The 19th annual Chutzpah! Festival is almost upon us 鈥� and Burnaby鈥檚 Mary-Louise Albert is once again at the helm.
Albert is serving as the festival鈥檚 artistic director for the final time, after 15 years heading up the festival.
Chutzpah!: The Lisa Nemetz International Jewish Performing Arts Festival returns from Oct. 24 to Nov. 24, with performances at a variety of 麻豆传媒映画venues. The festival is in its 19th year of presenting comedy, music, theatre and dance from around the world, with this year鈥檚 artists coming from the U.K., Israel, Italy, the U.S.A. and across Canada.
Among the high-profile artists at this year鈥檚 festival is American comedian-singer Sandra Bernhard, who performs at the Vogue Theatre on Oct. 31.
New to the festival this year is film accompanied by live music. On Oct. 30, renowned guitarist Gary Lucas will perform live in front of two iconic films, Spanish Dracula and Frankenstein, at the Norman Rothstein Theatre. And, on Nov. 23, audiences can experience The Rescue: A Live Film-Concerto, which combines a 65-minute documentary film with a live musical performance to recount the little-known story of Colonel Jos茅 Arturo Castellanos, who collaborated with his Jewish friend to save thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust by issuing Salvadoran nationality certificates while working as a diplomat.
Other highlights include London-based songwriter and musical storyteller Daniel Cainer with his acclaimed show Gefilte Fish and Chips (Oct. 24 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre); Israeli pop superstar Rami Kleinstein (Oct. 27 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre); the world premiere of ProArteDanza鈥檚 The 9th, a contemporary ballet of Beethoven鈥檚 Ninth Symphony (Oct. 26 to 28 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre), and Yemen Blues, featuring 鈥淵emenite Jewish culture and Afro Funk groove鈥� (Nov. 9 at the Rickshaw Theatre).
In fact, there are far more highlights than that, so be sure check out the Chutzpah! website to find out about all of them 鈥� it鈥檚 at .
鈥淚鈥檓 overjoyed to be able to showcase such important, illuminating and multi-disciplinary works at this year鈥檚 festival, and proud to have shared so much with 麻豆传媒映画audiences over these past 15 years as its artistic director,鈥� Albert said in a press release. 鈥淚 look forward to sharing my last festival with you.鈥�
