A successful run for PIFA Two a win-win for performers

'If you had a time machine . . ." is the theme of the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, now in its final week. Unvoiced is the rest of the question: ". . . where would you go?" Yet to know where PIFA is headed, the first stop on its time machine is back to 2011's PIFA One.

No sooner had that first monthlong festival ended, after entertaining 177,000 attendees, than Jay Wahl's attention turned to how the Kimmel Center could make it happen again.

"Our goal for PIFA was to build something that brought this city's cultural community together and put us on a national stage," says Wahl, the Kimmel's director of public events and the festival's producing artistic director. "We didn't know for certain that we'd do another until PIFA One finished strong. Once it did, we moved quickly."

With 50-plus events - "32 of them world premieres," Wahl notes - this year's PIFA Two is only about a third the size of the first iteration. This year's budget is $5.3 million for a mix of Kimmel-presented shows and those by local arts organizations, down from 2011's one-time-only $10 million - a consideration that was part of the give-and-take between PIFA bookers and artists, from how the festival was conceptualized to what Wahl hopes each arts group gets from it.

"We wanted to involve ourselves with organizations and artists who would benefit from being in PIFA," says Wahl.

Example: the Please Touch Museum, which wanted to show that it is not only a super playground but also a maker of "innovative educational content," says Wahl. Result: the museum's now-concluded interactive and child-friendly production "President Ulysses S. Grant and the Great Centennial Banana Mystery," which celebrated the 1876 opening of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Then there's Inis Nua Theatre, which normally focuses on contemporary work from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England. For PIFA 2013, Inis Nua is producing a play by its own associate artistic director, Jared Michael Delaney. The Hand of Gaul concerns vengeful soccer fans on a tear after France knocks Ireland out of contention for the 2010 World Cup.

Seeking projects like these was part of Wahl's 2013 vetting process. More than 120 artists and organizations either were asked to participate, inquired when they heard Wahl was booking 2013, or had a success during PIFA One and wanted another.

The stakes are high for first-time PIFA participants like the Wolf Performing Arts Center, whose poetic The Butterfly Project dealt with the World War II liberation of Terezin. Staged during its 2012 season (as I Never Saw Another Butterfly), Wolf sees its involvement with a larger cast (young performers from more than 20 suburban schools) and PIFA's organizers as a win where publicity is concerned.

"We're definitely gaining name recognition," says executive director Bobbi Wolf.

James Jarboe's Bearded Ladies Cabaret was 14 months old when it became a Wilma Theater company-in-residence, exploring issues of gender identification. In PIFA 2011 it staged the must-see No Regrets: A Piaf Affair, with its cardboard tour of Paris. "When PIFA called, we saw it as an opportunity to make Piaf more of a show," says artistic director Jarboe. No Regrets immediately put the company on the map beyond the avant-garde. So when Jarboe's Ladies started work on Wide Awake, a scrappy epic about the Civil War, Wahl wanted in early.

"Jay is a huge supporter," says Jarboe. "He's rightfully trying to create relationships between smaller organizations that have zero resources and larger organizations like the Kimmel."

For PIFA 2013, Jarboe made Wide Awake - and the beards - bigger. Of the show that ended April 7, he said, "We have a four-person marching band, and my Southern belle dress is taller, 91/2 feet tall, to be exact. This is the biggest thing we've done, artistically, musically, and financially. We have had to buy a lot of cardboard and a lot of fake hair."

Wahl declined to give specifics regarding what PIFA has paid for commissions or participating companies, preferring to discuss how PIFA supported projects that artists couldn't do on their own.

"We brought them into the building to make those projects happen," he said of such productions as the short musical "Flash of Time," staged in the Kimmel's lobby. Wahl directed and Myra Bazell choreographed.

The money spent and the support offered were wildly divergent, in Wahl's estimation - "The numbers don't really tell the story." He has worked more directly with more artists this time around, and also helped in pairing similarly themed companies with troubled finances. That's how he facilitated the improv-collaboration between Tongue and Groove and the RealLivePeople(in)Motion dance troupe. "Finances are tricky for everyone; by pairing artists together we were able to make money go further."

Ultimately, Wahl says, PIFA is about engagement, not cash flow. "We wouldn't do a free street theater festival if it were all about money," he said of Saturday's grand finale, the PIFA Street Fair, which drew nearly 200,000 people in 2011. "That's not a revenue-generating event."

Of PIFA support for Bearded Ladies in 2011, Jarboe says, "We got nothing from PIFA that year," instead relying on private donations through the hosting Wilma Theater. Instead, "what PIFA did for us in 2011 was advertise, a useful tool."

But this time around, Bearded Ladies was commissioned for the festival. With the help of the Kimmel and the Wilma, the troupe got grants from Knight Arts Challenge and the Pew Theater Initiative to expand the Ladies' usual low-cost DIY vision. "PIFA got us $50,000 from Knight, $50,000 from Pew. Costs above that, the Kimmel covered," says Jarboe, allowing the small company to stretch its wings.

With PIFA 2013 winding down, Wahl now is doing what he did last time - thinking about the potential for the next one, in 2015, and beyond. "Whether posing questions or telling stories, the creative class of this city working together on similar themes - at the same time - is very exciting."