Billy Penn13%
Philly’s Fringe Festival puts rookie theater makers (including a former state treasurer) in the spotlight 2%
By Jane M. Von Bergen9%
7/30/2026, 3:00:00 AM
Topics: Performing Arts, Community Events
BS Summary: This article contains 6 faulty reasoning types, including Halo Effect, Framing Effect, and Representativeness Heuristic, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 10.8% saturation with 163 hits. Analysis detected 361 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,505 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 11.5% and a BS Rank of 2% (21,987 of 22,405 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 98.10% of the article peer group.
It hadn’t been their dream, of course, but somehow, they both ended up working for the government.
Yes, life has a way of happening and so, thankfully for them, does the Philadelphia Fringe Festival – a month-long performance extravaganza of dance, theater and circus — weird, wacky and wonderful.
For these two newbie artists staging their debuts at September’s Fringe Festival, a better Fringe name might be the Philadelphia Fulfilling Your Dream Festival.
Because a $30 registration fee buys them the first chance of a lifetime to express who they really are, the way they really want to be.
Take Joe Torsella, a 62-year-old politician who lost his job as the Pennsylvania Secretary of Treasury in the 2020 elections and who had previously led Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center before being appointed to an ambassadorship by President Barack Obama.
He wanted to major in theater but ended up in history and economics and from there to politics.
And then consider Michelle Nguyen, 36, a government lawyer.
As a child of immigrant parents, she was given two career choices – doctor or lawyer.
From their living room sofa, her parents enjoyed her childhood solo rendition of the “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” complete with songs, props and costume changes.
But, they said, “you can do that as a hobby, right?”
Michelle Nguyen’s “The Deer Ones” (photo by Johanna Austin)
Now, for the first time, Torsella and Nguyen are presenting their own shows at Fringe: his “Declaration: A Play in Five Movements” and her “The Deer Ones – MoonSquid Nights.”
“That’s the nature of it being an uncurated festival,” said Nick Jonczak, who leads the Cannonball Festival, one of the major hosts of Fringe Festival shows.
“It is your show, wherever you want, whenever you want.
It can be about what you want, and it doesn’t have to” fit any style.
“It’s really good for young artists who are coming out of school, and also for artists who have had a career or are older and are writing a play for the first time,” he said.
During the Fringe Festival, now in its 30th year, with more than 100 citywide venues – bars, houses, theater space, even a back alley – will be settings for 1,170 performances of 357 shows, featuring some 3,700 artists and technicians, said Nell Bang-Jensen, the Fringe’s chief executive and producing director.
Last year, she said, more than 35,000 tickets were sold, a record, with an impressive 17% increase in first-time ticket-buyers and a solid showing from Millennials and Gen Z, the audience theater companies crave.
Fringe performers range from artists like Julie Masli, presenting “ Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha,” who has toured her show around the world, including at the Mother Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland to The Bearded Ladies , Philly favorites, who are presenting a half-theater, half installation piece titled “Priority Hoarding: A Retrospectacle.”
Naia Morgan’s “A Murder Most Felt; or, It’s Not Easy Bleeding Green” (photo by Deborah Young)
Some are seasoned Philadelphia actors, such as Justin Jain, who normally performs on area stages, but he’s going out on his own with “Bad Clay.”
Recent Temple University grad and puppet pro Naia Morgan dreams of starting their own theater company with college friends and is trying the concept out for feasibility with “A Murder Most Felt; or It’s Not Easy Bleeding Green,” a murder mystery starring puppets.
Morgan is using GoFundMe, hoping to raise enough to pay at least some money to cast and crew of 20.
Fortunately, the puppets earn less than minimum wage.
There are even two generations of the same family performing.
Dancer Nichole Canuso, a Fringe stalwart, will present “Lunar Retreat,” an interactive dance piece.
Meanwhile, her father, Joe Canuso, offers “The Sicilian Dilemma,” an autobiographical play about a man who isn’t what he seems to be.
As different as their shows are, the artists share a similar calling: “What is the thing in my head that I’m obsessing with,” Bang-Jensen said, voicing what she’s heard so many artists say.
“What am I being called to make?
There is a story in me that I have to get out and there may be meaning in the creation of it and sharing it with others.”
Torsella agrees: “That’s where I am with this story and this time.”
Serving as a deputy mayor to Mayor Ed Rendell in the early 1990s, Torsella went on to spend a life in government service, rising to be elected state treasurer.
Then, he lost and, in his post-defeat reinvention, pivoted to an earlier love, theater.
“It’s a surprising turn but it’s what the show is about – it’s about civic voice and civic obligation and surviving the loss of titles,” Torsella said, describing his solo show as semi-autobiographical.
“The character is wrestling with that in different ways of finding a truthful voice as a politician, an actor, and ultimately as a citizen.”
As a politician and the founding chief executive of the National Constitutional Center, Torsella had many opportunities to consider the nation’s founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence.
“That sometimes is terrific.
But it can turn bold and intentionally dangerous ideas into platitudes,” he said.
But now, in life and in the play, he’s re-considering these documents “in the context of where we are now” while questioning where we should be as a nation in its 250 th year.
As for Nguyen, on the government payroll, she spends her days negotiating contracts and reviewing regulatory obligations.
The atmosphere is corporate and she likes the work, but the creativity she stifled “kept leaking out,” she said.
“I couldn’t keep those desires in anymore.”
She found herself fascinated with immersive theater, where some of the power shifts to the audience.
“Because it is so audience centered, it forces you to make decisions,” she said.
“It was like me having an existential alarm clock going off.”
Her play is about a girl playing in the woods.
The audience, cast as her imaginary friends, helps her grow up in ever more complicated ways, facing moral and ethical dilemmas, much like those Nguyen faced in pursuing law over theater.
“In my life, I had to suppress urges,” she said.
“What would my life have been like if I had done different things?”
That’s what she wants the audience to consider – to remind them that they can take their own fate into their own hands.”
Both are, at least, taking theater-making into their own hands.
Torsella is working with Nick Stuccio, the co-founder of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival who stepped down in 2024.
Torsella paid his $30 registration fee and has had to assume all the expenses himself.
He gets to keep 90% of his ticket sales.
Nguyen signed on with the Cannonball Festival, paying an additional $1,200 for services that include venue rental, technical help, ticketing, publicity, insurance, and front-of-the house staff.
She’ll get to keep half of what she brings in, but to keep her other expenses down, she’s doing everything herself, painting her own sets, creating her own videos.
Both are thrilled with the opportunity.
“There’s something very healthy about risking utter humiliation at age 60 when you’ve been successful in other careers,” Torsella said.
“I like to think this is challenging my brain and soul in different ways.”
“I’m incredibly nervous,” said Nguyen.
“I’ve never done anything like this.
It gives me joy and happiness.”
The Philadelphia Fringe Festival runs from Sept. 8 through Sept.
27.
While shows are scattered around the city, many of them are gathered in hubs, making it possible to see several shows in the same spot in one day.
The largest hub, with about 95 shows, is the Cannonball Festival, which runs from Sept. 8 to 27.
Tickets for all shows, including the ones at hubs, are available via the Fringe ticket office.
The Fringe building is located at 140 N.
Columbus Blvd., Phila.
(At Race Street).
215-413-1318.
For discounts, buy a Fringe membership.
Some shows are pay-what-you-wish/can.
“Bad Clay,” Justin Jain, Asian Arts Initiative Project Space, 62 N. 2d St., Phila.
Sept.
8, 15, 19.
“A Murder Most Felt; or It’s Not Easy Bleeding Green,” Temple University and University of the Arts alums, Asian Arts Initiative 3d floor, 1219 Vine St., Phila., Sept.
8, 19, 22.
“The Sicilian Dilemma,” Joe Canuso, The Parlor (Headlong Dance Studio), 1170 S.
Broad St., Phila., Sept.
8-12.
“Lunar Retreat,” Nichole Canuso, The Pearlstein Gallery, 3401 Filbert St., Phila., Sept.
9-20.
“ Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha,” Julie Masli, The Proscenium at The Drake, 302 S.
Hicks St., Phila., Sept.
10-13.
“Declaration: A Play in Five Movements,” Joe Torsella, Bob & Selma Horan Studio at the Arden, 62 N. 2d St.
Phila.
Sept.
10-20.
“Priority Hoarding: A Retrospectacle,” The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, The Hairport, 444 N. 3d St., Phila., Sept.
10-27.
“The Deer Ones – MoonSquid Nights,” Michelle Nguyen, Asian Arts Initiative 3d floor, 1219 Vine St., Phila.
Sept.
13, 19, 26.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.