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The Pope, the Writer, and the Saint: Catholic theater for Pope Francis’s visit to Philadelphia

9/30/2015

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Sister Katherine Drexel of Philadelphia, canonized in 2000.
The Pope, Francis: The organizers of the largest Catholic event in the history of Philadelphia wanted to make sure that the participants from all over North America in the “World Meeting of Families Youth Congress” would have a chance to meet a saint, Mother Katharine Drexel—just a few days before they would actually meet Pope Francis.

The Saint, Mother Katharine Drexel: “The woman, the daughter, the founder and member of a religious order, and a philanthropist. . . . Her life span of 96 years (1858 to 1955) covered a remarkable period in history which included the entirety of the Civil War, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Red Cloud’s War and other major skirmishes with Native Americans out West, the implementation of the Jim Crow Laws and the Ku Klux Klan, the founding of the NAACP, and women’s suffrage” (American Historical Theatre).

“Often in my desire to work for others I find my hands tied, something hinders my charitable designs, some hostile influence renders me powerless. My prayers seem to avail nothing, my kind acts are rejected, I seem to do wrong things when I am trying to do my best. In such cases I must not grieve. I am only treading in my Master’s steps” (Sister Katharine Drexel).
​
The Writer, Rene Goodwin: The American Historical Theatre and the Four Freedoms Foundation commissioned Goodwin—Philadelphia playwright, actor, and singer—to write and perform a play about one of the few American saints. For almost 20 years, Goodwin has been creating a body of work titled “Women of Note”—theatrical monologues about the lives of 20th century iconic women, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meir, Dorothy Parker, and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.
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Rene Goodwin as Sister Katherine Drexel.
The Philadelphia playwright-actor sees herself “not [as] an historian or interpreter. I am an actor attempting to present the humanity of these female icons, complete with all the human frailties, challenges, weaknesses and strengths they possess. All of these women have had some sort of childhood challenges.”
​
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church: Given the Vatican’s history of censorship (the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the List of Prohibited Books), especially the fact that “Catholic canon law still recommends that works concerning . . . church history, and any writings which specially concern religion or morals, be submitted to the judgment of the local ordinary,” I asked whether anyone in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church had told Goodwin what to write or had given her an outline of the play. She made it quite clear that no one had handed her a partial script or anything else. “Most of the time, I alone decide who I want to research and write about. I write from scratch, based on the research I do.”
​Goodwin then clarified, “This one was different in that I was asked, commissioned, and contracted to write a piece on Mother Katharine Drexel specifically for the World Meeting of Families.” Because of the success of the first performance, “there is reason to expect that there is and will be interest in the piece beyond this special event. [However,] like all the pieces I create, [it] will change and grow as time goes on and the need arises.”
​
The Play,Sister Katharine Drexel: A richness of spirit (three excerpts):
  1. Native Americans: “In 1894, we [the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament] went to Santa Fe to educate Pueblo boys and later girls. When we arrived, we found that there were no curtains on the windows and the bathroom was a ¼ mile from the building.”
  2. Slave descendants and exploitation of workers: “We then went on a trip to Virginia to open two more schools to educate boys and girls descended from slaves. The next group of sisters headed off to Arizona at the worst possible time. They traveled in the midst of a nationwide worker’s strike because George Mortimer Pullman, manufacturer of the Pullman car on trains, reduced the wages of workers but not the cost of housing they were forced to live in. [. . .] gunfire became a part of the strike. [. . .] When the train was finally able to finish its journey, the sisters were joined on the train by soldiers with fixed bayonets.”
  3. Civil War ends slavery but not bigotry: “My family supported President Lincoln’s policy of no slavery. The abuse and loss of freedom for slaves was abhorrent. My family knew this was wrong and not the way God’s children should be treated. The Civil War had put an end to slavery, but, unfortunately, not to bigotry.”
​
The Actor and the Audience, Goodwin and the World Meeting of Families: At the end of some shows, the actors, say Romeo and Juliet, stand at the exit with a box, collecting money for a theater arts related charity. Audience members often use those moments to thank the actors for a great performance, perhaps even sharing with them that they have seen them before, for example, as Tom and Laura in The Glass Menagerie. However, this religious, miracle-hungry audience in Philadelphia, a few days before the Pope’s arrival, ready to believe and pray, could not distinguish between Ms. Goodwin, the actor in nun’s clothing, and Mother Katharine, the Saint who had died in 1955.

Kim Hanley, the executive director of the American Historical Theatre, initiated and actively supported the development of the Mother Katharine piece and supplied the historically correct nun’s habit. The results shocked even the experienced Goodwin, whose physical resemblance to the saint is remarkable. Goodwin was both stunned and taken aback by the love and admiration that engulfed her as Mother Katharine at the World Meeting of Families:

“As actors, we find ourselves in an endless variety of situations and roles. Portraying roles like Mother Katharine on stage is one thing, but as I entered the area to deliver my program, I was responded to by a number of people as if I were the real thing. That was bad enough, but when a particular Bishop did it, I said that’s enough. I felt compelled to be truthful with him about my identity. After all, I am an actor, but by no means a Saint.”

I wonder what Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Argentinian with Italian roots, feels when he gets treated as a holy man by many Catholics who revere him as a living saint like Saint Francis, Mother Theresa, and Mother Katharine. I wonder what it is that makes even non-religious Americans see Pope Francis as a world class superstar who performs on stages in Havana; Washington, DC; New York; and Philadelphia.

Maybe Shakespeare’s words, excerpted on a statue along the Ben Franklin Parkway where Pope Francis gave mass, had the answer to this conundrum:

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.”

To contact Rene Goodwin on her Mother Katharine program and that of other famous women, including her much talked about Golda production, visit gh-entertainment.com.
This article was originally published by Phindie on September 30, 2015. 
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When an actor cannot move, the director has to jump in: Tina Brock is the new KING in the sold-out final performances of Ionesco’s classic

9/20/2015

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Robb Hutter (laying) and Anna Lou Hearn in the foreground and Patricia Durante, Jenna Kuerzi, and Bob Schmidt
in the background of IRC’s EXIT THE KING. Photo by Johanna Austin
“Performing Ionesco is a sport,” declared Tina Brock, artistic director of absurdist theater group Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, in a recent Phindie interview, unaware that she and her theater would get tested severely when Robb Hutter, the lead in IRC’s production of EXIT THE KING, hurt his back and ended up at hospital. Tina Brock had to make a quick decision: “So I’m on as the King—both last night and today. Not exactly the way I was hoping to take out this show, but here we are!”

Before the final show today, she shared the following: “The King’s back had been giving him stop and start fits throughout the run of the show, though [it] seemed to be under control. I received a text yesterday in the early afternoon that Robb was lying on the floor, unable to move, he was in such excruciating pain…. We were trying to solve the problem through texts as he waited for the ambulance to arrive. [He] was admitted to the hospital for testing and released later last night.”
PictureTina Brock as the King, wheeled by Jenna Kuerzi.
Photo by Joanna Austin at AustinArt
She continues: “We talked about what to do, with a full house, closing weekend, many of our loyal audience waiting until the final weekend to see the show. After many considerations—since I knew the text, have played Ionesco before, [and] understood the material—it seemed the best course to have me wear the Little Lord Fauntleroy wig from Ondine (worn as the King) and give it a go. The script became the King’s scepter and off we went.“The cast was able to move me around on stage where the King needed to be, since he’s losing his mind and faculties anyway. Funny how all the blocking goes away when you are suddenly in the play instead of on the other side of it, directing the action.

“It’s always a joy to perform Ionesco, regardless of the circumstances: to say his words, to exist in the world, is a gift. Since the King in Exit is losing all his capacities, so it all sort of seemed to work.”

She ended her note with “Hugs and wish me strength,” and added this PS: “running off after the show, while the crew loads the set out tonight, to fundraise for WHYY, beginning at 6:30 pm. Happy life.” 

Speedy recovery, Robb Hutter, from all of us—and on with the show.

Originally published on Phindie.

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THEY ONLY COME OUT AT NIGHT: A GRAVEYARD CABARET (REV Theatre): 2015 Fringe review 60

9/20/2015

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Now there’s never gonna be an intermission
But there’ll always be a closing night [. . .]
First impressions are cheap auditions
Situations are long goodbyes [. . .]
--“Intermission (We Were Born To Die)” by Scissor Sisters
Picture
Felicia Kalani Anderton & Rudy Caporaso in A GRAVEYARD CABARET. Photo by J.R. Blackwell.
Although I don’t believe in the supernatural, cemeteries fascinate me. Maybe it’s the connection with those who came before us and the gnawing awareness that one day everyone I know will die—myself included. It’s against this background that I saw the much talked about annual Fringe event, A GRAVEYARD CABARET, at Laurel Hill Cemetery. I walked into the night, following the little solar lights, passing hundreds of beautiful old gravestones commemorating important Philadelphians.

Suddenly, we hear strange noises and see figures moving around in the dark. Three ghosts, dressed in flamboyant outfits of mourning come into focus. Denise Shubin looks like Miss Havisham, the wealthy spinster who occupies her ruined mansion—”the witch of the place,” as Charles Dickens described her—wearing an elaborate wedding dress. Her adopted daughter, Estella (played beautifully by the Felicia Kalani Anderton, switches from the innocent voice of a little girl to a murderous seductress) entices the audience into her realm, while scaring them away at the same time. Rudy Caporaso conceived, created, choreographed, and costumed the show and stars as Mr. Jaggers, Miss Havisham’s ambiguous lawyer. Dressed like Count Dracula in drag, he jumps up on a mausoleum and whips us into a frenzy with an amazing graveyard voice. Rob Borchert musically directed THEY ONLY COME OUT AT NIGHT with songs as old as gruesome Victorian ballads and as contemporary as “I can’t decide” by the Scissor Sisters.
​
I stumbled out of the cemetery and the dark, and got into my car, still shocked and whistling the haunting songs of the GRAVEYARD CABARET. [Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Avenue] September 11-19, 2015; fringearts.com/they-only-come-out-at-night-a-graveyard-cabaret.
This review was originally published by Phindie on September 20, 2015. 
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“Performing Ionesco is a sport”: Interview with EXIT THE KING director Tina Brock

9/16/2015

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PictureEugene Ionesco, 1909–1994,
surrounded by papers and books
Philadelphia’s favorite absurdist theater troupe, Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, is Fringing all Festival long with Eugene Ionesco’s EXIT THE KING. Henrik Eger talks to director Tina Brock about this intriguing production. 

Henrik Eger: What made you select EXIT THE KING with its fin de siècle atmosphere, its look at death, dying, and decay?
 

Tina Brock: There is the Seize the Day theme. Life goes by quickly, particularly in our rapidly moving modern world. To focus on the essential and weed out the distractions is an art. There is a meditative quality about the last third of this play—a meditation on life and the end of life, on the roles we take on to keep the structure in place, the roles that we need in order to feel secure.I also saw the play as a comment about valuing the time we have, and living for each day. The sections about time passing so rapidly struck a chord.

Eger: You seem to have a personal connection to EXIT THE KING.
 

Brock: Exit the King intrigues from the theme of honoring our elders, for trails blazed, and the wisdom of experience. This journey is happening in my family presently, and it informed the process. It’s painfully difficult, though beautiful and important to experience all of those conflicting elements at one time.
 
It seems the greatest gift you can give someone is to simply be there, which is the hardest thing when there’s literally nothing you can do to change the outcome. The idea of sharing the same space when “the end is near” takes on a new meaning—though, really, we never know when our time will come.

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Eger: The plays that you have presented during these past ten years always seem to have a wider social and, perhaps, even political relevance.
 

Brock: In turbulent times, examining what matters to us most seems key, so as not to get caught up in the frenzy. This play interested me as not only in the singular journey of one man and the people around him, but the effect on the whole Kingdom and how, when the leader of a system cannot lead, the effect on the whole is systemic. Who steps up to do the necessary but difficult work of shepherding the person to the next place? How does the system react within?

Eger: You chose a great team of actors. What did they bring to these roles?
 

Brock: Performing Ionesco is a sport, really. The form requires the precision of a skilled group of team players: it’s highly technical, requires sufficient pace, vocal and emotional clarity, and physical precision. It’s more akin to volleyball than theater—which can be quite disarming to performers when you invoke the sport analogy. It’s one that Ionesco himself frequently used to describe the thrill of watching live theater at its best, commenting that it was like an exciting sporting event.
 
Eger: Lighting added greatly to this production.
 

Brock: Andrew Cowles understood the magical, ever-shifting mood that is Ionesco, translating the metaphysical into light and shadow, making the light a character–which is exactly what Ionesco asked for, namely that the elements be equal to create an experience larger than the sum of the parts: lights, sound, performers, costumes, and set design.
 
Eger: The costumes cracked me up, all beautifully done for this surreal piece.
 

Brock: Erica Hoelscher’s knowledge of costume history is immense. She researches and uses that knowledge, combined with her artistic sensibility. Her ability to understand performers, who they are as people, before they become the characters, informs her design. Erica takes into consideration the person she is designing for, and always builds on their strengths and individualities. Once that basic design is in place, we decide then what elements can be amped up to express the specific eccentricities of the character.
 
It’s a tricky balance, designing for this form. Costumes can easily veer off into absurdity for the sake of silliness, with no connection to the character traits behind the choices. Erica understands how the historical informs the themes. We share the same work and artistic ethic and a desire to take risks, despite a small budget.
 
Eger: Tell us about the inspiration behind the magical sound work.
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Brock: I’m affected by and sensitive to sound and music and how it ignites my mood and creativity. I begin work on the sound very early, and it is often the first element completed before the staging. This [approach] informs the direction for the characters and serves as a touch point for the play. When I run into blocks about direction, I come back to the soundscape.
 
Eger: The audience was laughing a lot—even in the face of a King Lear-like loss of power and life.
 
Brock: I want to be entertained at the theater. And there are many ways to accomplish that. One way is also to be challenged, goaded, and required to think about life and the choices we make. It’s important for me to experience the work of many different artists and ideas: dancers, visual artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers—and to be exposed to entertainment that makes me uncomfortable and challenged. I want to be exhausted after having seen a show.

Eger: And how does EXIT THE KING accomplish that?
 

Exit the King doesn’t lend itself to entertainment as in “you’re going to forget your troubles and escape to Nirvana,” but there is a comfort to me in tackling the subject head on. It’s a disturbing play, no doubt, but so is living in our modern world. Once it’s a given that life is finite, and that “we haven’t the time to take our time” (Queen Marguerite), then every move becomes important and considered.
 
For me, this is entertainment of the highest order: it asks the questions, poses the issues, and allows us to bring ourselves to the table—hopefully leaving changed in some way.

For an earlier version on Phindie, click here. 
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Long Live Ionesco Actors: Behind the scenes with the cast of IRC’s EXIT THE KING

9/13/2015

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Philadelphia’s favorite absurdist theater troupe, Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, is Fringing all Festival long with Eugene Ionesco’s EXIT THE KING. Henrik Eger talks to the six cast members about the characters in this intriguing play. [Walnut Street Theatre, Independence Studio on 3, 825 Walnut St., 3rd floor] September 1-20, 2015; fringearts.com/eugene-ionescos-exit-the-king.
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Sue Giddings, Robb Hutter, Anna Lou Hearn, Bob Schmidt, and Jenna Kuerzi in EXIT THE KING
Photo credit: Johanna Austin
​​​Henrik Eger: Describe your posture, your role, upon entering the catwalk, and then your last exit: What changed, including the power your character once might have held?
 
Robb Hutter [King Berenger]: I enter potent, powerful, handsome, sexy, and charismatic—a cross between Mick Jagger, Andrew Jackson, and Hugh Hefner. I exit in deep surrender into the fullness and non-existence.
 
Patricia Durante [Queen Marguerite]: During the catwalk down the runway, I am on top, in control, all is well. Fabulous. Grand. At the end, in my final moments with the King, I am trying desperately to stay by his side and honor his life and my love for him by walking him peacefully and safely to his “exit.”
 
Anna Lou Hearn [Marie, the King’s second wife]: Walking onto the runway, the only thought in my head is that my life is fabulous. I try to emulate my idol, supermodel Karlie Kloss in all her glory. When the world falls to pieces, I hold my body as if I’m trying to hold the kingdom together, but crumbling under the weight at times.
 
Susan Giddings [Court Physician]: Purposeful, assured, the doctor believes he has the answer to all of life’s problems and is excited to give the latest update to the two queens on the status of the universe and the king’s declining health. At the end of the play, he feels he has failed in his ability to restore any semblance of order and that he may have failed to help the king die a dignified death.
 
Jenna Kuerzi [Juliette, the Maid]: Think Octavia Spencer in The Help: the maid, the nurse, the caregiver, the voice of reason, the truth, and the connection to the working man. Panic and precision. A working class clown. Following an arm’s length behind, but always four steps ahead of the situation. Juliette gets her moment when she, ultimately, prepares him for his great end before Marguerite takes over.
 
Bob Schmidt [the Guard]: He doesn’t have much power at all at the start of the play. He’s pretty much just a frightened puppet that parrots back whatever is said. My posture slowly dials down to mirror the situation. As the King loses his power, the Guard gains his—slowly starting to think for himself, voicing his own thoughts.
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Jenna Kuerzi as Juliette and Bob Schmidt as the Guard in EXIT THE KING. Photo credit: Johanna Austin
Eger: Which quotes make your character stand out—for better or worse?
 
Hutter: “The empire—has there ever been another empire like it?” “And if you’re in need of small sacrifice, then parch and wither up the world. Let every human creature die, provided I can live forever.”
“I no longer know what there was all round me. I know I was part of a world, and this world was all about me. I know it was me, but what else was there—what else?”
 
Durante: “It’s the normal course of events, isn’t it? You were expecting it. Or had you stopped expecting it?” “It was a lot of fuss about nothing, wasn’t it?”
 
Hearn: “If you don’t remember, gaze at me and learn again that I am Marie. Look at my eyes, my face, my hair, my arms, and learn me off by heart.”
 
Gidding: “If this was a good old heart attack, we wouldn’t have had so much trouble.”
 
Kuerzi: “We’re here beside you. We’ll stay with you.”
 
Schmidt:“Still yours to command, your majesty, yours to command . . .” Even though the King has no power over him any longer, the Guard is saying it to comfort his dying former master and friend.
Picture
Robb Hutter and Anna Lou Hearn in the foreground and Patricia Durante, Jenna Kuerzi, and Bob Schmidt in the background
Photo by Johanna Austin
​Eger: EXIT THE KING, a kind of surreal King Lear, has much to say about us. Seen from the perspective of your own life, how did you connect to your role?
 
Hutter: When Berenger says, “Don’t stop them weeping for their king . . . I’m still the one who thinks about others,” I connect with the experience of being fully human, which, in my estimation, means holding the paradox, the polarities of being fully self-absorbed and fully altruistic, of genuinely caring about the welfare of others. I connect to the character’s absolute terror of dying. I differ in that I seek out forums in which to discuss aging and dying.
 
Durante: There is always someone in a crisis who rises to the occasion—by default, desire, or divine intervention. Someone must make the calls, tend to the arrangements, call the relatives, the funeral home, the newspaper. My sister, Karen, is a hospice nurse and the family hero, the caretaker, the one we all call in a crisis. She is my role model and inspiration for this role. I dedicate my performance to her.
 
Hearn: My truth that brought me closer to connecting with Marie, was my own relationship with death. Dealing with illness in the family, and relatives passing, has taught me to be strong enough to overcome what life throws at me.
 
Giddings: Working on this play reinforces the absolute inevitability of death and the various ways people and animals have to face this. With people we love, this might translate into being there with them throughout the process. With animals, this can translate into caring, both physically and emotionally, and knowing when to let go.
 
Kuerzi: After my Grandmother’s wake, just sitting in the house while 100 different emotions and the personalities of eight very different people were thrown around the room, I had to quietly listen and attempt to keep it together for them. That’s what this play feels like.
 
Schmidt: Well, it’s funny, because besides being an actor in the show, I’m on the staff of the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, so I am a soldier, in a way—working with Tina Brock, doing what I can to keep the company moving forward, and presenting these rarely-performed plays to keep this unique theatrical form alive in our fair city.
Picture
Jenna Kuerzi, Robb Hutter, and Patricia Durante in EXIT THE KING.
Photo credit by Johanna Austin
Eger: Is there anything else you would like to share?
 
Hutter: I am Artistic Director of Philly Senior Stage, a theatre devoted to “bringing the thrill of theatre to senior adults.” The students I teach and the actors I direct are in their “golden years.” I lovingly joke with them about promising me not to die between the dress rehearsal and whatever show we’re working on—to at least hold out until the final curtain falls.
 
Durante: I am so very honored and thankful that Tina Brock cast me in this role. I am indebted to her. I have been a fan of the IRC for years, and am thrilled to be in one of Tina’s creations.
 
Hearn: My hope is that, by the end of the show, Marie’s sincerity shines through her Barbie looks.
 
Kuerzi: As with most theatre, I hope people can walk away from Exit the King with a deeper appreciation of the world, especially the moments between sadness and silliness. Those emotions can, and do, exist simultaneously in this absurd world.
 
Schmidt: This is a beautiful play, loaded with many great images, compelling ideas, and wonderful language—truly one of Ionesco’s best. If you’re a fan of Absurdism, get out and see it, since it’s not likely to be presented again anytime soon.
 
Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium’s production of Eugene Ionesco’s EXIT THE KING, directed by Tina Brock, runs September 1-20, 2015 at Walnut Street Theatre, Independence Studio on 3 [825 Walnut Street, 3rd floor] fringearts.com/eugene-ionescos-exit-the-king.or exittheking.bpt.me.
​
Originally published by Phindie.
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The International Philly Fringe: A welcome to 18 countries

9/8/2015

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Anyone who says that Philadelphia is provincial hasn’t attended the annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival, which has grown to include artists from 18 different countries. Here’s the latest sampling of shows, performances, playwrights, and artists from around the world. Phindie writer Henrik Eger bids all of them a hearty WELCOME to Philadelphia in their own language.​
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AFGHANISTAN

Khosh amadid خوشآمد  to Afghanistan’s Rumi in Nighthawks, va/und Willkommen to Georg Büchner’s Lenzby Estranged Seekers—a collection of four plays, including humor from Franz Kafka’s work—with William Burrison, Ross Lipton, Michael London, Susan Miller, and Marlene Sider.

BELGIUM

Welgekomen, Pieter Ampe, en/e bem-vindo, Guilherme Garrido, your partner from Portugal, in Still Standing You. The two of you sometimes shock American audiences because of the intimacy of your naked grappling match and dance, reminiscent of D.H. Lawrence’s famous wrestling scene in the nude with Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in Women in Love. You bring to the stage the often undiscussed issues of male relationships and the wide range of experiences and feelings that they can evoke in almost magical ways.

COLOMBIA

Bienvenida CINEtica (Columbia), Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental (USA), y bienvenido Thaddeus Phillips, one of the stars of the TV show Alias el Mexicano, for allowing us to look behind the scenes of the manipulation of the American public by the highest power players in the US during the Iran Contra Affair, and the relationship with Columbian drug lords and the people caught in this dangerous trade for weapons and killer drugs—all presented in a highly creative studio production, bringing the reality of those days into our own time.
FRANCE
Bienvenu, L’Encyclopédie de la Parole, Joris Lacoste, Pierre-Yves Macé, Vladimir Kudryavtsev, Emmanuelle Lafon, Nuno Lucas, Barbara Matijevic, et Olivier Normand. Your team of social linguists, poets, actors, directors, and visual artists have recorded an index of spoken language in such a way that everyday language now opens doors to possibilities never heard before, creating sounds from Sprechgesang and recitativo to a choral suite of multiple tongues (with English supertitles) in Suite n°2.
​
GERMANY

Willkommen, Georg Büchner’s Lenz, und/va Khosh amadid خوشآمد to Afghanistan’s Rumi. (For details, go to AFGHANISTAN.)

NETHERLANDS

Welkom, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, and dankjewel for After the Rehearsal, your work that shows the illness of normality, the normality of illness, the art of reality, and the reality of art—allowing us to see water that broke through the dykes and Elektra crossing the waves.

NORWAY

Velkommen, Jo Strømgren Kompani from the country that gave us Henrik Ibsen, the Nobel Peace Prize, and now three separate shows:

A Doll’s House as wondrous as that of the world of Alice in Wonderland—with battles fought, both inside and outside the small and restrictive Helmer’s house, supported by a wild and unruly cast of American actors, giving us a new look at Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece that has led to more discussions since its opening in 1879 than most other plays.

There, an amazing play that takes us into the world of Soviet dissidents who, Beckett-like, live inside a world of crates rejoicing and rejecting, wrestling and dancing, trying to find their place in life.

The Border, reminiscent of Sartre’s No Exit, except that the two outcasts don’t speak each other’s language and are experiencing the hell of irrational expectations and territorial demands in an emotional dance of human relationships.
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POLAND

Powitanie to Soldier Bear, a moving story of two orphans during World War II: a Polish soldier and a bear cub whom he adopts—both bonding and becoming a family across two species. The Jim Henson Foundation, impressed by the work ofLeila and Pantea Productions, funded this puppet dance and shadow theater.

PORTUGAL

Bem-vindo, Guilherme Garrido from Portugal and your dance partner, Pieter Ampe. (For details of Still Standing You, go to BELGIUM.)

RUSSIA

Dobro pozhalovat’ добро пожаловать toAnton Chekhov in Lancaster County, PA, with the Three Sisters and a Wolf by the Wee Keep Company with singers, dancers, dreamers, and binge eaters creating a montage of imagined memories and responses to Russia’s influential playwright.

SPAIN

Bienvenida, Spanish mezzo-soprano Doña Anna Maria Ruimonte, taking us on a musical journey through the Spanish Baroque with puppets in period costumes and paintings from 17th century Spain in The Cart of Love/El Carro del Amor.
Muchas gracias, Doña Anna Maria Ruimonte, and welcome American Jazz bassist Alan Lewine, for taking us on a musical marathon through eight centuries of music in 75 minutes—from ancient Sephardic and medieval songs through the Baroque, all the way to opera, lieder, and boleros—blending the Spanish classical voice with the American jazz sensibility and heating up the Philadelphia Art Alliance with flamenco fire.

UNITED KINGDOM

Welcome, Ant Hampton and theater-goers to the Philadelphia Fringe Fest, many of whom are going to become The Extra Peoplein every show, walking through the deserted large Merriam Theater, watching a performance by another group of spectators, only to become unrehearsed ‘guest’ performers themselves for the next group—all via instructions received through earphones. (Alert: only 15 people can get tickets for each of the ten shows. Therefore, book your tickets ASAP.)
Hampton’s work and that of his collaborators (sound design and composition by Sam Britton, technical design by Hugh Roche-Kelly, and other artistic collaborators) has been so successful that it now exists in over 48 different language versions.

UNITED STATES

Welcome to the Shadow Company of Yes! And . . . Collaborative Arts, a performing arts company made up of talented and dedicated high school students from the Philadelphia area, who are using masks from around the globe in The Fall—a modern allegory that weaves together human history and contemporary events—showing how one moment of temptation can change the world.

VENEZUELA, the NETHERLANDS, MOZAMBIQUE, SLOVENIA, SLOVAKIA, SOUTH KOREA

Bienvenidos, David Zambrano; Welkom, Mat Voorter en Ellen Knops; Bem-vindo, Edivaldo Ernesto e Horacio Macuacua; Dobrodošli, Nina Fajdiga; Vitajte, Milan Herich a Peter Jasko; and 환영, Young Cool Park.
Soul Project spans four continents with choreographed and improvised dances from the Americas (with soul music by Aretha Franklin, James Brown, et al.), dances from Africa, Europe, and Asia. All we need to span the globe completely would be a theatre artist from Australia—perhaps at the Philadelphia Fringe Fest 2016.

A hearty WELCOME to all playwrights, artists, dancers, directors, writers, performers and, above all, the many theatergoers supporting cutting edge theater in Philadelphia at the 2015 Fringe Festival. The 2015 Philadelphia Fringe Festival runs September 3-19, 2015, at locations around the city. Tickets and info at fringearts.com.​

Originally published by Phindie.
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