Philly LiveArts-Fringe :: always a gay fete

From now until September 17, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe presents more than 180 dance, theater, visual arts, music and spoken-word presentations performed in venues of every stripe, from traditional stages to street corners, cars, galleries, cabarets and restaurants.

It marks the 15th year of the event. From the start festival director Nick Stuccio, wanted to establish cultural diversity and that GLBTQ themes and performers would be front-and-center.

Here's a representative list of GLBTQ themed-shows at the Festival:

The Radio Show

One of the hottest choreographers working today, Kyle Abraham doesn't hesitate answering the question as to whether or not there is gay sensibility in the arts. "Regardless of how my work is perceived. Everything I make is coming from my lens as a black gay man who grew up in Pittsburgh PA, and it's my experiences that shape the work," he explained last week from Jacob's Pillow Festival.

Abraham's multi-award winning dance memoir The Radio Show is a centerpiece of Philadelphia Live Arts-Fringe Festival, and it will go up Fri, Sep 16, 8pm, Sat, Sep 17, 8pm; Zellerbach Theatre.

Ampersand

Tangle is an eight member women's' dance-trapeze-troupe that turns feats of daring into lyrical movement drama and social comedy. Lesbian director Lauren Rile Smith said the members of her troupe have dance, gymnast and acrobatic training and together are creating choreography and dance works that fuse all elements. They will be performing Ampersand, described in the festival program as exploring "the extraordinary meaning of ordinary objects.

Come travel the heights and depths of an urban dreamscape in this journey through acrobatic dance, music, spoken word, and aerial spectacle!" (Thu, Sep 8, 7:30pm, Philadelphia Soundstages; Fri, Sep 9, 6:30 and 9pm, Philadelphia Soundstages.) For more information about Tangle, visit the group's website.

The Eros Trilogy

At Plays and Players there is a revival of Nicky Silver "The Eros Trilogy" about sexual and emotional freedom as a sanctuary from the world. Comprised of two monologues and a one-act play, Silver's reputation as a playwright has been formed by such plays as ''Pterodactyls'' and ''Raised in Captivity'' in which family dysfunction - usually between mother and son - is parsed out with bitter sarcasm.

"Mr. Silver, after all, has become the American theater's resident specialist in maternal pathology, having created a comic slew of stylish moms who love way too much or way too little, while subsisting on quips and alcohol..." In the first play a woman named a wealthy Park Avenue-type named Claire berates the world where spitting on the street as commonplace; in the second her son Philip relates a disastrous romantic obsession. The third piece - "Miriam and Roger" - follows the letters between a mother and her gay son over 30 years. (Tue, Sep 6, 8:30pm; Mon Sep 12, 8:30pm; Tue, Sept 13, 8:30pm; Wed Sep 14; @ The Skinner Studio and Players, 3rd Floor.)

Hello America... my Name is Jimmy Baldwin

A loving profile of gay, black literary giant in Delaware Valley playwright, Robert H. Miller's short biographical play "Hello America... my Name is Jimmy Baldwin." He comes back from his self-exile in Europe to make his voice roar fighting for black civil rights in the 60s.

Miller, a professor at Rowan University, brings Baldwin back to life for a contemporary audience in this new production. (Fri, Sep 9, 8pm; Sat. Sep 10, 3pm. The Harold Prince Theater at the Annenberg Center.)

One City Under the Groove

Pink Hair Affair is a dance collective based in Philadelphia since April 2007. Each pink wigged member has a highly unique artistic vision, creating diverse works that can be humorous, emotional, athletic, formal, and improvisational. For their latest One City Under the Groove, they time-trip back to the 1970s. Disco, funk, psychedelic rock...

"Hustle on down to the pink side of the moon for peace, love, and soul flashback," they say in their web description of the show. "Grab your bellbottoms, fluff yo' 'fro, and strut to 1970s stellar tunes with the far out Pink Hair Affair. Be there or be square." (Thu, Sep 15, 8pm; Fri, Sep 16, 8pm; Sat, Sep 17, 8pm; MacGuffin Theatre & Film Company at the Adrienne.)

Gender Reel

In the realm of visual arts there's Gender Reel, which bills itself a the first East Coast multi-media festival dedicated to the visibility of gender non-conforming, gender variant, and transgender images and experiences in film, photography, and art.

Gender Reel will be showcasing over 16 artists/photographers, 3 media installations, over 30 films, Q&As, workshops, and panel discussions at their first annual event this September. (Fri, Sep 9, 7pm; Sat, Sep 10, 10am; CBS Auditorium at The University of the Arts.)

Heavy Metal Dance Fag

How to change homophobic attitudes and deal with self-acceptance while getting your full workout in is the subject of Tribe of Fools comedy "Heavy Metal Dance Fag."

Director/writer Terry Brennan based it on his real life experiences when he broke the code of conduct rules by dancing in the weight room at a guts and glory straight gym in South Philly. (Fri, Sep 2, 7pm; Sat, Sep 3, 7 & 9:30pm; Sun, Sep 4, 7pm; Mon, Sep 5, 7pm & 9:30pm; Wed, Sep 7, 7pm & 9:30pm; Thu, Sep 8, 7pm; Fri, Sep 9, 7pm & 9:30pm; Sat, Sep 10, 7pm Sun, Sep 11, 7pm; St. Stephen's Theater.)

Traces

Speaking of the buff-bod department, they come swinging in with Traces by 7 Fingers (think a minute) the Montreal acrobatic troupe that uses XXtreme sports, sound & vision to carve out a high velocity diverse new world of movement. Often aloft, but this time offering subterranean tales is gay choreographer Brian Sanders' premiere "Dancing Dead." Sanders dancers get down deep and dirty via a tractor, stone, grit, somehow John Denver. (Paging Bruce LaBruce.)

In Variety, critic Steve Oxman wrote of the group's work: "Beautifully choreographed and hugely impressive." (Thu, Sep 15, 7pm; Fri, Sep 16, 8pm; Sat, Sep 17, 2 & 8pm; Sun, Sep 18, 1pm; Merriam Theater.)

James Bradford is... Thick!

Art reflects life in James Bradford is... Thick!, a raucous, hilarious musical journey through the life of singer/comedian James Bradford. Told in a series of monologues and live rock performances with his band The Mana-Manas, James takes his audience on a wild trip with some unexpected, uniquely interpreted cover tunes sprinkled between stories about prostitution, growing up queer in the American south and the perils of starring on reality TV. (Tue, Sep 13, 9pm; Wed, Sep 14, 9pm; TABU, 200 S12th Street.)

Rocky Awards

And what would LiveArts be without the Rocky Awards, for dance festival fever, in the Ruba Club and hosted this year by Jaamil Kosoko (aka J-Luv) and the legendary Melanie Stewart. Performances by Martha Graham Cracker, Gabrielle Revlock, anonymous bodies, idiosynCrazy productions, Germaine Ingram, Ali Michael Willingham and Anna Drozdowski. Presenters include: Niki and Jorge Cousineau, Gabrielle Revlock, Corinne Karon, Charon Mapp, Janet Pilla and Vince Johnson. The Rocky Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in Greater Philadelphia's dance community.

Presented by the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe with support from Dance/USA Philadelphia (Dance/UP). A dance party will follow the event. Mon Sept 5, Doors open 7pm, show begins at 8pm; RUBA Club Studios, 4`4 Green Street.