Performances: A Twilight Performance of Spoon River Anthology (The Late Laureates of Laurel Hill ) (No Future Showtimes.) Pulling up the rear in this edition of the Phillyist Philly-Live-Fringical-of-Arts Diary series we celebrate the ultimate Halloween pre-game. Just in time for CVS' pre-pre-trick-or-treating candy fest comes a reading from the dead in a place of the dead with a cast and audience pretty close to death themselves (I jest, of course. Respect your elders kids!)......

Performances: Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical (To the Wall Productions) (No Future Showtimes); The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged] (Marathon Theater Collective) (No Future Showtimes); Unspoken (Michael Roberts & Underground DanceWorks) (No Future Showtimes); The Sustainability Project (Figments, Inc.) (No Future Showtimes) So I didn't catch as many shows as I saw at last year's festival (twenty-two, I think, as opposed to last year's thirty – but I think Gatz could easily count......

Performance: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged] (The Marathon Theater Collective) (Future Showtimes) This festival has been full of highly forgiving audiences, even when squeezed into a tiny theatre like the Shubin and given uncomfortable chairs reminiscent of grandma's kitchen. I guess we Philadelphians are willing to put up with some discomfort—and the occasional bad play—in our quest for good art. That's encouraging. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [abridged] I thought this one......

Performance: Grace: Kingdom (A Grateful Company) (No Future Showtimes) Remember that rain we got on Tuesday? It produced mosquitoes. A lot of mosquitoes. Word to the wise: if you're going to see a show at the CEC on 35th and Lancaster, don't stand in the grass before the house opens. Half the audience was scratching at their arms and legs. Grace: Kingdom Admittedly, my familiarity with Jeff Buckley's album Grace, on which this work was......

Performances: That's Why They Don't Call It a Picnic (Vagabond Acting Troupe) (Future Showtimes); The Milky Way Cabaret (The Cardboard Box Collaborative) (Future Showtimes) I haven't added everything up yet, but by the time this year's Festival is over, I will have seen at least twenty shows. But that's only a small fraction of the shows going on, and there are plenty that, given infinite time and resources, I wish I could've fit on my......

Performances: Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (To The Wall Productions) (Future Showtimes) I got a late start on the PLAF, and I do feel sad and sorry about it. I was out of town, and arrived in the middle of last week to a job tornado, the start of new classes, and some large plumbing problems at home. But all that is marginally under control, and I'm ready to see some shows involving sex, nudity,......

Performances: Sonic Dances (Group Motion Dance Company) (No future scheduled showtimes, however: "Additional surprise performances will occur during the Festival in unannounced locations throughout the city."); BATCH: An American Bachelor/ette Party Spectacle (New Paradise Laboratories) (Future Showtimes); Explanatorium (Headlong Dance Theater) (Future Showtimes); Isabella (Pig Iron Theatre Company) (Future Showtimes); Hearts of Man (The Riot Group) (No Future Showtimes); LEAP: The Actors' Improv Experiment (Bobbi Block) (No Future Showtimes); Killing Women (Nice People Theatre Company)......

Performances: Flamingo/Winnebago (The Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental/Le Chat Lunatique/Thaddeus Phillips) (Future Showtimes); The Fantoccini Brothers Return (Mum Puppettheatre) (Future Showtimes) A note for next year to the PLAF organizers: however long someone tells you that a performance is, add ten minutes to it before you print the program or update the website. People who love the Festival want to see as much during it as they can, and so they schedule performances more or less back-to-back,......

Performance: Between the Pages: 3 sisters, a winged boy and a lighthouse (SCRAP Performance Group) (Future Showtimes) During college, I didn't get to see a lot of Fringe shows because so few of them were staged in University City. Now it seems that the Festival has spread far beyond Center City and Old City, and I think that SEPTA should have a special Festival pass, or the Festival should have special shuttles, so that people......

Performance: Hearts of Man (The Riot Group) (Future Showtimes) It was a Wednesday night and the crowd was thin. There were a lot of empty seats in the audience, even though there was a post-show discussion scheduled. Theatre tip: The Arcadia Stage at the Arden Theatre has poor sight lines. I was only three rows back and in the middle, and I still had to twist around in my seat to see everything that was......

Performance: An·'tis·a·lon (Kaibutsu) (Future Showtimes) One of the things I love so much about the Live Arts and Fringe Festivals is the audience who goes to see the shows. The people waiting to see these shows usually aren't your standard theatre-going audience, or, if they are, they're more relaxed than they are at more traditional shows. They talk to you while you're standing in line. They offer alternative suggestions about other shows to latecomers who......