{"id":283186,"date":"2026-09-10T18:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283186\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T18:40:09","slug":"faces-of-the-philadelphia-fringe-festival-madi-distefano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283186\/","title":{"rendered":"Faces of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival: Madi DiStefano"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a 15-year hiatus, a Philly theater legend returns.<\/p>\n

\"Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Fringe Festival performer Madi DiStefano<\/p>\n

With the Philadelphia Fringe Festival now officially underway, we look at some of the people who make it what it is in our series \u201cFaces of the Fringe.\u201d <\/p>\n

Where You Live<\/p>\n

\u201cBroad and Callowhill. Do we call that the Loft District? I call it Eraserhood, because I\u2019m so hip and cool. Otherwise, I just tell people I live on the north side of Chinatown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Name Your Show and Describe It in Ten Words or Less<\/p>\n

\u201c1A Clown\u2019s Way: A Clown\u2019s Guide to Falling in Line<\/a>. A fascist clown tries to thwart an insurgency. That\u2019s eight words. Do I get bonus points for having two to spare?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Your Philly Fringe History<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there since the beginning. I consider myself to be one of the founding artists who helped define what \u2018fringe\u2019 is in Philadelphia. Our first show was EYE-95, and we got a lot of press. It was a big smash. I did a lot more in the fringe but haven\u2019t performed in 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

What It\u2019s Like Coming Back from Hiatus<\/p>\n

\u201cTerrifying. I wasn\u2019t sure that I had the memory muscles to be big and loud on stage and use my body and my voice and memorize lines. But I did a Fringe preview in front of almost 200 people. Did just ten minutes of the piece, and it went great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shows You\u2019re Hoping to See<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Canuso\u2019s piece The Sicilian Dilemma<\/a>. The latest Chris Davis work, The 40-Year-Old Ballerino<\/a>. And then a group of artists is doing The Haus of Wiggles and Giggles Presents: A Drag Clown Cabaret<\/a>, a show featuring Emily Mayer, who is a fantastic drag king and dancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Else You Do<\/p>\n

\u201cI go to the Sporting Club and work out, and I\u2019m trying to figure out how to produce Wrestler Lady<\/a>, a TV series about a retired South Philadelphia professional wrestler and bar owner. She wants to get back into the ring, and her daughter is against it. I have a first season and a pilot script all written.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jobs You\u2019ve Held<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessional waterskier, pumping gas on a dock on a lake, selling clothes in a retail store, bartender, teacher, actor, writer, owner of a music venue in Austin, and a ramp agent for American Airlines. I could go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Philly Is Right for You<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lived a lot of places and in the artistic communities in all of those places, but I really missed Philadelphia and made a conscious choice to come back here and dig in. I bought a loft space that\u2019s a live-work space where I can rehearse. I love being able to walk everywhere. Philly is the best city in the world. It\u2019s where it\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a 15-year hiatus, a Philly theater legend returns. Philadelphia Fringe Festival performer Madi DiStefano With the Philadelphia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-283186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}