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Welcome back to BSR in the Wild, our subscribers-only tips for what our team is doing and seeing each month. We're busy with shows, meetings, and more.

Read on to look at our October!

BSR writers and community partners met for a happy hour in September. Thanks to Human Robot Süd for hosting us!

FIND US:

Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance Annual Meeting & Arts Party
WHERE: Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia
WHEN: Tuesday, October 13 6:00pm-10:00pm
WHY: Look for BSR staff at this yearly gathering! We're always keen to learn the latest analysis and plans from the wonderful folks at GPCA. And we certainly do love to see so many colleagues in the same place. If you see us there, say hi and ask us for a fresh BSR button to pin to your jacket or bag.

Neil, Alaina, Vicky, and Kyle made sure to get a group selfie in at our September happy hour.

FIND ALAINA:

Liberation
WHERE: Philadelphia Theatre Company, 480 S. Broad St., Philadelphia
WHEN: Running October 9-25
WHY: Bess Wohl's play about a group of women in a small town in the 1970s who join up for a consciousness-raising meeting moves between the past and present, showing what the meetings made possible and what work is still unfinished. This feels especially timely as we mourn Gloria Steinem, who was known for fostering gatherings like this until the very end of her life, believing in the power of women's personal connections and storytelling. I haven't seen this play myself yet, but I know how buzzy it is--it won the Pulitzer for Drama earlier this year, along with the Tony for Best Play. Cameron Kelsall is reviewing, and I get to tag along as his plus one.

#Charlottesville
WHERE: The Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake, 302 S. Hicks St., Philadelphia
WHEN: Oct 14-Nov 1
WHY: This award-winning new play stormed the Edinburgh Fringe last year, and gets its Philly premiere this month with a co-production from Azuka Theatre and Simpatico Theatre. It's a solo show written and performed by Priyanka Shetty, based on real-life chronicles of the violent "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, VA in August 2017. The producers call it "An urgent political work that examines race, identity, and the machinery of extremism in modern-day America." It's directed by Yury Urnov, former co-artistic director of the Wilma. I don't always resonate with everything about his productions, but their style is always assured and distinctive. Look out for my review.

Run Ben Run
WHERE: Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., Philadelphia
WHEN: Oct 6-18
WHY: You can read the description of this new performance from Applied Mechanics, but I don't know if it helps. It's "a maniacal, surreal satire starring famous Bens throughout history" (Ben Franklin, Ben Affleck, Benedict Arnold, Ben Vereen, Ben Lay, Benito Antonio Ocasio Cortez) to "craft a spectacle that tears apart the underlying assumptions about American progress." The full description just gets weirder. Honestly, it's the cast/creators that got me: Izzy Sazak, MK Tuomanen, Brett Ashley Robinson, Chris Davis, Anthony Martinez-Briggs, and Rebecca Wright, who also directs. These are some of the most interesting performers in town. Plus, I ran into Davis during the Fringe and he talked winningly about the development process, and I'm a sucker for those weird collaboratively devised shows that Philly does so well.

Misery
WHERE: Hedgerow Theatre Company, 64 Rose Valley Rd., Media
WHEN: Oct 14-Nov 1
WHY: I was a big Stephen King fan as a young person. Now I find it hard to get past the cringey racism in so many of the books. Somehow, I never got around to reading Misery, despite being a lifelong lover of the psychological horror genre. I picked up the book last week and found it mostly pretty absorbing and shot through with interesting questions about the creative life. I'm interested in this production of the popular stage adaptation by William Goldman, directed here by Catherine Slusar. Philly playwright Bruce Graham plays the captive novelist Paul Sheldon, and Emma Gibson plays his terrifying number-one fan.

Alaina and Neil aligned their schedules for an outing to a Fringe show.

FIND NEIL:

Ignite: Community Conversations to Create Change
WHERE: The Study, 20 S. 33rd St., Philadelphia
WHEN: Wednesday, October 14 2:00pm-5:00pm
WHY: The thoughtful folks at Networks for Training and Development invited me to host this set of conversations about inclusion and belonging. I'll talk about storytelling and point attendees of this free event to a number of guest artist "speed dating" (minus the dating) stations. NTD is bringing in some wonderful facilitators so everybody can learn a new medium or two!

2026 Philly Comms Un-Conference
WHERE: Quorum, 3675 Market St., Philadelphia
WHEN: Tuesday, October 27 9:00am-1:00pm
WHY: This heavily interactive gathering looks phenomenal as a way for me to share what's happening at BSR and learn more about communications professionals from around the region. I'm hoping to meet other media workers and gain some insights from other industries. Are you planning on attending this? Drop me a note so I can be sure to look for you!

Neil's nod of the month

Elijah Fischer is a 2026 addition to the BSR writers community and I've liked what he has his eye on. In October, we'll see an article from him about the new Little Movie Store in South Philly. I recently acquired a Blu-ray player for the first time so I'm primed to learn about new sources for physical media.

I found myself discussing Spiral Q with some local friends recently. One knew of the organization by name, but wasn't familiar deeply with their body of work. Another had just heard of them in the past month for the first time. Other friends had no clue who we were talking about. I was delighted to pull up a 2023 review by Jill Ivey of Grounds for Sculpture's then-exhibition of the organization's puppets and other artifacts.