Weekly Entertainment Guide – WHYY Connections Festival, ‘In the Heights,’ and ‘The Way of Chopsticks’
They Might Be Giants, Ben Kweller, Khari Mateen, Hezekiah Jones, and more perform Saturday, September 7 at the Great Plaza, Penn's Landing in Philadelphia. The music continues on Sunday with the Philadelphia Sound of Soul Festival.
Looking for something to do this week? WHYY’s Robin Bloom has some recommendations on what’s happening in the Philadelphia region. Here are her picks:
Festivals
The 3rd annual WHYY Connections Festival is back this weekend with events for the entire family. Saturday, September 7, the festival opens with Pennsylvania Coast Day, noon-5pm, outside the Independence Seaport Museum with a variety of marine-themed activities, including narrated tours on the RiverLink Ferry, paddling excursions around Penn’s Landing Marina, the Pennsylvania Tug Boat Festival at 1pm and more. Free shuttle bus offered to Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center. Children’s activities with Y Kids Club including Super Why! Concerts from 3pm-10pm with They Might Be Giants, Ben Kweller, Khari Mateen, Hezekiah Jones, Sean Hoots Trio, and Jesse Ruben. Festivities continue on Sunday, September 8, noon-6pm with the Philadelphia Sound of Soul Festival featuring The Soul Survivors, The Sensational Soul Cruisers and more, at Great Plaza, Penn’s Landing. Free.
Brandywine Festival of the Arts
The annual Brandywine Festival of the Arts is this Saturday, September 7, 10am-6:30pm, and Sunday, September 8, 10am-4pm, featuring hundreds of juried artists exhibiting one-of-a-kind art by artists across the country, along with live music by Brene Wilson, Lauren Kuhne, Jessica Graae, Nalani & Sarina (pictured), and more, plus children’s activities, and food at Brandywine Park’s Josephine Gardens, Wilmington, Delaware.
The 4th Annual Philadelphia Honey Festival is back to raise awareness about the importance of bees to our environment, the impact of local honey on our economy, and to promote urban beekeeping and gardening with sweet activities for the whole family including children’s activities, open hive talks, honey tastings, a honey Happy Hour, vendors, music, art and more, along with a showing of the documentary “More Than Honey.” The Festival takes place Friday, September 6, 10am-7pm, Wagner Free Institute of Science, Saturday, September 7, 10am-4pm, Wyck Historic House and Garden, Sunday, September 8, 10am-4pm, Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia. Free and open to the public.
The 11th Annual Lansdowne Arts Festival offers an array of activities including crafts, paintings, jewelry, live music and a number of demonstrations and children’s events, Saturday, September 7 and Sunday, September 8, 10am-5pm both days, at the Twentieth Century Club, 84 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, PA. Rain or shine. Free.
The Haverford Music Festival is this Saturday, September 7, 12pm-9:30pm, with live bands on four stages for all ages with performers including Del’s Groove, Suzie Brown, Live at the Fillmore, and more, plus a craft village, beer gardens, food vendors, children’s activities and more, Eagle and Darby Roads, behind the Haverford Township Administration building, Haverford, PA. Free.
The 8th annual Greenfest Philly is Sunday, September 8, 10am-5pm, the largest environmental festival in the Philadelphia area, with over 100 exhibitors and vendors, food, live music, live demonstrations, kid-friendly activities, and more, Headhouse Square, between 2nd and South and 2nd and Pine, Philadelphia. Free.
Celebrate Latino culture and music at the Annual Feria del Barrio, the Centro de Oro neighborhood festival offering food, art, crafts, children’s activities, and live entertainment this Sunday, September 8, 12pm-5:30pm, 5th Street between Lehigh and Cambria Avenues, Philadelphia.
Onstage
“In the Heights” at Walnut Street Theatre
Walnut Street Theatre opens its 205th season with “In the Heights,” winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical. Based on the book by Philadelphia native Quiara Alegría Hudes, the Broadway show tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York’s Washington Heights Neighborhood on the brink of change, directed by Bruce Lumpkin and choreographed by Michelle Gaudette. Perry Young of the National Tour leads the cast as Usnavi, with set design by Anna Louizo, who designed the set for the Broadway production. “In the Heights” is in previews and opens September 11 through October 20 at 825 Walnut Street, Philadelphia.
Curio Theatre’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
Curio Theatre Company kicks off its 9th season with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” a new adaptation by Josh Hitchens that blends captivating storytelling with live music, live sound effects, and a real campfire for a thrilling night for the entire family. The free production is directed by Cara Blouin, explores gender roles and identity, and takes place Friday, September 6, 7, and 8 in Clark Park at 7:30pm, 4740 Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia.
Green Eyes in New Orleans: An Afternoon with Tennessee Williams
Support theater on the Camden Waterfront with “Green Eyes in New Orleans: An Afternoon with Tennessee Williams,” Sunday, September 8, 2pm. The afternoon includes the regional premiere of “Green Eyes,” an erotic one-act play by Tennessee Williams, written in 1970 but not published or produced until 2008. The show had limited performances in Massachusetts and New York and is onstage for one day only, directed by Joseph Paprzycki and starring Tasha Milkman and Erik Endsley, 400 Jasper Street, Camden, NJ. The New Orleans themed event also features musical performances by Philadelphia jazz vocalist Miss Justine Keeys. For mature audiences only.
“Didn’t Your Father Have This Talk with You?” at Act II Playhouse
Act II Playhouse presents the World Premiere of Tony Braithwaite’s “Didn’t Your Father Have This Talk with You?,” September 10 through October 6. The one-man show includes storytelling, stand-up comedy, personal testimonies, one-liners, improvisation, audience interaction and more, based on the experiences Braithwaite, the theater’s artistic director, had as a religion and sex education teacher at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia. Directed by Mary Carpenter, the season opener is onstage at 56 E. Butler Avenue, Ambler, PA.
Art Appreciation
“Luminous Gestures” at Locks Gallery
“Luminous Gestures,” an exhibition of new paintings by Elizabeth Osborne opens Friday, September 6 at Locks Gallery. Many of Osborne’s pieces were created with the diptych technique, in two parts, which is a new format for the Philadelphia artist. A fully illustrated catalog accompanies the display, through October 12, 600 Washington Square South, Philadelphia. First Friday opening September 6, 5:30pm-7:30pm.
African Americans from Slavery to Freedom 1619 to 1865
An exhibit that documents the spaces of American Slavery and freedom through photographs opens this weekend at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. “A Stirring Song Sung Heroic: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom 1619 to 1865,” documents anonymous, unheralded places across the “New World,” from the Caribbean to North America, taken by William Earle Williams, professor at Haverford College since 1978. Eighty images, sites of Civil War battles, slave cabins and cemeteries, stops along the Underground Railroad, and present-day historical monuments, tell a visual story of American slavery, on display through October 11 on Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, PA. Williams’ photographs have been widely exhibited at the Smithsonian, the National Gallery of Art, and many more venues across the country, and his works are in many public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. An artist talk takes place Friday, September 6, 4:30pm-5:30pm, followed by a reception in the Gallery. Pictured: Interior, Fort Morgan, Battle Site, Mobile Bay, Alabama, 2003.
The Way of Chopsticks at Philadelphia Art Alliance
Opening Thursday, September 12 at the Philadelphia Art Alliance is “The Way of Chopsticks,” a three story multimedia exhibition by Beijing-based husband and wife contemporary artists Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen, known for their massive chopstick sculptures. The installation uses everyday objects to explore modern family life both in China and the U.S., creating a final set of their iconic chopstick sculptures as well as a video that investigates the evolution of family dynamics from 1970s China under Mao Zedong to the one child-oriented present day. “The Way of Chopsticks” can be seen through December 29 with related programming including artist talks, food tastings with Joseph Poon, gallery tours and family workshops, along with a free public opening reception on September 12, 6pm-8pm, 251 South 18th Street, Philadelphia.
FringeArts is underway through September 22, celebrating its 17th year with 18 days of cutting-edge dance, theater, music, visual and interdisciplinary works by artists from the U.S. and international arts scene. The 4th annual Feastival, a benefit for FringeArts, is Thursday, September 12, 6pm-9pm, with offerings by dozens of the city’s top chefs, live performances, and silent and live auctions at the Waterfront Warehouse on Pier 9, 121 N. Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia.
Brat Productions brings back last year’s hit “Eternal Glamnation” for a two show run on Sunday, September 8 and 15, 8:30pm, at Underground Arts. Conceived by and starring Jess Conda, the glam rock fantasia is a musical and visual spectacle about finding your true self underneath the glittery shadows, 12th and Callowhill, Philadelphia.
Catch “LEO,” produced by Y2D Productions in association with Chamäleon Productions, a gravity-defying performance about an ordinary man’s world becoming unhinged in a combination of circus and theater arts, September 12-22 at the Arts Bank at The University of the Arts, 601 South Broad Street, Philadelphia. Winner of several awards at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For all ages.
To submit an event to be considered for the Weekly Entertainment Guide email Robin Bloom at artscalendar@whyy.org.
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