By Kyle Bagenstose

When the Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival comes to town, the normal and  mundane disappear and the unusual and exciting take over. Performers swing from the rafters of the Merriam Theater on South Broad Street. Crowds of hundreds dance in the streets of Old City. Actors stage plays in swimming pools. Comedy, drama and music fill every nook and cranny of the city.

Scheduled to take place Sept. 2 through Sept. 17, the event is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Since its humble beginnings, the festival has grown to include over 200 shows, a number that has Fringe programming director Pia Agrawal very excited. “We are getting a lot bigger and a lot more attention,” she says. “We have the Live Arts Festival, which is curated contemporary and experimental dance and theater, and then we have the Fringe, which is self-produced theater.”

According to Agrawal, the Fringe Festival began as a way for lesser- known artists and theater companies to have their work seen by audiences, whether on stage or in the street. While that’s still very much a pillar of recent years, the extra attention has allowed the festival to add the Live Arts component and bring in bigger names to Philadelphia’s premiere playhouses. “It’s all over the city. We’re in the traditional venues on Broad Street: the Kimmel Center, the Merriam Theater, the Arts Bank, places like that,” Agrawal explains. “But then we also encourage smaller places, places off the beaten path like a warehouse or a truck stop. People have done shows in hair salons, in pools and in the middle of the street.”

“There are a lot of different options to really create a feeling that the festival is happening all over the city.” – Pia Agrawal

This year, the Live Arts component  features a lineup of just over 20 performances with major acts coming in from around the globe. Agrawal points to the Montreal-based 7 Fingers’  Traces as an example. “It’s an urban circus company, but it’s a little grittier than what audiences expect,” she says, of the Sept 15 through 18  performances. “It’s a super-physical piece. It’s the kind of show where you’re watching and thinking, ‘I would never be able to do that, I can’t climb on that, I can’t hang from the ceiling that way.’” Agrawal also says there are scheduled performances from companies hailing from Austria, Belgium, India and France.

And while the international flair is certainly evidence of the festival’s growth, organizers haven’t forgotten its roots. Over 170 performances will take place under the Fringe umbrella, a menagerie of shows scattered throughout Philadelphia. “People  are kind of running around, and no matter what kind of performance you like, you’ll be able to find a show you want to see,” Agrawal says. “There are a lot of different options to really  create a feeling that the festival is happening all over the city. The nature of the performances varies so much. It’s kind of all over the place, which is the beauty of it.”

The open-ended, all-access format also provides local talent a chance to shine, featuring several players and troupes from Bucks County. Wycombe’s  G.J. Ruggiero Productions will be one of the first to perform, taking to the stage of the Painted Bride Art Center with The Servant of Two Masters on September 2 and 3. “A comic master- piece of Commedia Dell’Arte Theater –  its rollicking plot and stunning  characterizations have thrilled and kept audiences laughing since its 1743 opening in Venice,” reads the company’s official description.

At the end of each day of perfor- mances, Agrawal says it’s tradition  to congregate at a local bar or social club in order to give everyone involved  a chance to relax and mingle. “This year, we’re inviting artists and  audiences to go to the Aruba Club,” she says. “We always want a spot where people know they can run into others that may have been at the show they were at and where the artists themselves can go, get a drink and kick back.”

For a full schedule of performance dates, times, prices and locations, go online at livearts-fringe.org. Tickets and guides are also available at the ticket office located at the Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia.