High school students ages 14-21 are invited to participate in the auditions for the high school version of the popular musical RENT to be staged in West Philly. The auditions will take place at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) on Saturday, Sept. 10 and Sunday, Sept. 11, from 8 a.m. to noon, and Saturday, Sept. 17, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (call backs are from 1:30 to 5 p.m.).

The audition requires two songs of approximately three minutes in length, preferably from the RENT soundtrack. Musical accompaniment can be provided. To make arrangements in advance email: projecttheaterproject [at] gmail.com.

Prior theater experience is not necessary, but parental permission is required. Students that are cast for roles in RENT will be required to attend sixteen three-hour rehearsals in September, October, and November. The shows are scheduled for December.

Local community theater group PROJECT THEATER PROJECT is working on this production. For more information on the production, auditions and rehearsals go here.

Starting from tomorrow, Sept. 2, West Philly’s Curio Theatre Company begins a series of free performances of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies in the Clark Park bowl. The shows are scheduled for Sept. 2, 7, 8, & 9 (7 p.m. starting time) and are included in the 2011 Philly Fringe-Live Arts Festival program.

What’s cool about these shows is that along with Curio’s young professional actors playing the main characters, a group of children, the theatre’s school students, is included in the cast. The kids act as the younger boys, or “Littluns,” in the play.

One of the idea’s behind staging Lord of the Flies in the outdoor environment such as Clark Park was the use of natural light. So the show begins just before the sunset and as the events unfold the light will change from the descending sun shining upon the boys to darkness.

Sounds like it will be an event you don’t want to miss, so bring your lounge chairs, snacks and enjoy this classic story.

We are well into August (isn’t the summer flying by?) and more and more arts and entertainment places are putting the finishing touches on their fall/winter programs.

Crossroads Music (801 S. 48th Street) has just announced some of their fall/winter shows. The new season begins September 10 with a performance by West Philly bands Electric Simcha and Stinking Lizaveta.

The new program also features music performances in a variety of genres, including classical, folk, klezmer, and world music by a group of international artists.

Ticket prices for performances at Crossroads Music usually range from $10-30. For more information on the shows go here. Crossroads Music is still working on adding more dates to the new schedule.

Philadelphia’s 8th Annual Black Women’s Arts Festival (BWAF) is taking place this week, July 27-31, at several city venues, including West Philly’s The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street), which will host a series of events starting Thursday, July 28. This year’s festival’s theme is Healing & Joy, celebrating the healing and creative arts.

On Thursday there will be a free clothing and book swap from noon to 5 p.m. Women are encouraged to bring gently worn clothing and books for others to take and enjoy.

On Friday and Saturday there will be day-long events with a wide range of scheduled music performances, workshops, lectures, presentations, fashion shows and exhibitions from noon to 11 p.m. (both days free until 8 p.m., with some exceptions).

Finally, on Sunday, July 31, there will be another all-day event starting at 11:00 a.m. with music and dance performances by a variety of artists. Highlights of this day include dance classes by Shandra Staley – modern dance class at 1 p.m. and African dance class at 3 p.m. ($8 in advance; $10 at the door), and stage performances by Zoe Flowers and O, at 6 and 7:05 p.m. respectively.

For more information about the schedule and participants visit the festival’s schedule of events page.

Tonight the Scribe Video Center (4212 Chestnut St.) will host a screening and discussion of two fascinating multimedia pieces documenting the economic downturn in the United States over the last three years. In Verse combines poetry, photography and audio footage to document the lives of people living on the economic edge.

In the piece “Women of Troy,” poet Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally and radio journalist Lu Olkowski (who will be at tonight’s screening) document the lives of young, working-class mothers in Troy, New York, which was a thriving city during the industrial revolutions but is now enmeshed in poverty.

The second piece, “Congregation,” Pulitzer Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey , photographer Joshua Cogan and radio journalist Olkowski document the ongoing recovery in Gulfport, Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina.

The screening begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10, $8 for students and seniors and $5 for Scribe members.

Below is an exerpt of “Women of Troy”

In Verse: Women of Troy from InVerse on Vimeo.

As we head into the weekend our thoughts and prayers are still with our neighbors who were victims of the devastating fire this week and its aftermath. We will continue to post any efforts we hear about  to help those folks.

Meanwhile, here are some things going on this weekend:

• Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement (PYPM) and Friends at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) on Saturday at 7 p.m. This is part of the PYPM Dream Big Literary Arts Festival. This is about youth using their voices and their talent to make positive change in our community. If you can’t get behind that, then what can you get behind? Tickets are $7. The Dream Big festival is going on all weekend with several events at the International House (3701 Chestnut) in addition to this one at The Rotunda. See the schedule here. Here is an artist you will see around, Safiya:

• The Five Minute Follies is tonight (Friday) at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) at 8:30 p.m. This should be kind of wild – a bunch of wacky and cool five-minute acts. Organizers bill it as a “live, onstage variety extravaganza.” Among the performers will be Philly’s Queen of Rockabilly Kathia Jane. A $5 donation at the door is suggested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Organizers warn that some material may not be suitable for all audiences.

• If  “A girl like you” likes acts that are maybe a little more polished (and a lot more expensive) then 80s rockers The Smithereens are playing at World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut St.) on Friday. The doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30.50 to $40.50.

• idiosynCrazy Productions presents Flatland 2010 on Saturday at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts‘ Harold Prince Theater at 8 p.m. The Annenberg Center (3680 Walnut St.) explains that the production: “is a physical theatre work that examines contemporary human (mis-)communication. This diverse cast of 11 athletic performers explores what happens to human relationships in a ‘flattened’ world of abbreviation and oversimplification, where the sound bite supersedes substance and the instant message overpowers the intellectual one. The great news on this one is that it is part of the West Philly Rush Hour program, which means people that live in 19104, 19131, 19139, 19142, 19143, 19151, 19153 and can prove it get in for $10.