Results tagged “luminato2009”

Another year's Luminato has come and now gone, raising the question of just how brightly this new(ish) festival's star is shining.

Finally! We've been to a few disappointing Luminato displays of late, and a few disappointing "marquee" literary events, and so it is with great pleasure and relief that we can report that last week, both fiction lovers and Luminato-goers got exactly what they've been craving: well-executed programming that was as warm and inviting as it was ambitious. World Voices in Fiction brought four of the brightest new luminaries in contemporary fiction to the Al Green theatre Thursday night, to read from and discuss their recent works, and did so in a most satisfying fashion. The authors were brilliant and also, happily, comfortable in front of an audience. The space was welcoming and the pace relaxed, just right for a reading on a lazy summer night. (Organizers of all literary events take note: acoustics matter. So do lighting and sightlines. Please book your venues accordingly.) In short, it was just what a book-ish night should be.

                                   

At the crack of noon on Saturday, countless food enthusiasts lined up to buy fistfuls of tasting tickets for Luminato's one and only food event, 1000 Tastes of Toronto. Eastbound lanes of Queens Quay between Lower Simcoe and Rees were closed to accommodate the forty-some vendor booths, stretching down the street in front of the beautiful new Simcoe Wavedeck. Some of the city's best-known and respected chefs were there, chatting with patrons and serving up street-friendly versions of their signature dishes. Torontoist was fortunate to sneak in a bit early and partake in this whirlwind tasting tour of Toronto.

Urban Planner is Torontoist's daily guide to what's on in Toronto, published every morning. If you have an event you'd like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you've got any—to events@torontoist.com.

The ten-day celebration of creativity that is Luminato effectively strives to turn the city’s cultural potential inside out. To engage the community, experiences that are typically relegated to the galleries and theatres are taken into the public realm—and conversely, the perceived barriers that keep the wider public from entering many cultural spaces are tackled through invitational and innovative programming.

Because you're worth it, Toronto, L'Oréal's Luminato Festival has descended upon your fair city, bringing things such as Neil Gaiman, Randy Bachman, and religious controversy to Hogtown. But worry not, dramaphiles, there's theatre too! From faux-punk rock shows, to nine-hour epics, to children's operas, to Edgar Allan Poe, there's something for everyone (who can afford the mostly expensive ticket prices) to enjoy.

Some little girls are made of Sugar Plum Fairy dreams; others, of spicier stuff. Tina Pereira, a second soloist in the National Ballet and one of the five leading women of this month's Carmen, has always had a little more kick in her pointe shoes. For her, the piquant, passionate part of Carmen—flamboyantly translated from Bizet to the ballet by Davide Bombana, and now performed in Canada for the first time—is an exquisite fit. Catch her while you can: presented as part of Luminato, in duet with daring original composition Skin Divers, the highly starred Carmen continues until June 14. We snagged Pereira on a break from intense rehearsing to get her first-person take on the tragic heroine and treasured role.

Tying into the “contemporary communications” theme that forms a common thread through many of the projects in the festival, Luminato has organized a series of visual-art installations on the shared topic of Communication / Environment, and placed them in public thoroughfares in the downtown core. These works (says Luminato) “lend perception to the imperceptible elements that form the foundation of our communication technologies.”

Urban Planner is Torontoist's daily guide to what's on in Toronto, published every morning. If you have an event you'd like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you've got any—to events@torontoist.com.

Despite all that Toronto has to offer, it is not a perfect city. Operating under the assumption that Toronto is “unfinished and full of possibility,” consulting firm OpenCity Projects uses bold design in order to create more meaningful experiences for people in the city. Its most recent endeavour, fittingly titled “Icebreakers,” tackles the communication gap between people who live in, work in, and visit Toronto.

There is something undeniably joyous about a massive red ball. One that eases itself into unexpected public places is rather impossible to resist. During the course of this year’s Luminato festival, Kurt Perschke’s RedBall project is making a tour of six downtown locations. This giant, inflatable ball occupied spaces at Nathan Phillips Square and Old City Hall on Friday and Sunday, respectively, and will next appear at First Canadian Place at 100 King Street West on Tuesday.

ART: Communication | Environment, part of Luminato, features a series of eye-popping installations with the common theme of contemporary communications. Among them is David Rokeby’s installation at the Allen Lambert Galleria, which features sixty-four spheres suspended along the atrium in the form of a modified sine wave (the basic structure of wireless communication). Allen Lambert Galleria (181 Bay Street), all day, FREE.