Design, create, perform and promenade! Join in a moving experience as a participant in the 2012 Ashkenaz Festival Parade Masterclass. 

Contribute in the three pre-event planning and lead-up sessions, and share in the fun on Monday, Sept.3/12 as the processional performance travels around Harbourfront Centre and adjacent Queens Quay locations.

Since the Ashkenaz Festival began in 1995, Shadowland artists Anne Barber and Brad Harley have created the Festival Parade - the Festival’s largest work of art involving hundreds of community participants. The 2012 parade will be based on folkloric characters, superstitions and stories from Jewish and Yiddish culture but with a radical new twist.

The 2012 Festival Parade Masterclass offers a fun and dynamic experience for enthusiastic and creative people of all ages! Masterclass participants will attend, contribute ideas and roll up their sleeves at three weeknight sessions (between August 13 and September 3) in the lead-up to the Festival Parade.

The Masterclass will also serve as a production team, responsible for the festival’s site decor which gives festival-goers a visual experience from the moment they arrive. In exchange for your hard work you will receive training by experts in the field and a summer theatre arts adventure like no other.

Opportunities:
• Design and building of puppets, props, animated images for outdoor theatre
•- Outdoor performance – acting, puppeteering, movement, vocal work
•- Stilt-walking training
•- Textiles and sewing
•- Image design and print-making

This is a good class for you if:
- You are willing to explore a range of skills in an artistic environment
- You enjoy working in a team of community volunteers of all ages
- You don’t mind climbing ladders and loading trucks!
- You have knowledge or interest in broad Jewish/Yiddish culture, and experience in community arts workshops

Dates and times for Masterclass sessions:
Tuesday, August 21st, 6 - 9 pm

Thursday, August 23rd, 6 - 9 pm

Tuesday, August 28th, 6 - 9 pm

Venue:
918 Bathurst, a multi-purpose community arts and events centre, located at 918 Bathurst Street, just north of Bloor, on the west side of Bathurst Street.

Registration fee:
To register, please email janis@ashkenazfestival.com or call (416)979-9955 with your expression of interest to ensure a spot in the Masterclass. There will be a registration/participation fee of $25 which goes toward training and production materials. Participants are welcome to bring along their own food and drink to enjoy in a break that will occur at some point during each three-hour session.
Registration form to come; stay tuned!

For more info please go the Ashkenaz Festival website.

The 9th biennial Ashkenaz Festival will once again awe and delight people of all ages and backgrounds, with a stunning array of world-class performers presenting contemporary and traditional forms of Jewish music, art and culture. The 2012 programming has taken on a distinctly global bent, with artists joining us for the first time from such locales as Uganda, India, Central Asia, Australia and Mexico. Ashkenaz 2012 will celebrate the diversity of Jewish music, art and artists from around the world, and the interconnectedness of communities near and far.

 UJA Federation of Greater Toronto is a proud sponsor of the Ashkenaz Festival.