Ideas form and dissipate. People move and imaginary things travel. Ideas, memes, concepts, and theories all move and grow, some grow old and obsolete, some grow strong and vibrant. What are the migration patterns of imaginary things? What is their essence?

J. Wolfgang Fry asks these questions in his 2018 Fringe show, Quiddity: Migration Patterns of Imaginary Things, which opens and has its sole performance this Tuesday. He spoke to FringeArts about the name and inspiration behind the piece.

FringeArts: Where does the idea for the show come from?

J. Wolfgang Fry: The idea for the show comes from the name of the show, Quiddity: Migration Patterns of Imaginary Things. Originally it was just art speak jargon meant to hold a place, a placeholder concept, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to do a show about the movement of ideas.

FringeArts: What does quiddity mean?

J. Wolfgang Fry: Quiddity is a word that means essence, I first learned it reading a Clive Barker novel in which he had named a sea Quiddity, which in the story brought things into the essence of what they were or would become.

FringeArts: What themes did you want to bring out?

J. Wolfgang Fry: The inspiration for the show is ideas, imaginary things, and how they move, from one person to another, from one group to another. It’s about ideas, movement and patterns.

FringeArts: What performance forms and methods do you use to communicate these themes?

J. Wolfgang Fry: There are various forms and methods I hope to be utilizing, movement, speech, dance song, I hope to get a lot of audience participation, I feel that audience participation is a key part to this performance, and the more audience participation the better.

FringeArts: Thanks John!

What: Quiddity: Migration Patterns of Imaginary Things
When: September 25, 2018
Where: PHIT MainStage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street
Cost: $9
fringearts.com/event/quidity-migration-patterns-imaginary-things