Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - Hi there I'm NIcolas Kazamia here with the artistic director of
the Luminato Festival
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - You've only been at this job since January?
>> JORN WEISBRODT - That's right.
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - So you've been living in Toronto are you hating it or loving it?
>> JORN WEISBRODT - I'm loving it. It's great. Especially when it gets sunny and warm. It's
seems to blossom up which is great!
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - So what attracted you to the festival this year? or the festival
because how long is this position for?
>> JORN WEISBRODT - It's uhh.. I have an open-ended contract so you gonna have me here for a long
time. You know I always wanted to.. it was always my dream to become a director of a
festival to work with artists and put a program together and bring it to an audience. For
me the most interesting moment in theatre is always when the audience comes into the
theatre and when they leave the theatre to see their faces how they've been transformed
by the production. And excitement and sometimes disappointment - it happens. I was attracted
to Luminato because it really captures this breadth of creative disciplines and I just
thought it was very unique in the international festival landscape. And I also thought it
was a good moment to come to Canada and it's a country you know you can go. I do know a
little bit but not enough and I'm very excited to explore new artists and new people and
new connections and Canada is a great country.
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - Okay so you just brought up this years festival so what are some of
the highlights of this year's festival?
>> JORN WEISBRODT - That's such a hard question to answer to ask the artistic director because
I could go 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,... I mean our entire brochure is the highlight but I think that
some of the obvious highlights are Einstein on the Beach the Robert Wilson and Philip
Glass colloboration which they created in 1976 and it really is regarded as one of the
most important or the most important opera in the last 50 years and it's Wilson is a
director that is so well known here but I can really only recommend. This is a project
that is very dear to my heart. and if there is one seat empty I count it as a personal
failure because I think it's really sort of Guernica like Picasso's Guernica is coming
to town and you can actually go and see it and you don't go see it. You miss something
for the rest of your life or the Beatles are coming and your neighbour is like "hey do
you want my tickets for the Beatles" and you're like "No you know I'm not feeling so well
or whatever" So it's really a piece that everyone needs to come and see. Another highlight is
Robert Lepage's new work of which I saw the result of his workshop in his ex-machina studio
n Quebec City and it's quite a stunning work. It deals sort of with the Iraq war but everything
takes place in Las Vegas and shows what influence the war has on the people there and he plays
also in this military camp in Nevada with built little villages Iraq villages and showed
sort of the American soldiers how to disarm Iraqi civilians played by Americans. It's
an amazing piece and has this final scene that really blows you completely away. I mean
it's one of these magical moments in theatre that you will never forget and it involves
a hurricane. I'm not going to say more.
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - Now one of the other highlights is of course a tribute to I guess
your boyfriend, or no fiancé?
>> JORN WEISBRODT - fiancé
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - Sorry fiancé is sort of spearheading in some way which is a tribute
to the McGarrigle sisters. Or is it specifically to...
>> JORN WEISBRODT - It is sort of specifically a tribute to Kate McGarrigle and to her music
it's called "Love over and over - The songs of Kate McGarrigle and we are doing it at
Massey Hall and the family after she died about two years ago. He's done one of these
shows in London and they always sort of engage and ask a sort of group of local artists and
friends to come and interpret some of her songs with the family and everyone and then
they did it twice in New York and now in Toronto which I'm very excited about which is the
first time it's being done in Canada.
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - I was oging to ask you about the *** content of the Luminato this
year.
>> JORN WEISBRODT - Well you know Rufus is obviously gay he is also doing his. We are
doing the Canadian premiere of his new album which is produced by Mark Ronson, not so ***,
umm and he calls it sort of
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - The *** love him - Amy Winehouse I mean you know
>> JORN WEISBRODT - He's calls it sort of his most male album or heterosexual album
ever. He's doing that on the 10th of June at the festival Hub. So that will be a free
show actually and it's the first time he's going to do that new album in Canada. So that's
something. You know there's always a sort of *** aspect to the McGarrigles and there
is a beautiful really really gorgeous dance piece by this company from Israel the Batsheva
Dance Company which is really one of the top three sort of modern dance. It was actually
founded by Martha Graham and she was the artistic director for a long time with this baroness
Batsheva who was a disciple of Martha Graham's in New York and then wanted to found sort
of modern dance in Israel. And that's a beautiful piece about emotional tension between people
and really just the core of the body and the movement and Ohad Naharin the artistic director
is an amazing artist and he's developed sort of his own movement language really that he
calls Gaga way before Lady Gaga stole that name. So that's really another big highlight
for me. We are also going to show Brokeback Mountain because Annie Proulx who wrote the
short story of Brokeback Mountain she is going to be part of our New Yorker program we have
this partner ship with the New Yorker again where they sort of do a mini New Yorker festival
and I spoke a lot to there programming person and so Annie Proulx is going to come for a
talk and she is going to give a little talk on Sunday the 10th as well and she's going
to give a little introduction to the piece.
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - That's amazing. So I have to ask because in the news as you know
budget cutbacks have happened and this festival has been hit the hardest of any arts festival.
How did you guys deal with that? I mean it's a pretty big blow.
>> JORN WEISBRODT - you know obviously we are still dealing with it and I think you
know it's really a encouragement also to go out and find more money you know from other
sources. I always think for the right ideas and good ideas you'll always find money
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - well thank you that was awesome.
>> JORN WEISBRODT - thank you.�