Your Guide to the 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival

From left: Nosejob’s Alice Yorke, Lee Minora, and Ciera Gardner / Photograph by Emilie Krause

September in Philadelphia, can only mean one thing. Well two things, if you count the return of the Eagles. Three, if we include the Phils’ pennant chase. But arts-wise, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival is the biggest thing going right now. Since starting in 1997, the Fringe has been pushing boundaries, literal and metaphorical, putting on dance and theater and comedy and genre-defying performances in venues all over town. At this point there are festivals within festival, and something like four billion shows full of clowns and dogs, dancers and actors, twisted takes on the classics and frighteningly new productions that unsettle the mind. It’s dangerous to go alone. Here, take our guide to the Philadelphia Fringe Festival circa right now.

When Is the 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival?

The 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival officially kicks off on September 5th and wraps up on September 29th. But because this is the Fringe Festival and because art can never be simple and easy, there are actually events that have already begun, and there’s at least one Fringe Festival event in November. Furthermore, some Fringe events might last only a day or two, others run for weeks. Some don’t start until the second week of the festival, others the third.

Where Does the 2024 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Happen?

All over the place. In its earlier days, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival was very much an Old City thing. But these days, there are venues all over the city. Big theaters, small theaters, churches, parks, museums, cafes, art galleries, bars, nondescript places we’ve never heard of … they all are home to Philadelphia Fringe Festival productions. Some of the best shows I’ve seen over the years have been in random West Philly warehouse spaces that may or may not have been “legal,” and church basements.

Can Just Anyone Put On a Show at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival?

Sort of. Essentially, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival breaks down into two types of shows: curated and uncurated.

The curated shows are the ones that FringeArts — that’s the organization behind the Fringe Festival — toils for many, many months and sometimes years to bring to the stage in Philadelphia. The festival provides these shows with a venue and all sorts of production, financial, and other forms of support. FringeArts it the producer. There are only nine curated shows.

In the case of the uncurated shows? Yes, anyone can do this. But you have to bankroll the entire production, find a venue where you can perform, market the hell out of the show … Other than being listed and having tickets available on the Fringe Festival website, you’re on your own. The uncurated Fringe Festival makes up the vast majority of the more than 300 shows on the roster this year.

The uncurated Fringe is truly the Wild West of live performance, a choose-your-own adventure in which you might see one of the most brilliant pieces of theater of your life or you might come away saying, “Why did I spend $25 on that?” The answer to this question, of course, is that you might actually see one of the most brilliant pieces of theater of your life — and because you want to support local arts and local artists by purchasing that $25 ticket, otherwise you’d just stay home and watch the latest season of whatever.

A story about the interactions among two humans and two skunks, told by two birds? The uncurated Fringe has you covered. A dissection of boy bands and their music? Yes. Experimental Tennessee Williams with no props, set, or lighting design but lots of percussion? Absolutely! A 12-course insect-based meal served by naked acrobatic men and accompanied live by the Norwegian black metal band that burned down churches in their homeland? Psych! We almost had you on that one. But maybe next year.

How Much Do These Shows Cost?

The curated shows tend to be more expensive. This year, tickets for uncurated Fringe shows range from $30 to $100, with the exception of a co-production with Opera Philadelphia, which you can see for just $11 thanks to a new pick-your-price initiative that the opera company has launched.

As for the uncurated shows, some are free, some will set you back $10 or $15, most seem to fall in the $20 to $25 zone, and then there’s a $49 outlier that’s likely worth every penny.

You can get tickets from the FringeArts website or in person at the FringeArts box office. You can also just walk up and pay to get into some shows, though performances do often sell out. (In fact, several sold out weeks ago.)

So, Which Fringe Festival Shows Should I See?

Right. There are hundreds of shows. We know some folks who see ten or more every year, and God bless those people. But most of you will only have time to see a few. Or one. At least see one.

Below, Philly Mag contributor Pat Rapa tells you more about some of this year’s must-see shows. Half are curated, half are not, and we’re not gonna say which is which. Take it away, Pat.

10 Recommended Shows at this Year’s Fringe

Ulysses
Inspired by the James Joyce novel — as well as those delightfully interminable marathon readings every Bloomsday — NYC’s Elevator Repair Service’s Ulysses is a staged reading with a built-in fast-forward button. The New York Times reviewed the show in June: “When each of its hundreds of cuts occurs, we hear the squeal of sped-up tape, and we see the seven cast members blown back in their chairs as if by a strong wind of gibberish.” Let’s cut it off there; the mostly glowing review may reveal too much about a unique and surprising show best enjoyed cold.
$49-$100, September 5th-7th, FringeArts, 140 North Columbus Boulevard.

Black Wood: Winterborn
Gunnar Montana has been one of the more exciting artists to muscle his way into the Fringe in the last several years, often incorporating danger and eroticism into his immersive visual and physical theatrical productions. This year the Philly choreographer-dancer-multi-hyphenate presents a “bone chilling,” multi-genre sequel-of-sorts to last year’s Black Wood, though you don’t need to have seen that to enjoy this.
$49, September 5th-29th and October 2nd-30th, The Latvian Society, 4522 Baltimore Avenue.

The Garden: River’s Edge
Fringe fixture Nichole Canuso continues her ever-evolving series of shows under the Garden banner — each one a “experiential, site-specific encounter.” Billed as “an intimate and expansive journey of connection, reflection, and gentle acts of participation,” The Garden: River’s Edge is built for audience of just six people per performance.
$30, September 6th-22nd, Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch Street.

An Avalanche of No
Veteran actor Jeffrey Cousar stars in this personal and Shakespearean story of a Black actor’s lifelong quest to play Macbeth. Presented by New Paradise Laboratories, and co-written by Cousar and Fringe wizard Whit MacLaughlin. P.S. An Avalanche of No comes with one of the all-time most-enticing trigger warnings: “The piece ends in a casual self-beheading, the actor slowly buried in a tiny but powerful avalanche of fluffy white snow.”
$25, September 7th, 14th, 15th & 18th, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 North American Street.

The 40-Year-Old Ballerino
“I don’t know if you can tell from where you’re sitting but I have really great ballet feet.” Chris Davis tells the funny, surprising touching story of a (kinda pompous) dude who comes to ballet late in life. Looks hilarious.
$20, September 7th, 14, 21st, 28th and 29th, 8 p.m., Amy Novinski Ballet Studio, BOK Building, 1901 South 9th Street.

Terry Brennan’s ADHD Mixtape
Terry Brennan, of the highly physical Tribe of Fools troupe, presents this one-man show about his journey through school as a kid with ADHD. This “TikTok-style comedy” incorporates, music, theater, juggling and more. This is a one-night-only show, so make like Terry and act fast.
$25, September 7th, 7 p.m., Circus Campus, 6452 Greene Street.

Nosejob
Unpredictable and provocative, Philly’s Lightning Rod Special builds its productions around ideas that “stir what lies dormant in the corners of an audience’s mind.” That certainly feels like the genesis of Nosejob, in which sorority girls seek revenge on the lecherous bros who stalk their Catholic university campus. At least that’s how the show starts. Written by Lee Minora and co-artistic director Scott R. Sheppard, and directed by Nell Bang-Jensen, Nosejob could be one of those special Fringe shows that sparks conversation long after the festival.
$35, September 7th-21st, Theatre Exile, 1340 South 13th Street.

Poor Judge
The reliably wonderful Pig Iron Theatre Company is calling their latest production a work of “concert theater” — a typically atypical piece that incorporates dance, cabaret and more, into a story full of “lonely California highways, movie theater break-ups, and acoustic remixes of an Aimee Mann playlist.” Poor Judge stars veteran actor and drag queen-about-town Dito van Reigersberg — known to many as Martha Graham Cracker — as the beloved singer-songwriter Mann (you know: “Voices Carry,” “Wise Up,” “Labrador,” that dynamite Magnolia soundtrack), backed “an ensemble of beloved Philadelphia performer-musicians” with their own songs of journey and heartache.
$35, September 11th-22nd, Wilma Theatre, 265 South Broad Street.

Love you Love you Love you
Award-winning Philly actor and director Sarah Sanford returns to the stage for this personal/mythological story of “a beloved mother’s passage into uncharted cognitive territory” (as in dementia). Love you Love you Love you comes with a “part clown show, part tragedy” genre tag; expect humor, heartache and a lot of wigs.
$20, September 20th, 21st, 27th, 28th and 29th, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 North American Street.

The Listeners
Opera Philadelphia’s latest production — by librettist Missy Mazzoli, dubbed “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” — tells the story of a suburban, middle-class mother who becomes enraptured by a high-frequency hum with no known origin. I think we all know what that’s like. I can hear it right now. OP has been looking to get some younger butts in the seats, and this smart, strange, modern opera might just do the trick. That and the greatly reduced ticket price.
$11-$250, September 25th, 27th & 29th, Academy of Music, 240 South Broad Street.