Arts & Culture - Philadelphia Weekly

PW's Weekend Picks

By PW Staff — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:24:14 PDT

Dear culture vultures: We scoured the city to bring you the best of what Philly has to offer. Enjoy! Calendar: The babes and boys of the Peek-a-Boo Revue will get you all hot and bothered. Five writers tell the hilarious or heart-wrenching stories they associate with a song from their past...

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"The Seagull" Is An Ambitious But Lacking Production

By J. Cooper Robb — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:09:40 PDT

The Quintessence Theatre Group concludes its season with an inconsistent production of Anton Chekhov’s landmark work The Seagull. The first of Chekhov’s four plays, The Seagull’s production at the Moscow Art Theater ushered in a new era in theater history. Unlike the melodramas...

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Calendar: May 23-29

By PW Staff — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:37:30 PDT

Wednesday, May 23 us Two of the city’s top dance companies, <fidget> and anonymous bodies, are teaming up for a mini-festival that will include two weeks of performances, lectures, open rehearsals, DJs and food. (But no uppercase letters!) Starting today at noon, the intellectually...

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5 Things I Learned at the Barnes Foundation

By Katherine Rochester — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:01:47 PDT

Architectural eyebrows are out; outsourcing is in. Since Philly has been saturated with Barnes controversy media coverage and because the Barnes Foundation is primarily an educational institution, here are five things you may not know but that I learned at the museum’s grand opening last...

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PW's Weekend Picks

By PW Staff — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:18:21 PDT

Dear culture vultures: We scoured the city to bring you the best of what Philly has to offer. Enjoy! Calendar: Stimulate all of your senses simultaneously at the Italian Market Festival. Inhale deeply, stretch and jump out of bed early this Sunday for yoga on the Art Museum steps. Stage: A...

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Bathe in the Unique Light of Comedian Reggie Watts

By Brian McManus — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:55:29 PDT

Originally, this here piece on Reggie Watts was going to be written in the style Reggie Watts performs in: free form, improvisational, off the cuff, many twists filled with many characters taking many turns. The first paragraph was going to be in the voice of a pirate. He’d just discovered a...

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A Man's Effort to Protect His Sons Comes at a Cost in "The Walworth Farce"

By J. Cooper Robb — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:59:57 PDT

Every single night, a father demands that he and his two sons re-enact what happened to them during their hasty departure from Ireland. Inis Nua Theatre Company concludes its eighth season with Director Tom Reing’s stylish production of playwright Enda Walsh’s ...

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Calendar: May 16-22

By PW Staff — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:48:15 PDT

Wednesday, May 16 Ride of Silence Chris Phelan organized the first Ride of Silence in Texas after cyclist Larry Schwartz was hit by a bus and killed in May 2003. Since then, the Ride has spread to cities across the country to commemorate the many people killed or injured in bicycle-related...

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Napoleon Gallery Honors the Tortured Genius of a Local Dinosaur Lover

By Katherine Rochester — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:00:39 PDT

If cats dream of mice, and mice dream of cheese, then do paleontologists dream of dinosaurs? Artist Ryan Wilson Kelly, who impersonates Philadelphian paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) in his performance and installation at Napoleon Gallery, insists that they do: “Cope had been...

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PW's Weekend Picks

By PW Staff — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:50:36 PDT

Dear culture vultures: We scoured the city to bring you the best of what Philly has to offer. Enjoy! Calendar: During Local Music Day, the sounds of Philly's best bands will be heard all around the city. Esperanza Spalding brings her talented, beautifully Afroed self to the Electric...

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Calendar: May 9-15

By PW Staff — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:48:11 PDT

Wednesday, May 9 Carter’s Play Promising local dramatist Josh McIlvain’s latest work, Carter’s Play, makes its world premiere tonight at the White Space. Carter’s Play is McIlvaine’s most ambitious work (following several one-act comedies), and the first full-length...

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David Mamet Explores Feminine Matters in "Boston Marriage"

By J. Cooper Robb — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:48:26 PDT

When David Mamet was at the peak of his playwriting powers in the 1980s, his rapid-fire, profanity-laced, testosterone-fueled dialogue was so distinctive that it became known as “Mamet speak.” For a decade, his plays exploring the male psyche earned him the reputation as America’s...

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Judith Schaechter’s Windows Make for Dazzling Commentary on Confinement

By Katherine Rochester — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:26:53 PDT

For many people, prisons and churches are best endured through the steady countdown of minutes till release, but internationally acclaimed Philadelphia-based artist Judith Schaechter’s custom-designed stained-glass windows at Eastern State Penitentiary may persuade you to clock some serious...

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PW's Weekend Picks

By PW Staff — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:39:06 PDT

Dear culture vultures: We scoured the city to bring you the best of what Philly has to offer. Enjoy! Calendar: Scottish quartet We Were Promised Jetpacks comes to Union Transfer. Willie Nelson: The 80-year-old, pot-smokin’, braids-and-bandana-rockin’ outlaw plays the...

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The Incredible Smirking Woman: A Q&A With Comedian Lily Tomlin

By Tara Murtha — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:19:52 PDT

Lily Tomlin is a total badass. Whether she’s reprising classic characters Ernestine and Edith Ann or playing the duplicitous Madoff-ian wife on the TV drama Damages, Tomlin is led by a singular razor-sharp sensibility that’s rooted in her 41-year professional and life partnership with...

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Calendar: May 2-8

By PW Staff — Wed, 02 May 2012 07:50:20 PDT

Wednesday, May 2 Boston Marriage Award-winning playwright David Mamet is known for his macho male characters, rapid-fire dialogue and his uncanny ability to make obscene language sound simultaneously poetic and emphatic. His best plays, Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo, are...

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On the Gaydar: May LGBT Events

By PW Staff — Wed, 02 May 2012 07:06:42 PDT

8 This month, the Wilma Theater teams up with the American Foundation for Equal Rights to present a one-night-only staged reading of Dustin Lance Black’s riveting courtroom drama 8. Using original transcripts and interviews with key...

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Domestic Spaces Challenge the Concept of "Home"

By Darren White — Wed, 02 May 2012 07:00:44 PDT

The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts (DCCA) is taking on the comforts of quiet domesticity in a series of exhibitions. What if, instead of baking fresh whole-wheat blueberry muffins, your oven cooked up some fresh, thumping beats? What if your deluxe master bath was made up of...

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A Man Obsesses Over the Loss of His Hand in "A Behanding in Spokane"

By J. Cooper Robb — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:58:41 PDT

Playwright Martin McDonagh doesn’t reside in the United States, but he vividly captures the current character of America in his latest play A Behanding in Spokane, which is now onstage in a superbly acted, directed and designed production from Theatre Exile. The latest...

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PW's Weekend Picks

By PW Staff — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:03:45 PDT

Dear culture vultures: We scoured the city to bring you the best of what Philly has to offer. Enjoy! Calendar: Shadfest brings live music, arts, crafts, food, beer and the Kenzinger Challenge Run to Fishtown. Science of the Tattoo: Check out some amazing body art from folks whose love of...

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