Let's jump right in:

>>>City Paper cover story is more like a cover package: A.D. Amorosi interviews Charlotte Ford about CHICKEN, Mark Cofta on all the Billy Shakes, a piece on all the undead (so many undead), Shaun Brady on Bang on a Can and Release, and more.

>>>Philadelphia magazine's website has a slideshow of 11 of your favorite Festival performers.

>>>Daily News: Jonathan Takiff interviews Joe Blake, former DN reporter turned playwright and writing teacher, about his Philly Fringe show A Separate Sun.

>>>Edge Philadelphia: What's gay at the Festivals? They've got us covered.

>>>Edge redux: Article on the very talented Meg Foley, whose choreography will be featured next week as a part of 8: eight choreographers/eight new works.

>>>TheaterMania: J. Cooper Robb covers the opening of the theater season in Philly, with plugs for the Live Arts production Cankerblossom and the Philly Fringe show The New & Improved Stages of Grief.
>>>First Person Arts shares their picks too, focusing on memoir and documentary, of course. Click on over, and find out how to get an FPA discount to Cedric Andreiux.

--Nicholas Gilewicz

Photo by Jay Dunn.

"It's exciting and terrifying to have my own space," says playwright and director John Rosenberg as he shows me around the spacious first floor of the Papermill Theater, where his company, hellafresh theater, is in residence. "It used to be such theater dork talk, you know 'wouldn't it be awesome to have your own space.'" His collection of six short plays, Cheap Guy HOF, Class of 2010, will be the first performance to take place in the newly converted theater when it premieres at the 2010 Philly Fringe Festival.

The play, which coronates six cheap Americans into an imagined hall of fame, was largely inspired by a story that John read in the newspaper a few years ago about a judge masturbating in court under his robes. "I was like 'WTF?!' and that gave birth to the idea of chronicling cheap guys."

Cheap Guy HOF's debut will also be John's theater debut in Philly. He's a recent transplant from San Francisco, where he worked with a company called Sleepwalkers. He broke off with them to form hellafresh, a name he says "gives people an idea of what your shit is." Then his "lady friend" wanted to moved back to her native Philly.

"I said 'Hooray!'" and in January they relocated to Philly, where they now live in Center City. So far John's found the theater scene in the City of Brotherly Love to be thriving.

And he's working hard to expand where theater happens in the city. With the Papermill Theater, John says, "We are throwing our lives into this project up in Kensington." This past week, construction finished up, lights went in, and Cheap Guy HOF is ready to go.

"San Francisco has a huge music scene, but as big as music is there, theater is here," he says. "What blew my mind was all the bus stop posters for theater performances, because other cities don't have that."

Two months before the Fringe he was doing readings of Cheap Guy HOF on top of converting the space that was once a paper mill and then an illegal nightclub into a theater. "I really love workshopping a play until it goes on." He doesn't work "by the book," he says, because he doesn't like to talk that much. Plus as a playwright he says the actors continually surprise him.

"One of the plays I thought would be a dirty, nasty play," he says. "But when I read with an actor who a combo of like Jimmy Stewart and Jack Lemon, the play changed for me to be about this all-American, go-getter guy who just lost his shit." In this way, when John says "cheap guy," he's not necessarily referring to a man who won't foot the bill.

"It was a derisive term from when I was growing up in L.A. Me and my sister use to use it to describe like an old guy who kept gold buried in the background or someone who discharges firearms," he explains. "Like guys who are 'allergic to condoms.'"

Cheap Guy HOF, Class of 2010 opens on Saturday, September 4 and runs every Saturday and Sunday throughout the Philly Fringe. Papermill Community for the Arts, 2825 Ormes Street, Kensington. Times vary, $10. For details and tickets, click here

--Ellen Freeman

Photos courtesy of John Rosenberg.

The 2010 Philly Fringe previews are almost done, and the cavalcade that is the Fringe is about to begin. Tonight? The final Fringe showcase at Plays and Players. The lineup, please . . .

Act Normal Theatre: Kid Out of Nowhere

Kapow Productions: Tiny Dynamite

Hella Fresh Theater: Cheap Guy HOF, Class of 2010

Plays and Players: Titus Andronicus

Anj Granieri: Casual World/Intimate Heart

DysFUNctional Theater: Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act

Duende Flamenco Fusion: Rosa de la Alhambra

MM2 Modern Dance Company: Emergence

Philadelphia Acting Studio: Acting Class (The Play)

Plays and Players presents Save The Day Productions: Super Heroes Who Are Super!

8:00 pm, Plays and Players, 1714 Delancey Place, Rittenhouse Square. $12.

--Nicholas Gilewicz

I call him that because we're family.

In what will hopefully be an avalanche of lovely stories about all things Live Arts and Fringe, J. Cooper Robb reports for the Philadelphia Weekly on the adventurous Shakespeare and Shakespeare-inspired productions as part of the two Festivals. Quoth Robb:

"[Shakespeare]'s technically been responsible for thousands of hours of dull, turgid theater over the last few centuries (even though he obviously needs to be credited with thousands more of great theater), and the festival is all about breaking those conventions. This year, though, there's a subset of groups taking on the Bard instead of dodging him, with at least five shows based on the words, images and ideas of Shakespeare."

We'll go with the hours of great theater, thanks. Shows like: Romeo and Juliet, Jester's Dead, ¡EL CONQUISTADOR!, Titus Andronicus, and Cankerblossom, all of which Robb discusses.

--Nicholas Gilewicz

Image credit: Rhett Henckel.

Name: Bob Weick.

Age: 55.

Where do you live now?
Kintnersville, Bucks County, PA.

Where were you born?
Kensington, Philly.

What's your show title? Marx in Soho, by Howard Zinn.

What was the first thing you stole?
A bottle of YooHoo! The thought is as sweet as the drink, but healthier.

What's your favorite alcoholic beverage?
Ardbeg, Scotch . . . with a dash of YooHoo.

What's your favorite Philly intersection? K and A. Still feel the roots.

What's the worst thing you ever did for money?
Assembly line at Philco-Ford. And a few shows I'd better not mention.

Who's your favorite Phillies player?
Johnny Callison—well, I am 55.

What's your least favorite country, and why? Switzerland. You can't be neutral on a moving train.

Do you own a gun? Yes.

Have you fired it in anger? Yes. Damn groundhogs!

If you weren't an artist, what would your job be?
Oh, my dream job would be to be my own boss, drive around the country side, visiting stables, shoeing horses . . . then head home after a full day and farm my own land. Some dreams come true.

What's the most disgusting thing you've ever seen on SEPTA?
Advertising for stupid shit you don't need.

Marx in Soho runs September 8, 11, 12, and 18 at Twelve Gates Arts Gallery, 305 Cherry Street, Old City. Various times, $15. For tickets, click here.

--Nicholas Gilewicz

One of the great pleasures of blogging about the Philly Fringe is seeing the incredible level of talent and professionalism that exists in the performance scene here. People pull together, help each other out, and pump out some great work.

Even in their promotions! Felipe Vergara, director of Found Theater's Tales for the 2010 Philly Fringe, sends us this promotional video for the show, made by David Miranda Hardy:

Name: J. Michael DeAngelis.

Age: 30.

Where do you live now? Springfield, PA.

Where were you born? Philadelphia, PA.

What's your show title? Signs from God

What was the first thing you stole?
A pewter stamp that had my initials on it from Colonial Williamsburg. Even when thieving, I was a dork.

What's your favorite alcoholic beverage?
Old, expensive scotch. In lieu of that, cheap, young scotch.

What was the last performance you saw?
Since I was one of last year's winners, I was a guest at this year's Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, where I got see all 14 finalists and help announce this year's winners. It was a great day full of exciting theater.

What's your favorite Philly intersection?
I spent a couple of happy years at the corner of Henry Ave and Jamestown St, just a few doors down from Fiesta Pizza and Dalessandro's Steaks. Let me tell you, there's nothing more dangerous than living just a few steps from a pizza place that is open late into the night. I'm still working it off.

After the jump: entertaining the children, a paintball accident, and rotting mussels.

[More]

Hey kids, are you looking for something to do on this rainy night? May I recommend the Philly Fringe Preview at Plays and Players? This evening, the second of three, will bring you zombies, Marx, monkeys, and bugs. On the real! Lineup below:

Secret Room Theatre: Dirty Laundry: 100% Cotton

Rainbow Destroyer: Zombies Are Forever

David Morley Barrett: More Better Life

Iron Age Theatre: Marx in Soho

Fred Siegel: Man of Mystery

Barbara Pease Weber: A Crock of Schnitzel

Hyphen-Nation Arts: The Jane Goodall Experience

Grounded Aerial: Insectinside

8:00 pm, Plays and Players, 1714 Delancey Place, Rittenhouse Square. $12.

--Nicholas Gilewicz

Congrats to Charlotte Ford and Geoff Sobelle, whose Edinburgh production of Flesh And Blood And Fish And Fowl just garnered a killer review from The Mirror:

"There are some that are so damn brilliant that you don't want to write about them because the mere written word somehow reduces that brilliance. Flesh And Blood And Fish And Fowl is that kind of production."

If you need to see more "physical theatre and clowning but in a thoroughly modern way," as The Mirror put it, you should investigate Charlotte Ford's CHICKEN. It involves a submarine and expressionism, and according to our show description, a high probability of violence. Yay!

CHICKEN runs September 3 through 6 at the Live Arts Studio, 919 North 5th Street, Northern Liberties. Times vary, $25-30.

--Nicholas Gilewicz