Cirque du Soleil Unveils – WINTUK!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, September 18, 2007 – Cirque du Soleil, MSG Entertainment and BASE Entertainment present a sneak peek of the latest Cirque du Soleil seasonal show Wintuk, running exclusively at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden from November 1, 2007 to January 6, 2008. The first-ever show specifically created for a family audience, Wintuk is the 21st Cirque du Soleil production and joins the 14 others currently running throughout the world.

The Name
The name Wintuk refers to an imaginary country – an Arctic world without sunlight – where the characters of the show will journey.

About Wintuk
Wintuk is an enchanting winter tale about a boy and his quest for snow and adventure. The boy lives in a city where the arrival of winter has brought long shadows and intense cold – but no snow! He interacts with a cast of highenergy urban street characters, including acrobats, dancers and giant talking puppets. But when the snow does not arrive, he embarks on a quest with three companions – a female shaman who’s lost in the city, a shy man destined to discover his courage and the shadow of a young girl – to find the snow and bring it back to where it belongs. The adventurers journey to an imaginary country called Wintuk where they encounter the rich culture of the People of the North and extraordinary giant characters made of ice. When at last the sun returns, they fly home on the wings of a giant crane.

Cast and Acts
The show is playful, musical, and bursting with the energy of the city and the broad sweep of nature. A cast of 50 performers and puppeteers weaves thrilling circus arts, breathtaking theatrical effects and memorable songs into a meaningful seasonal story that resonates with the whole family. Wintuk’s dynamic acts include an original skateboarding act in a discipline never before seen at Cirque, cycling, slack wire, a variation of the classic Russian bars with horizontal jumps instead of vertical. The performing artists come from France, Canada, the USA, Germany, Portugal, Belarus, Russia, Estonia and Mexico.

Puppetry and Set Design
With Wintuk, Cirque once again pushes the creative boundaries with imaginative puppetry and set design. Much of Wintuk’s action involves giant puppets: Oversize lampposts that come to life, six amazing dogs that weigh up to 80 lbs and take two puppeteers to manipulate, birds with hundreds of feathers and massive 12-ft ice giants. There are holes and hidden trenches in the set that permit the puppeteers to work on stage without being seen by the audience.

The dimensions of the WaMu Theater, with its low 20-ft ceiling and its 100-ft-wide stage, influenced the layout of the set, leading to a “wide-screen” perspective. Transparent curtains, snow banks and huge blocks of “ice” interact with the innovative lighting to create a wintry setting that dazzles from close up and at the same time plays to the entire theater. Projections are an integral element of the set and have been designed to be especially appealing to children by using a whimsical winter light palette predominantly made up of pinks and blues.

The Creators
The show brings together the following team of 14 Creators, several of whom are working with Cirque for the first time.

     o) Richard Blackburn — Writer and Director
     o) Fernand Rainville — Director of Creation
     o) Patricia Ruel — Set and Props Designer
     o) François Barbeau — Costumes Designer
     o) Simon Carpentier — Composer
     o) Jim Corcoran — Lyrics Composer
     o) Catherine Archambault — Choreographer
     o) Yves Aucoin — Lighting Designer
     o) Francis Laporte — Projections Designer
     o) Jonathan Deans — Co-Sound Designer
     o) Leon Rothenberg — Co-Sound Designer
     o) Daniel Cola — Acrobatic Performance Designer
     o) Guy St-Amour — Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer
     o) Eleni Uranis — Makeup Designer

Ticket information
Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk will thrill audiences this holiday season, playing for a limited 10-week run from November 1, 2007 – January 6, 2008 only at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square. Tickets for Wintuk are available through cirquedusoleil.com, thegarden.com and Ticketmaster.com or by calling at 212.307.1000. Prices range from $30 – $99.

Sponsors
Delta Air Lines, one of the world’s leading international airlines, is proud to be the presenting sponsor of Wintuk. The new 4-year partnership further establishes Delta’s long-term, worldwide partnership with Cirque du Soleil which began in 2006 when the airline served as presenting sponsor of Corteo in Atlanta, GA. BMW is the official sponsor.

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Cirque du Soleil
From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a major Quebec-based organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has over 3,800 employees from over 40 different countries, including 1,000 artists.

Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to more than 70 million spectators in over 100 cities on four continents. In 2007, Cirque du Soleil will present 15 shows simultaneously throughout the world. The company has received such prestigious awards as the Emmy, Drama Desk, Bambi, ACE, Gémeaux, Félix, and Rose d’Or de Montreux. Cirque du Soleil International Headquarters are in Montreal, Canada.

For more information about Cirque du Soleil, visit www.cirquedusoleil.com.

MSG Entertainment
MSG Entertainment (MSGE), the live entertainment arm of Cablevision Systems Corporations, is a worldwide entertainment company recognized for its signature event production. In addition to the nearly 700 entertainment concerts and events that take place each year at Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Beacon Theater and the Expo Center at MSG, MSGE produces shows across America. MSG Entertainment’s live events include The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, as well as seven productions of The Christmas Spectacular outside of New York.

Additional information about MSG Entertainment is available on the Web at www.thegarden.com and www.radiocity.com. Madison Square Garden, L.P. is owned by Cablevision Systems Corporation, and includes the New York Knicks (NBA); the New York Rangers (NHL); the New York Liberty (WNBA); the Hartford Wolfpack (American Hockey League); MSG Entertainment; MSG Media, which is comprised of MSG and FSN New York; and the Madison Square Garden arena complex, located in the heart of the New York metropolitan area.

BASE Entertainment
BASE Entertainment is an intellectual property based operating company and live entertainment studio with offices in New York, Las Vegas, and Houston. BASE develops, produces and manages intellectual properties which reach audiences through various platforms, including live, digital, broadcast and licensing.

BASE Entertainment partners include Brian Becker, Scott Zeiger, and Clarity Partners. Co-founders Brian Becker and Scott Zeiger have 45 years combined experience in the live entertainment industry. Becker previously served as Chairman and CEO of Clear Channel Entertainment (CCE), the world’s leading producer and promoter of live entertainment events. Zeiger previously served as Chairman and CEO of CCE’s North American Theatrical division and the CCE Productions Group. Clarity Partners, L.P. is a private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in media, communications, and business services. Clarity’s current portfolio includes Vue Entertainment, Oxygen Media, Crescent Entertainment/Village Roadshow Pictures, Liberation Entertainment, and ImpreMedia.

BASE Entertainment’s current projects include Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular, Gordie Brown and Wayne Brady “Making It Up” at the Venetian, STOMP OUT LOUD at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, the Planet Hollywood Theater for the Performing Arts and the recent Broadway hit Martin Short – Fame Becomes Me.

RICHARD BLACKBURN
Writer and Director

“I like to play with proportions and dimensions. I always start with the venue. That’s my landscape, and from there I work with allegory, metaphor and size – small, medium and large.”

                      —Richard Blackburn

Richard Blackburn is a leading theatrical creator, playwright, director and actor-manager. He is probably best known for combining actors with oversized marionettes and sets, and integrating a wide variety of multimedia techniques into his productions. He dazzles the eyes and stirs the emotions with his multidisciplinary approach to visual and aural landscapes of the imagination, all orchestrated into a seamless tapestry.

After graduating in theatre from college and university some 30 years ago, Richard received grants from the governments of Canada and Quebec and embarked on an ambitious career by mounting 30 plays that were exceptionally well received by the critics and the public. He wrote a dozen of the works himself, created 20 large-scale show concepts, and in 1979 became the artistic director of Le Théàtre de la Dame de Coeur (TDC) in Upton, Quebec, whose productions are marked by a social conscience and an awesome grandeur.

TDC is a permanent centre for research, creation, production and education, specializing inshows featuring oversized sets and gigantic marionettes. The performance space is unique in North America: The company uses the sky, indoor venues and outdoor, actors and music to create symbol-driven theatre. Its outdoor venue includes heated chairs that swivel so the audience can watch shows at 360 degrees. In addition to its many productions (including La légende de la blanche et de la noire and Dragon sur table), the company has participated in many special projects such as the parade to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the City of Montreal. The company has also worked on overseas assignments, notably in Singapore for the opening ceremonies of Esplanade Theatres on the Bay in 2002 and as part of Expo 2005 in Japan.

Among his many other activities, Richard Blackburn is a member of the jury of the Conseil des Arts et des Let tres du Québec, a government funding body that awards grants in the arts and literature. He also teaches theatre and regularly consults on major special events. Winter Show is the first time Richard has worked with Cirque du Soleil, and he’s come to appreciate the freedom that the Cirque provides. “I really like the structure Cirque brings to the creation of its shows,” he says. “It’s a place that is a true catalyst for a writer-director.”

Richard Blackburn’s approach to directing is to abandon the traditional, deconstruct the space he’s working in and exploit its full potential in ever-surprising ways. To find the greatest reward he always takes the path that promises the greatest risk and presents him with the biggest challenges. As for Winter Show, he says: “I like to play with proportions and dimensions. I always start with the venue. That’s my landscape, and from there I work with allegory, metaphor and size – small, medium and large. I ask myself “what’s the relationship between the human beings on stage and the outsize stage elements, and what’s the relationship between the players and the audience?'”

Richard Blackburn was born in Chicoutimi, Quebec in 1951.

FERNAND RAINVILLE
Director of Creation

“I like to trigger reflections on human nature through my work, reflections on the values that define us as a society. The entire body of my work comes from a search for meaning, from a spiritual quest in the widest sense of the word.”

                     —Fernand Rainville

Actor and director Fernand Rainville graduated from the National Theatre School in 1985. His first excursion as a director was with the Théàtre Il Va Sans Dire production of Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1985. Since then he has directed many important plays including French-language productions of Glengarry Glen Ross, the French premiere of Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters in 1993 for the Théàtre Populaire du Québec, and the French premiere of Brad Fraser’s Poor Super Man.

He was co-director of the bilingual Montreal production of Les Misérables in 1990-1991 and more recently he directed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for Compagnie Jean-Duceppe, and Macbeth for the Théàtre du Nouveau Monde. Fernand has received several award nominations from the Académie Québécoise du Théàtre, notably for Howie le Rookie, Trick or Treat, Talk Radio and Poor Superman).

“I would describe myself as a humanist with a social conscience,” he says. “I like to trigger reflections on human nature through my work, reflections on the values that define us as a society. The entire body of my work comes from a search for meaning, from a spiritual quest in the widest sense of the word.”

In addition to his long list of theatre credits, Fernand has worked on public service television publicity campaigns, including a special on tobacco and health presented on the cable music channel Musique Plus and he directed a broadcast gala for the Just For Laughs comedy festival.

In 2005, Fernand Rainville was the co-director of the Cirque du Soleil-produced opening ceremonies of the Montreal 2005 – XI FINA World Championships. He went on to become the artistic director of the opening ceremonies of the Montreal Outgames and created and directed the Cirque-produced pre-game show at the 2007 Super Bowl – and he still finds time to teach.

“Fundamentally, Winter Show is a show that evokes a great many emotions,” says Fernand Rainville. “Perhaps paradoxically, there’s actually a great deal of warmth in the show. The colder it gets in our story, the more the characters come together for comfort and warmth. The show is a quest, based on the questions: “Where is the snow? What’s gone wrong, and how can we fix it’? While the show is not political or polemical in any way whatsoever, that is a preoccupation that resonates with audiences because people are increasingly worried about these questions.”

Fernand Rainville was born in Sudbury, Ontario in 1960.

SET DESIGN

“Winter and snowstorms are very familiar to anyone from Quebec, but I’ve never had the opportunity to work with them in the theatre before. The brilliance of ice and the appeal of its luminosity have given me a whole new atmospheric and visual vocabulary to explore. One of the challenges I faced is the inescapable fact that snow is white – and that was quite a challenge for the lighting and the projection designs too. The theme of winter gave rise to new concepts and encouraged me to explore new materials and textures.”

                     –Patricia Ruel, Set Designer

The set design for Wintuk reflects the show’s winter theme, but before even considering the idea of representing cold and snow on stage, set designer Patricia Ruel had to confront a problem of scale – literally. The dimensions of the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden – a 4,500-seat auditorium with a 20-ft ceiling above the 100-ft wide stage – imposed constraints that in the end offered some unexpected possibilities.

“As soon as I saw the space I realized I would have to make a design not just for the stage, but for the space in front of the frame,” says Ruel. “We removed the first row of seats and took over the boxes on both sides of the stage.” The result: a performance area that takes advantage of the full width of the room in a layout with a “wide-screen” aspect ratio that resembles CinemaScope.

• The set elements are integrated with the show’s acrobatic equipment, giant marionettes (which Ruel co-designed), lighting, projections and costumes to form a cohesive, interconnected whole.
• The story of Wintuk takes place in two primary settings: The City and the Land of the North. It opens in the Alley, where clothes lines are festooned with 205 garments, to suggest the bustling life and activity of a tight-knit urban community. Inline skaters and cyclists speed along ramps that run the full 100-ft width of the stage and puppeteers concealed in hidden trenches operate giant lamp posts.
• In the second half of the show the action moves from the City to the mythical Land of the North, where a seemingly fragile lacy Frozen Forest has been cut out of an extremely tough white fabric used to make temporary winter car ports. The material reflects light and evokes the crackling cold of winter.
• Translucent curtains, snow banks and huge blocks of “ice” interact with the lighting to create a wintry set ting in which huge Ice Giants and Arctic birds can come to life. The designs on the white velvet stage curtains were etched into the fabric with acid.
• Projections are an integral element of the set and have been designed to be especially appealing to children by using a winter light palette predominantly made up of pinks and blues.
• Ice and snow are recreated on stage through a seamless, subtle blend of materials, textures, colors and lighting that dazzle from close up and at the same time play to the entire auditorium – especially during the show’s climactic snowstorm, which begins gently on stage and eventually swirls and grows to fill the whole theatre.

MARIONETTES

The enchanting world of WINTUK is populated by dozens of characters, and some of them aren’t even human. They’re oversized marionettes operated by puppeteers concealed in hidden trenches that are incorporated into the set.

The puppets sprang from the fertile imagination of the show’s director, Richard Blackburn, founder and artistic director of Théàtre de la Dame de Coeur (TDC) in Upton, Quebec, a theater company specializing in large-scale productions featuring giant marionettes. The WINTUK marionettes were engineered by the TDC while Cirque du Soleil designed their visual aspects.

“The biggest challenge was the close encounter between the world of marionettes and the world of circus,” says Richard Blackburn. “Working with Cirque du Soleil gave us the means to make a quantum leap in the engineering of the marionettes.”

It would be a mistake to think of the WINTUK marionettes as inanimate objects. Each one is designed and engineered to move as naturally as possible, and they are finished in materials, colors and textures that endow them with distinct, individual personalities, capable of expressing a full spectrum of emotions through their movements and facial expressions.

“The volumes and dimensions at work in WINTUK called for a period of rigorous preparation in all matters pertaining to the direction,” adds Richard. “Before we even thought about the look of the finished marionettes, we engaged in a very intense exercise of pre-visualization and visualization. I created a scale model into which I introduced paper characters to act as a detailed scenario. That allowed me to take into account all the physical components of the stage and the theater, especially the panoramic framing of the stage, and the circus acts as well as the technical considerations and elements of set design.”

Some Facts

• The six mobile lampposts are 13 feet tall and articulated to bend their necks, turn their heads and even bat their eyelashes. Their movements are powered by compressed air.
• There are six dogs in the show, that stand between four and seven feet tall and weigh up to 80 lbs each and it takes two puppeteers to operate them. Their metal skeletons are articulated to precisely mimic the exuberant movements of real dogs.
• The dogs’ eyes sparkle, thanks to two video projectors installed in their heads.
• The dogs have names and personalities. Chief is the leader of the pack, and he has a clean, sculpted look. Slowjo is the goofball. He has a long, shaggy coat that trails along the ground and his eyes are out of synch. Mama is soft and elegant and she sticks close to Chief. Mama and Chief are the parents of Puppy, an adorable bundle of sheer energy. Curly is the flirt. She’s fashion-conscious and you only have to look at her coat to know why they call her Curly. Rasta’s the tough guy. He likes to project an air of menace.
• The Birds each have about 200 feathers and each feather takes about an hour to make.
• The Ice Giants are 14 feet tall and 12 feet wide. However, they are very light because they are built on armatures made of aluminum and cloth.

“The meeting between Cirque and the giant marionettes has allowed us to create strong, unprecedented images that reveal the grandeur of nature and of human beings,” says Richard Blackburn.