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!)......

Dear God (go with me on this one – if someone can sue Him, I can sure as hell write Him a letter): Hey up there! How's it going? Long time no talk! Sorry about missing Rosh Hashannah last week. The holidays aren't on a consistent date every year—not on the Western calendar, at least—so I didn't know when they were when I made my PLAF schedule. But hey – the Torah indicates that......

Performances: Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical (To the Wall Productions) (no future performances); The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Marathon Theater Collective) (no future performances); The Sustainability Project (Figments, Inc.) (no future performances) So Live Arts/Fringe has now come and gone. To be honest, I was kind of relieved that this was the final weekend and that there were only three shows to be seen. Last weekend didn't go so well for me.......

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: Fatboy (Brat Productions) (no future performances) I'm exhausted, so it's just as well the festival is over. I know, compared to other diarists, my eight plays were nothing, but it was a lot of theatre in a very short time by my standards. And it ruled. Some of the plays were great, more were so-so. But it felt incredibly good to watch live people performing (as opposed to all those filmed people I......

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......

Performance: Trad (Inis Nua Theatre Company) (Future PLAF Showtimes; Additional Showtimes) I realized today that I've gotten to the point at which I don't know what I'm seeing anymore. I show up at the theatre I'm supposed to be at, ticket in hand, and try my damnedest to remember what the Festival guide said about the show I'm seeing: Comedy? Drama? Dance? Musical? Of course, by that point, it doesn't matter. I just have to......

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: Batch: An American Bachelor/ette Party Spectacle (New Paradise Laboratories) (Future performances); Explanatorium (Headlong Dance Theater) (Future performances); Isabella (Pig Iron Theatre Company) (Future performances); Hearts of Man (The Riot Group) (no future performances); LEAP: The Actors' Improv Experiment (Bobbi Block) (no future performances) This weekend I saw five shows, which had sounded somewhat daunting to me. Then I realized that the total running time of the five was actually less than the running time......

Performance: Litttle Girl Blue (Pheralyn Dove a.k.a. "Lady Dove") (No future performances) The last time I'd been at the Ethical Society it was to hear an ex-Buddhist monk discuss the Dharma for the modern age. Wednesday I went to see a one woman show about an African American woman's personal and spiritual journey. Gone was the Buddha statue adorned with lit candles. In its place were the props that would help the Little Girl Blue......

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,......

Sure, you can wander through art gallery after art gallery tonight. The same places you always go, with the same cheap wine you always drink. Or, you can take advantage of the fact that there's always a First Friday during the Live Arts and Fringe Festivals, and there are plenty of free or pay-what-you-can PLAF events you can hit tonight and for the next week. A few that we think sound interesting: Sonic Dances A......

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......

Performances: Isabella (Pig Iron Theatre Company) (Future Performances); “The Metropolis Project” (P.A.M. Band) (No future performances.); Flamingo/Winnebago (The Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental/Le Chat Lunatique/Thaddeus Phillips Theater) (Future Performances); Gatz (Elevator Repair Service) (no future performances) Four shows in three days doesn’t sound very heroic, but when one is Gatz (scheduled 7.5 hrs, 8 hrs real time) it adds up. It could have made for an exhausting weekend, but instead it was exhilarating. So much theatre –......

Performance: Gatz (Elevator Repair Service) (Future performances) So I got my proverbial PLAF cherry popped the other night. Frankly, if I wasn't writing for Phillyist, I would not be attending any PLAF events. "Experimental theatre" and "performance art" are terms that generally send a shiver up my spine. But Editor Jill sat me down and we went through the catalog and a couple of shows actually piqued my interest. So here we go... Gatz Gatz......

Performance: Gatz (Part Two) (Elevator Repair Service) (Future performances) As I write this, I realize have spent more time in the last twenty-four hours sitting in theatres than I have in bed. And so begins the Festival. And it is good. Gatz As promised yesterday, this is actually going to be about Elevator Repair Service's Gatz in its entirety, even though I saw half of it on Thursday night. I'd planned on writing this diary......

Performance: Gatz (Part One) (Elevator Repair Service) (Second half and future showtimes) I'm actually not going to review Gatz until after I see the second half tonight, but as this is a diary, meant to track the Phillyist staff's Live Arts/Fringe progress over the course of the festival, I thought I'd at least give the show an endorsement, based on the half that I've seen. Why? Well, because it only runs until Sunday. So I......

Just like we did last year, we interrupt your weekly theatre listings to present you, instead, with a preview of the Live Arts and Fringe Fests. If you ask this Phillyist, it's the most wonderful time of the year. The 2007 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe (yep, that's the branding!) officially kicks off Friday, but a few shows are already having preview performances. What does that mean for you? Hundreds of avant garde......