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So Percussion's Where (we) Live

FringeArts
So Percussion. Photo by David Andrako.
So Percussion. Photo by David Andrako.

At its 2013 festival, FringeArts presented a new composition by New York-based ensemble So Percussion. Created in collaboration with, among others, Martin Schmidt of the musical group Matmos and three-time Obie Award-winning theater artist Ain Gordon, Where (we) Live was an experimentation in combining musical composition with theatrical improvisation. Philadelphia-based artisans, each fluent in an arcane trade such as violin making or beer brewing, performed with the ensemble and intervened in the traditional concert format, bringing an air of risk and adventure to each performance as the musicians and artisans interacted in unexpected and unrehearsed ways. The members of So Percussion also participated in a post-show discussion about their creative process and multidisciplinary, exploratory work and held master classes for local university students and provided writing prompts on the FringeArts blog, Twitter, and Facebook, so that audience members could respond to their work with short stories, poems, and photos.

uestions of ractice
Lucinda Childs’ Available Light in performance at the Drexel University Armory as part of the 2015 FringeArts Fringe Festival. Photo © Jacques-Jean Tiziou. Courtesy of FringeArts.
Interview

Questions of Practice: FringeArts' Nick Stuccio on Curating Performance

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FringeArts

FringeArts

FringeArts commissions, develops, and presents a range of high-quality contemporary performing arts that challenge convention and inspire new ways of thinking. Works are staged during the annual Fringe Festival, and, since 2013, in a full-year schedule of performances by local, national, and international artists. 

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Explore Connections
Nels Cline in performance at Royce Hall, Los Angeles. Photo by Phinn Sriployrung.

Guitarist Nels Cline on Musical Lineage
Video Tradition & Translation
Walking with Trane, Urban Bush Women. Photo by Gennia Cui.
Questions of Practice: Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar on Art and Social Justice
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Sonia Sanchez. Photo by Erika Vonie.
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Sonya Clark, The Descendants of Monticello, 2024, part of Declaration House, Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, PA. Photo by Steve Weinik, courtesy of Monument Lab.
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Pew Fellows Candice Iloh and Armando Veve. Photos by Neal Santos.

Fellow to Fellow: Candice Iloh and Armando Veve Find Inspiration in Each Other’s Mediums
Interview Cross-Disciplinary Practices
Enrique Bostelmann, Portrait of Cora Flores, 1980, part of Mirages series.

Projects in Process: Discoveries in the Archives with Berman Museum and Japan America Society
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Side-by-side portraits of Sumi Tonooka and Phillip B. Williams.

Fellow to Fellow: Sumi Tonooka and Phillip B. Williams on Expanding Their Artistic Identities 
Interview Practice & Process
Sinta Penyami Storms, 2022 Philadelphia's Cultural Treasures fellow.
Four Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures Fellows on Care and Community Impact
EgoPo Classic Theater, rehearsal for Ramayana with Papermoon Puppet Theatre and Kalanari Theatre Movement, 2023, Java, Indonesia. Photo courtesy of EgoPo. 

Projects in Process: Wilma Theater and EgoPo on Creative Collaborations
Essay Co-Authorship & Collaboration