Andri Snær Magnason
Icelandic author of the book "The Story of the Blue Planet" and the play "Blue Planet". Born 14th July 1973 in Reykjavik. Studied Icelandic literature at the University of Iceland. Author of novels, poetry, plays, stories and essays and co-director of the feature-length documentary film "Dreamland" (2009) based on his own book of the same name, a manifestation of the author's active struggle against the destruction of the natural beauty of Iceland. In 2002 his novel "LoveStar" was voted novel of the year by Icelandic booksellers, received the DV Literary Award and was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Award and Philip K. Dick Award. It has been published in Germany, the USA and Hungary.

"The Story of the Blue Planet" is the first book for children to receive the Icelandic Literary Prize. It has been translated into 25 languages and was awarded the Janusz Korczak International Literary Prize in 2000 and the West Nordic Children’s Book Prize in 2002.

"The Blue Planet" has been staged in many theatres all over the world including the main stage of Young People’s Theatre in Toronto in 2005 (a performance nominated for the Dora Awards in the category "Best Production of the Year") and in April 2013 was given on the same stage again. It has also been staged by the National Theatre of Iceland, city theatres in Waasa and Lahti in Finland and in Lucerne, Switzerland. There have also been minor productions and readings in the Cafe Theatre in London, the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin and in Islamabad in Pakistan.  

Andri Magnason is the author of four plays: "Nature's Opera" (staged in 1999), "Ulfham's Saga" (staged in 2004), "Eternal Happiness" (2007) and ""Eternal Misery" (2009), the last two co-written with Thorleifur Arnarsson. He also received the Kairos Award in 2010, awarded by Alfred Toepfer Stiftung FVS in Hamburg. He lives in Reykjavik, is the father of four children and is currently working on his latest book for children.

 

Erling Jóhannesson
Icelandic actor and director, graduate of the Iceland Drama School. Co-founder and artistic director (1994-2009) of one of the largest professional independent theatres in Iceland - The Hafnarfjörður Theatre, whose main repertoire is based on contemporary Icelandic drama. The theatre has put on over 60 productions in cooperation with renowned Icelandic authors such as Árni Ibsen, Jón Atli Jónasson and Andri Snær Magnason. Erling has been actively involved in most performances as an actor, director or producer, whilst working on television and film projects and lecturing. He has also directed radio drama for RUV (The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service), in 2012 receiving a Gríman - Iceland's
most important theatre award – in the "best radio play" category, in addition to being a lecturer at the Icelandic Film School. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Performing Arts Association LSI, the Nordic Theatre Association and the Association of Independent Theatres in Iceland.

 

 

Múm
An experimental band whose music is defined through a soft vocal, electronic glitch and a variety of traditional and unconventional instruments. The band was formed in 1997 by Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason. Their first year in existence yielded most of the debut album "Yesterday was dramatic, today is OK". A year later the twin sisters Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir joined the band and co-operated on the second album. The Finnish percussionist Samuli Kosminen also took part in this work, and joined  the line-up. In 2002, after the release of the album "Finally we are no one" and completion of the first world tour, Gyða left the band to resume her studies in Reykjavik. Shortly after, a third sister, Ásthildur Valtýsdóttir, temporarily joined the band as a vocalist and Serena Tideman replaced Gyða on cello for a European tour. By then Eiríkur Ólafsson and Hildur Guðnadóttir (who had made a number of guest appearances on múm albums from the beginning) joined the band, as did Ólöf Arnalds. At the beginning of 2006, after the "Summer Make Good" album and tour, Kristín Anna left. The fourth album, recorded in 2006, was released in September 2007 under the title "Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy".

Múm has also composed music for the theatre, including music for two radio plays, winning the Nordic Radio Theatre award in 2005. The same year the band received an invitation from the Holland Festival in Amsterdam to cooperate with the National Dutch Chamber Orchestra on composing a piece based on the compositions of the late avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis for one of the festival's main performances. In Japan múm have worked with pop stars Aco and Tomoyo, composing pieces for both artists' albums. In August 2009 múm released their fifth album "Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know", and then went on a gigantic world concert tour starting in Europe and going on to Russia, Japan, the USA and Mexico. The tour lasted just short of a year and finished with a spectacular concert in Cracow, to which múm invited their friends and fellow artists (Mugison, Sin Fang, Amiina, Jóhann Jóhannsson, the ex-member of the band Gyða Valtýsdóttir and many others) as well as the Polish Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Cracovia. Múm have also recorded the soundtrack for the film "Jack & Diane”, premiered in autumn 2012 and featuring a piece recorded with Kylie Minogue. The band have just released their sixth studio album entitled “Smilewound”, which was used to promote their concert tour, including the Polish leg in Poznań, Wrocław and Warsaw.

 

 

Iza Toroniewicz
Polish set and costume designer. Graduate of the Inter-Departmental Faculty of Set Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Her debut as set designer, and her diploma project at the same time, was the 1997 production of Forefathers’ Eve or the Young Sorcerers based on Adam Mickiewicz, directed by Adam Sroka and staged at the Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole. Her design won a Polish Classic award at the 23rd Opole Theatre Confrontations, as well as the Minister of Culture’s award for “Stage Production of the Works of Polish Romanticists”. Since then, Iza Toroniewicz has created set and costume designs for over one hundred productions, including several puppet plays, in theatres all over Poland: the Studio, Capitol and Lalka Theatres in Warsaw, Polski and Współczesny theatres in Szczecin, Arlekin Theatre in Łódź, Słowacki and Bagatela Theatres in Cracow, Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk, Polski Theatre in Wrocław, and Polski Theatre in Bydgoszcz. She has cooperated with directors such as Bartłomiej Wyszomirski, Adam Orzechowski, Romuald Wicza-Pokojski or Czesław Sieńko. In 2004 her set design for Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses (produced by the Polski Theatre in Bielsko-Biała, directed by B. Wyszomirski) won an honorary award from the Bielsko-Biała branch of ZASP (The Association of Polish Stage Artists) and a nomination for the Golden Mask Award.