Line-up for Toronto's 2011 LUMINATO Festival Announced!

Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, today announced the Festival's 2011 programs. The fifth edition of Luminato's annual multi-disciplinary celebration of theatre, dance, music, literature, food, visual arts, fashion, film, and more takes place from June 10-19, 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

New partnerships and continuing collaborations infuse the program for the fifth anniversary edition of Luminato. The art of storytelling is woven throughout Luminato 2011, as the curatorial vision for the Festival sees classic stories and iconic works revived and reinvented by contemporary artists.

THEATRE
Commissioned by Luminato and produced by London-based Dash Arts, the previously announced epic theatre piece One Thousand and One Nights has its world premiere at Luminato 2011. Dramatized and directed by Tim Supple, from stories adapted by celebrated Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh, the show is created and performed by actors, musicians and designers drawn from across the Arabic-speaking world. One Thousand and One Nights will be performed in English, Arabic, and French, with surtitles.

One Thousand and One Nights marks Tim Supple's second venture with Luminato, following Dash Arts' South Asian rendition of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Luminato 2008. A British native, Supple has directed and adapted theatre and opera throughout the UK and in Europe, North and South America, and the Middle and Far East. In 2005, Mr. Supple launched Dash Arts with Josephine Burton to create new performances in collaboration with artists from abroad.

This year, Luminato partners for the first time with Toronto's Necessary Angel Theatre for two commissioned works. Canadian poet Evie Christie has written a new translation of Racine's take on Euripides' Greek epic Andromache, with Scottish director Graham McLaren at the helm, who most recently directed Necessary Angel's 2009 Hamlet. This world premiere examines how obsession may lead to unspeakable cruelty. Also debuting in June at Luminato is the English language premiere of Tout Comme Elle (Just Like Her), conceived by director Brigitte Haentjens, and featuring a diverse cast of 50 Canadian female actors. Tout Comme Elle (Just Like Her) is a poignant and daring theatre piece, exploring the inevitability of loss, the eternal nature of love, and the complicated dynamics between mothers and daughters.

The North American premiere of Toronto's Theatre Smith-Gilmour and the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre's production of LU XUN blossoms marks another new partnership for Luminato. Its 2007 Shanghai debut marked the first ever theatre co-production between Canada and China. Based on five short stories by Lu Xun, a great Chinese writer and teacher, LU XUN blossoms documents the early urbanization of China and the conflicts and joys of the early 20th century.

Luminato continues its partnership with Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company with the presentation of a Soulpepper Summer Repertory throughout the 10 days of Luminato. An enhanced repertory schedule at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts includes critically acclaimed productions from Soulpepper's classical repertoire, such as Thornton Wilder's Our Town and John Gray and Eric Peterson's Billy Bishop Goes to War, as well as a Community Cabaret developed to appear at the Festival.

DANCE
Luminato commissions the world premiere of TAJ - a new work from Toronto's Sampradaya Dance Creations. Artistic Director Lata Pada brings together the best of artistic collaborators from Canada and India in a 90 minute dance-theatre production. Award-winning Canadian playwright John Murrell has been commissioned to write an original script for this contemporary work. Directed by Tom Diamond, TAJ features Canadian actress Lisa Ray and Bollywood star Kabir Bedi.

For the fifth consecutive year, Luminato partners with The National Ballet of Canada. This year, Luminato and the National Ballet present the North American premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Based on the famous Lewis Carroll book of the same name, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a co-production between The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet (UK).

On the Festival's closing weekend is the North American premiere of Confluence. Acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan, best known for his work in classical Indian kathak and contemporary dance, as well as his collaborations with artists from other artistic disciplines (including actress Juliette Binoche and artist Anish Kapoor), partners with composer, producer, songwriter, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist Nitin Sawhney (A Throw of Dice - Luminato 2008) for the North American premiere of Confluence, a music and movement piece produced in collaboration with Sadler's Wells.

"For Luminato's fifth anniversary, we are tremendously pleased to present several new, Luminato-commissioned works, world premieres, and North American premieres by accomplished local and international talent," said Janice Price, CEO of Luminato.

"The 2011 Festival celebrates the art of storytelling," said Chris Lorway, Artistic Director of Luminato. "In the Festival's fifth anniversary, Luminato is proud to present some of Toronto's most important arts companies alongside other remarkable artists from across the country and around the world. This year, Luminato is forming new partnerships with Toronto arts organizations, while building upon relationships we have established over the past four years."

MUSIC
Luminato 2011 presents the Grammy Award-winning, genre-bending Kronos Quartet in four concerts that reflect Kronos' ongoing global musical journey through cross-cultural collaborations. A series of concerts - including a free outdoor concert - and initiatives with Luminato's Education and Outreach programs comprise the Kronos Quartet Residency at Luminato 2011. Performing with Kronos for the first time in Canada are international guest artists the Alim Qasimov Ensemble, leading exponents of the Azerbaijani sung poetry known as mugham; Afghan rubâb player Homayun Sakhi; and Wu Man, whose virtuosity on the ancient Chinese pipa has won that instrument a new place in the modern musical world. The Kronos Quartet also performs a free concert at Metro Square on June 12.

Following last year's critically acclaimed TSO Goes Late Night: Beethoven Symphony 9, Luminato and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra partner to present TSO Goes Late Night: Mahler 5, a concert of Gustav Mahler's epic "Symphony No. 5," conducted by TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian. This audience-wide party with TSO musicians, guest artists, and live music takes place on June 18 at Roy Thomson Hall, and includes a post-concert reception in the lobby.

For the first time in the Festival's history, Luminato's free music programs inhabit one central, downtown location for the entire 10 days of the Festival. From June 10-19, Metro Square, located at the corner of King Street West and John Street, is transformed into Luminato's Festival Hub, serving as the home to nightly free concerts, a variety of interactive events, and the return of President's Choice® 1000 Tastes of Toronto^TM, where more than 70 chefs prepare a decadent assortment of gourmet street food from around the world. Free concerts at the Festival Hub cover a wide spectrum of musical genres and styles, ranging from an opening night concert featuring Montreal-based trip rock artists Beast and Halifax-based rockers The Joel Plaskett Emergency, to a musical tribute to the Italy 150 celebrations, to a rare performance of Egyptian pop music sensation Hakim, to a concert by bhangra superstar Malkit Singh, to a performance by k.d. lang of her upcoming album Sing it Loud.

On Friday, June 17, Luminato presents multi-award-winning singer/songwriter k.d. lang. Winner of four Grammys and eight Junos, k.d. lang has consistently defied conventional categorization. From her early-career reinvention of country rock with a dash of punk, to her stunning covers of standards by artists such as Leonard Cohen and Roy Orbison, elements of torch song, jazz and even bossa nova have found their way into a style she has made uniquely her own-a style as elegant and sophisticated as it is impassioned. k.d. lang kicks off the Canadian leg of her tour at Luminato's Festival Hub.

LITERATURE
Luminato's timely focus on the Middle East continues with a slate of Arabic authors, poets and translators, many appearing in Toronto for the first time. Beirut39 at Luminato, a program in partnership with the UK's prestigious Hay Festival, brings some of the freshest voices from the Arab world to Toronto from Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, including Joumana Haddad, author and administrator of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. For a night of Arabic Poetry, three award-winning Arabic poets discuss their craft and the art of translation in an evening of onstage readings, featuring award-winning poet and translator Khaled Mattawa, with Lebanese-Canadian poet John Asfour and Libyan novelist and poet Hisham Matar.

Authors debuting or previewing their newest works at Luminato include Joyce Carol Oates, Ann Patchett, Jeanette Winterson, Geraldine Brooks and Miriam Toews. This program, titled Modern Day Shahrazads, is a rich lineup featuring discussions and readings from some of the strongest women in fiction, including free events with Winterson and Brooks. Modern Day Shahrazads is inspired by Luminato's 2011 production of One Thousand and One Nights, featuring Shahrazad, one of fiction's consummate storytellers - a powerful woman whose skill at weaving a tale and constructing cliff-hangers, night after night, has forever placed her in our literary imaginations.

For the fifth consecutive year, Luminato presents its Illuminations series, a collection of free discussions featuring Luminato authors and artists. Esteemed writers, poets, directors and playwrights - including Judith Thompson, Deepa Mehta, Laura Simms and Tim Supple - explore the art of the written word, the healing power of story, and how modern works are adapted from classic tales.

VISUAL ARTS & FASHION
The fifth anniversary edition of Luminato introduces three commissioned artworks, including an interactive installation by Toronto-based architect Philip Beesley, an innovative cross-genre piece by Berlin-based artist David Levine, and an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-inspired work by Montréal fashion designer Denis Gagnon.

In this Luminato-commissioned installation, Philip Beesley's Sargasso combines visionary design with high-tech digital engineering to transform a downtown public space - and to offer a glimpse of the potential future of architectural art.

Beesley, a visionary architectural pioneer, uses interactive technology to infuse one of Toronto's busiest spaces with astonishing new life. From June 6-19, Beesley's Sargasso transforms a familiar downtown locale: the sweeping atrium of the Allen Lambert Galleria in Brookfield Place. Beesley uses dense arrays of microprocessors, sensors, and actuator systems to create interactive, animated environments. Sargasso is composed of tens of thousands of lightweight, digitally-fabricated components which form a network of interactive mechanical elements that sense - and respond to - the environment. The exhibit combines the arts of architecture, engineering and sculpture and previous versions have been featured in the Canadian Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Biennale in Architecture and Toronto's Nuit Blanche.

From June 10-19, Luminato presents the world premiere of David Levine's Habit at OCAD University. Commissioned by Luminato, Habit is a cross-genre collaboration between theatre and visual arts, fusing television production, visual art installation, theatre and performance into a project that poses questions about spectatorship and performance.

In an environment, designed by Marsha Ginsberg, that looks and functions like a house - complete with electricity and plumbing - audiences watch through the installation's windows and on a live video feed randomly edited to create a unique TV drama. Three Toronto actors inhabit the house for eight hours a day, spontaneously going about their business while seamlessly repeating a 90-minute looped script by Brooklyn-based playwright Jason Grote. Each day, the performers repeat the same dialogue, while improvising the staging to suit their personal needs as well as those of their characters.

Continuing Luminato's commitment to cross-genre creations, the Festival in partnership with Lancôme presents the world premiere of Garden of Roses: Denis Gagnon Interprets Alice, a new work by acclaimed Canadian designer Denis Gagnon, noted for his bold traversal of the boundaries between fashion and art.

Gagnon began his career designing theatrical costumes, and recently became the first Canadian in his field to have work exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Continuing with his concept of clothing as "moving sculpture," Gagnon creates a contemporary fashion response to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, providing a complement to Luminato's presentation of Christopher Wheeldon's new work, performed by the National Ballet of Canada.

The fifth anniversary edition of Luminato takes place from June 10-19, 2011. Further programs will be announced in the coming months. Tickets for all Luminato 2011 programs will be available for sale as of April 16, 2011. For details, please visit www.luminato.com.

 

Photo Credit: Monica Simoes

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