Three international productions, including Scotland’s The James Plays, to headline Luminato 2016

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On Feb. 4, Luminato artistic director Jorn Weisbrodt is to be shaven bald. Before that happens, with the announcement of three international productions headlining the annual Toronto festival, he hopes to blow our hair back.

The three projects, all exclusive North American engagements for 2016, include The James Plays (the National Theatre of Scotland's seven-hour trilogy on three generations of like-named kings), Situation Rooms (a multiplayer video installation from the three-man German live-art concern Rimini Protokoll) and the reprise of Unsound Toronto (a two-day rave of experimental sound that excited last year's Luminato).

Next week, at a press conference taking place at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre,Weisbrodt will lose his head of hair to a razor held by his husband Rufus Wainwright, a Juno-winning singer-songwriter. The event is tied to World Cancer Day and the #NoHairSelfie promotion to raise awareness about the disease.

Each of the three announced Luminato productions will happen within the Hearn Generating Station, a decommissioned power plant used during last summer's festival. For 2016's Luminato– the 10th annual, happening June 10 to 26, an expansion to 17 days from its previous 10 – the role of the Hearn will increase significantly. The mothballed facility on the city's eastern waterfront is to be temporarily transformed by means of a 1,200 seat theatre, a music and dance stage, an art gallery and a site-specific performance space, along with arrangements made for drinking, dining and socializing.

"This June, we're building the largest multi-arts generator in the world, and it's starting to fill up with gas," said Weisbrodt, in a statement released to media. This year's Luminato will be the fifth and final edition curated by Weisbrodt, a German art administrator with a flair for Hindenburg-sized language. Previously he described the Hearn site as a "majestic abandoned industrial cathedral."

For more information, visit luminatofestival.com.