PRODUCER
Music. Theatre. Literature. Dance. Film. Comedy. Readings. Conversations.
CONCERTS
Artistic Producer / Co-created with Frank London & Yair Dalal
Presented by Koffler Centre of the Arts | World Premiere at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto | March 2012
A new, commissioned concert mixing and melding the musical traditions of Middle Eastern Jews together with Eastern European Jewish music. The program was developed in an intensive residency with Toronto’s top world music artists joining Frank London (New York) and Yair Dalal (Israel): Waleed Abdulhamid, Aviva Chernick, Rick Shadrach Lazar, Lenka Lichtenberg, Demetrios Petsalakis, Debashis Sinha, and Maryem Tollar.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS IN PRODUCING CONCERTS:
Lenka Lichtenberg, Glenn Gould Studio, 2013
Aviva Chernick, 918 Bathurst, Toronto, 2012
Koffler Chamber Orchestra with Jacques Israelievitch, Toronto, 2008-12
Kinky Friedman, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto, Toronto, 2011
Jaffa Road with Yair Dalal, Hugh's Room, Toronto, 2010
Avishai Cohen, Isabel Bader Theatre, Toronto, 2010
Kobi Oz, Canadian Premiere of Psalms for the Perplexed, Mod Club, Toronto, 2009 (Read what Kobi Oz had to say about our show)
David Broza, Leah Posluns Theatre, Toronto, 2008
Beyond the Pale, World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, 2007
Socalled, Philadelphia, 2007
FESTIVALS
Visual Arts Curator
Ashkenaz Festival, Habourfront Centre, Toronto | 2018
Orchestrated the site-wide WondeRing multidisciplinary project together with Creative Ways including producing the Festival’s signature site wide roving performance parade with leading international musicians and original choreography / staging, overseeing the production of large-scale puppets and kinetic sculptures, organizing hands-on all-ages art making stations and installations, oversee site décor across Habourfront Centre - all inspired by the wonder in Eastern European Jewish folk arts practices and the artwork of Benny Ferdman. I also curated the multi-disciplinary exhibition The Room in the Elephant by Benny Ferdman and coordinate the related intensive workshop at OCAD University
For details, click here
For additional photos, click here
Multidisciplinary Programs Coordinator
KlezKanada, Quebec | 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019
Organizing, presenting and moderating talks, conversations, roundtable discussions, film screenings, language-based programming and visual arts workshops at the annual Yiddish cultural retreat in Quebec.
Program Team
Le Mood, Montreal | 2012
THEATRE
Producer
Presented at the Abilities Centre, Whitby, Ontario | June 2014 | Produced by Selfconscious Theatre in partnership with Abilities Centre and The Theatre Centre
Co-Created by Michael Rubenfeld and Sarah Garton Stanley together with Judith Snow | Directed by Sarah Garton Stanley | Music by Andrew Penner
A musical play presented in an outdoor performance tent on the grounds of the state-of-the-art Abilities Centre, concluding a highly successful Ontario tour. Performed together with a twenty-person inclusion choir from the Durham region, it is a provocative piece of theatre that challenges audiences to confront their assumptions about disability and difference.
We Keep Coming Back, 2012 - 2014
Producer, initial years of project development and research
Produced by Selfconscious Productions
Co-Created by Michael Rubenfeld and Sarah Garton Stanley with Mary Berchard and Katka Reszke
We Keep Coming Back tells the story of a trip to Poland that Michael made with his mother Mary together with Sarah and Katka. The performance explores themes of identity, memory and place through the lens of contemporary Poland and rediscovery of lost connections.
SYMPOSIUM
Co-curated together with Alex Bulmer
Presented at the Abilities Centre, Whitby, Ontario in conjunction with The Book of Judith | June 2014 | Produced by Selfconscious Theatre and Abilities Centre with generous support from the Equity Office of the Canada Council for the Arts
A daylong symposium exploring accessibility in the performing arts convening artists, arts professionals and organizations committed to incorporating inclusive thinking into their programming, creation process and education initiatives.
Presenters included: Franco Boni, Alex Bulmer, Rena Cohen, Jan Derbyshire, Wanda Fitzgerald, Brendan Healy, Lynda Hill, Leslie Lester, Catherine MacKinnon, Elizabeth Morris, Pam Patterson, Jeffrey Renn, Alan Shain, Judith Snow, Elizabeth Sweeney and Kazumi Tsuruoka. To full the full program click here
CULTURAL CONVERSATIONS
Trailblazers & Troublemakers: Filmmakers Telling Stories of Muslim & Jewish Women, 2017
Noor Cultural Centre, Toronto | April 2017 | Presented by FENTSTER and Shema & Iqra’: The Jewish-Muslim Text Project | Community Partners: Noor Cultural Centre, University of Toronto Multi-Faith Centre, Makom: Creative Downtown Judaism and Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto
Canadian filmmakers Zarqa Nawaz (journalist / creator of CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie) and Francine Zuckerman(writer / producer / director) shared insights and excerpts from their ground-breaking documentaries, Me & The Mosque and Half the Kingdom. These films focus on the efforts of Muslim and Jewish women to reconcile deeply held faith commitments with their desires for equal access to communal and ritual spaces.
LITERATURE
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto | October 2011 | Presented by Koffler Centre of the Arts and the International Festival of Authors
Curated a daylong feature on Russian-Jewish writers and themes. Pictured: David Bezmozgis (The Free World; Natasha) and Gary Shteyngart (Little Failure; Super Sad True Love Story) in conversation with Gal Beckerman (When They Come For Us We'll Be Gone). Presenters also included MP Irwin Cotler, translator Peter Filkins, Israeli novelist and poet Michal Govrin and author Julia Creet.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS IN PRODUCING LITERARY PROGRAMMING:
Book launch for The Girl Who Stole Everything by Norman Ravvin in conversation with Yoni Goldstein, 2020
Book launch for Mystical Vertigo by Aubrey L. Glazer with performances by Jaffa Road, Aaron Bensoussan & Ernie Tollar, Rivoli, 2013
Lost and Found Spaces: Buildings, Cities, and the Stories They Tell. Book launch for Traces of the Past by Sara Ferdman Tauben with Shawn Micallef, David Kaufman and Lisa Rochon, 2012
Jewish Book Fair presented by Koffler Centre of the Arts featuring Anita Diamant, Alan Dershowitz. David Grossman, and many more, 2008-12
Helen & Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Books Awards presented by Koffler Centre of the Arts, 2008-12
DANCE
Past Present: Chagall Through Toronto’s Artists, 2011
Presented at Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto | December 2011 | Together with Koffler Centre of the Arts | In conjunction with the major AGO exhibition, Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou
Produced and curated an evening of dance, music, performance, and spoken word with Toronto’s brightest avant-garde artists creating exciting new Jewish culture that reaches back to the world of Chagall for flavour, colour, and inspiration. Pictured: performance by Kaeja d'Dance. Other featured artists: the eight-piece jazz fusion ensemble The Thing Is, accordionist Sasha Luminsky from the former Soviet Union and the Canadian debut of an excerpt from Bella: The Colour of Love about Bella Chagall, the artist’s wife and muse, written by Mary Kerr and Theresa Tova and performed by Yiddish jazz chanteuse Theresa Tova together with Montreal pianist, Matt Herskowitz.