Magnetic North travels to a different Canadian city every other year. In 2010 we will be in Kitchener-Waterloo and we already have a staff and Advisory in place for the planning.
“I couldn't resist the gravitational pull of Magnetic North Theatre Festival. It has a winning pedigree, and I'm excited that we'll be raising the curtain in Waterloo Region in 2010. Magnetic North is bringing a wealth of experience and a fantastic opportunity to Waterloo Region, and Waterloo Region has a lot to offer in return. I'm delighted to be a part of this incredible festival.”
– Gina Holstead, KW Festival Manager. Read bio
"I was born and bred here in Kitchener-Waterloo and this is where I got my first exposure to the performing arts. Though I have been away for over 15 years, I am excited to re-discover the arts scene at home and help produce a festival of this caliber."
– Janelle Rainville, Technical Director/Production Manager. Read bio
“To have a festival of the calibre of Magnetic North Theatre Festival come to my hometown is remarkable in itself. To have the opportunity to work on that festival first-hand is the chance of a lifetime. I am thrilled to be joining the Magnetic North Theatre Festival 2010 team.”
– Gabrielle Clermont, Publicist. Read bio
Kitchener-Waterloo Advisory
We want to thank or KW Advisory for working on the ground with Magnetic North.
Co-chairs Bill Chesney and Sarah Shortreed, Brenda Asselstine, Don Chapman, Frank Chen, Debbie Currie, Renee Ellis, Cheryl Ewing, Jamie Grant, Betty Anne Keller and Ingrid Pregel.
Seasons Greetings from the staff at Magnetic North Theatre Festival. We wish you a safe and festive holiday season!
The office will be closed for the holidays on December 18 and reopening on January 4.
Magnetic North visit Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary
Recently the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, along with colleagues from the Push Festival, The Theatre Centre and One Yellow Rabbit traveled as part of a delegation of festival presenters to Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary. Here are some highlights from the trip:
Seventeen young men run at me full speed, stop on a dime, run to the back wall. Then charge again.
Some as young as twelve a few as old as thirty and every age in between. It’s a portrait of Flemish masculinity. Walking, running, sweating, wrestling, throwing apples, preening… they are Rennen. They are Kopergietery. They are the next generation of Flemish performance.
Rennen was one of only several dance or theatre performances our Canadian delegation of festival presenters took in while on our ten-day festival-hopping tour of Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary. We saw Rennen (translation: "Running") along with three other works as part of the Jonge Harten Festival (Young at Heart), held in a small city in the Netherlands called Groningen.
It started with an invitation.
From Naomi Campbell of Magnetic North to Dr. Maria Mayer-Szilagyi of the Kortars Contemporary Drama Festival in Budapest, Hungary. From Sherrie Johnson of the PuSh Festival to Maria: and again from Naomi to Maria. After three visits to Canada, Maria developed an affinity for Canadian theatre and developed a desire to build a focus on Canada to the Kortars Festival. Sadly, this desire came about just as the TradeRoutes and PromArt programs suffered their devastating cuts.
So we ended up with another invitation: this time from Kortars to Magnetic North Theatre Festival, PuSh, The Theatre Centre, and the High Performance Rodeo to attend the Festival. Maybe this delegation of Canadian Presenters would be able to act as an advance team in an effort to build connections between Hungarian and Canadian independent artists.
Since we were headed that way, it made perfect sense to take in a little more of Europe. An invitation from Thomas Kraus of the PAZZ Festival, produced by the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, in Northern Germany, extended the trip and took the delegation to Oldenburg, Hamburg and on a quick bus-ride to the Netherlands.
Thomas has been to Canada just about as often as Maria. Thomas was similarly enamored with Canadian theatre and invited Theatre Replacement'sWeeTube (one of the eleven short works from Hive2) to his festival. Their collaboration continues in 2010 with a development residency and international co-production of Dress me up in your love. It’s only one example of how such international connections really do work. But it’s also an example of a festival and Staats theater investing time, energy and resources into a company that they wish to have to an ongoing creative dialogue with.
Thomas and his colleague Anna Lena Schulte showed us a fabulous time in Oldenburg, allowing us to take in productions at their venue, as well as the aforementioned Jonge Harten and arranging meetings with Kampnagel (a converted tractor factory now one of Germany's foremost presenting houses) in nearby Hamburg. But the highlight of that leg of the trip was when Thomas and Anna Lena took us to a fabulous bar in an abandoned bowling alley and convinced the manager to open up the back room so we could practice the delicate art of "Kegel" or nine-pin bowling. Referee Michael Green declared team Boni-Connors-Nelson the undisputed champions over four games. Canada took home the gold.
Kris Nelson, Ann Connors, Franco Boni
Week two saw similar European hospitality on display when we landed in Budapest. The Kortars Festival had invited not just the Canadians, but representatives from Germany, Belarus, Armenia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Korea and the USA, so our delegation was able to network broadly with international presenters from a variety of points. The Kortars Festival had divided their program into two: an international and Hungarian component.
Along Along with all the offerings of the Kortars Festival, the delegation was treated to a Hungarian production of Rattled and Disappeared, a physical theatre production loosely adapted from Kafka's The Trial for eighteen actors by The Katona József Theatre, the quintessential repertory company in Budapest. Known for their physical theatre style that liberally combines burlesque, break-dance, cabaret, circus, Hollywood musicals and an aggressive sense of the grotesque, the company has toured internationally for years. Let's close as we began, with a few images from the world of international performance ...
A single long narrow hallway of bureaucratic offices stretches endlessly into the distance, where clerks nap at their desks.
K enters full of righteous indignation, but within moments is dragged by the ear to the stairs where his head is brutally slammed to the floor.
A young man enters the hall with a cup of espresso. He tosses his cup aside, through an open window. The cup clatters endlessly backstage, for a full minute or more. Everyone waits respectfully, nervously, expectantly. His calm demeanor is made all the more menacing by the obsequiousness with which even the strongman treats him. The cup finally clatters back onstage and comes to rest at his feet.
Before long K's neighbour, an actress, is parading down the hall in a note-perfect imitation of Ginger Rogers from a Busby Berkley musical. In the evening fog, overlooking the Danube, she reaches into her belly and offers him not a piece of her heart exactly, but a section of intestine.
Far from being grotesque, it’s the most tender moment in K's downward spiral, a moment of humanity before she proceeds to betray his trust with another man.
Dates to Remember
June 9 – 19, 2010, Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Kitchener-Waterloo
