A blind man, an invisible man, a donkey and a chook get on a ship.
Three performers, taking part in pirates, share the stage – a four-foot by three-foot wood crate.
Two actors change components each present.
Philly Theatre Week’s checklist of attention-grabbing and bizarre goes lengthy and vigorous, as a result of this 10-day stretch from April 3 to April 13 is when theater of us invite audiences to their exhibits and allow them to pay no matter they will.
For audiences, it quantities to low-cost and risk-free sampling.
And for the theater makers?
“Philly Theatre Week is a big highlight on the Philly theater group and never simply the key theater corporations, and even the midsize one, but additionally the smaller collectives,” mentioned Sabriaya Shipley, govt director of Theatre Philadelphia, the theater group’s umbrella advertising group that runs Philly Theatre Week.
“Now we have 44 completely different productions, and so they all have completely different themes and audiences they’re making an attempt to handle,” she mentioned.
There are twin targets, she mentioned. One is, no less than for 10 days, to make theater accessible to individuals who wouldn’t ordinarily have the ability to afford a pricier ticket. The opposite is to entice folks – and even entire communities – who aren’t conversant in theater to the world’s phases.
“For us, we like taking part in any effort to deliver consciousness to the nice amount, high quality and variety of theater in Philadelphia,” mentioned Seth Rozin, InterAct Theatre Firm’s founding and creative director.
InterAct’s Theatre Week providing is a world premiere, “Rift, or White Lies,” Longtime theater professionals Matteo Scammell and Jered McLenigan play two estranged brothers.
United by their traumatic childhood, one brother is a progressive novelist and the opposite a convicted assassin and high-ranking member of a white supremacist jail gang. The 2 actors tackle one another’s roles in alternating performances that run past Theatre Week by April 27 on the Drake Theatre, 302 S. Hicks St. in Middle Metropolis.
“We truly do take into consideration which exhibits we would do throughout Theatre Week and what our providing may be in that situation,” Rozin mentioned. “An excellent variety of new patrons present as much as see what our performs are all about.”
“Two of Philly’s finest actors and a neighborhood playwright [Gabriel Jason Dean] showcase our mission and the standard of the work we do in a brand new play. That felt like a no brainer for Philly Theatre Week,” Rozin mentioned. “The primary purpose can be to succeed in individuals who don’t know you that effectively and provides them an incentive to attempt one thing new.”
There’s a catch, although.
Tickets have to be bought by the Theatre Philadelphia web site and every taking part firm solely affords a handful of tickets at Theatre Week’s Pay-What-You-Can worth level. Tickets can be found on the listed costs if the Theatre Week tickets promote out.
How probably that’s will depend on the present.
Final 12 months, about half the out there 3,082 Philly Theatre Week tickets have been bought, sending patrons to 99 performances supplied by 24 teams. Eight days earlier than this 12 months’s April 3 opening, clients had bought about one-sixth of the two,756 out there tickets.
So, what’s on faucet?
Right here’s a smattering of the numerous out there exhibits.
Let’s begin with the blind man, the invisible man, the chook and the donkey, a part of “Complete Modeling,” from Benjamin Stieler, staged at a West Philadelphia yoga studio. Stieler guarantees skilled wrestling, nakedness, buffoonery and despair.
What extra might one need from a theater present? How about three actors contorting round one another on a tiny wood crate or the possibility to resume marriage ceremony vows?
Carried out on the crate, “Pirate Queens” premiered within the fall on the Philadelphia Fringe Pageant. It’s the semi-true story of an 18th-century girl who dressed as a boy from childhood, is captured by pirates, and falls in love. It’s exhibiting on the Pig Iron Theatre Firm’s headquarters within the Crane Previous College, 1417 N. 2nd St., Philadelphia.
Someway, renewing marriage ceremony vows is a risk at 1812 Productions’ Theatre Week providing of “Let’s Faux We’re Married,” with a number of love songs. Plus, the viewers can play an up to date model of “The Newlywed Recreation.” That’s at Performs & Gamers Theatre, 1714 Delancey St.
SideQuest Theater’s April 12 efficiency of “Roll Play” at The Adrienne Theater, 2030 Sansom St., is adults-only. Valiant heroes, a wizard, a cleric and a sword all play into performances which can be completely different for each present (April 4-13) and are ruled by the roll of the cube.
Free drinks include tickets to The Savoy Firm’s “Trial by Jury,” an operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan, carried out on the Trinity Middle for City Life, 2212 Spruce St.
A few of Theatre Week’s exhibits embrace quite a few shorter acts, beginning with Theatre Week’s free kickoff celebration on March 31, 6:30 to eight:30 p.m. at Temple College’s Performing Arts Middle, 1837 N. Broad St., with preview snippets from upcoming performances.
In “Highlight 3X30,” audiences can take a look at three 30-minute excerpts from musicals underneath improvement by Philly artists organized by MusiCoLab, a neighborhood nonprofit that helps develop new musicals. On this system are “Electrical & Benevolent,” with songs by The Extraordinaires, “Lawless” about Charles Dickens and his secret mistress, and “Elderland,” about seniors reclaiming their inspiring lives by storytelling. They’re exhibiting at CSz Theater at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., April 12 and 13.
Cannonball, a pageant inside the annual autumn Philadelphia Fringe Pageant, affords Miniball, a weekend lineup of theater, circus, dance and genre-defying exhibits on the Fringe Arts constructing, 140 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd. A Miniball kickoff celebration begins the festivities there on April 3.