Live Arts & Fringe Festival Blog - EgoPo

Best Of 2009-2010, Temple Rep Arrives, Lucinda Childs at Spoleto, And We Are The Very Best

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:12:00 -0400

In this episode of our occasional media digest of things you probably care about:

>>>Philadelphia Weekly's J. Cooper Robb picks the best of the best of theater for this past season. The top 10 productions include EgoPo's Company which ran during Philly Fringe last year, and Pig Iron's Welcome to Yuba City, which premiered at the Live Arts Festival and was also Robb's selection for best new play, best ensemble, best choreography, and best scenic design (by Mimi Lien). Congrats to everybody, for, as Robb writes, " For the past two decades, the theater community has grown in both quantity and quality; now, previously young companies are now artistically established, and over the years have been cultivating a stable of talented local designers, directors and actors." Damn straight.

>>>In Sunday's Inquirer, which I had missed while I was fleeing the black bears of Canada, Howard Shapiro writes up the rise of Temple Repertory Theater, the new professional-level theater affiliated with Temple University's MFA theater program. Quoth Shapiro: "These new troupes are the salvation of American repertory theaters, which offer actors steady gigs and artistic attachments, and which were becoming rarer by the decade."

>>>Lucinda Childs's Dance was up at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C. last month. In The Post and Courier, reviewer Eliza Ingle raves:
"As the dance unfolds trancelike, the dancers turn on their axes like spinning planets, at other times they could be cellular activity under a microscope. Most powerful is the second section where the image of Lucinda Childs stands larger-than-life with the look of an artist who is confident her work will not disappear. Dancer Caitlin Scranton mirrors the choreographer, weaving in and out of the footage in a brilliant light design by Beverly Emmons."

>>>Hey, they've got a lovely interview with Lucinda Childs up as well!

>>>Remember Justin Aaron Poole, and his obits for Everyman? He's an academic too, and in a recent issue of Theatre Journal he offers some thoughts on last year's Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe. Subscription (or access to an academic library) required, but here's a taste:
"Following the argument that the Fringe showcases mythic, David and Goliath-type stories linked to the Philadelphian psyche, the enthusiasm for ideas, coupled with the lack of established training that characterized some (though not all) Fringe shows, seems fitting. Perhaps a Fringe artist's lack of experience is not call for alarm, but rather for celebration. In the contemporary American theatre, where many venues are becoming detached from the communities they serve, is it not cause to celebrate when an event such as the Philly Fringe can so unabashedly support the free expression of locals who, although they may not have much experience, have identified something that they wish to say or a segment of society that they believe needs to be provoked?"

We think so. Thanks!

--Nicholas Gilewicz

Photos courtesy Pig Iron and Cross Cultural Theatre Initiative

EgoPo has "Cruel" Intentions for their Upcoming Season

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:47:00 -0400

This season, Philadelphia-via-New Orleans theater company EgoPo is all about the Theater of Cruelty, 2010-style. The movement, introduced by French playwright Antonin Artaud in the first half of the 20th Century, was determined to shock the audience into an awareness of the violence and cruelty of human life through disturbing sounds, lighting, and performance. Artaud may have ended up in the loony bin, but his theory informed much of the later surrealist and avant-garde drama, including Peter Weiss's The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (Marat/Sade). EgoPo's production of Marat/Sade in the 2010 Philly Fringe will kick off their season-long exploration of Theater of Cruelty.

Philadelphia audiences really started hearing EgoPo's name in 2005. Here to produce Maids X 2 for the 2005 Philly Fringe, the New Orleans-based company was stranded when Hurricane Katrina struck their city, destroying their theater.

But that story's been told before.

Today, EgoPo is firmly rooted in Philadelphia, where they've carved artistic success out of their themed seasons, which explore the works of one author or movement. Delving into German Expressionism, EgoPo's 2008 production of Woyzcek took on the strange, difficult, and unfinished play by Georg Buchner to much acclaim, and last year's examination of Samuel Beckett kicked off with an innovative adaptation of the novella Company during Philly Fringe.

Brenna Geffers is the literary manager of EgoPo, and frequently directs their shows. Over drinks at the 700 Club with the actors Ross Beschler (who played Vladimir in last year's Waiting for Godot) and Megan Hoke (the lead voice of Memory in Company), Brenna says that, this year, "A season of Genet would've been great. He's one of the world's most daring and unusual playwrights."

After the jump: a fight with an estate, madmen, and what else is in the works for EgoPo. [More]

The Weekender: What You're Doing and Why

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:10:00 -0400

Friday
>>>First Meet the Artist event of the year! As we've been hammering home to you all week long, the fine folks of Elevator Repair Service are coming to our humble home at 919 North 5th Street. Did you watch the awesome videos we've been running all week? You're coming, right? Did you RSVP to robin@livearts-fringe.org? OK good. See you there! 7:00 pm. Don't be tardy.
>>>If you're on the jazz tip, the West Oak Lane Festival kicks off. Especially promising is the Jazz Hang Suite at Relish, which features the absolutely scorching (in the very best way) Jaguar Wright at 6:30 pm, and Kindred the Family Soul at 10:00. Also, if they still serve that two-way banana bread pudding, pick that up—one of the best desserts I've had in Philly, no joke.

Saturday
>>>The Summer Solstice Festival at the Kimmel Center has emerged as one of early summer's most fun events, and is definitely the single Kimmel event that brings together the most diverse crowds in terms of age and race of anything they do. Among other things: 3:00 pm, Philadelphia Zoo on wheels—they bring the animals to you; 6:00 pm, Rennie Harris RHAW; 6:30 pm, Miro Dance Theatre; 9:00 pm, First Person StorySlam; 2:00 am 'til dawn, dancing.
>>> You may know EgoPo from their brilliant 2008 Woyzcek (which is when I fell in love with them) or from their production of Samuel Beckett's Company at last year's Philly Fringe, which was a smash. Saturday night is their Bordello Ball at the American Swedish Historical Museum. 5 pm seems a bit early to hit the bordello, but $50 is a relative steal, and you get to hang with one of the best theater companies in the city. And—is that right?—their production during 2010 Philly Fringe should be sick. I'm gonna call them and make sure they're doing what I think they're doing, and report back to you, sir.

Sunday
>>>You know what? I'm not sure what's gonna be awesome on Sunday, except maybe sleeping off the Summer Solstice thing. Want to come over for barbecue?

--Nicholas Gilewicz

Photo by Alex McKnight