2012 Chutzpah! The Lisa Nemetz International Showcase of Jewish Performing Arts, Feb. 11-March 4. For complete schedule visit chutzpahfestival.com.
THE 12th edition of the Chutzpah! festival kicks off tomorrow night with the world premiere of A Blessing on the Moon - The Colour of Poison Berries featuring the Warsaw Village Band at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre.
"We've been involved with it from the very beginning," says Chutzpah's artistic managing director Mary-Louise Albert. "I've known Andy (Teirstein) from New York and he told me about this project. Andy has been sending music back and forth and the band arrived in New York last week where they are now rehearsing and doing a preview in a club. A lot of people have joined forces as a team to put this together. The author of the book Joseph Skibell is coming. It's exciting."
Teirstein has composed a cabaret-style score with Polish folk roots specifically for the musicians in the Warsaw Village Band featuring two alto women's voices, violin, cello, tsimbl (hammered dulcimer) and percussion. The musical/theatrical adaptation of Skibell's novel, voted one of the year's best books by Publishers Weekly, Le Monde and Amazon.com when it was first published in 1997, will also have a cast of five actor/ singers on stage.
Albert, who had a long career as a dancer before moving over into arts administration, actually performed at the first Chutzpah! festival. "After I stopped dancing in 2001 I had a career change with support from the Dancers Transition Resource Centre," she says. "I went to Capilano College for the Arts Management program and then to BCIT for several years of business training. I always knew I wanted to stay in the arts."
Under Albert's stewardship and the ideal setting of the 318seat theatre at the Jewish Community Centre dance has grown at the festival in leaps and bounds with several high profile companies set to perform at the Rothstein this year.
"Dance is a strong component in the festival," says Albert. "I try to do a dance residency every year so there is new work being created and there are resources that go into that. Donald Sales and Cherice Barton are artists-in-residence and they've been here since Jan. 10 creating a whole new work. It's special when you are seeing work start and blossom right from the beginning to the presentation stage."
The duo will perform a world premiere of their work as well as a world premiere of a duet created for them by choreographer Aszure Barton (Cherice's sister) Feb. 19-21 at the Rothstein.
Other dance companies coming to Chutzpah! this year include the Canadian premiere of Holland's Noord Nederlandse Dans with a mixed repertoire of new works by artistic director Stephen Shropshire and Israeli choregrapher Emmanuel Gat for 14 dancers plus L.A.'s Body Traffic performing "Monger" and Noam Gagnon's Compagnie Vision Selective with "Thank You, You're Not Welcome."
Some musical and theatre acts performing at this year's Chutzpah! will take place at other locations as the festival branches out further into the community.
"The Electric Owl is perfect for (Brooklyn's) Sway Machinery," says Albert. "What became clear as the festival was artistically growing it's also important that the artists are in the right venue. And Hadag Nahash are ready for the Commodore. It's going to be a great party."
A special post-festival presentation will feature the Idan Raichel and Vieux Farka Toure Quartet in two shows at the Rothstein April 29 and 30. Tickets are going fast.
