2012 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe Enters Second Week

The 16th annual Philadelphia Live Arts Festival enters its second week with seven Festival openings, including the U.S. premiere production of Montreal-based 7 Fingers' urban circus marvel Sequence 8. Week two also features the world premiere of idiosynCrazy productions' Private Places, by up-and-coming Philadelphia choreographer Jumatatu Poe; local favorite BrIan Sanders' JUNK's The Gate Reopened; two New York companies, including Young Jean Lee's Theater Company with UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW and Elevator Repair Service with Arguendo; Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech from Japan-based theater troupe chelfitsch; and a one-night-only showing of the documentary film Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present.

The Live Arts Festival, which runs Sept. 7-22 in conjunction with the Philly Fringe, features cutting-edge dance, theater and multidisciplinary works by renowned artists from the U.S. and abroad, alongside a host of talented members of Philadelphia's dynamic arts community.

From the company that brought Traces to the 2011 Live Arts Festival, Montreal-based 7 Fingers' Sequence 8 (Sept. 18 and 20-23, Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St.) - a co-presentation of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts - carries emotional dynamics and physical feats to a point of explosion and propulsion, incorporating the strongest of theatrical elements at an even higher acrobatic level. Using simple props such as mirrors, a tape deck with instructive recordings and a portable projector, this momentous U.S. premiere tempts and tests the fine line between "self" and "other."

A rising star in Philadelphia choreography, Jumatatu Poe presents the world premiere of Private Places (Sept. 15-16 and 18-20, Live Arts Studio, 919 N. Fifth St.), an original work that mixes themes of explosiveness and confinement, service and performance, materials and identity. Blending high-powered J-Setting choreography with the stylized movements of ordinary tasks, Private Places features Philadelphia dancers Gregory Holt, Maya Johnson, Shannon Murphy, Gabrielle Revlock and Michelle Tantoco.

Also from Philly, BrIan Sanders' JUNK, an acrobatically audacious company known for its ingenious use of found objects and clever inventions that bridge the gap between dance and physical theater, presents The Gate Reopened (Sept. 14-16 and 18-22, Pier 9, 121 N. Columbus Blvd.), a larger-than-life reimagining of Sanders' thrilling 2003 hit The Gate.

Stretching the boundaries of theater-making, New York's Young Jean Lee Theater Company presents UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW (Sept. 19-21, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St.), a nude exploration of gender identity. With humor and irreverence, six stars of the dance, theater, cabaret and burlesque worlds come together to invite audiences on a wordless journey of self-exploration.

Building on the great success of Gatz (Live Arts Festival, 2007) and The Sun Also Rises (The Select) (2010), New York-based Elevator Repair Service presents the courtroom re-enactment adventure Arguendo (Sept. 16, Arden Theatre Company, 20 N. Second St.). The performance is based on oral argument transcripts from Barnes v. Glen Theatre Inc., a 1991 Supreme Court case brought by a group of naked go-go dancers in which the justices debate whether erotic dancing is protected speech under the U.S. Constitution.

Japanese director Toshiki Okada presents a triptych of plays with his company chelfitsch, Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech (Sept. 19-22, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St.), which humorously capture the malaise of young low-level office workers and use jarring choreographed movements to express the intimate details of his characters' minds. Performed in Japanese with projectEd English supertitles, these groundbreaking contemporary plays are meant for anyone who has ever felt trapped by cubicle walls.

Finally, presented on one night only in collaboration with International House Philadelphia, filmmaker Matthew Akers' provocative documentary Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (Sept. 19, International House Philadelphia, 3701 Chestnut St.) provides intimate insight into one of the world's most important living artists.

Philadelphia Live Arts Festival productions continuing this week include: Headlong Dance Theater's unique household-based performance art series, This Town Is a Mystery; the in-transit Edgar Allan Poe tribute RED-EYE to HAVRE de GRACE by Lucidity Suitcase International + Wilhelm Bros. & Co.; Pig Iron Theatre Company's collaboration with Japanese director Toshiki Okada, Zero Cost House; and New Paradise Laboratories' funereal rock party, 27.

Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe tickets are available for purchase at www.livearts-fringe.org or at the Box Office at 215-413-1318. Tickets to Sequence 8 and Food Court, co-presentations of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, must be purchased at www.kimmelcenter.org. 

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