Artists Eva Rún Snorradóttir and Vala Höskuldsdóttir are the new artistic directors of Lókal Theatre Festival! The new artistic directors will be in charge of all festivities for the next three years, 2019-21 and will take over from Ragnheiður Skúladóttir and Bjarni Jónsson who have been artistic directors since 2008. Ragnheiður begins work as a new artistic director of the Arctic Arts Festival (Festspillene i Nord Norge) this spring; Bjarni will focus on his work as a writer and dramaturg but continue to chair the board of Lókal.

The reins are being handed over to great people and visionaries:

Eva Rún Snorradóttir (*1982) is a poet and a theatremaker. She studied theatremaking at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. She has for many years been a member of the arts collective Kviss Búmm Bang who have been in the forefront of participatory theatre in Europe. Their work include The Norm Olympics, Great Group Of Eight, Hotel Keflavík, Downtown 24/7, Republica and Lost Homes. Most of these have been presented in the programme of the Lókal festivals. Eva Rún has also been teaching at the ICA and she has been on the committee for the Icelandic Theatre Awards. She has published 3 books of poetry; End Of the World Unil the End Of Your Life, A Plug In the Sky and Seeds That Fertilize the Dark.

Vala Höskuldsdóttir (*1985) is a musician and a theatremaker. She has worked as singer-songwriter with A Band Called Eva. She has also done collaborative work in theatre, most recently with the group Stertabenda. A Band Called Eva have performed their music around the country, on TV and radio. They released a record in 2017, There’s Still Plenty Left. The band was part of Spectacular, Lókal’s og RDF’s joint city festival in 2016, with Mass Of Burn Out, a piece they made in collaboration with Katla, a local women’s choir. In the wake of the project the duo put together a series of radio pieces called Afternoon Nap Is Always OK.

The new artistic directors have already started their preparations for Lókal which will take place in September 2019 (exact dates tba).