A Fringe Festival super fan shares how to navigate this year’s lineup

Once upon a time on a tiny Philadelphia street, a grown man in a kiddie pool presented a one-man version of William Shakespeare’s comic tragedy, The Tempest.

That’s “what made me fall in love with the Fringe,” Brett T. Mapp recalled, the memory still fresh after more than 20 years. “It was brilliant.”

And thus was born a super fan of the coming month-long Philadelphia Fringe Festival extravaganza with 190-plus works in theater, music, dance, circus, and burlesque. Some are by one artist, some by groups, some on stage, and others in a diner, mansion, or cemetery. Some performers have international reputations; others are local or newbies. A few performances are digital, most are in person, and some ask the audience to join in.

Mapp, director of operations at Old City District, sees anywhere from 30 to 40 performances per festival.

“You have to be open-minded. When you go to a Fringe show, you aren’t seeing Jersey Boys,” Mapp said. “You might be offended. You might see some nudity. It’s always going to be something great and exciting, and you might never see it again.”

Strategy matters. Mapp maps his choices on a spreadsheet, with columns for day, time, location, and genre.

“It’s getting so huge and so big, it’s hard to do everything,” Mapp said.

Very true. But we’re here to help with suggestions and strategies.

» READ MORE: Ten Fringe Festival Shows our theater critic won’t miss

The Fringe requires a frame of mind aimed at exploration, fun, and an element of risk-taking.

With so many low-cost options, you can risk venturing outside your comfort zone. If you are a theater person, try dance. If you feel weird about audience participation, try it anyway. Look for a show in a unique venue – a diner, a rowhouse, a mansion, or in a different neighborhood.

Never been to a drag show or seen improv in action? Now’s the time. Even if you don’t like what you see, you won’t suffer long. Shows skew on the short side. Many are free or pay-what-you-will.

Speaking of free, show up at the FringeArts building for three Mondays worth of artist-presented sample snippets from their Fringe shows. Shows are at 7 p.m. Aug. 8, 15, and 22.

“These are a big handful of artists who are really important and who are on top of their fields,” presenting their work internationally, said Nick Stuccio, president and producing director of the Fringe. “Our job is to tap into that. Why shouldn’t we see these things in Philly?”

Stuccio describes these works, numbering about seven out of 190 offerings, as bridge works — experimental, but “not inaccessible.”

Among them are Geoff Sobelle’s world premiere of Food. The audience gathers around a dinner table, engaging with each other and the absurdist-flavored work, provoking questions about our everyday experiences with all their implications for society.

Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Company, a nationally known innovator in the field of collaboratively created, site-specific theater, partners with filmmaker and writer Josephine Decker to present The Path of Pins or The Path of Needles — a dark participatory fairy tale about pregnancy staged in a mansion in Germantown.

Choreographer Kyle Abraham and his touring dance company A.I.M draw from the catalogue of R&B superstar D’Angelo to celebrate Black love, family, culture, and community in An Untitled Love.

Stuccio said the Fringe is leaning into technology “to help tame the wild and woolly beast.”

When it comes to navigating the festival, there’s always the old-school method — the booklet, which can run 100 pages and includes descriptions and a calendar. If you aren’t on the mailing list, you can get a copy by calling or stopping by the Fringe office.

But very soon, they’ll be an app — search for Philadelphia Fringe Arts 2022.

A multitude of tags can narrow your choices. Do you want burlesque, dark/disturbing, parody, poetry, religious/spiritual, family, LGBTQ+, romance or horror? Which performer? What genre? You can choose circus, comedy/improv, dance, film, immersive, film, interdisciplinary, dance, and theater, among others. You can slice and dice and a built-in calendar lets you see your schedule at a glance.

The Fringe website, fringearts.com, is also very searchable.

Some shows, particularly the curated shows, will sell out fast. First access to all Fringe shows goes to Fringe members, starting today. A $65 membership buys a 20% discount on one ticket for each performance you attend. For $100, you can get a similar discount on two tickets. Sales open Aug. 8 to non-members.

Philadelphia or Pennsylvania Access card holders can see shows for $2, but Access seats are limited, so shop early.

» READ MORE: How to get $2 museum admission with your ACCESS or Art-Reach ACCESS card

If you can’t buy early, there will still be plenty of shows to catch, and the website offers some useful ways to plan your purchases.

Buy by date: Just pick the days you want to set aside for the Fringe and choose among the many available offerings. FringeArts sets show times so you can see several in an evening.

Choose by time and neighborhood: With shows all over the city, you can spend an evening in Fishtown, Old City, South Philly, or head out to Germantown or West Philadelphia. Try to book consecutive shows in nearby venues.

There are three mini-festivals within the festival, each with its own collection of shows in its own location. Go to a hub; settle in.

Crossroads Comedy Theater has a five-day lineup at Theatre Exile in South Philadelphia, and Circus Campus Presents at Circadium, the School of Contemporary Circus in Mount Airy, hosts a full range of shows.

Plan a fun evening at the Cannonball Festival in the Maas building or at the nearby Icebox Project Space in the Crane Arts Building, both in Kensington. Beer and food are available between 300 performances of 65 shows. The Cannonball explodes Sept. 1-30.

Cap the day with Late Night Snacks at The Switch featuring an ever-evolving, unpredictable set of performances organized by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret. This is the time to grab a drink and listen to whomever is on tap for the night — could be an opera singer, a drag queen or a cabaret star or an art clown. Who knows? Who cares? Just enjoy and be glad to live in a city with so much talent.