Americas: Theatre and Rutas

americas: This third iteration of Rutas, running Oct. 5 to 16 at the Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park, is the brainchild of Toronto Aluna Theatre, led by its effervescent artistic director Beatriz Pizano, according to Toronto Star. Originally from Colombia, Pizano says Rutas grew out of her desire to connect Canada to the Americas and that meant bringing the Americas here. By Karen Fricker Theatre Critic Tues., Oct. 4, 2016 For the next two weeks, Toronto already multicultural theatre scene is getting a big influx of creativity and ideas from nations and traditions across the Americas, via the biennial Rutas Panamericanas International Performing Arts Festival. While much of the festival work — which this year includes eight theatre and dance productions and two films as well as master classes, talks and a conference about performance and human rights — comes from Spanish-speaking Latin America, Pizano underlines that the vision is broad and inclusive. It was Aluna interest in making sure that indigenous voices are heard at Rutas that prompted Pizano and her colleagues to include Toronto Native Earth Performing Arts as a festival producing partner since 2014. She avoids calling the festival focus Latin America, for example, because in some definitions that excludes Brazil and parts of the Caribbean, and because some indigenous communities do not see themselves as within Latin America. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.