Big Messy Retro-Fest

Big Messy Retro-Fest, Fri.-Sat., Oct. 31-Nov. 1 and Nov. 7-8, 7 and 9 p.m., $25 per performance, Painted Bride Arts Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, paintedbride.org; Big Mess Movie Night, Mon., Nov. 3, 9 p.m., free, National Mechanics, 22 S. Third St., 215-701-4883, nationalmechanics.com

by A.D. Amorosi

performance art

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Greg Giovanni quit messing around — writing, arranging, creating, directing and producing that brand of anarchistic kitchen-sink avant-garde punk-rock performance art that he called Big Mess Theatre throughout the '80s. Big Mess was a precursor to everything Philly Fringe and Live Arts Fest would one day become. And what did Giovanni do to celebrate that? Become a Noh theater artiste and abandon his Big Messy baby. But that doesn't mean he doesn't still love what he once bore: Giovanni's helped prepare two weekend Big Messy Retro-Fests where he and his original scripts get remixed and celebrated by artists and orgs he's influenced (Azuka Theatre, Philadelphia Dramatist Center) or worked with directly (Robert Smythe, Brat Productions). In between the two Bride weekends, National Mechanics celebrates Giovanni's rarely seen cinematic oeuvre with a free Monday night screening of Italian family drama Dollface; Wendy Bell's glam-gangster movie, A Hat Like That; and Scott Johnston's John Henry vs. the I.H. 3000, all starring Giovanni, as well as Giovanni's directorial debut, Medea of Springfield, which aired on WHYY and surely stopped more than a few pledge drives cold. That's what we call a hot mess.

Big Messy Retro-Fest, Fri.-Sat., Oct. 31-Nov. 1 and Nov. 7-8, 7 and 9 p.m., $25 per performance, Painted Bride Arts Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, paintedbride.org; Big Mess Movie Night, Mon., Nov. 3, 9 p.m., free, National Mechanics, 22 S. Third St., 215-701-4883, nationalmechanics.com.