"The year I was born” by Lola Arias; photo by David Alarcón

There has been a programmatic shift from the first leg of our inaugural year-round shows to 2014’s first two offerings. Last fall was comprised of works by familiar, homegrown artists whose work has bolstered and distinguished the theater community in Philadelphia. In fact, two of the three shows were conceived and developed through the Lab program at FringeArts.

This month, we are presenting works from two wildly inventive and original international artists, Lola Arias of Argentina and Kuro Tanino (Niwa Gekidan Penino) of Japan. Arias’s show “The year I was born (El año en que nací)” is a heartfelt work of documentary theater that reconstructs true-life stories from Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship through artifacts, historical documents, and live music. “The Room Nobody Knows,” produced by Tanino (a psychiatrist-turned-playwright) and his company Niwa Gekidan Penino, is a delightfully weird, darkly humorous show that finds two brothers playing out their unconscious thoughts and psychosexual imaginings.

Both performances offer a glimpse into the disparate cultures at play. The former is a heart-wrenching show that offers a uniquely Chilean experience. The latter seems like a continuation of the odd and overtly sexual themes that seemed to define classic Japanese New Wave cinema. Additionally, both present an opportunity for us to engage communities that have generally been a modest and underserved portion of our audience demographic.

Just as “The Room Nobody Knows” resonates with Japanese-Americans familiar with its unusual and trippy aesthetic, “The year I was born” provided a chance to connect with a Latino community that we usually do not have the opportunity to engage. The new home of FringeArts creates such opportunities, and as we escalate a more robust educational outreach initiative, we forge tighter relationships with the diverse communities of Philadelphia to further realize FringeArts as a multi-cultural hub.