at https://fringearts.com. Leave a comment and let us know what you thought of this podcast.

This week, we bring you the live recording from singer, songwriter, and scholar Gelsey Bell's talkback with world renown composer and director Heiner Goebbels. Frankfurt-based composer and director Heiner Goebbels has had his work produced around the globe including his native Germany, Switzerland, England, New York and now Philadelphia. He taught for nearly 20 years at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen (1999-2018) and served as president of the Theatre Academy Hessen for twelve years (2006-2018). He was the artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale for two years and ​received the first appointment for the newly established Georg Büchner Professorship in 2018. Two of his works, Stifters Dinge and Songs of Wars I Have Seen, were a part of the 2018 Fringe Festival. Major support for Stifters Dinge and Songs of Wars I Have Seen has been provided to FringeArts by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.​

In the midst of the Philadelphia premiere of their latest collaboration, Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and other works by John Bernd, Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez stop by the FringeArts office and talk with hosts Raina, Zach, and Katy about the art, life and legacy of Ishmael’s friend John Bernd and the legacies of other artists lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Show Notes: Miguel’s Website: miguelgutierrez.org This Bridge Called My Ass: https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/miguel-gutierrez-this-bridge-called-my/ Fat and Other Stories by Ishmael Houston-Jones: http://yonkersinternational.press/fat.html Oral History Clips: 215-398-4534 Health Information Hotline for more information on HIV/AIDS services including testing: 215-985-2437 Follow FringeArts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat and visit us on the web at https://fringearts.com.

Nick Stuccio is the President and Producing Director of FringeArts, and the creator of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, an annual city-wide celebration of thought-provoking progressive performance arts. In this episode, you’ll hear how Nick started his performance career as a ballet dancer, and how despite the fact that he didn’t take ballet seriously until he was 18, he quickly found himself thrust into a dance career. He’ll share the moment his perspective on performance was totally turned upside down, and how he went from valuing tradition and technique to becoming obsessed with contemporary art . And, you’ll hear the story of how FringeArts went from a small weekend of performances in 1997 to one of Philadelphia’s biggest and most well-known art organizations, featuring a 3-week festival, world-class performances, and a year-round beer garden. Support Philly Who? Donate via Paypal, Venmo: @podphillywho, Become a Monthly Patron, Purchase a T-Shirt or Hat, Become a Sponsor

Just ahead of Fringe Festival 2018’s opening weekend, Donald Nally, co-founder and conductor of The Crossing, joins hosts Zach and Raina to discuss the choral group’s unexpected origins, his brand spanking new Grammy hat, and The Crossing’s Fringe Festival show Of Arms and the Man. Of Arms and the Man will premier September 16 at 8PM at FringeArts. Tickets are available at FringeArts.com or on the FringeArts app, available in the Apple app store or Google Play. Learn more about The Crossing at https://www.crossingchoir.org. Follow FringeArts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat and visit us on the web at https://fringearts.com.

A conversation between FringeArts president and producing director Nick Stuccio and world renown composer and director Heiner Goebbels covering Goebbels’ seminal works and long career. Frankfurt-based composer and director Heiner Goebbels has had his work produced around the globe including his native Germany, Switzerland, England, New York and now Philadelphia. He taught for nearly 20 years at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen (1999-2018) and served as president of the Theatre Academy Hessen for twelve years (2006-2018). He was the artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale for two years and and received the first appointment for the newly established Georg Büchner Professorship in 2018. His works Stifters Dinge and Songs of Wars I Have Seen will be produced in the 2018 Philadelphia Fringe Festival September 7 - 9. Major support for Stifters Dinge and Songs of Wars I Have Seen has been provided to FringeArts by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

This week, Josh talks to Betty Smithsonian about the Bechdel Test Fest, Jeff Buckley, and being a twin. The Bechdel Test Fest takes place March 2-4 at Bourbon and Branch, FringeArts, and Philly Improv Theater. Tickets and more information can be found at bechdelfest.com. Keep your eyes on phillysketchfest.com and social media for all updates on this year’s festival.

This week, Josh talks to Carolyn Beatty about retiring from musicals at 20, doing a tv show in college, and the balance of writing and performing. See Carolyn in Not Ironic at the One Player Show/Monologues show at PHIT Thursday, February 8 at 7pm. The Decoy returns to PHIT in March, and The 19th will perform at the Bechdel Test Fest (bechdelfest.com) on Saturday, March 3 at FringeArts.

Recorded several months back, this conversation with theatre artist and singer Martha Stuckey and playwright, storyteller, and humorist R. Eric Thomas covers everything from Stuckey's clown-funk alter-ego Red 40 and Thomas' popular online humor column for Elle, to pitching reality shows and the therapeutic nature of baking (both the act of, and watching The Great British Bake Off). Martha Stuckey is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist by way of Minnesota. She has performed and devised work with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Team Sunshine Performance Group, Bearded Ladies, and BRAT Productions and performed at such venues as Joe's Pub. Red 40 and the Last Groovement is a clown funk outfit that graces stages such as FringeArts, Union Transfer, Trocadero, and L'Etage with The Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret. The band released their first album, "She's Keen To Feed," in October of 2016. R. Eric Thomas is a Barrymore Award-winning playwright and humorist. He is the long-running host of The Moth in Philadelphia. He is a Senior Staff Writer for Elle.com where he writes “Eric Reads the News,” a daily current events and culture column. He is the recipient of a 2017 National New Play Network commission and is at work on his debut memoir-in-essays, entitled "Here For It," which will be published by Ballantine Books in 2019. His forthcoming play "Mrs. Harrison" will have its premiere at Azuka Theatre in May 2018.

A conversation with musician, composer, teacher, and Not So Silent Cinema artistic director Brendan Cooney. Not-So-Silent Cinema provides new, original scores for classic silent films. For each of his film projects Cooney pulls together different groups, creating diverse mash-ups of musical personalities from different music scenes to create lively new platforms for interaction and creativity. His scores are tightly composed, time-coded and thematic but also have plenty of room for improvisation and interaction between players. The group live scored the classic 1932 surreal horror film Vampyr here at FringeArts this past Halloween.

A conversation with Orbiter 3 member Sam Henderson, covering Henderson's latest play, "The Brownings," as well as his history working in theater throughout the city. "The Brownings" is an immoderate re-telling of the great love of the 19th century, an unconventional, rudely comic exploration of the purpose of art and the nature of love. The show runs here at FringeArts from Dec 1 - Dec 9. Henderson has appeared at the Arden Theatre Company, Lantern Theater Company, Theatre Exile, and the Wilma Theater, among others. Recent productions include "100" (2015 FringeArts Festival) and the Renegade Company's "Damned Dirty Apes!" Readings include "The Brownings" (PTC@Play Festival) and "HEART" (Theatre Exile's Studio X-Hibition Series). A recent finalist for the Smith Prize for Political Theatre, Henderson is a member of InterAct Theatre's Core Writer's Program, and the Foundry, a lab for emerging playwrights.

LEAPS OF FAITH AND OTHER MISTAKES From the company behind Exile 2588 comes a re-envisioning of Almanac's acclaimed tale of sublime human idiocy, isolationist seafarer cults, & the absurdity of believing too hard. Breathtaking acrobatics & earnest theatricality combine with brand new live music. What do people do when they find themselves lost at sea? ABOUT ALMANAC DANCE CIRCUS THEATRE Called “The little dance theatre troupe that could” by Philadelphia's City Paper, Almanac was founded in 2013 by Nick Gillette and Ben Grinberg, graduates of the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training, with Adam Kerbel, a graduate of the Headlong Performance Institute. The company pursues present performance at the edge of what is possible, through playful honesty. Since its founding, Almanac has performed for tens of thousands across eleven states and in Mexico, from street fairs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, elementary school assemblies to private parties and events. They were selected as 2013-2014 Fresh Tracks Artists at New York Live Arts, were the first resident company at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, and are artists-in-residence at Mascher Space Co-Op. Their work has been presented by FringeArts, NYU Skirball Center/Circus Now!, Trinity Rep, the International Festival of Contemporary Dance of Mexico City, the Faux/Real Festival, Colgate University, Reading Terminal Market, Bearnstow, Pig Iron Theatre Company, the University City District, Automatic Arts, and New York Live Arts, among others.

Phillys own Gunnar Montana transports us once again, this time to a brutal underground nightclub where no fucks are given, and fierceness is always welcome. Fantasy, fetish and carnal desire are all in fashion so leave your inhibitions at home because inside KINK HAUS, anything goes. That is, if you can get past the doorman. SUPPORT THIS CAMPAIGN: https://igg.me/at/KINKHAUS/x/1872404

On today's podcast, we interview Thomas Choinacky to talk about his new work, A User's Manual. Choinacky is the founder, producer, and co-curator of SoLow Fest, an 11-day festival of solo experimental performance in Philadelphia. He is also a company member of Applied Mechanics, a devised, collaborative theater ensemble. At the time of the interview, Choinacky was on location at Washington College in Maryland with Applied Mechanics for a residency of their FringeArts production, FEED.Step into my parlorA User's Manual is a solo performance designed to respond to the body's constant manipulation by the architecture that surrounds us. Drawing attention to structures, sounds, textures, and history, each site-specific performance catalogues the memory of its place. In Choinacky's own words, he attempts to make "visible how humans are constantly affected by the surroundings we pass through and by the architecture we build." This interview goes deep into Choinacky's philosophy of creating a performance and considers the spaces we occupy.