Experimental or not, most of the shows that opened Friday - 26 - premiered at the most traditional (and popular) curtain time, 8 p.m. The earliest, at 10 a.m., was One Peace at a Time, a free movie project at the Free Library that asks audience members to participate with their flipcams or digital phones - unorthodox and typically Fringy. And the latest was PRO-MANIA!, at 11:30 p.m., Philly Improv Theater's look at wrestling and its accompanying trash talk.
Most of the shows were - and will be - in Center City and adjoining neighborhoods, and frequently in odd venues not usually seen by theatergoers other times of the year, but on Friday there were openings in Kensington, South Philly, Fishtown, University City, and Elkins Park.
And late Friday came the opening of the Festival Bar, this year at the RUBA Club on Green Street in Northern Liberties, where audiences, performers, stagecraft artists, and producers mingle into the night. Also launching was the top unofficial late-night Fringe cabaret in the Underground Arts performance area of the Wolf Building, on 12th Street near Callowhill.
A few shows sneaked in previews under the radar - two as early as Wednesday night, and a dozen more previewing Thursday. Dancing Dead, one of the two Wednesday-night performances, was an invited event for Brian Sanders' dance company, called JUNK. Whether or not Sanders intended it, the performance - set in not just a basement but a subbasement in an old industrial building that is now lofts on Fourth Street near Spring Garden - unleashed an early buzz for a company that this year performs as part of the Fringe, but in the past has been invited onto the Live Arts roster.
