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Ryan Mann, a self-described Fringe nut, only sounds slightly embarrassed when he describes his laptop.
Twenty-five tabs are open, and each to a different production on his ticket wish list for the 20-day, 350+ show extravaganza that is the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. With dance, theater, circus, clowning, music and immersive presentations running between Sept. 8-27, the printed program alone runs 64 pages.
“I have so much FOMO (fear of missing out),” said Mann, a middle-school math teacher from South Philly. “What if I don’t see the right things? You want to see so much and there’s only so much time to do it.
“There’s so much,” he said.
The makers of the Fringe understand full well that the whole enterprise is a bear – a pleasant bear, but a big one.
Mann manages the bear with dozens of open tabs on his computer, notes scribbled on papers and his calendar. Luckily, he’s not in Edinburgh, Scotland – the original fringe locale – which had more than 4,000 shows available through its festival, which ends Aug. 31.
Even in Philly, though, “it’s a lot of work,” he said.
No kidding. But there is help.
Here’s a number of ways you can organize your viewing plans.
Try a preview
- Artists present a free sampling of what’s to come on Monday on Aug. 31 at the Fringe Arts building, 140 N. Columbus Blvd. at Race Street.
- Pop-up performances at the Cherry Street Pier Sept. 5, noon to 4.
Let the pros pick
Both Fringe Arts itself, and the Cannonball Festival, the largest sub-group within the Fringe, have curated picks, mostly artists they’ve backed in some way.
The Cannonball Festival has gone all out in guiding us through the more than 90 shows it offers. Through its audience paths page on its website, it suggests going to its special presentation and producer shows first.
Or, if nothing there appeals, Cannonball can cater to your personality.
Are you a first-timer looking for a cautious dip into a wide variety of shows? Cannonball offers suggestions, week by week, with descriptions and links to tickets. Looking for something experimental? More suggestions abound. The third category is just for laughs, week by week.
To get to the Fringe’s curated list, go to PhillyFringe.org, click on Tickets On Sale Now!, and find FringeArts Presents in the drop-down menu under hubs. Many of these shows have had sold-out runs elsewhere or have appeared at other Fringe festivals around the world.
You can also sign up for the Cadillac version — the $250 ($200 for members) Tour de Fringe. Three key Fringe executives, including executive director Nell Bang-Jensen, make the picks and one of them will lead a small group to two or three shows in one day. The ticket includes dinner and a chance to discuss the shows. Dates are Friday, Sept. 11, and Saturdays on Sept. 19 and 26. Transportation between venues is included.
Or just ask.
“Our box office is really good at making recommendations if you tell us what you’d like,” Bang-Jensen said.
Choose by location
What’s convenient? The printed guide, also available online, includes a venue map. You can search by neighborhood. For example, there are 10 West Philadelphia locations. One of them, Studio 34, a yoga studio named after the SEPTA trolley that runs outside, will host more than a dozen different shows.
My choices always include at least one weird location. There’s a show in a back alley, another outside a dumpster, (“Dumpster Boys: Straight White Dudes Doing Stand-Up at a Dumpster” and a third, “Roadkill,” in a roving rental truck. The directions come with your ticket a few days before the show.
Choose by date
When can you go? Turn to phillyfringe.org/events and use the When button. Or, if you have the 64-page paper or online program copy, turn to page 51 for a day-by-day listing.
If you want a weeknight Fringe experience, you can squeeze in three shows between 5 and 9 p.m. On Thursday, Sept. 10, for example, there are 56 shows. You can start your day earlier, at 1 p.m. with “The Great Philadelphia Comedy Magic Walk,” a walking tour with a magic trick on every block in Old City and end it at 10 p.m. with “A Young Man Dressed As A Gorilla Dressed As An Old Man Sits Rocking In A Rocking Chair For Fifty-Six Minutes And Then Leaves” at Pig Iron Theater Co.
Among the many shows in the middle are “Kramer/Fauci” at 7 p.m. the Fringe building, about the tempestuous love/hate relationship between AIDS activist Larry Kramer and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading AIDS researcher. Even with that, there’s still time to pay a visit to The Bearded Ladies’ Cabaret’s storage facility, also known as The Hairport, for an interactive performance and installation piece, “Priority Hoarding: A Retrospective.”
Choose by genre
Suppose you’d like to focus on puppetry. You have 19 choices by clicking on puppetry in the fringearts.org genre pull-down tab. For a sampling, you can check out Puppet Slam at 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 and 12 at Studio 34 in West Philly. Dark Star Theatre Co. focuses on black-light puppetry as whales and squid come alive in the dark in “Creatures of the Deep” Sept. 11-16 at Yellow Bicycle Theater in Center City. Speaking of sea creatures, there’s even a puppet element to a show about a performance artist shoving a crab up his derriere. “Crabman” at Pig Iron Theater Co. Sept. 12 and 13.
Pick a theme
We need a little laughter, right?
So, check “funny” on phillyfringe.org keyword drop-down box for 117 choices. You’ll get among others, a show with this description: “Lonesome Town, USA – where the smoke settles into the shape of any number of sexy, seedy characters. And among them: PRIVATE DICK. Richard Dickinson, a classic noir man – Private Investigator by day, alcoholic by….also day.” From The Freaks, “Private Dick: The Hardest Noir in Town” plays Sept. 10-12 at NoMaster Studio.
That being said, you have to look past the titles: “Trauma Queen,” about whether stand-up can bring healing to a victim of sexual violence at Plays and Players Skinner Studio Sept. 16-27; “We’re All Gonna Die, So Stop Caring, at Pig Iron Theatre Co. Sept. 8-11, promising storytelling and comedy as an antidote.
Among the many other themes: Mental Health, Absurd/Surreal, History, Romance, and Disabled Artist.
Get a drink
And an absolution from the “Shame Shack” shaman at the Trestle Inn. From Sept. 9-23, shaman Guy Fletcher promises to unburden you of regrets. Bars abound among the Fringe pickings. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a Bar,” unrehearsed and bawdy, happens next to a bar, Quig’s Pub at the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players Theater. You may need a drink when artists Rose Luardo and Sacha Vega promise acts of public ambition and humiliation as they sing for their supper in “Girls Gotta Eat” at Fat Moon Restaurant and Karaoke Sept. 20 and 27. And, of course, every show at the Fringe building is an opportunity for pre or post imbibing, except on Mondays when the restaurant is closed.
Appreciate the vibe or choose the weird
That’s absolutely math teacher Ryan Mann’s philosophy and why he might pick as many as a dozen shows this season, assuming he can fit them around back-to-school nights.
“The world is a very cynical place right now. Everything is a cash grab or a scam. It’s so commercial,” he said. “With the Fringe, you are not getting people who are in it for the money. They have some sort of creative itch they have to scratch. It puts you in a head space that is kind of nice.”
He chooses by interesting ideas, by unusual names, by descriptions that strike his fancy, by unusual locations. He likes immersive shows where the audience has a role to play, something that challenges him in a safe way.
“I think weird is always good,” he said, “Even weird in a bad way.”
As of early August, Mann had tickets to six shows:
Julia Masli’s “ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha,” an immersive work about caring, vulnerability and unexpected humor runs at the Fringe building. It’s been a hit wherever it has been performed.
“Endgame,” by Samuel Beckett performed by the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium at Theatre Exile. Mann saw another Beckett work last year, so would like to give this one a try. It involves two amputees in trash cans.
“Dog Funeral,” a clown show, another of Mann’s favorite categories. “I like to experience the chaos they bring.” The audience is invited to a funeral for Zoe Wohlfeld’s dog. She promises to take the fun out of funeral at the Pig Iron Theatre Co.
“A Murder Most Felt; or, It’s Not Easy Bleeding Green,” a puppet show runs at Asian Arts Initiative Third Floor.
“Utopian Hotline” will be staged at the Fels Planetarium at The Franklin Institute. That’s almost good enough for Mann, but there’s more. The show involves messages to people in the future gathered on a public telephone hotline along with interviews with astronauts, astrophysicists, and middle school students (not his). “Hopefully it will be hopeful,” Mann said.
“Bog Man” is something of a play within a play concerned with so many worries – about not being able to finish a play, about finishing the play, about health insurance, all at the Skinner Studio at Plays & Players.
“I like the idea of a one-woman show about going crazy,” Mann said.
