Wednesday, February 16, 2011

32nd Rhubarb Festival, February 16-27


Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto presents the 32nd edition of its Rhubarb Festival, which starts tonight and runs until February 27. They bill the festival as "Canada's premiere experimental performance festival" and it features contemporary theatre, dance, performance art, music and hybrid forms by Ravi Jain, Alex Napier, Claire Calnan, emergency exit, Mark Shyzer and others.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is a professional Canadian theatre company dedicated to the development and presentation of queer theatre, and is committed to work that challenges the boundaries of theatrical and social convention.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is located at 12 Alexander Street, two blocks north of Carlton and Yonge or two blocks south of Wellesley and Yonge on the east side.
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THE 32ND RHUBARB FESTIVAL - WEEK ONE OVERVIEW
February 16 - February 20, 2011

Ticket availability:
Week One: Feb 16 - 20

click here to see full programming info for Week One.

MAINSTAGE EVENINGS
8:00pm RUN LIKE HELL (vagy menj a Pokolba)
8:00pm How to Survive While in Exile
8:30pm Godwin's Law
8:30pm time 2b fame us
9:00pm Jesus Chrysler
9:00pm Stay Here, Don't Go
9:30pm Detroit Time Machine
9:30pm (Wed only) And Sheep Are Scared...
10:00pm (Wed only) Rhubarb Festival Kick-Off Bash
6:00pm (Sat only) Young Creators' Unit Presentations
10:00pm (Sat only) Of A Monstrous Child: a gaga musical

SUNDAY SOCIALS
2:30pm Young Creators' Unit Presentations
2:30pm Post-Living Ante-Action Theater (PoLAAT)
5:00pm Semitic Score / Live Photo
7:00pm The Beauty Project: the male gaze
7:00pm Toronto Show & Tell
8:00pm Let's Get It Together!

MOBILE WORKS
Intersection Project
k[NO]w places
News Commutes
Please Copy us Forever

THE 32ND RHUBARB FESTIVAL - WEEK TWO OVERVIEW
February 23 - February 27, 2011

Ticket availability:
Week Two: Feb 23 - 27

click here to see full programming info for Week 2.

MAINSTAGE EVENINGS
8:00pm Bravislovia
8:00pm Guns
8:30pm On Livingston's Method
8:30pm And then there were 4...
9:00pm Who Who Who's Got a Crush on You? (A Slumber Party for Boys)
9:00pm Airship
9:30pm (Wed only) The Centre for Sleep and Dream Studies
10:00pm (Fri only) Weekend in Alphaville
10:30pm (Fri only) THE BIG THAW
6:00pm (Sat only) Young Creators' Unit Presentations
9:30pm (Sat only) The Me Show

SUNDAY SOCIALS
2:30pm Young Creators' Unit Presentations
5:00pm A conversation with Adrian Howells
7:00pm Upper Toronto - Community Consultation

MOBILE WORKS
Dear Neighbour: Homecoming
Intersection Project
k[NO]w places
News Commutes
Please Copy us Forever
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Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents
THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL
TORONTO’S 32ND ANNUAL CONVERGENCE OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE

Festival Director Laura Nanni
Festival Sponsor TD
Media Sponsor NOW Magazine
FEBRUARY 16 – 27, 2011 | BUDDIESINBADTIMES.COM

Canada’s premiere experimental performance festival returns to Buddies in a new two-week format. Over 100 local and international artists offer up fresh live encounters in contemporary theatre, dance, performance art, music and hybrid forms. This year’s line-up includes sacrilegious celebrity impersonations, utopian science fiction, mass pop-up performances in secret spots around the city, and all kinds of glorious transgressions.

RHUBARB’S NEW TWO-WEEK FORMAT:

• Mainstage Evenings: Wed – Sat, beginning at 8pm - Different programming each night
• Sunday Socials: an affably social day of politically-minded performances and events - PWYC
• Mobile Works: artists infiltrate the streets of Toronto with surprising performances designed for public spaces - FREE

RHUBARB FESTIVAL DIRECTOR, LAURA NANNI, IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE HER INAUGURAL LINE-UP, STATING:
“The political and social climate of the world, evidenced in our own city, is increasingly divisive. There is a shift towards extremism, conservatism and away from acceptance; there is growing pessimism, fear and antagonism expressed between geographic, political and social groups. This is of great concern as it threatens our sense of community and celebration of difference that makes Toronto such a unique and inspiring place to live. At a time when the place we call home is becoming increasingly unrecognizable for many, the art we make and present is more important than ever.

The work in this year's Rhubarb responds to the immediate pressures of our changing city by providing a platform for divergent voices and creating a much needed space to come together for action, reflection and exchange. Performance infiltrates public space and meets audiences in unpredictable places; international and local artists collaborate; distinct artistic traditions come together to form new hybrids; and viewers become more active participants in creation. Rhubarb redefines not only how we think about art but how we view the city and world in which we live.”
2011 RHUBARB FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS:
Nanni has engaged fearless artists who re-imagine the city and how we live in it, and challenge the
boundaries between artistic disciplines.

Toronto plays a starring role in the festival, as artists strive to take back the city that serves as inspiration for their work. Upper Toronto - Community Consultation (Feb 27, 7pm) is a science fiction design presentation by Small Wooden Shoe (Jacob Zimmer in collaboration with Tim Maly), who consult the audience on a proposed project to build a newer and better city, above the existing one. Toronto Show & Tell (Feb 20, 7pm) lets us glance at the ideas, objects and stories that make Toronto strange and special through the eyes of locals young and old.

Working outside the conventional boundaries of their disciplines, Montreal-based visual artists Anna Jane McIntyre and 2Fik, create visually stunning performances. McIntyre fuses the languages of theatre, dance, circus and sculpture to create extraordinary characters in And then there were 4 (Feb 23 – 26). 2Fik helms a two-part performance (Feb 20, 5pm). First, semetic score, in collaboration with British art star Oreet Ashery, explores queer jewish and muslim identities. Second, Live Photo recreates de La Tour's Cheat With The Ace of Clubs as a cumulative tableau vivant, with gender-bending 2Fik posing as the various subjects.

This year’s festival features Toronto’s hottest indie artists, such as Ravi Jain, Alex Napier, Claire Calnan, Hannah Cheesman, Philip McKee, Tara Beagan, Michael Wheeler, Margaret Evans, Christine Horne, Adam Lazarus, Erin Brandenburg, and the return to Toronto of bluemouth inc. and emergency exit. Emerging queer performers to watch include Johnnie Walker, Jordan Tannahill, Mark Shyzer and Buddies’ Young Creators’ Unit, lead by Evalyn Parry. As part of Buddies’ residency program Alistair Newton and his company Ecce Homo present Of A Monsterous Child: a gaga a musical and Kaleb Robertson performs his first ever solo, The Me Show. Visiting artists this year include Winnipeg’s out of line theatre, Glasgow-based performance artist Adrian Howells and the notorious LA-based collective My Barbarian.

New This Year – Mobile Works

For the first time in Rhubarb’s 32-year history, artists will take to the streets with Mobile Works, a series of free performances happening all around the city throughout the festival. Mobile Works will infiltrate Toronto’s sidewalks, streets, public spaces and underground through intimate actions, spontaneous happenings and large-scale performance interventions.

FOR A FULL FESTIVAL SCHEDULE PLEASE VISIT WWW.BUDDIESINBADTIMES.COM

THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL
Feb 16 – 27, 2011
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
Wed – Sat, Evening Pass $20
Sunday, PWYC
Mobile Works, FREE
Box Office 416-975-8555
buddiesinbadtimes.com

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