Features

58 results
Page 2
McArdle, a 61-year-old white woman with red hair, sings smiling into a mic in a fine-dining restaurant.

The popular new Broadway Cabaret at Rittenhouse Grill will return for the 2024-25 season

Cabaret is alive and well in Philly

A longtime Philly artistic director and Rittenhouse restaurant owner launched a new cabaret that has drawn Broadway stars and sold-out crowds since it debuted last December. They promise a return next season. SaraKay Smullens visits.
SaraKay Smullens

SaraKay Smullens

Features 5 minute read
Dark-haired mother kisses the shoulder of a chubby rosy-cheeked dark-haired toddler in a white shift falling off his shoulder

Philadelphia is spending summer 2024 with Mary Cassatt

Meet the iconic Impressionist with a new exhibition and public virtual class

Philadelphia will celebrate hometown artist Mary Cassatt this summer, kicking off with a major new exhibition that was years in the making at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Camille Bacon-Smith looks closer.
Camille Bacon-Smith

Camille Bacon-Smith

Features 6 minute read
10 Asian people of different ages & genders sit around a square of couches, all holding scripts in a large living room.

Philly’s AAPI playwrights are ready for the stage with PWYC readings in May and June

Meet Philly’s first dedicated cohort of AAPI playwrights

None of Philly’s regional theaters have ever staged a full production of a non-solo show by a local AAPI playwright. Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists's new playwriting cohort wants to change that. Krista Mar visits.
Krista Mar

Krista Mar

Features 6 minute read
In the crowded gallery, Wong, holding papers, looks down smiling at Steinborn, who sits on the floor and looks up.

Meet FRIEDA, where an intergenerational community (re)connects over food, arts, and culture

An antidote to the loneliness epidemic

With its versatile Walnut Street storefront in Old City, FRIEDA has become a magnet for transplants and Philly natives alike. Wendy Univer talks to the founders about this burgeoning cultural hub’s found family and latest exhibition, POMBAA.
Wendy Univer

Wendy Univer

Features 5 minute read
Colorful view with hundreds of tulips, clouds of hanging purple flowers, reflecting water & a trees full of pink blossoms.

PHS presents the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show: United By Flowers

Your guide to attending the Flower Show on a budget, and supporting Philly gardens year-round

The Flower Show is here through Sunday, March 10! An Nichols has your guide to entry on a budget, plus suggestions for connecting with Philly gardens year-round, and Alaina Johns has a look at this year’s show.
An Nichols Alaina Johns

An Nicholsand Alaina Johns

Features 6 minute read
Archibald, a Black woman in black leggings & sweatshirt, strikes an angled pose in the gray-floored BalletX studio.

Go behind the scenes with BalletX choreographers Jennifer Archibald and Nicola Wills before the 2024 Spring Series

BalletX’s Choreographic Fellowship stands out on the US dance scene

Before this year's Spring Series debuts, Eileen Fisher goes behind the scenes with BalletX 2024 Choreographic Fellowship artists Jennifer Archibald and Nicola Wills to talk dance, mentorship, and a rare openness in ballet.
Eileen B. Fisher

Eileen B. Fisher

Features 5 minute read
Oil painting showing Young, in black jacket & red hoodie, looking at himself in a Chinese takeout place’s security mirror

Nasir Young and other PAFA graduates at Philly’s Gross McCleaf Gallery open up about the end of PAFA’s degree programs

Excursions and other journeys for PAFA artists

Emily B. Schilling visits Philly artist Nasir Young at his first-ever solo exhibition, asking him and two gallery colleagues, all PAFA graduates, about some big news from this Pennsylvania cultural institution.
Emily Schilling

Emily Schilling

Features 6 minute read
A young Black woman dancer in a skin-matched leotard & tights and white tutu poses en pointe.

Philadelphia ballerinas share the challenging magic of life in pointe shoes

What’s the pointe?

Ballet dancers cannot just step into the iconic shoes. They must master a difficult technique and make a lifelong quest for the perfect pointe, but these Philly ballerinas tell Camille Bacon-Smith that it’s all worth it.
Camille Bacon-Smith

Camille Bacon-Smith

Features 7 minute read
Chang, an Asian woman in a short gray tunic, moves gracefully with ensemble members behind her, some dancing and some sitting

“A responsibility to open the door”: how do we embrace disability on an institutional level?

What else can theater be?

Last month, writer Wendy Univer explored a cutting-edge cadre of artists whose work centers on inclusion from the ground up. Now, she speaks with institutional leaders about integrating and prioritizing disability inclusion.
Wendy Univer

Wendy Univer

Features 8 minute read
Alice Sheppard & Laurel Lawson dance together using their wheelchairs and balancing off of each other onstage.

“Access artists” like Alice Sheppard, Natalie de Segonzac, and Carolyn Lazard ignite new languages in dance, theater, and visual art

“The access is the art”

Disabled artists like Alice Sheppard, Natalie de Segonzac, and Carolyn Lazard prove that access is its own art form, defying a deficit mentality and centering inclusion from the start in exhilarating new art forms. Wendy Univer explores.
Wendy Univer

Wendy Univer

Features 8 minute read