Things'll be weird and wonderful as ever at the 2014 Philly Fringe Festival

I cannot say that I didn’t just see what looked like a grown man dancing on a fashion runway wearing a white diaper, but hey, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival is right around the corner.

The video clip in question, featured by FringeArts president and producing director Nick Stuccio during a press kickoff for this year’s fest (the first based out of FringeArts’s new waterfront home), is from New York-based dancer/choreographer Trajal Harrell. According to the Festival catalog, Harrell’s Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (XS), one of two offerings from the artist this year, can’t be documented: It “exists only in the spontaneous connection between Harrell and the audience.”

It’s “a concentrated fusion of voguing and postmodern dance performed by Harrell.”

Bring it on.

What's in a name?

Our Fringe Festival has had a couple different rebrands in the last few years, since the old pumping station at 140 N. Columbus Boulevard was converted into a new permanent hub for the fest, as well as a year-round lineup of local and international programming.

It used to be the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, a curated lineup and local performing arts free-for-all, respectively. Then last year, there was the transition to “FringeArts,” with “invited” shows alongside the newly-named “Neighborhood Fringe,” which broke the rest of the non-curated festival down by sections of the city.

This year, FringeArts presents the 2014 Fringe Festival, with “Presented” shows alongside the Neighborhood Fringe.

Got it?

Never mind. The important thing is to strap yourself in for the fest, running September 5 – 21. This year, FringeArts offers 12 curated shows, with six world premieres (including new work from Philly’s Pig Iron Theatre Company, New Paradise Laboratories, and the Pennsylvania Ballet).

'100% Philadelphia' and more

At July’s press conference, Stuccio called 100% Philadelphia, from Germany’s Rimini Protokoll, the “masthead” of this year’s event (a performance that has also been adapted for other cities). The pay-what-you-wish show at Temple Performing Arts Center is a concept that brings 100 real Philly residents to the stage to represent the city: Each person stands for 15,531 residents. Fifty-three are women and 47 are men, seven are toddlers, 41 are white, six are Asian, and on through all the city’s demographics of age, race, and marital status. The group will respond in real time to controversial questions, and the artists promise that all the people in the audience will find someone they can relate to.

Rosas danst Rosas, a dance performance at FringeArts from Belgium’s Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, promises to be extremely compelling. New York’s Mary Mattingly will live in “WetLand,” her own eco-friendly, free, interactive public art installation, located near the Independence Seaport Museum Pier. Pig Iron will premiere 99 Breakups at PAFA, which promises “99 painfully funny scenes as well as just painful and embarrassing and strange scenes” (because clearly we haven’t already heard enough from SEPTA’s loudest cell phone talkers). Playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, who can't leave his native Iran, is sending his White Rabbit Red Rabbit to be read by a different actor at each performance — an actor who's forbidden to look at the script, or any reviews of the show, until the curtain goes up.

FringeArts is promising its snazzy new brasserie, La Peg, complete with its own stage and a free late-night cabaret lineup, including Martha Graham Cracker and many others, will be open by September 5. And don’t forget the 130 Neighborhood Fringe shows. Stay tuned for more recommendations.

FringeArts’ 2014 Fringe Festival is running throughout the city from September 5 – 21. For the full Presented lineup, including artists, shows, locations, and tickets, click here. To explore the Neighborhood Fringe, click here.