What’s Happening in Philly | The Triangle

What’s Happening in Philly

First Annual German Society Bierfest
Celebrate Pennsylvania’s German brewing heritage at Bierfest, an afternoon tasting event with a lively beer-garden vibe, delicious German-inspired beers and live traditional bluegrass music. Twelve Pennsylvania brewers will be pouring German-inspired lagers, pilsners, bocks, weizens and more. The Philly Roller Girls will be pouring beers for a good cause, and The Foodery will offer a rotating menu of imported German beers.
Light German fare catered by Brauhaus Schmitz is included, and more substantial “wurst platters” will be offered for sale by the German Society. Main event attendees can also attend a unique “Brewer’s Discussion Panel” on the future of craft lager and Pennsylvania’s leadership in German-style brewing at 4 p.m., featuring the brewmasters of Victory, Yuengling, Troegs and more, moderated by the state’s only master sommelier, Melissa Monosoff.
Author Marnie Old will host a VIP beer seminar at noon, a guided tasting experience, exploring Pennsylvania’s rich German brewing history through 12 remarkable brews.
German Society of Pennsylvania at 611 Spring Garden St.
Saturday, Feb. 25, 1-5 p.m.
Tickets: $25-$53
www.germansociety.org/bierfest2012.html

Drexel Concert Band Plays Music of African-American Composers at the Kimmel Center
The Drexel University Concert Band will take the stage at the Kimmel Center for an evening dedicated to a wide range of African-American composers. The concert includes two newly commissioned pieces by Valerie Coleman, Roma and Umoja, as well as Clarence Cameron White’s “Triumphal March,” Roger Dickerson’s “Essay for Band,” Oliver Nelson’s “Fugue” and Bossa and Adolphus Hailstork’s “Look to This Day,” featuring Drexel’s University Chorus and members of the Drexel University Gospel Choir. Drexel faculty member and baritone Perry Brisbon will also present Margaret Bonds’ “Dream Variation.” The Coleman commissions involve a consortium of 25 university bands, including Yale University, Clemson University, Morgan State University and Auburn University, and were initiated by Drexel.
The Kimmel Center at 300 S. Broad St.
Wednesday, Feb. 29 at 7 p.m.
Admission: $10, $5 with Drexel ID
www.drexel.edu/westphal

Love in the Wild: Theatre Exile Presents “Knives in Hens”
Theatre Exile will present the third show of its 15th season with the Philadelphia premiere of “Knives in Hens” by David Harrower. In a secluded village, a young couple’s love is challenged by an outsider, and the three are soon plunged into an erotic love triangle. Theatre Exile invites you to enter an excruciatingly intimate world filled with mystery and poetry and to watch as one young woman’s journey of self-discovery ruptures the very fabric of her own existence and jeopardizes all she holds dear.
“Knives in Hens” will seduce you with its language and immerse you in a reality beyond our own, one that invites exploration and envelops its audience in a total performance experience. Using a nontraditional relationship between audience and performance, Exile presents a new staging of Harrower’s work, one that will flood its audience in sensation.
Studio X at 1340 South 13th St.
Through Sunday, March 4
Tickets: $25-$32
www.theatreexile.org

PTC@Play Festival
Mix and mingle at Philadelphia Theatre Company’s second annual festival, featuring staged readings of new plays and musicals all week long. Each event is free (though reservations are recommended) and begins at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 29 and Thursday, March 1: “Philly Reality” — Philadelphia high school students create and perform original works inspired by PTC’s production of “The Scottsboro Boys.”
Monday, March 5: The inaugural announcement of The Terrence McNally New Play Award; Michael Hollinger’s “Hope and Gravity,” followed by a champagne reception.
Wednesday, March 7: Jennifer Haley’s “The Nether,” directed by Steve Cosson (2012 finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize).
Thursday, March 8: New musical “Stars of David,” adapted by Charles Busch from a book of interviews by Abigail Pogrebin. Music by top Broadway composers and directed by Gordon Greenberg.
Friday, March 9: Samuel D. Hunter’s “When You’re Here,” directed by Kent Nicholson.
Saturday, March 10: Dominique Morisseau’s “Detroit ’67,” directed by Patricia McGregor.
Sunday, March 11: FuturePhilly@Play — an evening of short plays by Philadelphia’s freshest playwrights, directed by David O’Connor, including “The Narcoleptic Pillow Fight” by Alex Dremann, “Rochambeau” by Sarah Mantell, “Riot Grrrls Reunion” by Darin J. Dunston, “Cliff-Diving” by David S. White, “Backfire” by David Lee White, “Lannie’s Lament” by Jacqueline Goldfinger, “Wet” by P. Seth Bauer, and “Alterations” by Quinn D. Eli.
Finally, celebrate the festival’s closing night with an open local beer bar, the Buttercream Cupcake Truck, the Pure Fare Truck and the West Philadelphia Orchestra as they play one of their infamous Balkan/Gypsy dance sets!
Wednesday,  Feb. 29 through March 11
Suzanne Roberts Theatre at Broad and Lombard streets
www.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org