For eight years, the First Person Arts Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art has chugged along as the only celebration of its kind in the world, providing a forum for the most cutting-edge, compelling and outside-the-box stories of you, me, him, her, them and us.

This year's edition, which runs Nov. 8-14--mostly at the Painted Bride Arts Center--promises to be the festival's grandest, including its first theatrical premiere performance and an emphasis on theater. The Festival will host the East Coast premiere of The Real Americans, a one-man show capturing the actual people that Obama Nation and Palin Country tried so hard to capture during the 2008 election, Nov. 11-13 at the Painted Bride. The show enjoyed a nine-month sold-out run in San Francisco and creator Dan Hoyle is described by The New York Times as a "first-rate reporter and actor."

While Hoyle's show came on the recommendation of an actor from the Pig Iron Theater Company, festival marketing director Karina Kacala says First Person put out a call for applications for performances.

"It's the first year we're doing so much theater, and we've got three different one-person shows," she says. "It wasn't on purpose but we're real excited about it."

Another comes from Philly's own Justin Jain, a first-generation Filipino-American, and his world premiere workshop performance "shiFt/transFer," an ensemble production that weaves movment, music and dialogue centered around immigration and includes some of Philly's finest actors (James Ijames, Genevieve Parker and Leah Walton).

Prior to the festival's official start is the opening of the First Person Arts Museum on Friday, also at the Painted Bride. The "museum of the people" contains objects with special meaning to those who contributed them, along with personal stories explaining their significance. Another highlight is the festival's closing night tribute to Philly poet, author and activist Sonia Sanchez (Baptist Temple, Temple University), featuring a lineup of distinguished guests and performances. The tribute will be filmed for a documentary on Sanchez.

Original source: Karina Kacala
Writer: Joe Petrucci

PHOTOS: Sonia Sanchez; Dan Hoyle (by Lyna Harris); and Justin Jain (by Deborah Boardman).