PHOTOS: Kimmel Center unveils giant time machine for PIFA 2013

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Rikard Larma/Metro. The time machine stretches across the Kimmel Center’s entire plaza.

The Kimmel Center today kicked off the countdown to the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts by installing a giant time machine in the building’s plaza. The 100-foot-long time machine’s spiral shape was inspired by DNA, tornadoes and sound waves.

Actors Colleen Hughes and Lesley Berkowitz with theater troupe Tribe of Fools performed a teaser of “Shut Your Wormhole,” a play described as a “comic romp into the ethics and paradoxes of time travel.”

Organizers said the event marked the beginning of the Kimmel Center’s transformation into an arts destination for the citywide festival, which runs from March 28 to April 27.

The festival centerpieces include an interactive time machine exhibit sponsored by Dow Chemical and a twice-nightly free theatrical show called “Flash of Time,” which celebrates the festival’s “If You Had a Time Machine” theme.