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Steals for the Youngbloods on the Avenue of the Arts

Posted August 17th, 2011

Hey College! Some people eat their young. Some people eat the rich. At the Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, we give our young deep discounts so they can become old, wealthy philanthropists deeply committed to advanceing the arts in Philadelphia because it’s the right thing to do.

Youngs get Live Arts tickets discounted to a mere $15 per show, and for any Philly Fringe show priced over $15, youngs get $5 off. The discounts aren’t just for college students, though–anybody under 25 qualifies for the discount, because you, the next generation of performance-goers come from all walks of life, as do we, as do the festival artists. And we know that not everybody has a car, so after the jump you youngbloods can find a series of shows running down the Avenue of the Arts–none are more than about a three minute walk from the Regional Rail or the Broad Street Line. Click through for awesome.


Beginning where Live Arts ends with a bang, Traces brings the amazing feats of 7 Fingers–from the circus hotbed that is Montreal–to the Merriam Theater (250 S. Broad Street) for the Live Arts Festival’s biggest event ever. 7 Fingers is moving circus away from a Cirque-style spectacle to a more intimate, personalized, narrative approach—we learn about the performers lives, while they just happen to peform astonishing physical acts. Traces runs September 15 to September 18, and all I can say is what the press has said, like The New York Times: “You feel that mad, pulse-raising magic that you associate with cool, busy nights in big cities. Except imagine that effect magnified and poeticized, with urban chaos turned rhythmic and graceful.”

The Rude Mechs from Austin, Texas return to the Live Arts Festival with The Method Gun. The show delves into the effects of a theater method in which actors use physical danger to infuse dramatic actions with meaning. September 2 through 4 at The Wilma Theater (265 S. Broad Street).

Lady M tells the story of Macbeth through the eyes of its doomed anti-heroine, Lady Macbeth. Swim Pony Performing Arts gives the Lady a chorus of witches to rebuild the story of her life, and to re-imagine what might have driven this woman to such extremes in Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy. Director Adrienne Mackey turns to vocal performances styled like you’ve never seen before. The show runs through September 9 at the Arts Bank at University of the Arts (601 S. Broad Street).

Also at the Arts Bank on September 16 and 17, More Mouvements für Lachenmann finds the confluence of concert performance, theater, and dance. French choreographer Xavier Le Roy directs eight musicians who, while performing the work of German composer Helmut Lachenmann, take on the rigorous task of separating the act of creating sound from the act of moving.

The Prince Music Theater (1412 Chestnut Street) plays host to two Live Arts productions as well. Lucidity Suitcase International’s WHaLE OPTICS connects worldwide telecommunication systems, humpback whales, Carl Sagan, and dinner at Applebee’s in an immersive theatrical experience–the stage is the size of a humpback whale, and you sit on either side. WHaLE OPTICS runs through September 11.

The following weekend, Play will make its U.S. debut at the Prince. A dance piece, Play creates a place for experiments between two riveting performers: Antwerp-based Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, the sinuous western contemporary dancer whose movements ride a wave of chaos, and the Indian dancer Shantala Shivalingappa, whose exquisite control of movement comes from her mastery of the classical Indian form Kuchipudi. Also in the world of dance, groundbreaking New York choreographer John Jasperse brings Canyon to The Wilma Theater (265 S. Broad Street) September 9 through 12.

Throughout the Festival, the ever-popular, sure-to-sell-out, physical theater virtuosos of Pig Iron take on Shakespeare at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (480 S. Broad Street) with Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Rosie Langabeer has written a new score of gypsy music, Pig Iron’s Alex Torra says he’s been learning the sousaphone, and we’re betting that the innovations of Shakespeare make a good match for the innovations of Pig Iron.

–Nicholas Gilewicz