>> 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 queer 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 queer, umm and he calls it sort of
>> NICOLAS KAZAMIA - The queers 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 queer 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.�