ARTS
Chutzpah! fest boss scoured the world for talent
T
by Charlie Smith
he show will go on. Despite a border closed to all but essential travel, Jessica Mann Gutteridge has still succeeded in programming an eight-day cultural smorgasbord from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. And the former lawyer has pulled this off even though she became artistic managing director of the Chutzpah! Festival: The Lisa Nemetz Festival of International Jewish Performing Arts less than a month before a pandemic was declared. “It’s been challenging but exhilarating,” Gutteridge tells the Straight by phone. “I have had to learn new skills. I have had to meet new people and develop new working relationships. “I have been extremely lucky to have built a phenomenal team that’s supporting this work, including our livestream director, who is filling a new role that we never had to address before but is going to make everything happen smoothly and beautifully.” Gutteridge has even achieved symmetry by presenting two comedy, two dance, two theatrical, and two musical events. This reflects the festival’s 20-year history of interdisciplinary programming. Most will take place via livestream, but
Chutzpah! Festival artistic managing director Jessica Mann Gutteridge assembled a worldwide roster of comedy, dance, theatre, and musical acts in just a few months. Photo by Tallulah.
a small audience will be present for two shows: the world premiere of Idan Cohen’s Hourglass dance piece and the closing night comedy show, both from the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre. “We’ve set up a new way of entering and exiting the space so that we have a physically distanced flow and people won’t be crossing paths,” Gutteridge says. Each live and simulcast event will be hosted by comedian and podcaster Iris
Bahr from Los Angeles. “She will be interviewing the artists and moderating our postshow discussions with the audience, as well as performing her own show,” Gutteridge notes. The festival will open on November 21 with singer-songwriter Ben Caplan. The next day sees two theatre works in progress. Old Friends, a solo piece by Vancouver native Tamara Micner, revolves around a famous Simon & Garfunkel concert.
Shtumer Shabes (Silent Sabbath), by Rokhl Kafrissen, focuses on a lost script of a play performed in Warsaw in 1938. On November 23, Ella Rothschild’s dance work, Pigulim, will be presented from the Tel Aviv Dance Festival. The following evening, Israeli jazz pianist Guy Mintus will perform songs from his new album, A Gershwin Playground, via livestream. “I’m actually so excited about all of our artists,” Gutteridge says, “because they’re all such engaged, thoughtful, warm, and accessible kind of people.” She describes herself as a “Jewish New Yorker”. When she moved to Vancouver six and a half years ago, she didn’t have any connection to the local Jewish community. “But one of the first things I saw was a big poster advertising the Chutzpah! Festival and immediately felt at home here,” Gutteridge reveals. “I’m glad that Jewish arts and culture has a strong presence here in the Vancouver arts scene and the Canadian arts scene. And I am happy that I get a chance to continue to promote that work in this community.” g The Chutzpah! Festival runs from November 21 to 28, live at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre and online.
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MULTIMEDIA
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Thank you
for continuing to embrace genre-bending art from around the world with us
by Featuring Jonathon Young Nov 25 Arggy Jenati ti Nov 26 rbyshire Nov 29 Aryo Khakpour Nov 27 Omari Newton Nov 28 JD Derbyshire November 25-29 at 7:30 pm Tickets - pay what you decide at rumbletix.org
Online or Live in the parking lot at PL1422 1422 William Street, Vancouver Unceded Coast Salish Territory
Rumble Theatre acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia
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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT
NOVEMBER 19 – 26 / 2020
