Volume 23 Issue 9 - June / July / August 2018

Beat by Beat | Music Theatre
KATHERINE HOLLAND
Home Town
Engagement High
on the List for
Luminato’s
Josephine Ridge
JENNIFER PARR
In May, two shows stood out for me for different reasons. Picnic in
the Cemetery at Canadian Stage’s intimate upstairs Berkeley Street
Theatre was an unusual theatrical concert with a whimsical heart
and setting, combining often-sublime chamber music (by composer
Njo Kong Kie) with simple props,
a dancer, short films and onscreen
poetic introductions to the various
compositions. The beautiful playing
by violinist Hong Iat U and cellist
Nicholas Yee (supported by the
composer on the piano) stood
out as enigmatic conversations
between their instruments, in
much the same way that author
Patrick O’Brian describes the often
improvisatory, lyrical, shipboard
violin and cello duets played by
his famous characters Captain Jack
Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.
A more traditional musical
theatre outing was the TSO’s
concert presentation of Leonard
Bernstein’s musical Candide This
was a wonderful opportunity to
hear and see the exquisite Tracy
Dahl as Cunegonde, with her crystal
clear tone, perfect technique, and
delightful acting and star mezzo
Judith Forst in great comedic form
as the lively Old Lady.
Looking ahead to June, there is
no shortage of music theatre on
Josephine Ridge
offer but the most striking cluster of offerings is concentrated under
the umbrella of the Luminato Festival. I took the opportunity to meet
artistic director Josephine Ridge to ask her about her approach and
goals for the festival as she nears the beginning of her second season
in Toronto.
WN: Looking at the upcoming Luminato program, what really
struck me was how much music there is, but also, and this seems
new this year, how politically and socially engaged the whole festival
is. Is that because of the current atmosphere we are living in?
JR: It’s actually deeper than that; it’s about the way I view the role
of a festival within its home city – that a festival needs to be relevant
to the inhabitants of its city and therefore we need to engage with
the ideas that are in the public realm of discussion. We need to think
about what are the issues, the concerns and the enthusiasms and in
other words really what’s in the ether, because if we’re not a festival
that is distinctly about Toronto and of Toronto then it means that we
are not contributing and adding to the cultural landscape in the way
that I believe we should as a festival.
It’s something that I was very proud to have been able to do when I
was at the Melbourne Festival.
And it takes time to explore and get to know a new city.
That’s part of the excitement of course, and I think, as in all things,
with fresh eyes one has a different perspective, perhaps, as well – and
that certainly for me adds to the interest in terms of the conversations
that I have.
You have talked before about wanting to have conversations with
as many of the arts organizations as possible in the city.
Yes, this is the other side of the engagement and connection that
we were just talking about. This is really about understanding what
Toronto artists and companies are doing now, and how can we add
to that and perhaps together achieve something which each can’t on
their own.
There is already growing excitement about that approach from
some of the artists I’ve spoken to – at Tapestry Opera for example.
In fact, Tapestry is a good case in point. I quickly came to understand
the work that Michael Mori and his company are doing, so the
conversation with Michael about this year was around work that they
have produced in the past that is really deserving of a wider audience
and being revisited and seen in an
international festival context. We
very quickly got to Nicole Lizée’s
multimedia piece Tables Turned.
It’s one of the important components
of a platform we have created
this year called Illuminated Works,
which is all about fulfilling one
of Luminato’s founding briefs –
which was to throw a spotlight on
the creativity of Toronto and take
Toronto arts to the world. We are
bringing a large group of international
and Canadian presenters
and producers to come and look
at a whole range of work, with a
view to it being picked up and given
national and international touring
opportunities. We can’t work with
everybody every year but we can
make a start and really make sure
that over time we engage as widely
as we can.
Will you be continuing with
these conversations, looking for
companies you haven’t yet met,
and new artists emerging onto
the scene?
Definitely. One of the important roles we have is not only to present
work that is complete but also to recognize the proper support that is
required for the creative development process of new work, and so in
the program this year we have four works that are works in progress.
We’re giving those artists an opportunity to put their work in front
of an audience so they can feel how it sits with that audience and feed
that learning into the way they then take the work forward for future
development.
This will be exciting for audiences, too, to be in on the development
process on the ground floor.
Yes, and I think the works we have chosen are far-ranging: Dr.
Silver: A Celebration of Life, Hell’s Fury, The Ward Cabaret, and
Balaklava Blues.
And they’re all music theatre – as we define it at The WholeNote
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