Caminos 2015
The Pan-America that lives here.
Aluna Theatre in partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts presents CAMINOS: A week-long festival of Pan American performing arts & culture on stage November 3 – 8, 2015 at Daniels Spectrum
Aluna Theatre is thrilled to announce the inaugural CAMINOS. Presented in partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts.
CAMINOS is a week of new propuestas (performance proposals) from some of the most exciting panamerican voices working in theatre and dance. CAMINOS explores the Pan-America that lives here in Toronto. Each evening features performance experiments and a lively exchange of ideas and new works from Rosa Labordé, Carmen Aguirre, and Aluna’s Bilingual Ensemble, as well as Irish-Australian-Colombian Walter J. Broderick performing his adaptation of Beckett’s First Love.
“CAMINOS is our way of inviting audiences to re-imagine the Americas, or more concretely, to see themselves as part of that re-imagining. In the arts we tend to look at ‘the old continent’ as our reference point, but we, as Canadians, play a key role in the cultural, economic and social vibrancy of our hemisphere,” said Aluna Artistic Director Beatriz Pizano.
“Exploring a number of rich cultural heritages and how they breathe, develop, and transform in Canada is an exciting proposition – Propuesta can in fact be translated as a proposal, an act of suggesting, an offering, an overture. The coming together of this plurality also breeds new ways of creating and presenting theatre and performance.”
The festival also features scheduled conversations on translation and cultural interpretation with artists, social innovators, and academics, and presentations on approaches to translation by Aluna’s Bilingual Ensemble. The discussions about translation are part of Aluna’s Interpretation Lab, a year-and-a-half long experimental workshop exploring how to break the barriers of language – through image, action, technology, and translation.
Programming and schedule:
Staying Alive
Creator / Performer: Martha Chaves
Director: Beatriz Pizano
A tale about love, loss, death and survival. When a daughter gets news about her
mother’s illness, she takes the long way home after many years of estrangement. Tuesday, November 3rd, 8:30pm.
Primer Amor | First Love
Translated and adapted by Walter J. Broderick from a short story by Samuel Beckett
Performer: Walter J. Broderick
An old man tells of how, at the age of twenty-five, he was expelled from his home on the death of his father and obliged to live rough. On a park bench he meets a woman who takes him to live with her. In Spanish with English surtitles. Wednesday, November 4th, 8:30pm.
Marine Life
Playwright/Director: Rosa Labordé
Dramaturg: Guillermo Verdecchia
Performers: Fabrizio Fillipo, Nicola Correira-Damude, Scott McCord
Lighting / Set Design: Trevor Schwellnus
Sound Design: Thomas Ryder-Payne
An environmental activist dedicated to improving the state of marine life finds that her personal life and relationships both threaten and echo her seemingly straightforward mission. Labordé offers another look at this work in progress. Thursday, November 5th and Friday, November 6th, 8:30pm.
Carmen Aguirre’s Broken Tailbone
Playwright/Performer: Carmen Aguirre
DJ: El Machetero
Director / Dramaturg: Brian Quirt
Producer: Rupal Shah
Daring, sexy and fun, Broken Tailbone is a window into the hidden world of Latin American dancehalls, through the eyes of celebrated writer and performer Carmen Aguirre. Carmen leads a public Latin American dance lesson, woven together with hilarious and moving stories. Commissioned, developed and produced by Nightswimming. Saturday, November 7th, 8:00pm.
Perdida
Creator / Performer: Lilia Leon
Perdida (‘lost woman’ in Spanish) reveals the journey of a woman who must excavate herself in order to find her path. Through dance, theatre and live music, Perdida explores ancestral memory and the feeling of being lost between cultures. Tuesday, November 3rd, 8:00pm.
The Stones Project
Creators: Anita La Selva & The Stones Ensemble
Lead Creator / Director: Anita La Selva
Performers: Tosha Doiron, Roshanak Jeberi, Lilia Leon, Katelyn McCulloch, Michelle Polak, Roula Said
A layered, multi-disciplinary approach exposes a world of images and rituals. The Stones Project explores the practice of stoning in our global culture. Wednesday, November 4th, 8:00pm.
Morir de Pie | Die Standing
A devised theatre project by the company
Director: Sebastian Marziali
Performers: Kristina Abbondanza, Khadijah Robert-Abdullah, Andrew Burke, Pooria Fard
Sound Design: Sina Shahrestani
When is enough, enough? A satirical and corporal examination of the moments that push us towards revolution and what awaits us on the other end. Thursday, November 5th, 8:00pm.
Ayelen
Writer/Director: Gilda Monreal
Performers: Ximena Huizi, Ohm, Lido Pimienta, Marcelo Arroyo
Set and Costumer Design: Shalak Attack, Bruno Smoky
Makeup: Shalak Attack
Lighting Design: Andre du Toit
Creature Sound Production: Shalak, Fiya, Cito
Music: Brandon Valdivia
Stage Manager: Solange Ribeiro
Production Assistant: Bertha Lee
Dramaturg: Rosa Labordé
Back after its smash SummerWorks 2015 success. Ayelen is a survival story set in the midst of mining exploitation. The only way to find peace is to confront darkness. Friday, November 6th, 7:00pm.
Cacao
Director / Choreographer / Dancer – Victoria Mata
Collaborative Creative Director – Rehana Tejpar
Percussionist / Composer – Y Josephine
Cacao is a dance-theater-drumming interpretation of a young girls’ journey home to Venezuala. Curiosity, history and secrecy lead her to the sacred teachings of Cacao, the bean of chocolate.
Friday, November 6th, 8:00pm.
Cabarets
Friday, November 6th, 9:30pm and Saturday, November 7th, 9:00pm
Stay with us late at the festival for a drink and a dynamic showcase of music, dance, burlesque and performance work. Featured artists include: Dainty Smith, Joe Recinos, Camila Diaz-Varela, Nico Contreras, Y Josephine, Shandra Spears, Ximena Huizi and the PRESENCIA Music Project featuring Ruben Esguerra, Brandon Valdivia and Jorge Cantor.
Conversatorios – A Conference
Saturday, November 7th, 1:00 – 6:00pm
Demonstrations and conversations about accessibility of theatre through language, technology, and alternative approaches to creating work. Includes a look at Cahoots Theatre’s current work, Ultrasound, with deaf artists; a Cree language scene exploration from Tomson Highway’s Rez Sisters, and conversations with translators and academics.
Intertribal Gathering
Sunday, November 8th, 3:00pm – 4:30pm
The Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance (IPAA) is proud to showcase Ontario artists creating performance in their language. Join us for a celebration of Indigenous language in performance to close CAMINOS 2015 and usher in the Weesageechak Begins To Dance Festival. This event is PWYC.