ZARKANA Begins Previews At Radio City Tonight

Cirque du Soleil will present its major new acrobatic spectacle, Zarkana, at the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York City with performances starting Thursday, June 9, 2011 for a limited engagement through October 8, 2011. The premiere performance is June 29, 2011. Proudly presented by iShares, Zarkana is written and directed by acclaimed film and theatre director François Girard (The Red Violin, Silk).

Zarkana is an acrobatic rock opera that blends circus arts with the surreal to create a world where physical virtuosity rubs shoulders with the strange. The story follows Zark, a magician who has lost his powers - and the love of his life - in an abandoned theatre populated by a motley collection of off-the-wall characters and incomparable acrobats. He runs into the Mutants, four sirens as sinister as they are fabulous, who are determined to divert him from his quest.

Zarkana is a visual vortex set in a slightly twisted musical and acrobatic fantasy universe where, little by little, chaos and craziness give way to festivity and love regained. The diverse cast of more than 75 International Artists transports the audience into a fantastical and suspenseful world, blurring the boundaries between the real and imaginary.

About François Girard
One of Quebec's most highly regarded creators, François Girard is equally at ease in cinema (Silk, The Red Violin), opera, visual arts and theatre and has earned an enviable international reputation over the years. A keen music lover, he is particularly known for the hybrid worlds he creates in which music plays a predominant role. His works are recognized for their great musicality, both in terms of sound and image. This will be his second creation for Cirque du Soleil, following ZED, the Tokyo resident show.

The Creative Team
Along with François Girard, the creative team consists of the following distinctive talents:

Guy Laliberté Artistic Guide
Gilles Ste-Croix Artistic Guide
François Girard Writer and Director
Line Tremblay Director of Creation
Stéphane Roy Set and Props Designer
Alan Hranitelj Costume Designer
Nick Littlemore Composer and Musical Director
Debra Brown Choreographer
Jean-Jacques Pillet Choreographer
Alain Lortie Lighting Designer
Raymond St-Jean Image Content Designer
Steven Dubuc Sound Designer
Florence Pot Acrobatic Performance Designer
Danny Zen Rigging and Acrobatic Equipment Designer
Eleni Uranis Makeup Designer

Ticket Information
Tickets range from $47 to $130 with a limited number of premium tickets available for all performances. For tickets, call 1-866-858-0008 or on-line at www.cirquedusoleil.com/zarkana. or at www.ticketmaster.com.

Performance Schedule:

Tuesday through Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm and 8 pm; Sundays at 2pm and 7 pm. Wednesday matinees at 2 pm begin July 13.

Special Offer from American Express®: Receive a complimentary gift when you purchase Zarkana tickets using your American Express Card. For Preferred Seating and other American Express Cardmember benefits, please visit www.cirquedusoleil.com/amex.

Sponsors
iShares is the presenting sponsor of this new production. American Express, Infiniti and Sun Life Financial are the official sponsors.

Cirque du Soleil
From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a major Quebec-based organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has 5,000 employees, including more than 1,500 performing artists from close to 50 different countries. Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to more than 100 million spectators in nearly 300 cities on six continents.

For more information, visit www.cirquedusoleil.com.

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