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Arts
Last Monday night at the Kimmel Center, about 400 members of the Philadelphia theater community got together to finish what the Theater Alliance started — they gave away the remaining awards meant to be part of the annual Barrymores along with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement prize to Wilma Theater co-founder Jiri Zizka.
An honorary and voluntary committee of local stage artisans pulled off "Theatre Philadelphia: A Celebration” without a hitch. Each presentation for the $10,000 F. Otto Haas Award for an emerging artist was outrageous fun, in particular Alex Bechtel & Co.’s “Dream Weaver” cover dedicated to nominee Thom Weaver as well as Lee Ann Etzold’s bare-breasted salute to her Bang co-star and creator Charlotte Ford (actor and 11th Hour Theatre Company co-founder Steve Pacek won the Haas). The $25,000 Brown Martin Philadelphia Award for theater companies celebrating cultural and spiritual diversity went to Flashpoint Theatre Company, for last season's Slip/Shot drama about race penned by Philly playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger, who had already had won a Barrymore for outstanding new play this year. Along with those awards, a new seasonally recurring $10K gift was announced — the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an outstanding small theater company.
Jiri Zizka was celebrated by his son, Krystof, and ex-wife, Blanka Zizka for his dedication to advancing the avant-garde as artistic director and co-founder of the Wilma Theater, and helping turn Philadelphia into an adventuresome theater town.
Along with lionizing Zizka, Theater Philadelphia poked fun at the departure of its red-carpet Barrymores as well as bemoaning the loss of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s full-time theater critic Howard Shapiro, a staffer who took a buyout rather than be moved to the paper’s New Jersey bureau.
“Comedies about things that aren’t funny” is the theme of B. Someday Productions’ 2012-13 season at the Walking Fish Theatre, and their third installment, from Canadian master of angst-ridden comedy George F. Walker’s Suburban Motel series, fits perfectly. Like last spring’s repertory of The End of Civilization and Featuring Loretta, Problem Child takes place in a seedy motel room, and is dark, dirty, dangerous — and funny. In Problem Child, Denise (Gina Martino, fascinating in the first two plays) and RJ (Matt Shell IV) want to clean up their drug-ravaged lives and reclaim their daughter, taken by Social Services, but mayhem ensues.
Through Nov. 17, $20, Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Ave., 215-427-9255, walkingfishtheatre.com.
Philly’s on-again/off-again literary festival is on again, with four days of readings, concerts and parties in the Eraserhood section. There’s too much stuff to list here, but I’ll lay out some highlights. It all starts Thursday with an appearance by Buzz Bissinger and the debut of the Mural Arts Mobile Campfire, “a glowing, LED-powered orb meant to intimate a futuristic campfire” designed by artist Juan Dimida (7 p.m., 319 N. 11th St.). Author/journalist Jon Ronson (The Psychopath Test, Lost at Sea) is one of the most brilliant nonfiction storytellers going, so Friday’s happy hour reading at Llama Tooth should be a blast (6 p.m., 1033 Spring Garden Ave.). Sunday night belongs to one of the most brilliant fake-fiction storytellers, John Hodgman (The Areas of My Expertise), a 215 Fest staple (8 p.m., Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St.).
Through Nov. 4, free to $15, various locations, 215festival.org.
COVER!
It's our Halloween issue! Pat Rapa talks with professional actors about the roles they've played in haunted houses in less-flush eras of their careers: "I wandered around, mean as fuck, glaring at people and barking at them in a voice like Jack Nicholson chewing on speed and broken glass."
Theresa Everline hangs out with mummies at the Penn Museum: "There are numerous human heads with (ew!) preserved hair. There’s a falcon, an ibis, a herd of cats, a crocodile and two young children — all mummified."
Mark Cofta goes to the Adrienne for Luna Theater Company's 70 Scenes of Halloween, in which a resentful suburban married couple are stalked by two scary monsters: "Beast and Witch are simultaneously neighborhood children, Jeff and Joan’s friends and the couple’s barely controlled ids.
And a roundup of Halloween events, from Dracula ballet to a Rocky Horror Puppet Show to zombie-pop.
ARTS!
Deni Kasrel on human-robot choreography in Science per Forms from Carbon Dance Theatre: "Homer must be reprogrammed, not merely asked to avoid beaning the other dancer."
MUSIC!
Patrick Rapa talks to Kate Ferencz about her band Evil Sword and their love of costumes and weirdness. " Regardless of what time of year it is, if you come to an Evil Sword show you are expected to wear a costume."
Michael Pelusi has a few things to say about the Aimee Mann/Ted Leo show at Union Transfer on Friday: "Thirteen years after Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, Aimee Mann has found another simpatico filmmaker: Tom Scharpling, host of The Best Show on WFMU. Scharpling’s videos for songs from Mann’s latest album, Charmer (SuperEgo), delight in testing the resolve of her deadpan. ..."
Peter Burwasser is intrigued by the gigantic Cage: Move From Zero series starting up on Friday: "Was John Cage a creative genius or a clever charlatan?"
MOVIES!
Sam Adams calls the highly ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell’s sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas "a movie of big ideas — and only some of them are terrible." Directors: Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer Stars: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugh Grant Grade: B+ Theaters: Franklin Mills, UA Grant, UA Riverview.
Christian Graham reviews The Other Son, "a West Bank story of mistaken identity and clashing cultures that, unfortunately, fails to hit as hard as it could." Director: Lorraine Levy Stars: Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé and Jules Sitruk Grade: B- Theater: Ritz Five.
Drew Lazor calls indie drama Smashed "a forthright exploration of alcoholism clipped by its own rhetoric." Director: James Ponsoldt Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul and Octavia Spencer Grade: B- Theaters: Ritz at the Bourse.
Plus, a roundup of rep films by Christian Graham that includes all kinds of old-school Halloween flicks, like The Monster Squad at The Balcony, The Exorcist at County Theater and Halloween at Rave.
Follow and like us on Twitter and Facebook, and ogle our around-town photo feed on Instagram @phillycitypaper.
Every week, City Paper staff photographer Neal Santos (@nealsantos) shares his week's Instagrams. To get started, here's a slideshow of his faves to date.
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Philly-based journal, record label and events producer Data Garden is bringing the botanic garden of 18th-century naturalist John Bartram into the 21st century — and beyond — with a new interactive exhibit. The Switched-On Garden 002, which marks the end of the eighth annual DesignPhiladelphia Festival, fuses elements of the digital and biological in a series of live performances and sound installations. Talking trees, simulated fireflies, improvised robotic drums and more will animate the 45 acres of historic Bartram’s Garden and invite participants to consider the relationship among music, sculpture, technology and the natural world.
Sun., Oct. 14, 2-8 p.m., free, Bartram’s Garden, 54th St. and Lindbergh Blvd., 215-729-5281, datagarden.org, designphiladelphia.org.
SHOW: Pro-Mania 2K12: WitOut Wrestling
GROUP: Philly Improv Theater (PHIT)
GENRE: Sketch/Improv Comedy
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 7, 11:30 pm., Fri., Sept. 14, 11:30 p.m., Sat. Sept. 22, 11:30 p.m.
CLOSED: Sat., Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: 2011’s hit show returns! A sport-stravagant celebration of the larger-than-life spectacle that is professional wrestling (with only some of the wrestling). Philly’s top comedic performers pay homage to the flashy trash-talking promos, slick video packages and bitter rivalries of the squared circle.
WE THINK: Joey Dougherty certainly got his comeuppance, after letting the championship go to his head. Congrats to fan-favorite Moonshine Marvin, who technically won the belt while Joey was snoozing backstage (since the belt is 24/7, falls-count-anywhere). The stealthy pin was shown on the Jumbotron to the delight of a packed Adrienne Theatre. Moonshine successfully defended his new title in the main-event tag match between himself and "the intern" vs. Joey and Alex Fucking Gross. It was a surprisingly well-choreographed night of wrassling all around — especially for a gang of untrained local comedians. One exception: Local pro-wrestler Tim Donst gave The Necrosexual a lesson in self-esteem after a black-metal-shred-off-turned-"Kumbaya"-sing-along ended in the dark lord's embarrassment (ya know, like it usually does).
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Fibber
GROUP: Philly Improv Theater
GENRE: Storytelling/improv
ATTENDED: Fri., Sept. 21, 9:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 23
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: 4 STORYTELLERS. 1 FIBBER. After swearing to tell the truth, Philly’s most talented storytellers share their own personal and outrageous experiences with the audience—but someone has made it all up. It’s the audience's job to hear the stories and vote for the person whose pants they think are on fire!
WE THINK: Hilary Rea gave a delightful introduction by admitting her gullibility about the non-existent Pizza Wolf club at Lazaro’s. Then I listened dutifully to the four “local celebrities” who played Fibber. Dan Gross of the Daily News told a gross out story about shitting his pants. But I knew he wasn’t full of shit. Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll spoke inelegantly about a job he did at an Internet porn company. (Nobody using notes to remember dildos and overdoses could be lying.) Bryan Dwyer of Pizza Brain told a story about sleep deprivation that seemed too vague — as soon as I heard Geekadelphia’s Eric Smith’s fishy tale of getting hooked by a camper, I figured Dwyer was the fabricator. However, Dwyer was really convincing in the Q&A session, and Eric wasn’t. (Lake Winnebago?!) And why was Eric — who admitted he couldn’t swim — out in a boat on a lake supervising kids? As for whether I marked the ballot correctly, I won’t lie. But I won’t tell you either.
—Gary M. Kramer
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Scout
GROUP: Fur Collective
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Mon., Sept. 17
CLOSES: Wed., Sept. 19 (Note: this review slipped through the cracks, apologies! —ed.)
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: This piece is ripe with patriotism and controversy. Using these entities this piece explores entitlement, occupation of space, and the world we inherit. Scout allows us to be critical of a country full of contradictions while still being completely enamored by its charm.
WE THINK: Three boy scouts (Hannah DeKeijzer, Yasmin Roberti, Anna Szapiro) sit around a campfire with a bag of marshmallows. The game is Chubby Bunny, and the objective is to speak while filling your mouth to maximum capacity. The scouts are attempting to finish the line "America is..." which makes a good deal of sense considering they are the Boy Scouts of America, after all. The responses sound about right in the beginning ("America is baseball," "America is babes"), but once the declaration comes out that "America isn't all that it's cracked up to be" then things take on a tone a bit heavier than just mere spitballin'. However, the heady debate goes unresolved as our characters quickly move onto a swimming hole, and with a running time of just under thirty minutes, it's never revisited. The premise is novel enough and the dialogue engaging, but the sudden ending leaves way too much on the table.
—Chris Brown
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Backstory
GROUP: Hot Dish + Philly Improv Theater
GENRE: Improv
ATTENDED: Wed., Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A completely improvised show that unfolds backward in time, similar to the movie Memento. Unlike anything that fans of improv and comedy at the Philly Fringe have ever seen before, it's an evening of completely engrossing and entertaining theater from the curtain call to the opening suggestion.
WE THINK: As far as plot goes, it’s not exactly going to be Memento, given that the performers are thinking on their feet, working backwards and trying to be funny all at once. Fortunately, that’s somewhat beside the point. On the night we went, there were plenty of hilarious moments punctuating the confusing and awkward ones, as performers worked backward to commit a solved murder and ask the answered questions.
—Samantha Melamed
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