≈ 90 minutes · With intermission
Last updated: September 15, 2024
SPHERE celebrates the near-endless artistic and intellectual inspiration that our natural world awakens in us. Through the eyes, ears, and bodies of artists, and in this city at the confluence of rivers, we will explore the symbiosis between our creativity and the surroundings that catalyze it. We will reflect on our fragile relationship with Mother Earth and how the confluence of art, science, and ethics will inform the coming chapters in our shared history. As a wave of brilliant and visionary artists from across genres and generations sweeps into Canada’s National Arts Centre, we warmly invite you to join them and us on this journey of multi-disciplinary discovery and artistic dialogue.
Welcome to SPHERE 2024!
Thank you to our visionary donors Earle O’Born and Janice O’Born, C.M., O.Ont. for their generous support of SPHERE.
An NAC English Theatre / NAC Orchestra / NAC Digital Experience and Design Co-production
For the second volume of Irresistible Neighbourhoods, English Theatre and the NAC Orchestra join forces as part of the NAC SPHERE Festival to present an intriguing double bill of live radio dramas offering glimpses of imagined futures for two neighbourhoods in Canada, and their evolving relationship with water.
cicadas
Written by David Yee
Music Composed by Chris Thornborrow
Directed by Nina Lee Aquino
Sound Design and Live Foley by John Gzowski
In 2035, a podcaster investigating the mysterious disappearances that befell a young family a decade earlier near Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park sets the scene for a suspenseful narrative about a very peculiar house. Could a strangely luminous painting unlock long-buried secrets of what flowed beneath their home?
The Woman of One Thousand Years
Written by Berni Stapleton
Music Composed by Duane Andrews
Directed by Sarah Kitz
Sound Design and Live Foley by John Gzowski
A lonely radio host, broadcasting from a far shore in Newfoundland, inadvertently opens a transmission portal between times. The story that unfolds offers an unforgettable journey from the past, to a life beyond the present, suggesting that everything we need to know is already in the air. Remembering the future is possible for all.
Listen to the episodes from Irresistible Neighbourhoods Volume One: Ottawa 2044.
Berni Stapleton would like to thank Nina Lee Aquino, Duane Andrews, Nicole Smith, Andrew Loman, Pamela Halstead, Gwendolyn Adams, Sarah Kitz, Ric Knowles, Vicki Stroich, Judi Pearl, Jonathan Gibbons-Stapleton, Geraldine Stapleton.
David Yee would like to thank Andrew Chown, Mazin Elsadig, Vienna Hehir, Colin Rivers and Chris Thornborrow
Chris Thornborrow would like to thank Anna for the unwavering support and baby Liam, a force of nature whose arrival kept us all on our toes.
The Company would like to thank Amahl Arulanandam, Laurie Champagne, Steph Chau, Andrew Chown, Mazin Elsadig, John Geggie, Geoff McBride, Erica Miller, Will Somers and Anthony Thompson.
The National Arts Centre is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.
Technical Director
Peter Kealey
Lead Hand
Adriaanus Vanduyvenbode
Assistant Lead Hand
Jeremy Wynnyk
Ligthing Technician
Jeff Hannah
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
Projectionists, Wardrobe Mistresses, Masters and Attendants are members of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 471.
Managing Director
David Abel
Artistic Director
Nina Lee Aquino
Learning Coordinator
Aimee Bouchard
ASL Interpreter Consultant
Carmelle Cachero
Marketing Strategist
Bar Clement
Communications Strategist
Sean Fitzpatrick
Senior Producer
Alexandra Lunney
Senior Marketing Manager
Bridget Mooney
Associate Producer, Artistic Programming and Environmental Projects
Judi Pearl
Technical Director
Eugenio Saenz Flores
Company Manager
Samira Rose
Administrative Coordinator
Monika Seiler
Managing Director
Nelson McDougall
Music Director
Alexander Shelley
Senior Manager of Artistic Planning
Daphne Burt
Senior Marketing Manager
Christina Bellevue
Director of Communications, Programming
Mireille Allaire
Artistic Coordinator
Jérémie Gates
Marketing Strategist
Guillaume Lebreton
Communications Strategist
Noah Richardson
Artistic Coordinator
Polina Burdukova-Kemp
Producer, Digital Experiences + Design
Marnie Richardson
Technical Director, Digital Experiences + Design
Martin Jones
Graphic Designer, Digital Experiences + Design
Dany Pepin
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees