Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The Ashkenaz Festival celebrates a vast range of Jewish arts and culture by hosting artists from across the globe, featuring music, film, theatre, dance, literature, crafts and visual arts. With more than 90 acts and over 250 individual artists, the Festival offers a wide range of unique programs to choose from. Though the majority of its programming is provided free, Ashkenaz features a handful of ticketed events, representing some of the most exclusive, can’t-miss programming that the festival has to offer. Ticket prices are kept as low as possible, and details on these marquee events from local and international artists are included below. For a full list of programming, visit ashkenazfestival.com.
MUSIC
Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis (Israel)
Tuesday, August 26 | 8pm | Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
$22 in advance, $25 day of
With his 21st century mix of Iraqi, Middle-eastern and Israeli rock music, Dudu Tassa has been a major figure in the Israeli rock scene for over a decade. His unique "Iraq n' Roll" draws on the legacy and repertoire of his grandfather and great-uncle, Daoud and Saleh al Kuwaiti, Jewish musicians highly esteemed in the Arabic world for their seminal role in creating modern Iraqi music. Tassa's electrifying reinterpretations of this material create a poignant dialogue between the generations, and help restore a neglected musical and cultural legacy to its place within the diverse tapestry of modern Israeli culture.
Sponsored by Consulate General of Israel
*Tickets only available through www.rhcentre.ca or the RHCPA Box Office at 905-787-8811
MUSIC
AVIVA (Toronto)
Saturday, August 30 | 9pm | Harbourfront Centre Theatre
$22 in advance, $25 day of
The eponymous solo project by Jaffa Road lead singer Aviva Chernick is inspired by her work as a cantorial singer, prayer-leader, and her study of the Balkan Judeo-Spanish tradition under the tutelage of the legendary Flory Jagoda. In this unique and rarely-heard concert program, Aviva has crafted a new sound, in a joyous and devotional musical experience featuring English, Hebrew and Ladino.
FILM - Canadian Premiere
Alicia Svigals' The Yellow Ticket (NY/Toronto)
Featuring Alicia Svigals and Marilyn Lerner
Sunday, August 31 | 2pm | Harbourfront Centre Theatre
$15 in advance, $18 day of
Tickets available via the Harbourfront Centre
Set in Poland and Tsarist Russia, the film The Yellow Ticket (1918) portrays a woman's struggle to overcome adversity in a story of secret identities, heroic measures, and triumphant love. This is the first film to explore Jewish discrimination in Tsarist Russia and stars famed Polish actress Pola Negri, Hollywood's first European silent film star. A newly restored version of the original classic is presented as part of a multimedia concert featuring the live performance of an original score by klezmer violin master Alicia Svigals, joined by virtuoso pianist Marilyn Lerner.
Co-presented with Toronto Jewish Film Festival
MUSIC - Canadian Premiere
The Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the Book (USA/Bosnia)
Featuring Merima Ključo & Seth Knopp
With an introduction and talkback hosted by Ralph Benmergui
Sunday, August 31 | 6pm | Harbourfront Centre Theatre
$22 in advance, $25 day of
Inspired by the historical novel People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, The Sarajevo Haggadah: Music of the Book, is a new multimedia work that traces the highly dramatic story of one of the world's most famous manuscripts. The show follows the manuscript's travels from medieval Spain to 20th century Bosnia, where it was hidden and rescued during World War II by Muslims, and later restored by the National Museum in Sarajevo after the 1992-1995 war. The production is composed and performed by Bosnian-born, Los Angeles-based accordionist Merima Ključo – whose unique score draws on the musical traditions of Spain, Italy, Austria, and Bosnia-Herzegovina – and presented with animation by video artist Bart Woodstrup.
Sponsored by the New Jewish Culture Network of the Foundation for Jewish Culture
THEATRE
The Big Bupkis! (NY)
Featuring Shane Bertram Baker
Sunday, August 31 | 8pm | Studio Theatre
$15 in advance, $18 day of
The self-proclaimed, "foremost Episcopalian on the Yiddish stage today," Shane Bertram Baker’s one-man tribute to Yiddish vaudeville is an evening of “cheap jokes, magic tricks, ukulele music, hypnotism, unpleasant stories about Sophie Tucker, transvestitism, and a Yiddish bullfight poem, among other theatrical indignities.”
A Kansas City native, Baker is acknowledged to be the first non-Jew to ever get this far in Yiddish Vaudeville. Mixing English and Yiddish, with English subtitles, in the show Baker explains how he became fluent in Yiddish, became a fixture in New York’s Yiddish vaudeville community, and became the executive director of the Congress for Jewish Culture.
THEATRE - Canadian Premiere
Lilith, the Night Demon in One Lewd Act (USA/Canada)
Featuring Veretski Pass, Michael Wex, Anthony Russell and Heather Klein
Monday, September 1 | 6pm | Harbourfront Centre Theatre
$22 in advance, $25 day of
Veretski Pass’ newest and most daring project is a Yiddish chamber folk opera that tells the story of Adam's first wife, Lilith, in an alternate story of creation that’s edgy, adult and definitely NSFW. Refusing to lie beneath Adam, Lilith flies off to the Red Sea, creating then killing 100 demon babies every day, until the three angels sent by God negotiate a deal with her. Featuring best-selling author and Yiddish Kvetch-meister, Michael Wex, as the narrator; classical soprano Heather Klein as Lilith; African-American Yiddish opera singer Anthony Russell as Adam, with Jewish Music veterans Joshua Horowitz, Cookie Segelstein and Stuart Brotman, all backed by a 16-piece choir under the direction of Alexander Veprinsky.
For a full list of programming, please visit ashkenazfestival.com. Additional attractions, as well as performance and workshop dates and times, will be announced shortly. The Ashkenaz Festival is co-produced with the Harbourfront Centre.
Unless otherwise stated, tickets are available for purchase from the Harbourfront Centre Box Office at 235 Queen Quay West, by calling 416-973-4000, or online at www.harbourfrontcentre.com.
Website: ashkenazfestival.com
Twitter: @ashkenazfest
Facebook: Ashkenaz Festival
Photo: Shane Bertram Baker.
2014-07-30
Toronto: Ticketed events now on sale at Ashkenaz Festival August 26-September 1