Looking for a cultural fix? Arts breaks down what you need to know for a month of festivities.
Reasons to go to PIFA: 1. You can finally live out the time travel fantasies of your youth. While the first festival was all about early 20th century Paris, this year’s theme, time travel, promises adventures in all eras.
2. These fantasies can be realized in musical form. "Flash of Time: A New Musical" is the century–spanning piece of theater you didn’t know was missing from your life.
3. There’s something for everyone. Constantly humming "Superstition" under your breath? Catch a performance of Stevie Wonder songs. Need a classical music fix pre–Fling? Score major culture points with organ music celebrating composer Benjamin Britten’s birth.
4. Trapeze lessons. Need we say more?
5. Food from every time period. What better way to celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s 270th birthday than an “onstage culinary adventure” of the Founding Fathers’ favorite gnoshes?
6. Tap dancing. Performed by famed tapper Savion Glover and set 3.8 billion years in the past, of course.
7. An actual time machine at the Kimmel Center. Don’t miss the only time the future will be SEPTA accessible!
STREET’S PIFA PICKS: Wide Awake: A Civil Work Cabaret by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret March 27–April 6 at 8 p.m., $21 Innovation Studio at the Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St. Getting There: Take the trolley to City Hall, then walk four blocks south down Broad St. What’s better than cabaret and bold ladies rocking facial hair? Cabaret and ladies rocking bold facial hair in a series of North vs. South rock battles! Is a performance described as “part ‘Gone With the Wind,’ part folk–punk extravaganza” something you’d want to miss?
An Aquarian Exposition: A Trip Back to the Original Woodstock performed by SHARP Dance Company April 12, 13, 19 & 20 at 8 p.m., April 14 & 21 at 7 p.m., $20 The Box, 2628 Martha St. Getting There: Take the Market–Frankford line to Huntingdon Station; walk four blocks southwest If Penn’s pre–professional vibe is getting you down, let SHARP Dance Company transport you to a place of peace, love and understanding with their dance piece on Woodstock. No mention of OCR, internships or job offers allowed.
"Everyone and I" presented by the Azuka Theatre and The American Poetry Review March 28–April 2 & April 4–7 at 7:30, March 29, 30 & April 3, 5 & 6 at 9:30, $26 Hamilton Garden at the Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St. Getting There: Take the trolley to City Hall, then walk four blocks south down Broad St. This theater piece takes its inspiration from “The Day Lady Died,” Frank O’Hara’s famous poem written on the day of Billie Holiday’s death. Expect to be enchanted by Holiday’s timeless jazz and subsequently depressed by our Top 40 music landscape.
From Seneca Falls to Philadelphia: Fourth of July 1876 and the Women of the Centennial April 1–27, Opening Reception April 5 from 5–7 p.m. Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 S. 6th St. Getting There: Take the Market–Frankford line to 5th Street, then walk five blocks southwest Want to continue the female love after Women’s History Month ends in March? Look no further than the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. You can browse their collection related to women’s suffrage and the 1876 Centennial Exposition, paired with the responses of present–day book artists. Feeling inspired to get crafty? RSVP to one of their free book arts workshops on April 6 or April 20.
Street Fair, April 27 11 a.m–3 p.m. Broad & Chestnut Streets through Broad & South Streets Getting There: Take the trolley to City Hall, then walk three blocks south down Broad St. Celebrate the end of multiple eras with PIFA’s final hurrah on the last day of the festival. You can ride a Ferris Wheel, pet a dinosaur or gorge yourself on the street food of times past and future. Doesn’t get much better than that!
