Talk The Talk: Nick Stuccio, Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe
Since it debuted back in 1997, Nick Stuccio (pictured) has been the mindcog at the center of the spinnin’ wheel that is the Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe. Over the years, the festival has morphed and shaped not just with the changing times, but also in an effort to balance its ego — the Live Arts part — and its perhaps more infamous id — the Fringe. Through it all, Stuccio has maintained a cool face on what has sometimes been a hotly debated enterprise. While you were Labor Day-ing, the fest has already been underway for about a week, brandishing a slimmed-down Live Arts lineup, conversely one of the biggest Fringe lineups we’ve ever seen, and a new after-show nightspot replacing the old Cabarets of yore. After the jump, we corner Stuccio for some answers.
So how are things going so far?
Great, everyone is having a blast, there’s been unbelievable weather (except for the frickin’ hurricane we are supposed to get) and of course, lots of amazing works.
A frequent criticism of the festival has been that there’s just too much of it. This year the Live Arts schedule is lean and mean. How does that change the feel of the festival?
This year’s Live Arts Festival line-up allows us to really focus in a deeper way on the works and the tremendous artists making them. It gives people a chance to really feel like they can see a snap shot of the world class contemporary performances we are offering up in Live Arts.
Tell the people three shows that they absolutely must see this year.
Jérôme Bel’s The Show Must Go On (with a cast of twenty Philadelphia performers), Troubleyn/Jan Fabre’s Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day, and THE MeLTING BRiDgE by The Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental/Thaddeus Phillips. Car and Wandering Alice are also great but they’ve been sold out for weeks…
Why’d you kill off the Cabaret?
There a fantastic Festival Bar at 5th and Fairmount - it’s a big red bar which Fergie is running and it’s a really cool space with music, an incredible Lars Jan video installation, Wii games, lots of artists hanging out… It’s been really fun. And Scott Johnston is still organizing lots of the old cabaret acts at great places around town.
Diplomatic! Anyway, how does the festival reach out to people who may not otherwise find themselves in the world of performance?
We have been reaching to out to new groups and activators around town who we know would love the content of the works we present. Works like store, Oedipus at FDR, and bodies in urban spaces are all sited out in the public domain and make converts to festival every day.
Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe runs through September 13th. Full schedules and ticketing links are available at the site.
