Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts Set for 3/28-4/27

The countdown continues as the Kimmel Center gears up for the return of Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts 2013. From March 28 to April 27, The Kimmel Center becomes a destination extraordinaire of cultural engagement, activating its plaza space with a feast of FREE activities, including live performances on the TD Bank Plaza Stage, a FREE time machine interactive exhibit, and nightly FREE "Flash of Time" theatrical show celebrating the theme, "If You Had a Time Machine...," sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company, and many more family friendly FREE performances and ticketed events with the return of the city-wide festival. Additionally, the Kimmel Center's Education Department will present some of its programming in The Commonwealth Plaza including Sharon Katz and the Peace Train, sponsored by ACE Group.

PIFA 2013 has audiences travel through time visiting the fourth dimension with an innovative time machine exhibit centrally located in the Kimmel Center's Plaza, serving as the festival's hub. Designed by a team of artists-including Robert Pyzocha, production designer, Jorge Cousineau, video and production designer, Joshua Schulman, lighting designer, and Nick Courtides, sound designer-the time machine is a dynamic sculptural light, sound, and video installation made for interactivity for PIFA 2013, similar to the Eiffel Tower installation in PIFA 2011, which awed Philadelphians with its sheer scale and audacity.

The Time Machine is a calendar which tracks time by the century and captures information about all the people who have ever lived. This timeless version of Facebook shows how we are all linked together in the wormholes of time. Taking its shape from DNA, tornadoes, the Hadron Collider, sound waves, and an EKG, a giant spiral swirls across the plaza. Impressively large at 100 feet long and 16 feet in diameter, beginning at the Broad Street entrance doors of the Kimmel Center. PIFA's 2013 time machine has five large arched curves serving as "bays" of interactive activity that explore the relationship between time and space. Each bay creates an experience and explores the interconnectivity of humanity.

The time machine begins as an individual journey with audiences entering an enormous double helix, experiencing the gears of time churning, turning mechanical movements into data, translating numbers into DNA and forming a beautiful visual landscape through projections. The journey through time and space continues with interpretations of the age of starlight, exploring the relationship of constellations and light years. In another section of the spiral timelines are explored, enabling audiences to reach out and control their own relationship to the past. Visitors will also interact by actually connecting the dots of humanity onto a clear touchscreen surface, and then seeing their connections projected in an ever growing spiral drawing on a visual screen. There is a mosaic of faces through history that react to the visitor's proximity; and even a section on the pulse of humanity using the heartbeats of people to power the machine with a light installation of 600 heartbeat crystals, activated through sensory hand monitors that trigger the lights. The journey concludes with a video comparing the history of the Earth to a 24 hour period with humanity only appearing on the planet for the last 30 seconds.

Every Tuesday - Sunday night, the time machine comes to life with the lively upbeat Flash of Time, a FREE new musical show written for PIFA by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, to be presented twice at 7 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. with 16 performers representing different characters in time, both the past and the future, with dancing, puppetry, and special effects.

In addition, the Plaza will have FREE Wi-Fi connection throughout the festival with FREE Friday Noon Concerts, Family Fun Activities, Saturday Night Theme Night Parties, Decades Mixers, Philly Nights, Late Night Jazz, and A Cappella performances, all to take place on the TD Bank Plaza Stage. Iron Chef Jose Garces, one of Philadelphia's most beloved chefs and restaurateurs, provides his own journey through time with pre- and post-show bites, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Specialty Happy Hour cocktails begin at 5:30pm by the PECO Plaza Bar and upper-level Tier Bars, prior to Flash of Time daily musical performances.

"I am absolutely thrilled to begin the countdown to PIFA 2013. In addition to dozens of fun-filled activities and incredible performances by our PIFA Partners, we are building Time Machine-an artful, interactive, time-travelling spiral. Hundreds of thousands were in awe when they saw our 81-foot Eiffel Tower in 2011. This year, hundreds of thousands will see Time Machine. One has to experience it to truly understand what I mean. I promise you, it will be an experience of a lifetime. Visit The Kimmel Center, a canvas for interaction, entertainment, community, and artistic exploration," said Anne Ewers, president and CEO of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. "

"Engaging community, future scientists and artists alike is key to collaboration and innovation for the solutions of tomorrow," said Paul Oakley, Public Affairs Director at The Dow Chemical Company. "As a leading corporate citizen in the Delaware Valley for more than 120 years, Dow is proud to partner on an effort of such value to our neighbors and the region's economy."

"We are incredibly thrilled to partner with PIFA this year to bring the story of Icarus to life," said Dennis M. Wint, President and CEO of The Franklin Institute, which organizes the Philadelphia Science Festival. "Philadelphia is a city rich in history, art and science, and this remarkable collaborative effort intersects and shines a spotlight on those elements, while wonderfully reflecting the goals of both Festivals."

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