The 12th annual Philly Fringe, which runs in conjunction with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival from August 29 – September 13, will host over 170 artists in the largest Philly Fringe in Festival history. Showcasing the work of Festival veterans and first-time participants, the diverse line-up includes theater, dance, performance art, music, poetry, puppetry, visual art and work that incorporates multiple genres and disciplines, offering audiences the excitement of discovering new work from the region’s vibrant performing arts community as well as artists from around the country.

“Artists from up and down the East Coast and as far as New Mexico are bringing their events to this year's record-breaking Fringe,” says John Emory, Philly Fringe Coordinator. “We are all very excited to see what they have in store for us this year!”

The Philly Fringe is the “unfiltered” portion of the Festival, where new and established artists of all kinds may present their work, free of a selection process. Artists receive box office and marketing support and additional support from the Fringe Coordinator. The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival features performances by international and local acclaimed contemporary dance and theater artists who are selected and invited to the Festival. Together, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe draw over 45,000 people and this year will feature a total of 195 productions. [A full list of participating Fringe artists follows below.]

All Philly Fringe tickets, along with Live Arts Festival tickets, are now available for purchase online at www.livearts-fringe.org, or after August 18 by calling the Box Office at (215) 413-1318, or visiting in person. The Festival Box Office is located in the National Showroom Lot, the parking lot outside of the National building at 113-131 North 2nd Street.

Highlighting the Festival’s reach both nationally and internationally, the Fringe will present two politically based productions soon traveling around the country and the world. The Philadelphia-based Temple Theaters will present In Conflict, a political drama based on interviews with Iraq War soldiers. In August, the production will be presented at the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and following the Philly Fringe, the show will travel to New York for an off-Broadway run. New York-based Climbing PoeTree will premiere Hurricane Season: The Hidden Messages in Water, a spoken-word, multimedia performance exploring the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Following the Philly Fringe debut, the company will embark on a cross-country national tour. Ricochet will travel from the mountain village of Penasco, NM to perform Stitch, a circus experiment exploring trapeze, contemporary movement, acrobatics and contortion at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts.

The Philly Fringe will also see the return of many local Festival favorites including Myra Bazell’s SCRAP Performance Group, who presented the acclaimed, sold-out run of Between the Pages in the ‘07 Live Arts Festival. SCRAP returns to the Fringe with TIDE, a dance performance exploring the connection between people and the environment. Brian Sanders/JUNK will present Flushdance, and longtime performing arts and Festival photographer Jacques-Jean (JJ) Tiziou will invite Festival-goers to participate in How Philly Moves, an ongoing public art project documenting the many facets of dance in Philadelphia.

Several artists rising in Philadelphia’s performing arts community return to Fringe with new performances including the parody Wawapalooza 2: Get Shorti by IdRatherBeHere, the company behind the sold-out ‘07 Fringe favorite Wawapalooza. Squid Inc., who presented last year’s hit Jersey Devil, will premiere The Giant Squid. Fresh on the theater scene is Nice People Theatre Company, who will present Have a Nice Life, a follow-up to the 07’ performance of Killing Woman. Nice People Theatre Company continues to garner rave reviews, with the Philadelphia Inquirer writing, “This level of skill from a new company […] bodes well for the city’s talent pool and its audience.”

More Philly Fringe veterans include Azuka Theatre, Brat Productions, Green Chair Dance Group, Lili Bita/The Theatre Cooperative, Lunchlady Doris, Music & Motion Dance, and Vagabond Acting Troupe. 2008 Philly Fringe dance artists include Alchemy Dance Company, Dance4Nia Repertory Ensemble, Indigenous Pitch, keila kordova dances, Pasion y Arte, React/Dance, SHARP Dance Co., and Vada Dance Collective, among others. Theater artists include The Cardboard Box Collaborative, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, Late Laureates of Laurel Hill, Rocketship Productions/Paden Fallis, and The Sixth Borough. Always a popular destination for improvisational theater, stand-up and sketch comedy, the Fringe will include improv from groups such as Good Name Co., The N Crowd, Philly Improv Theater, Rare Bird Show, The Waitstaff, and Walking Fish Comedy, who will present the 24 Comedy Marathon on Labor Day.

Many other performing arts disciplines will be showcased, including music from Aboveground Theater, Center City Opera Theater and Philly Song Shuffle, visual art from Stephen Scott Smith and Linda Dubin Garfield, puppetry from Little Bunny Voodoo Presents, and interdisciplinary work from Philadelphia Capoeira Arts Center and Pink Hanger Presents, among others.

To celebrate “Festival time” in the city, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe will also host the Fringe Festival Preview Series in August, and the afterhours Festival Bar during the Festival run. The Fringe Festival Preview Series will feature a collection of sneak-peak performances from a wide variety of this year’s Fringe artists, offering audiences a behind-the-scenes look inside the Fringe, a sneak-peak at upcoming productions and the opportunity to meet and discover new artists. On Monday, August 11, the Festival will present the first installment of the series held at Plays & Players (1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia). Additional preview events will take place on August 18 and 25. All preview events will be held from 8 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 in advance, $10 at the door, and $12 for a 3 night pass, and are available from Plays & Players online at www.playsandplayers.org or by calling (215) 735-0630.

New to Festival this year is The Festival Bar, a stylized urban beer garden located in a Northern Liberties warehouse, which will serve as a versatile after-hours space to socialize with artists, grab a cocktail, and enjoy delicious food at the end of each Festival day. The Festival Bar is located at 626 North 5th Street (Southwest corner of 5th and Fairmount Streets) and features on-site parking. Admission is free and 21+, doors open at 10:00 p.m.

PROGRAM INFO/TICKETS
The Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival runs from August 29 – September 13, 2008. Tickets for most shows cost between $10 and $25. Some shows are free. This year, ticket buyers who purchase tickets to multiple shows can save 20% when they buy tickets to 2 or 3 shows and 25% for 4 or more shows. Students and Festival goers 25 and younger pay $15 for Live Arts Festival tickets and receive $5 off Philly Fringe tickets.

All Festival tickets are available for purchase online at www.livearts-fringe.org, or after August 18 by calling the Box Office at (215) 413-1318, or visiting in person. The Festival Box Office is located in the National Showroom Lot, the parking lot outside of the National building at 113-131 North 2nd Street. The Festival guide, which includes descriptions of each performance, in addition to dates, times, locations, and other Festival information, will be widely available throughout the city beginning August 1, 2008.

The Presenting Sponsor of the 2008 Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe is PNC Bank.

2008 Philly Fringe Participants [artists and show titles subject to change]

DANCE
Alchemy Dance Company – Conditioned Responses
Annex Dance Company – Getting There
Brian Sanders/JUNK – Flushdance
Danse4Nia Repertory Ensemble – Through Their Eyes
f/r movement stories – family portrait to start
Foursome – Who Made You Boss?
Green Chair Dance Group – Dances for the Naked Eye
Hatch Dance Theater – How Old Are You?
Indigenous Pitch – Manic Swell
J. Makary and Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd – asNEXUS
JJ Tiziou Photography – Photo Shoot: How Philly Moves
keila kordova dances – Janet 2.0
Lillian Cho and Jennifer Graves – This has all happened before...this will all happen again.
Look Closer Company – Take a Step Back
Loose Screws, a contemporary tap dance company – Way Up High
Music & Motion Dance Productions – Continents: A Global Voyage
Nora Gibson Performance Project – Net Worth
Pasion y Arte Flamenco Co. – Geografia Intima
Pink Hair Affair – oOOoOoOo
React/Dance – React/Dance's South Philly Neighborhood Adventure Tours/part 1
Sally Rhoades – Pomegranates and Roses a love story
Scott McPheeters – Chick
SCRAP Performance Group – TIDE
SHARP Dance Co. – FOUR on 2
Stray Cats – Tidbits strikes again!
Studio Two – SynchronInTheCity
Sylvia’s Little Bull/ Hannah Harpole Michele Torin in Collaboration – Cabin Fever
Tammy Jean McMullin – Her Story
The Movement Workshop Group – Moontides in 23, 149 Parts
Twins & Friends Dance Company – SÁ-WU: Safe Again With You
Usiloquy Dance Designs – Grihani
Vada Dance Collective – Scale to Fit
Voices Unleashed – Together We Rise
Xhale Dance Company – A World of Seduction Passion & Vulnerability

HAPPENINGS
Alligator Mouth Improv – Moving Possibilities
chad wanzek – Lost I Fear Me
Find Art Collective – Thee Spectacular Waterboarding Adventure
Ombelico Mask Ensemble – Two-Face Commedia: An Outdoor Double-Bill
Project for Nuclear Awareness – Two Nukes: A Night on the Town
The Social Arts – ActivisTour

INTERDISCIPLINARY
Aliza Bat Rochle – The Lost Book of Miriam
Aspire Arts – Ballad Boys
Aspire Arts – Projection Machine
Climbing PoeTree – Hurricane Season: The Hidden Messages in Water
Constroy Media Group – Signal
Greg Kennedy – Innovative Juggler
John F. Lohac: Strawberry Wild, Inc. – Good News: Release & Jubilee
Light of Unity Association – Arsenic Pizza
Malleable Dance Theater – 7 Veils
Megan Bridge Dance Trio with musicians – Unveiling Celebration
Mélange, Live...An Eclectic Musical Journey – Mélange Live, on the Fringe
Mixed Company – Mixer
Nightjar Apothecary – TANN, HORNS & DEAD DOGS: Tales of Civic Effluvia
Philadelphia Capoeira Arts Center – Dances of the Orixas Maculele Capoeira
Pink Hanger Presents – Reel Footage: Shoe Stories
Plum Dragoness – Poet-trees EN MOTION
Ricochet – Stitch
Soundwalk Philadelphia – Beyond the Pale
TAP:Traverse Arts Project – Tech.Logic the paranoia of opportunity
The Chinchilla Grandchildren – The Grand Perfater
Tim Harbeson & Buffy Miller – Airloom, or Umbrella

MUSIC
Aboveground Theater – Foot Locker
April April – The Eternal Torch presents Come Out, Come Out Wherever you Are
Center City Opera Theater – ConNEXTions: Showcasing New Opera
Craig Morrison’s Round Town Sound Studio – Execution Rocks
Mark Seidman – Flutescapes
Midsummer Moon Productions – ... And Piano Make Three
Mikronesia – talktalk
Sex Piano – Sex Piano Presents: Henry Truman for City Co-chair
Summer Yates with Neil Podgurski Quartet – Soundhouse
Suzanne Klock – La hoguera donde arde una
XFS and Small Boned Creatures Present – Philly Song Shuffle

POETRY
Good Name Co – Mister Mister Mister Mister
H.R. Britton – Jesus Rant: The Religio-Comic

PUPPETRY
Little Bunny Voodoo with Jamar Nicholas – LIVE! LIVE! LIVE! - hoity meets the 'hood
Piehole – Tod & I

THEATER
A HaJa Production – Beyond Closed Doors
Ad Hoc – The Destruction of the City, Also an Itinerary for Visitors
Alan Marx/Comedy Cabaret Inc. – God Can Help You With That Character Defect
Aleksandra Berczynski – How Do I Love Me?
Alexander and His Band of Argonauts – Killer Bass
Anthology Project – Gas
Artifact Pictures – Feldman and the Infinite
Azuka Theatre – Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh
B. Someday Productions – Entertaining Mr Sloane
Brat Productions – Martha and Dotty: Microwave Mambo!
Call Me Crazy Music – Call Me Crazy Jazz Orchestra
Colleen Coffey (playwright) – When Things Get Crazy
Comic Energy Sketch Comedy Troupe – Comic Energy Sketch Comedy Show
Crescent Moon Entertainment Co – Pushkin at Boldino
Crooked Mirror – Bash/Latterday Plays by Neil LaBute
Danger Goddess Productions – His, Hers and Larry's
Dangerous Fools – Dangerous Fools
Daniel Huntley Solon – Sex, With Benefits
David DelBianco – The Kids Are Radioactive!
David Smith – The Disillusionist
Dena Blizzard – One Funny Mother: I'm Not Crazy
Domenick Scudera – Festus the 3-Legged Wonder Dog
Don Montrey and Juliette Pryor – The Don & Julie Show!!!
EgoPo Productions – Woyzeck
Emily Epler – The Levity of Lithium
Eric Van Wie – Attitude Adjustment--A Comedy With No Message
Etc Theater – Dramamine High
Exclamation Theater Inc. – Callie Katherine Miranda and Others
Full Circle Theater – Guaranteed Overnight Theater
Galloping Abbey Productions – Animal Tales
Green Light Productions – The Widow's Blind Date by Israel Horovitz
High Dramma – Rated-G
Hotel Obligado Physical Theatre – Beauty Is
IdRatherBeHere – Wawapalooza 2: Get Shorti
Iron Age Theatre – Waiting for the Ship from Delos: The Last Days of Socrates, a new play by Steve Hatzai
Late Laureates of Laurel Hill – Spoon River Anthology: Performed By the Light of a Setting Sun Lights Out – The Audition
Lili Bita/The Theater Cooperative – Women of Fire and Blood
Loaves and Fish Theatre Company – 9/11 A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PEOPLE
Lunchlady Doris – LunchLady Doris
Martha Kemper – Me, Miss Krause, and Joan
Michelle Vest – Sole Survivors
Milkie Citie – Moth in Love
Never Odd or Even Entertaiment – Rate the Nielsens
Nice People Theatre Company – Have a Nice Life
Open Palm Productions – Media Addicts
PDC Presents – 4X4
Pheralyn Dove a.k.a. Lady Dove – Little Girl Blue
Philly Improv Theater – Illegal Refill
Philly Improv Theater – Bedtime Stories
Quinn Compositions – Planet Discord
Randy Shine (Shine Entertainment) – How to write a magic show in one week or less
Rare Bird Show & Meg and Rob – Improv and Sketch Comedy from Rare Bird Show & Meg and Rob, Respectively
Represented Theatre Company – REP Live/Conversations from the Café
Revival Burlesque – Revival Burlesque's 42nd Street Project
Rocketship Productions/Paden Fallis – The Play about The Coach
Sally Rhoades – Moon Over Manhattan
School of Theater Arts UArts – Court-Martial at Fort Devens
Squid Inc. – The Giant Squid
Starving Artist Society – Les Femmes
Stone Soup Theatre Arts – The Maguffin
Tara Ahmadinejad & Willow Norton (produced by 3101 Productions) – S.H.A.V.E.D.
Temple Theaters – In Conflict
Terrible Baby – Straight Up Vampire
The Burn Ward Theater Company – Mittens Descending and other tales
The Cardboard Box Collaborative – Speed the Muse: a CBC Lock in Competition
The Cardboard Box Collaborative – Herschel the Handless
The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium – A Streetcar Named Durang: Two Burlesques and a Nightmare
The N Crowd – Improv Comedy: The N Crowd Double Feature
The Ninjas – Vote Ninja in 2008!
The Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) – The Hoppers Hit the Road
The Sixth Borough – The Sixth Borough presents: "World Crisis"
The Waitstaff – Waitstaff Wit'
Theatre for Transformation – Show me the Franklins!
Theresa Diamond/Tender Thread Productions – Waiting for the Show
To The Wall Productions – Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by Charles Busch
Tongue & Groove – Tongue & Groove
Two For Flinching – Ben Affleck Judges You
Vagabond Acting Troupe – A Priest Walks Into a Bar
Valerie Solanis Players – Aimee Against the Apocalypse
Vanity House Theatre – 12.25
Vessel – The Ophelia Project: A Poetic Journey into the Worlds and Writing of Woolf, Sexton, and Plath
WAH! Productions – Branch to Branch
Walking Fish Comedy – 24 Hour Comedy Marathon
Western Narrative Company – i love you
Whipsuit – Participant Awards Ceremony
Writing Man Productions – Strawberries & Jellybeans
Zombies Ain’t Shit Theatre – Brain Fucked

VISUAL
Clandestine Cinema – Lost Animation of the Twentieth Century
Ellen Abraham – Head Shots
FLUXspace – FLUX TASK 2008
Joe Ives Jahjehan Bath Ives Nicole Pogas – Personal Soundtracks
Linda Dubin Garfield – The Right Foot: Shoe Portraits
Nicole Kristiana Studio – Emerging Works
RA Friedman – A Cabinet of Photographic Curiosities
Rachel Shoham – From Head to toe
Stephen Scott Smith – Project ME9

To request press kits, photos, interviews, and more information please contact: Megan Wendell, Canary Promotion + Design office: (215) 242-6393, email: megan@canarypromo.com