Randy Dalton is the Community Education Center (CEC)’s long time artist-in-residence and the creator of the Blue Grotto permanent art installation in the CEC cellar. The CEC is a non-profit, community-based arts and education center housed in an 1837 former Quaker meeting house and school in West Philadelphia. The CEC’s mission is to strengthen the sense of shared community and values among peoples of differing backgrounds and cultures through the arts. The Meeting House Theatre on the 2nd floor is its mainstage and primary performance space. Dance studios and rehearsal spaces on the 1st floor and are available for rental. The CEC recently received a $50,000 community development grant from Maxwell House to make improvements to the historically significant building. While it was still a functioning Quaker school in the 1920s actor Kevin Bacon’s father Ed was a student here. It was sold to Drexel University in the 1940s and was their main theatre for awhile before becoming the Community Education Center in the 1970s, during which time Kevin Bacon’s mother Ruth was a teacher and community activist there.
Therefore, you should come and see Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead opening 9/7 in the Blue Grotto for only 8 performances.Tickets to this otherworldly Philly Fringe event are onsale now. I bet Kevin Bacon would like it. I bet you will like it.
[image via wikipedia]