Star-studded International performance groups head to the Loja Festival of Live Arts

The stars are coming to Loja!

Fourteen top international theater and performances troupes, as well as Ecuador’s best theater talent, have signed on for the 2017 Loja Festival of Live Arts (Festival Internacional de Artes Vivas Loja 2017), November 16 through 26.

The festival, Ecuador’s largest live performance event, will feature a broad array of performances in both indoor and outdoor venues, ranging from the traditional to experimental theater, musical and dance events, mime, clown, puppet, and street theater performances.

Performing groups from Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Mexico, in addition to Ecuador, will appear during the 10-day event. In all, the festival will feature more than 400 performers.

Among the groups to appear will be the Spanish Els Comediants, internationally known for its interdisciplinary performance regime that mixes the traditional with the avant-garde. Els Comediants will present the world premiere of a new production, Zibaldone, at the festival.

An Els Comediants performer.

Other groups that will perform include the Danish Odin Teatret, which mixes experimental music with theater, the Spanish dance troupe La Intrusa, and the Brazilian Teatral Contadores de Mentira.

Among the individual performers are Mexican singer and actress Astrid Hadad, known for her cabaret-style interpretations of Mexican folk music and theater, and Tamara Ferreira, Chilean television and theater star.

According to event organizers, many of the performances will take place in open spaces, both indoors and outdoors, allowing interaction between performers and the audience. The French Le Padox puppet project will perform its Maîtres du Désordre, or Master of Disorder, in the round, as will the Colombian Ensamblaje-Teatro, with its updated version of Oedipus Rex.

Other performances will be staged in traditional theater settings. These include works by the Argentine theater group, Humo Negro, and the Colombian Mi Compañía de Teatro.

In addition, clowns, mimes and puppets will perform in various venues. Among them is the Belgian clown-mime, Elastic, who will present his one-man Artisto! comedy. In addition, the French jazz and classical music group the Accordzéâm will offer its stylized versions of works by Schubert and Dvořák.

For more information about the Loja Festival of Live Arts, click here.