The international arts extravaganza known as The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe is back for another two-weeks-plus of boundary-pushing dance, theater, music and other forms of performance art, Sept. 3-18, at venues throughout the city.
As in previous years, Philly Fringe, the more daring of the festivals, will feature an abundance of LGBT-themed performers and shows that are sure to keep spectators raving about the event well into next year. We couldn’t begin to list all the notable LGBT talent and events at Philly Fringe this year, but the following shows should not be missed.
“The Jane Goodall: Experience” promises to be one of the more interesting Fringe performances this year, thanks largely to creator Marcel Williams Foster. The show celebrates the 50th anniversary of Goodall’s research in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, with Williams Foster portraying the famed British anthropologist — in drag. Williams Foster knows the subject matter well: He worked with the Jane Goodall Institute for four years, and got to observe its namesake in action.
“I won my own scholarship to do my own research in Gombe National Park. I met Jane and published a lot of papers under her institute,” Williams Foster said. “I also had a background in the performing arts. After working for the organization for four years, it definitely was an honor and exciting and something I want to share. I felt that drag was a really useful and captivating tool to tell Jane Goodall’s story, which is pretty familiar to audience members, and also get at those other inter-working problems and the history behind Gombe.”
Britney Hines, the show’s director, said the drag element is an important part of the production.
“Something that really struck me when we started working on this process is, why? Why does Marcel want to play Jane in drag?” she said. “So that kind of became the framework for the way that we approached all of the material that we had on Jane Goodall. It was a way to frame the work and the ideas that we want to question in a way that connects back to the experiences Marcel had in Gombe.”
She added that the show tries to keep a balance between the drag element and reverence for the subject matter.
“It’s light and fun, but there’s a definite examination of who Jane Goodall is,” Hines said. “It’s celebratory of her life’s work, but it also tried to understand what that work means to all of us — the people of Tanzania, the chimpanzees and, ultimately, Marcel.”
Williams Foster, who is a double major in acting and anthropology, said his main focus in Tanzania was the chimpanzees, but added that his studies in anthropology did give him a better understanding of acting.
“I’m really interested in dance and theater because I think it’s a forum to better understand human behavior,” he said. “Anthropology is known as the study of people. So I feel like the tools I gained, both in observing the chimpanzees and also the theory of cultural anthropology, are really useful. That’s my mission: to investigate human behavior in the performing arts and, using my background in anthropology and the tools I gained in the field, applying that in the field of performing arts.“
Catch “The Jane Goodall: Experience” Sept. 15-18 at Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom St. For more information, visit www.marcelwfoster.org.
Another Fringe production trying to find a balance between the show and the message is Insomnia Theater’s “54: All Together Equal.” Based on Edna Ferber’s novel “Show Boat,” it is the tale of fictional Troupe 54’s battles with racism and bigotry from the 1960s-’80s.
Producer Matthew Flocco said the scope of the show has changed dramatically since Insomnia Theater decided to go ahead with it. He said what originally was supposed to be a musical is turning into a more toned-down series of spoken-word performances — they even renamed the production from the prior title, “54: A New Rock Musical!”
“The musical was always a little more on the serious side,” Flocco said. “But it has now turned into something more serious, personal and intimate. Originally, we were set up to do the rock musical but we ran into a bunch of troubles. Unfortunately, people had been dropping out of the cast because their summers were busier than I thought. Then we had more trouble fundraising.
“We decided to make it a series of monologues from the show all about equality. We think that’s very important. Right now, it’s either 10 or 11 cast members, all students. It’s going to be an abstract series. Before it was very much more upbeat. It was serious, but it had some comedic undertones. Whereas this one is a little more … I wouldn’t say dark, but it has a much more meaningful impact on us. It’s more about the struggles.”
While 1920s “Show Boat” dealt with issues of race, Flocco said “54” addresses issues of sexuality.
“It definitely has an impact because many of the cast members are gay or bisexual or they have many gay friends,” Flocco said about the overall message behind the revamped show. “So it definitely hits home for many of us.”
Catch “54” Sept. 8-18 at Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 N. Broad St.
Another Philly Fringe performance with LGBT flavor is “Absence/Presence,” presented by Stone Depot Dance Lab and out choreographers Eleanor Goudie-Averill and Rain Ross. The piece explores political subjects and issues including social activism, identity and technology and its effect on communication.
Goudie-Averill, a transplant from Iowa by way of New York City, said she and Ross have a similar dance background and aesthetics but their performance styles vary greatly.
“We both have a pretty technical background,” she said. “We both were trained in classical ballet and modern styles like Martha Graham. Her narratives tend to be more overt. She has a piece about Dorothy Parker and it’s definitely about Dorothy Parker. It has a set and props and partnering that is more along a storyline. My piece is a little more subtle in the message. It’s mostly about how people present themselves to the world through their bodies, as in the way that we posture or gesture to show who we are and what we think and believe.”
Catch “Absence/Presence” at 7 and 9 p.m. Sept. 3-4 at CHI Movement Arts Center, 1316 S. Ninth St. For more information, visit stonedepotdancelab.wordpress.com.
Fans of abstract theater laced with political satire should head directly to Butros and Bels Theatrical Emporium’s take on British playwright Caryl Churchill’s controversial play, “Drunk Enough To Say I Love You?” In the production, the concept of patriotism is explored through the complex relationship between two men.
“In the original script, the two characters were named Sam and Jack, so people assumed it was Uncle Sam, which was correct,” producer Nelson Barre explained. “The other was just supposed to be a name but people took Jack to mean Union Jack, so they thought it was the British saying they’re better than the Americans in global foreign policy. People took that as sort of a slight when they brought it to the United States.”
Yeah, right. Politics. Get to the gay part of the show.
“It’s hard to explain the gay issue with this play because they are written as a country,” Barre said. “Sam’s character description is a country and Guy, who is the other character, is just a guy. It’s sort of this guy falling in love with his country with super-patriotic pride, but there’s also a little queer in there. The insinuation is you have to be a little bit gay for your country to fall in love with it.”
Catch “Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?” Sept. 3-5 and 8-9 at Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Ave.
For more information on Live Arts and Philly Fringe, visit www.livearts-fringe.org.
Larry Nichols can be reached at [email protected].