September’s theater scene is focused, as usual, on Philly’s Fringe Fest, especially with its founder Nick Stuccio stepping down in October.
For all of its new admins — president Amy Kurzban, programming director Mikaela Boone, independent artist manager Simon Rabinowitz — and countless new Fringe-acts, the real highlight of PFF2024 is that many artists during its Sept. 5-29 run are longtime favorites.
“We see the Fringe Fest and Fringe Arts as a destination point for all artists and audiences,” said Rabinowitz.
Here are a few of Fringe 2024’s returning heroes.
‘Poor Judge’
The most hotly-anticipated Fringe return is that of once-ailing, now-well Pig Iron Theatre co-founder Dito van Reigersberg — aka drag doyenne Martha Graham Cracker — with direction by Pig Iron’s new Artistic Producer Eva Steinmetz for ‘Poor Judge’ (Sept 11-22 at the Wilma).
“We’re overjoyed Dito’s back with this fever-dream, road-trip of concert theater based on the music of Aimee Mann,” said Pig Iron co-founder Quinn Bauriedel of the vividly exploded realities behind America’s finest singer-poet-songwriters.
‘On Buried Ground’
From Sept. 4-14, the breadth of Christ Church Burial Ground’s campus will be used for the movement-and-storytelling-driven ‘On Buried Ground’ and its immersive ‘Groundlings’ exhibition. Once there, Philadelphia playwright Rayne, dance artist Shayla-Vie Jenkins and director Nia Benjamin focus on hidden histories of enslaved and freed people of African descent.
“This is different from the work most people know me for here,” said Rayne – an actor and director – regarding the delicate abstract poetry of ‘On Buried Ground’. “This piece is not about White founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin, or Black revolutionaries like Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner, but rather the everyday people – perhaps, enslaved parishioners – of Christ Church and how the navigated their lives… their inner monologues, their inner worlds.”
Starting life as a moving dance piece by Jenkins, given access to Christ Church Neighborhood House’s archive, it was the church that considered the initial 2021 Fringe show “groundbreaking” and requested a narrative expansion of its message to include the story of Black children given religious services after their passing at the Old City landmark without knowing the whereabouts of their remains. Yes, Rayne asserts that some of ‘On Buried Ground’ is uncomfortable in its dissection of slavery, but great art like what these women are making can make the bluntness of history less antiseptic, and more hauntingly poetic.
“It’s a gift that the three of us could come together and work as one on this project,” said Rayne.
‘Getting Creative’
Fringe frequent flyer Jennifer Blaine has devised 20 solo works for previous PFFs including 2013’s ‘Dirty Joke’ and 2017’s ‘Vicissitudes of Travel’. For PFF2024, the life-coach, stand-up comic, songwriter and performance artist knits together those skillsets and more for the next in her audience-interactive ‘Getting Creative’ series.
‘Owning How Special You Are’ takes place Sept. 27 at Mister John’s, 761 S. 8th Street, where she gently provokes crowd members into inventive self-revelation. Along with “looping in” an overall awareness of what each client is working through, one of the things Blaine believes is unique to her coaching is that “I’m really interested in content, and am good at connecting all intellectual points, and things specific to each person” while tuning into everything from their emotion to the manner in which they breathe.
None of this, necessarily, sounds funny or Fringe-y as so much of this relies on the metaphysical. “Yet when I coach, I’m looking to bring you to a place where you can have fun, whereas during my performances, I’m having fun on purpose,” said Blaine of using outrageous self-expression and silly voices to bring out the best in each audience member.
‘ADHD Mixtape’
Philly’s longtime Tribe of Fools artistic director Terry Brennan is forever beloved for manically physical, heart-palpating athleticism on ToF Fringe shows such as ‘Shut Your Wormhole’, ‘Antihero’ and more.
“The Fringe has been crucial in the development of ‘Tribe of Fools,’” said Brennan. But performing by himself for the first time at the Fringe in portrayal of the struggles of school-age ADHD kids with his world premiere ‘ADHD Mixtape’ (Sept. 7, Circus Campus 6452 Greene Street) only happened with the introspection of distance.
“And healthcare, I left Philly to find affordable healthcare,” said Brennan from his home in British Colombia. Good healthcare is necessary for a man whose ‘Mixtape’ is a study of circus tricks (handstands, sledgehammer balancing, tire juggling) and his fidgety dance moves.
‘The 40-Year-Old Ballerino’
Philadelphia solo theater performer Chris Davis and his friend-director MK Tuomanen return to the one-person stage and the Fringe with ‘The 40-Year-Old Ballerino’, running Sept. 7 to 28 in the Amy Novinski Ballet Studio (at the Bok Building on 9th Street) where Davis takes weekly ballet classes. Alone with his dedication to the barre and the demi plie, Davis promises to mix storytelling and movement as he did with ‘One-Man Nutcracker’s’ holiday extravaganza.
“At 40 years old, I’m seizing on ballet class as a way to replace all other addictions — drugs, alcohol, ‘Modern Family’ and the toxic tropes of 90s John Cusack movies,” he said. “And I’ll show you that change is always possible, no matter what your age.”
