In this Philly theater premiere, the stars on stage are two laptops having a conversation

What is theater? Theater is action.

That’s the definition Annie Dorsen offered in an interview about her four works to be presented under the title of “Algorithmic Theater” as part of her yearlong residency at Bryn Mawr College. (There will also be a performance of one work at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.)

In Algorithmic Theater, instead of the action of human actors moving on stage, the action comes via algorithms and is performed by computers. Think of algorithms as stage directions for computers.

To get an idea of what this means in the non-theater world, you type in an address and a computer in your phone sends you a map and directions delivered with a vaguely British accent. How? A host of “if- then” instructions, or algorithms.

When watching one of Dorsen’s works, Hello Hi There, “you are watching two laptops having a conversation,” said Dorsen, a New York-based artist. “There’s a big database of language — eight or nine billion different possible conversations.”

Dorsen, collaborating with a programmer, provided the first line. After that, it is up to the algorithms and a voice recognition program, which behave like chatbots on websites. “What you are actually seeing is a real-time process that is unfolding in front of you live,” Dorsen said. “The actual text that is being presented is being selected and being invented in the minute right there.”

In A Piece of Work, Dorsen instructed computers to create new scenes for Hamlet and Ophelia in William Shakespeare’s drama, Hamlet. The algorithms “create new scenes but can only use that pool of language” — the words they speak to each other, she explained.

“The computer isn’t thinking about the social context, or the gender roles, or the history of the play,” Dorsen said. What tends to be created is a much more modern relationship between the two characters.

Spokaoke will show up at Bryn Mawr and the Fringe. Just like karaoke, there is a songbook, only in Spokaoke’s case it’s a speech-book, and audience members can choose which of about 100 speeches to perform. Some are short (less than a minute). The longest is about five minutes. Some are serious, some are lighthearted. One, for example, is renowned boxer Muhammad Ali describing his prowess.

“The biggest change is what audience members will be interested in performing,” Dorsen said. “Sometimes you get a selection of what’s really heavy. It’s almost a history lesson. Other times, they choose the lightweight and funny ones and the ones from pop culture. Usually there’s a mix. Some people act them out. Some people read very straight. Some people try funny accents.”

A fourth piece, Yesterday Tomorrow, is musical. The computer, starting with the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles, produces constant and changing iterations of the music — all performed by excellent sight singers — as it morphs to “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie.

Dorsen wrote these four pieces (there will be a new one presented at Bryn Mawr in January) from 2010 to 2015. It was, she said, a time of relative innocence when people were just beginning to grasp the possibilities of computer algorithms, but had not become completely aware — and wary — of the dangers. “There’s so much more concern about the role of data, algorithms, machine learning, surveillance,” she said.

Dorsen also sees her work as a demonstration of the elasticity of theater. It’s an evolving medium of possibilities, where digital, performance, and machine learning can interact and perform, with all their implications.

(Sept. 9-17, Bryn Mawr College: A Piece of Work, Sept. 9, Goodhart Hall; Hello Hi There, Sept. 10 and 11, Goodhart Hall; Spokaoke with Martha Graham Cracker as MC and a food truck, Sept. 10, Campus Center; and Yesterday Tomorrow, Sept. 15, 16, 17 at Goodhart Hall, 610-526-5300 or brynmawr.edu and Sept. 16 at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, La Peg at Fringe Arts, 140 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd. Philadelphia, 215-413-1318 or fringearts.com)

Festivals within festivals are a hallmark of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The largest is the Cannonball Festival, with 65 different offerings and more than 300 performances. Almanac Dance Circus Theatre produces the Cannonball. Not surprisingly, the troupe will present its own show during the Cannonball — a world premiere titled I Hear You and I’d Like to Respond.

In response to a topsy-turvy world of piled-on global catastrophes, eight talented dancers and circus artists perform hand-to-hand and ensemble acrobatics as actors engaged in a desperate attempt to make meaning in a confusing world. One clear message? If we don’t catch each other, we’ll all fall.

(Through Sept. 18, Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, Icebox Project Space in the Crane Arts Building, 1400 N. American St., Philadelphia. 215-413-1318, fringearts.com or cannonballfestival.org)

By the time shopping channel host R.T. Bob Bowersox retired from QVC in 2008, his show, In the Kitchen with Bob, had become a top-rated attraction, with Bowersox cooking on air while peddling cooking utensils. He moved to Key West, where he started a theater company.

But, he said, the laid back vibe there has changed with the arrival of way too many of cruise ships, plus the ocean is rising, so he and his wife, actor Melody G. Moore, decided to sell their home and come back to Philadelphia. (Bowersox grew up in the Chadds Ford area).

Now he is launching his theater company here, Theater XP Philadelphia, with Fresh Ink Shorts, an offering of 11 short plays in 80 minutes, for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. “The plays are so new, the ink is still wet,” said Bowersox, who wrote most of the plays. Moore also contributed one.

Bowersox said he is impressed with the vitality of the city’s theater community. “There’s talent all over this town,” he said.

(Through Sept. 18, Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia, 302-540-6102, or theatrexp.org or via the Fringe at 215-413-1318 or fringearts.com)

If having a drink with theater is your idea of a good time, lift a glass at Fergie’s Pub for two Irish plays, courtesy of the Irish Heritage Theatre. On alternating days, Keith J. Conallen, a Wilma HotHouse company member, performs one of two plays by Irish playwright and novelist Dermot Bolger. In High Germany, Eoin, an Irishman living in Germany, recalls a story of friendship and nostalgia for a soccer match from Euro 88. Twenty years later, he returns to Ireland for The Parting Glass. Ireland has changed, and so has he. Peggy Mecham directs.

(Through Sept. 18, Irish Heritage Theatre, Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom St., Philadelphia, 215-413-1318 or fringearts.com)

Out of work and out of his mind, Mel Edison is trapped in a New York apartment with a hyperactive air conditioner and no fit description of his wife. His almost-nervous breakdown equals laughs for the audience in the Act II Playhouse season opener, Neil Simon’s comedy, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, directed by Tom Teti. Playhouse stalwart Tony Braithwaite stars as Mel and Sabrina Proffit plays his wife, Edna.

(Through Sept. 25, Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Ave., Ambler, 215-654-0200 or act2.org)

The more the participants suffered mentally and physically the more the ratings jumped in “Tragic,” the pretend reality show that forms the basis of the plot of Luster, the contribution of Brian Sanders’ JUNK dance company to the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Luster opens in the beginning of the second season of “Tragic.” The reality show’s producers must wrestle with their own consciences to decide where to draw the line as five teams take more risks, competing to be sexy and erotic but also gritty and graceful. Meanwhile, all this serious material takes place in the Concourse Dance Bar, underground at Suburban Station. Cash bar. Standing room only. An invitation to an after-party featuring a ball pit and ice bar is included in the price. This show celebrates JUNK’s 30th season.

(Through Sept. 17, Brian Sanders’ JUNK, Concourse Dance Bar, 1635 Market St., back entrance, 215-413-1318, fringearts.com)

Every love triangle story can only be improved if Vladmir Lenin bursts onto the scene. That’s what complicates matters in Tom Stoppard’s Tony-Award winning comic masterpiece Travesties, which opens Lantern Theater Company’s new season. Artistic director Charles McMahon directs. Besides Lenin, actors will play Irish novelist and Romanian poet Tristan Tzara, and their various romantic interests, all set in Zurich in 1917, during World War I. This is Lantern’s sixth production of a Stoppard play.

(Through Oct. 9, Lantern Theater Co. at St. Stephen’s Church, 923 Ludlow St., Philadelphia, 215-829-0395 or lanterntheater.org)

Oh, what fun it is to ride around the South Jersey suburbs in the Brandt family minivan. Comedian Meredith Brandt, who grew up in Voorhees, presents Joy Ride, a musical parody about travels in the van.

(Sept. 11, Adrienne Theater, 2030 Sansom St., Philadelphia. 215-567-2848)

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