Weekly Entertainment Guide – WHYY Connections Festival
From Center City to the Jersey Shore, we’ve got your week covered. WHYY’s Arts Calendar curator Robin Bloom searches hundreds of listings each week to find out what’s happening in the Delaware Valley. Here are her picks:
Glass Transformed at Biggs Museum of American Art
The Biggs Museum of American Art showcases the work of fine art photographer Celia Pearson with “Glass Transformed,” an exhibit featuring translucent shapes that seem to come alive by light, spanning from sea glass still life works (pictured) to abstract studies, presented in forms that vary from framed prints to her more recent fiber installations, opening this weekend through October 28 at 406 Federal Street, Dover, DE. Free admission.
Theatre Exile’s “The Edge of Our Bodies”
Theatre Exile continues their legacy of introducing adventurous playwrights with the Philadelphia premiere of Adam Rapp’s “The Edge of Our Bodies.” Nicole Erb stars in the solo play about a sixteen-year-old girl’s trip to New York City to tell her boyfriend she’s pregnant. Matt Pfeiffer directs Rapp’s articulate, unapologetic drama, onstage through September 23 at Studio X, 1340 South 13th St, Philadelphia. $10-$25.
The WHYY Connections Festival is underway with special events Friday, September 7 through Sunday, September 9 including: screenings of WHYY’s programs on Friday, September 7: Friday Arts, 7pm, Race Street Pier, and The Barnes Collection, 8pm, Great Plaza, Penn’s Landing. The fun continues on Saturday, September 8 with the Y Kids Club event featuring Sid the Science Kid at the 11th Annual Pennsylvania Coast Day, noon-5pm, Great Plaza, with science and maritime-themed activities, tours, and more, followed by a concert with Yo La Tengo, Frank Turner, Maps & Altases and more, 4pm-10pm, at the RiverStage. On Sunday, September 9, noon-6pm, the Philadelphia Doo-Wop Festival features Fred Parris & The Five Satins, Charlie Gracie, the Del Satins and more, at Great Plaza, Penn’s Landing. Free.
Family Arts Festival at Main Line Art Center
The Main Line Art Center’s Family Arts Festival: Art Out & About is this Saturday, September 8, an event inspired by the public art in the Greater Philadelphia area with hands-on projects, the unveiling of a mosaic garden bench made by children, live music by The Run of the Mill String Band, and much more, 10am-3pm, 746 Panmure Road, Haverford, PA. Rain or shine. Suggested donation of $5 per family.
Guitarist Beppe Gambetta in concert
The South Jersey Acoustic Roots Music Society presents internationally renowned guitarist Beppe Gambetta and jazz master John Carlini in concert at the Medford Friends’ Meetinghouse, this Saturday, September 8, 7pm, 14 Union Street, Medford, NJ. $22 in advance, $25 at the door.
Brandywine Festival of the Arts
The annual Brandywine Festival of the Arts is Saturday, September 8, 10am-6pm, and Sunday, September 9, 10am-4pm, featuring hundreds of juried artists exhibiting one-of-a-kind art by artists across the country, along with live music, children’s activities, food, and more, at Brandywine Park’s Josephine Gardens, Wilmington, Delaware. Admission: $5, children under 12 free. Includes admission to the Brandywine Zoo.
Celebrate Latino culture and music at the Annual Feria del Barrio, the neighborhood festival offering food, art, craft sales, demonstrations, children’s activities, and six hours of live entertainment headlined by Edgardo Cintron and the Cintron Band, Sunday, September 9, 12:30pm-6pm, from Lehigh to Somerset on 5th Street, Philadelphia. Free.
Philadanco returns to the Painted Bride for the annual ‘Danco on ‘Danco, showcasing its next generation of talent, Friday, September 14, 7:30pm, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia. Tickets: $18.75-$30
FRINGE
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival celebrates its 16th year with 16 days of cutting-edge dance, theater, music, visual and interdisciplinary works by artists from the U.S. and international arts scene at various locations around Philadelphia. Opening-week performances explore everything from women in comedy and writers in transit to rock ’n’ roll funerals and the art of public practice, plus much more. Ticket prices range from $10-$30 with some shows free. Students and Festival-goers age 25 or younger pay $15 for Live Arts Festival tickets and receive $5 off any Philly Fringe tickets priced above $10. Discounted tickets are available to Festival Members. Don’t miss the Festival Bar, home of the Late Nite Cabaret at Underground Arts, 12th and Callowhill Streets, 10pm each night of the Festival. Admission is free and over 21 only.
Philadelphia’s New Paradise Laboratories’ world premiere of “27” considers the afterlife where life is brilliant and brief, the laws of the universe are ignored and warriors party hard, celebrating their way-too-early deaths, directed by Whit MacLaughlin with an “otherworldly” live score, September 7-16, Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia. Tickets: $23-$35.
Philadelphia’s Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental teams up with Minneapolis-based duo The Wilhelm Brothers for “RED-EYE to HAVRE de GRACE,” September 7-16, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, South Broad Street, Philadelphia. Directed and designed by Thaddeus Phillips and created in collaboration with Geoff Sobelle and Sophie Bortolussi, this musical investigates Edgar Allan Poe’s final days, before he was found unconscious on a Baltimore street, wearing a stranger’s clothing. Tickets: $28-$35.
Crossroads Music, the Philadelphia organization devoted to presenting traditional, ethnic, and international music from cultural traditions around the world, opens its 10th anniversary season with Duende Musical, The Legend of Nahia, a multi-disciplinary production featuring folk songs in Spanish, Spanish dialects, Basque, and flamenco and Latin American music, September 7-15, 7:30pm, as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Calvary Center for Culture and Community, 801 South 48th Street, Philadelphia. Tickets: $8-$24. Children’s program on September 15, 6pm, free for children under 12 and their caregivers.
The largest work in the Live Arts Festival’s 16-year history, Sylvain Émard Danse’s “Le Grand Continental” brings together more than 200 Philadelphia-area residents of all ages and backgrounds to learn a 30-minute contemporary dance that displays the talent, charisma and personality of “ordinary” Philadelphians. Originally created for Montreal’s internationally renowned Festival TransAmériques in 2009, the free-to-the-public Philadelphia version of “Le Grand Continental” will be the largest presentation of its kind in the world, Saturday, September 8, 4pm and 8pm, and Sunday, September 9, 4pm, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Nichole Canuso Dance Company performs “Return Return Departure” as a Fringe Festival addition to American Philosophical Society Museum’s Tempus Fugit exhibit, which explores how we find meaning in the passage of time. The dance duet interprets this theme with Nichole Canuso and John Luna dancing at sunset, armed with a personal video camera. Each dancer’s perspective is captured and posted in the gallery side-by-side. As the exhibition progresses, the videos will evolve with the change of seasons. Performances are September 7-21 around sunset at the APS Thomas Jefferson Garden, with Post-Fringe Festival performances October 5 through December 8, 104 South 5th Street, Philadelphia. $12.
The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium opens its 7th season of obscure, absurdist productions with Polish playwright Witold Gobrowicz’s dark comedy, “Ivona, Princess of Burgundia,” a play that follows the panic of a kingdom that praises traditional beauty when its prince decides to wed a common woman, running through September 23 at the Walnut Street Theater Studio 5, 825 Walnut St, Philadelphia. $15-$20.
Brat Rockpile presents a Rock’n’Roll theater double feature for Philly Fringe including the remounting of Madi Distefano’s international-award winning solo tour-de-force about the end of the punk rock scene in Boston. Directed by Matt Pfeiffer, Popsicle’s Departure, 1989 is a collision course through the underground of Boston’s defiant punk-rock world. Also, Eternal Glamnation, a World Premiere by Jess Conda and directed by Madi Distefano, ” a glam-rock cabaret spectacular featuring songs by T Rex, Nick Cave, David Bowie, and more, September 7-26, Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia. $19-35.
Other events in Philly
The 38th annual Traditional Irish Music and Dance Festival is Friday, September 7, 8pm and Saturday, September 8, beginning at 11am, with live music by Dé Danann, dance, crafts, food, family activities, workshops and more, The Commodore Barry Club, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia.
The annual “Gender Reel” Festival is September 7-9, dedicated to enhancing the visibility of gender non-conforming, gender variant/queer and transgender identities with art, photography, film, installations, workshops, panel discussions, and more at the William Way Community Center, 1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia.
The 3rd 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 tasting and sales, workshops, a honey Happy Hour, vendors, music, art and more, Friday, September 7, 10am-6pm, Wagner Free Institute of Science, Saturday, September 8, 10am-4pm, Wyck Historic House and Garden, Sunday, September 9, 10am-4pm, Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia. Free and open to the public.
The 7th annual Greenfest Philly is Sunday, September 9, 11am-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 Row, between 2nd and South and 2nd and Pine, Philadelphia. Free.
“New Jerusalem, The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656” returns for a limited time to the Lantern Theater Company. Charles McMahon directs David Ives’ drama surrounding philosopher Baruch Spinoza’s relocation from Portugal to Amsterdam and how his revolutionary thinking put his Jewish community in danger, through September 23, 923 Ludlow Street, Philadelphia. $20-$38. Discounts available for students and seniors.
Onstage at Walnut Street Theatre is the American premiere of Stephen Clark and Howard Goodall’s musical, “Love Story, the Musical,” inspired by Erich Segal’s best-selling novel of the same name, through October 21, 825 Walnut St, Philadelphia. $10-$95.
Other events in the region
The 10th Annual Landsdowne Arts Festival offers an array of activities including crafts, paintings, jewelry, live music and a number of demonstrations and children’s events, Saturday, September 8 and Sunday, September 9, 10am-5pm both days, at the Twentieth Century Club, 84 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, PA. Rain or shine. Free.
The Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts holds its 35th annual Celebration of the Arts Festival, September 7-9, with performances by Nellie McKay, Phil Woods and the COTA Festival Orchestra, Sheilamark Band and more, along with craft vendors, children’s activities, food and more, in Delaware Water Gap, PA. Seating is on the great slope overlooking the site. Bring a low lawn chair or blanket. Saturday and Sunday tickets: one-day ticket $25, 2-day ticket (available Saturday only), $40, students and seniors, $15 per day. Children 5-12 $10.00 per day, under 5 are free. Rain or shine.
Opening this weekend at MN Players is “Lend Me a Tenor” at the Swarthmore United Methodist Church. Tim Oskin directs Ken Ludwig’s Tony award-winning comedy about a 1934 production of “Otello” that quickly falls apart, through September 22, 129 Park Avenue, Swarthmore, PA. $12-$18.
Kent County Theatre Guild presents Ken Ludwig’s “The Fox on the Fairway,” directed by Patti Gatto, September 7-22, at the Patchwork Playhouse, 140 E. Roosevelt Avenue, Dover, DE.
The 7th annual Ship Bottom Irish Festival is Saturday, September 8, 11am-9pm, and Sunday, September 9, 10am-5pm, with live music, Irish Step Dancers, food, vendors and more, rain or shine, 10th Street and Shore Avenue on the Bay, Long Beach Island, NJ. Gate admission $10, children under 15 free.
The 37th Ocean County Bluegrass Festival comes to the Albert City Music Hall for a day of country and bluegrass music featuring Robbin & the Hoods, Stormy Horizons, Looking 4 directions, and many more acts, Sunday, September 9. Doors open at 11am; show starts at noon at 131 Wells Mills Road, Waretown, NJ. Adults $8, children $1.
The Taiwanese Film Festival kicks off this Sunday, September 9-30, for the 4th year, presented by Hanlin Chinese Culture Association, with four feature film screenings at Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE. Free.
August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” opens on the main stage of the People’s Light & Theatre Company, Wednesday, September 12 through October 7. Directed by Jade King Carroll, “Seven Guitars” is one in a series of ten plays from Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning “The Pittsburgh Cycle,” which looks at the comedy and tragedy of the African American experience throughout the twentieth century, 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA. $25.
Be a part of the mania with “4 Lads from Liverpool: A Tribute to the Beatles” at the Act II Playhouse, a unique multimedia experience that will take you back in time to see, hear and feel how it all started to go from the Cavern Club in Liverpool to the Sgt. Pepper era and beyond, through September 30, 56 East Butler Avenue, Philadelphia. $27-$38.
To submit an event to be considered for the Weekly Entertainment Guide email Robin Bloom at artscalendar@whyy.org.
Brett Rader contributed reporting to this week’s guide.
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