“We’re going to need real magic to pull this show off, and we’ve got it!” says the Curio Theatre Company, of their latest production, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which opens this Friday, April 27. A revenge story featuring drunken clowns, political intrigue, a magical slave-driving wizard, and a father-daughter duo marooned on an island for twelve years, The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s most compelling comedies.

Director Dan Hodge, co-founder of the Philadelphia Artists Collective, makes his directing debut with this production. “Ultimately The Tempest is about choice,” says Hodge, “and Prospero’s command of dark arts affords him an impossibly wide array of options.  The balance hangs on revenge and forgiveness.  And that’s a current that runs through nearly every character in the play.”

Paul Kuhn, Curio’s Artistic Director, has designed a “magical playground” for the production, rumored to include a rolling ocean, a ship, and a tropical island. The fifteen characters will be played by seven actors. Joining long-time company member Brian McCann as Prospero are Steve Carpenter, Liam Castellan, Robert Daponte, Aetna Gallagher, Ken Opdenaker, Eric Scotolati and Isa St.Clair.

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Opening April 27. Curio Theatre, 4740 Baltimore Avenue. 215-525-1350.

Today is primary election day in Pennsylvania. The Committee of Seventy has a handy online guide to polling places. Just go here, enter your address and it will map your polling place.

This primary will be a dry run for Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law. That means that poll workers will ask you for ID, but you can vote whether you have it or not – as long as you have voted in the same precinct before. New voters in a precinct will need to show ID.

By now just about everyone has seen the posters around the neighborhood over the last few weeks – the ones with a woman’s portrait stylized like the President Barack Obama “Hope” posters.

The woman portrayed is Fatimah Loren Muhammad, who is challenging long-time incumbent James Roebuck in tomorrow’s primary for the Democratic nomination in the state General Assembly’s 188th District, which includes a sizable chunk of West Philly. Muhammad is an intriguing candidate to say the least. She is young (27), a Penn graduate, Muslim, openly bisexual and she grew up poor, and sometimes homeless, as the daughter of a single mother. That story resonates with lots of West Philly voters. The Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity recently endorsed her.

But there is another Fatimah Muhammad, one whose candidacy is being bankrolled by many people who have a very different life story. Her connection to conservative, pro-voucher (or “school choice,” depending on your political persuasion) donors has been well reported. Rep. Roebuck, who has served in the General Assembly since 1985 (too long for some people’s taste), has been an obstacle for the pro-voucher contingent, which aims to provide students public money to attend private and parochial schools.

Spend a few minutes with Muhammad’s campaign finance reports (they are included below) and another couple of minutes on Google and you will find a straight line between her campaign and pro-voucher, Republican billionaires.

Roebuck’s campaign has drawn money from those opposed to vouchers, including $5,000 from the Committee to Support Public Education, a PAC funded by the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers. That single contribution accounts for about a third of the total donations to Roebuck’s campaign.

Muhammad has said that the whole voucher issue is a “distraction.”

As for the money, she recently told The Philadelphia Tribune that, as a newcomer, she can’t be choosy about donations.

“As someone who’s new to politics, I can’t afford not to take money from anyone,” she recently told the Trib‘s Eric Mayes.

She continued in the article: “In this campaign vouchers have been used by my opponent to try and pigeonhole me in a particular area,” she said. “My stance is to keep everything on the table. I want parents at the center of this — not for political gain or anything. My stance has always been empowering parents.”

Below is the recently released campaign finance report for Friends of Fatimah. At least 80 percent of the $76,030 she raised is from groups and individuals connected to school voucher lobbyists, mostly organizations funded by Students First.

Here is a playbill for the biggest contributors:

• Students First PAC – $25,000

A school voucher campaign contributor that receives its funding from the American Federation for Children, a network of wealthy pro-voucher contributors. Finance wizard and billionaire Joel Greenberg of Bala Cynwyd sits on the organization’s Board of Directors. Gov. Tom Corbett reportedly received $50,000 from the organization in his campaign for governor.

• Women for Change – $4,000

The City Paper calls this organization, which lists an Elkins Park address but very little else, a “shell of a PAC.”  On March 21, Students First contributed $10,000 to Women for Change. On March 23, Women for Change contributed $4,000 to Fatimah Muhammad.

• Public Education Excellence – $7,500.

A PAC run in part by Joy Herbert, a parent of a West Philadelphia High School student who served on the school’s School Advisory Council. The PAC received $6,000 from Students First on March 19 and another $6,000 on March 27, according to campaign finance reports.

• Progressive Agenda PAC – $5,900

Another PAC that received money from Students First. On March 27, Students First contributed $6,000 to Progressive Agenda, about a week before Progressive Agenda contributed $5,900 to Friends of Fatimah.

• Black Clergy PAC – $1,000

Also on March 27, Students First contributed $6,000 to the Black Clergy PAC, according to campaign finance reports. On April 6 the PAC contributed $1,000 to the Muhammad campaign and April 17, the Black Clergy publicly endorsed Muhammad.

• Citizens Networking for Progress PAC – $3,000

On March 27, Students First contributed $8,000 to this PAC. On April 9. Friends of Fatimah received $3,000 from the PAC.

• Barbara Chavous – $9,239.03

An individual contributor whose address is listed in Macon, Ga. on campaign finance reports, Chavous works for the Muhammad campaign. Her daughter, Dawn Chavous (who contributed $4,000 to the campaign), is married to Philadelphia City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson. Dawn Chavous is also the executive director of Students First PA.

(h/t City Paper‘s Daniel Denvir, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Amara Rockar, The Philadelphia Tribune, UC Neighbors)

Friends of Fatimah Campaign Finance

Two West Philly establishments have received nominations in Philadelphia Magazine’s Best of Philly 2012 list. The Rotunda was nominated in the Best Indie Music venues category and Fiume (45th & Locust) received a nomination in the Best Bar category.

You can help The Rotunda and Fiume win by casting your votes on this page. You can come back and vote daily until Monday, May 21. The awards will be announced in Philadelphia Magazine’s August issue.

The School Reform Commission last night quietly passed a resolution that adds a fourth kindergarten class at Penn Alexander School. The resolution strikes a deal between The University of Pennsylvania, which will reportedly pay for the additional class, and The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

An additional 18-student kindergarten classroom will be added to take pressure off the demand for kindergarten spots at Penn Alexander. Parents of young children who live in the Penn Alexander catchment area covet admission to the limited kindergarten spots because they usually assure admission to the 1st grade.

Penn Alexander has garnered attention across the city for the long lines for kindergarten registration. In January the line started 24 hours before registration started.

Neither the school nor the SRC has commented on how the school, which has experienced overcrowding in its lower grades, will accommodate the new kindergarten class.

(h/t Amara Rockar, John Myers and West Philly News and Kristen Graham.)

The May Fair Committee invites West Philly-based artisans and crafts people to have a table at Spruce Hill Community Association‘s annual May Fair, which will be held this year on Saturday, May 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Clark Park (43rd & Chester). Tables for those who are selling are $35 for the day with SHCA providing the table, table covering and a chair. Additional tables are $15.

Groups and organizations seeking to do community outreach are also welcome. Tables for non-profits not selling goods are $25. E-mail ma.wa@verizon.net for a sign-up sheet or leave a phone message at 215-349-7825. The fair is the day before Mother’s Day and will again have a bounce tent and obstacle course for kids, as well as children’s games, music and much more.