2012 Live Arts Festival Previews
Full show details and ticket sales will go live in June.
27
Arguendo
Bang
FOOD COURT
Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech
Le Grand Continental
Private Places
Sequence 8
RED-EYE to HAVRE de GRACE
The Gate Reopened
This Town Is A Mystery
Untitled Feminist Show
Zero Cost House
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27New Paradise LaboratoriesWorld PremierePrevious Live Arts shows: Extremely Public Displays of Privacy (2011), FREEDOM CLUB (2010), FATEBOOK (2009), BATCH (2006) It's dusk in a country with an invisible flag. Soldiers party hard, celebrating their way too-early deaths. They are the champions of inconsistency. They are 27. A new recruit arrives. She calls from the ramparts and everyone remembers why they fight. Welcome to the Afterlife a la New Paradise Laboratories. Where life is brilliant and brief. Where the laws of the universe are ignored. Where victory means self-destruction in the most pleasurable way possible. And defeat means fading from view. New Paradise Laboratories returns to its roots with this muscular live performance. Expect ravishing images, provocative ideas, and high weirdness — accompanied by the best music in the solar system. Directed by Whit MacLaughlin "The group's multilayered projects are playfully absurdist critiques of society at large—magnetically visual . . . with an emphasis on being immersive to the point of submersion." |
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ArguendoElevator Repair ServicePrevious Live Arts shows: The Sun Also Rises (The Select) (2010) Brings the U.S. Supreme Court to town with the staging of oral arguments from Barnes vs. Glen Theatre Inc., which concerned an Indiana law banning public nudity, and how that may be upheld, or not, in the context of go-go dancers. "Elevator Repair Service works with intelligence and imagination." |
 Photo © Kevin Monko |
BangCharlotte FordWorld PremierePrevious Live Arts shows: Chicken (2010), Flesh and Blood and Fish and Fowl (2008) 2012 Live Arts Festival Production Resident Charlotte Ford recently gave a rousing series of in-progress showings of Bang to audiences during March's LAB Test Series at the Live Arts Studio. This hilarious all-female comedic clown theater spectacular features Charlotte Ford, Sarah Sanford (Pig Iron Theatre Company), and Lee Etzold (Brat Productions) and is directed by Emmanuelle Delpech. Fashioning three distinct characters who seem to fall accidentally onto the stage, the trio sets out to show the world their wants and desires with wild abandon. "One of the bravest local perf-art personages to come along in the last decade." |
 Photo © Jeff Busby |
FOOD COURTBack to Back Theatre (Australia)U.S. PremierePrevious Live Arts show: small metal objects (2009) Experience a thrilling theater and concert performance by one of Australia's leading creative voices. FOOD COURT is the story of a woman's struggle with bullying, violence, and body image, performed by a company of artists with perceived intellectual disabilities. The show challenges audiences to confront our own definition of "other" through an unpredictable rollercoaster of digital projections, shadows, and emotion—underscored by a live music score by The Necks, one of the great cult bands of Australia. "In the long silence that followed, before the lights came up and the audience broke into a storm of applause, I think everyone there was holding their breath. 'Stunned' is a word that is easily reached for, but in this case, I think it's a precise description."
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 Photo courtesy of chelfitsch |
Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell SpeechToshiki Okada, chelfitsch (Japan)From acclaimed playwright-director Toshiki Okada, this triptych of plays humorously captures the malaise of young low-level office workers with idiosyncratic, gesture-driven choreography and a witty narrative. Performed in Japanese with projected English subtitles, Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech presents a groundbreaking contemporary piece for anyone and everyone who has ever felt trapped by cubicle walls, florescent lights, and a co-worker that just won't stop talking. "Chelfitsch is one of the most acclaimed phenomena in Japan's theater scene from the last decade." |
 Photo © Robert Etcheverry |
Le Grand ContinentalSylvain Emard Danse (Montreal)Plunge feet first into the most epic contemporary dancing event ever imagined! Sylvain Émard's Le Grand Continental is a festive 30-minute adventure that assembles 200+ local dancers of all ages and backgrounds to show off the talent, charisma, and personality of "ordinary" Philadelphians. Originally created for Montréal's internationally renowned Festival TransAmériques (FTA) in 2009, the Philadelphia version will be the largest presentation of its kind in the world. Ready for your debut? If you are a dancer-professional, amateur, or someone who just likes to move—WE WANT YOU! Sign up here. Click here to watch a video.
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 Photo by Tayarisha Poe |
Private PlacesidiosynCrazy productionsWorld PremierePrevious Live Arts show: 8 eight choreographers/eight new works (2010) This exciting, original work from Philly-based choreographer Jumatatu Poe mixes themes of explosiveness and confinement, the effect of exterior on the interior, service and performance, materials and identity. Private Places borrows high-powered movement from J-Setting along with stylized movement from everyday life and a high degree of theatricality. Featured dancers include Gregory Holt, Maya Johnson, Shannon Murphy, Jumatatu Poe, Gabrielle Revlock, and Michele Tantoco. |
 Photo of Edgar Allan Poe |
RED-EYE to HAVRE de GRACELucidity Suitcase Intercontinental + The Wilhelm BrothersPrevious Live Arts shows include: WHaLE OPTICS (2011), ¡EL CONQUISTADOR! (2010), Flamingo/Winnebago (2007) In October of 1849, Edgar Allan Poe set out on a trip from Virginia to New York. Five days later he was found unconscious on a street in Baltimore wearing a stranger's clothing and taken to the hospital where he died after experiencing wild delusions. Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental teams up with the innovative Minneapolis based duo The Wilhelm Brothers to create a musical that investigates Poe's final days spent on trains, in streets, taverns, and hotels. Directed and designed by Thaddeus Phillips, and created in collaboration with Geoff Sobelle (all wear bowlers, Elephant Room) and Sophie Bortolussi (currently playing Lady M in Punchdrunk's Sleep No More in New York City). "This show begs and beggars description: it is at once high Romanticism and extreme avant-garde, filled with mysterious and often gorgeous effects, both aural and visual." |
 Photo courtesy of 7 Fingers |
Sequence 87 Fingers (Montreal)U.S. PremierePresented in association with Kimmel Center PresentsPrevious Live Arts show: Traces (2011) "The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." C. G. Jung From the company that brought you Traces, the unbelievable acrobatic spectacle deemed "circus at a human scale," comes the U.S. premiere of their newest creation. Carrying emotional dynamics and physical feats to a point of explosion and propulsion, SEQUENCE 8 incorporates the strongest of theatrical elements at an even higher acrobatic level. Using simple props such as mirrors, a tape deck with instructive recordings, and a portable projector, this momentous acrobatic piece tempts and tests the fine line between "self" and "other."
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 Photo © Jacques-Jean Tiziou / jjtiziou.net |
The Gate ReopenedBrian Sanders' JUNKPrevious Live Arts shows include: Sanctuary 2010, Urban Scuba (2009) Brian Sanders' JUNK is known for their ingenious use of found objects and clever inventions that bridge the gap between dance and physical theater. For The Gate Reopened Sanders reimagines his thrilling 2003 hit, The Gate, on an even grander scale. "The Gate is like an electrified wire: dangerous and extremely powerful. . . . Sanders has reaffirmed his position as the city's most exciting choreographer and performer." |
 Photo courtesy of Headlong Dance Theater |
This Town Is A MysteryHeadlong Dance TheaterWorld PremierePrevious Live Arts shows include: Red Rovers (2011), more. (2009), Explanatorium (2007) Who really lives in Philadelphia? What mysteries reside in these houses? Four Philly households, all varying culturally and geographically, will present 25-minute dance theater pieces in their living rooms to audiences of just 10 people. Each extraordinary work will reflect the unique stories, images, and rhythms of their homes, featuring a mix of movement, language, video, and sound. Following the performance, the audience and the household will sit down for a meal (pot luck) and conversation. If you like site-specific work, this show is for you! "Headlong is clearly not your typical dance company, with dances in keeping with the troupe's motto that intelligent experimentation can be compelling and in some cases, hilarious." |
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Untitled Feminist ShowYoung Jean Lee's Theater CompanySix charismatic stars of the downtown theater, dance, cabaret, and burlesque worlds come together to invite audiences on an exhilarating, irreverent, and nearly-wordless celebration of a limitless sense of identity. "One of the more moving and imaginative works I have ever seen on the American stage." |
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Zero Cost HousePig Iron Theatre CompanyWorld PremierePrevious Live Arts shows include: Twelfth Night, or What You Will (2011), Cankerblossom (2010), Welcome To Yuba City (2009) Philadelphia's premier physical theater company collaborates with renowned Japanese playwright-director Toshiki Okada. Features James Sugg, Dito van Reigersberg, and Alex Torra. Directed by Dan Rothenberg. "Inventive staging and sublime displays of whimsy." |
