At the Fringe Festival in Philadelphia, there are edgy venues that grip an audience

ONE OF THE most exciting aspects of the Fringe Festival - the unjuried, anything-goes companion to the Live Arts Festival - is when it draws audiences to places they've never been before and might never have a chance to go again, whether it's a room in an unknown mansion or in the depths of a possibly haunted grotto.

The Blue Grotto

After the demise of a close relative who drank himself to death, Jeffrey Stanley became obsessed with communicating with the dead through Ouija boards.

"Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead" is a "real dark comedy" about the years he spent trying to talk to the other side. But how could all that eeriness (and humor) be conveyed in a traditional theater space? So the New York expat looked for a stage appropriate for the macabre elements of his decidedly funny show. He found the Blue Grotto in West Philly's Community Education Center. It's decked out in thousands of blue lights on light fixtures by artist Randy Dalton. Stanley equates it to a mad scientist's laboratory. "It's visually stunning, it's creepy as hell, it's in the cellar of an old building and it might be haunted," Stanley said, ticking off the reasons that the Blue Grotto is perfect for his piece.

The Blue Grotto at the Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave., 8 p.m. Sept. 7-17, $20, brain-on-fire.com/beautifulzion.

The Loading Dock

The Bright Light Theatre Co. needed to bring Morocco to Philadelphia. Its show, "All Places From Here," is a multimedia performance based on Mohsin Mohi-Uh-Din's film, music and dance workshops with street children for the Lollipops Crown Music and Arts Initiative in Tangier. "We're blending their stories with what people are going through in Philadelphia," said director Samantha Tower. "We're trying to bridge the gap between the Arab world and the Western world through creativity and artistic expression."

To stage this collision of cultures, Bright Light found a Fishtown lot framed by walls. One wall is covered in graffiti; another reminded of Tower of Moroccan architecture, creating the perfect blend.

The performance will be outside, but the audience will be covered. "Hurricane, earthquake, we're doing a show outside," Tower said, laughing. "But that's Fringe, right?"

The Loading Dock, 1236 Frankford Ave., 8 p.m., through Sept. 18, $17, brightlighttheatre.org.

Elkins Estate: