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2017 Fringe Festival Picks

So many great shows, so little time By Grid Staff If Climate Change and Politics Haven’t Already Filled You with Existential Dread… A Period of Animate Existence Sept. 22–24 The sixth extinction is upon us, and as we watch the lights of other species go out around us, we can only wonder whether our own

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August: To-Do List

Illustration by Nicholas Massarelli 1. Protect those paws August heat is hard on everyone, but if you have a dog, don’t forget that the blacktop of roads and red brick can get hot enough to seriously burn your pet’s pads. 2. Try a barbecue without the beasts! See this issue for a full plant-based menu

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Fringe Festival: Can we find ourselves in the forest?

Photo courtesy of Plate 3 Photography Into the Woods by Heather Shayne Blakeslee At the Fringe Festival two years ago, Birds on a Wire Dance Theatre offered audiences an abstract performance piece that retold the story of Little Red Riding Hood via a duet with dancer Kate Abernathy and cellist Rachel Icenogle.  Wire’s artistic director

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‘Pandæmonium’ explores a hellish landscape of our own making

Photo courtesy of Lars Jan Alone, Together interview by Heather Shayne Blakeslee In “Paradise Lost,” John Milton’s epic poem about the fall of man, he envisions the mythical city of Pandæmonium as the capital of hell, a mansion built on a lake of fire by the demon Mulciber.  For Philadelphia choreographer and dancer Nichole Canuso,

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A dance company explores our heart of darkness in a Center City bar

Photo courtesy of Bradley’s Bucks Rebirth of the Jungle by Heather Shayne Blakeslee Bradley’s Bucks—an all-male dance troupe that has been offering up semiregular performances this past year at bar and burlesque hub Franky Bradley’s—makes its Fringe Festival debut with “Jungle.” The production will explore the rebirth of the jungle in a post-apocalyptic ecosystem where—after

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What advocates can learn from artists

Story Time by Heather Shayne Blakeslee Once upon a time, I met Stephen King.  Perhaps more accurately, I once had an awkward exchange with Stephen King. It was a brief encounter at a fundraiser in New York, and I’m not sure which of us was more uncomfortable during the 20 seconds we spoke. What I

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