Annual Public Meeting on Wednesday, February 21 at 4 p.m. in the NAC’s Alan & Roula Rossy Pavilion and online

February 16, 2024 – OTTAWA – The National Arts Centre’s Annual Public Meeting, which takes place Wednesday, February 21 from 4 to 5 p.m. ET, will review the results of the NAC’s 2022–2023 season, which featured extraordinary collaborations with Canadian artists and arts organizations on the NAC’s stages and on stages across the country.

“Our 2022–2023 season was truly memorable because it was our first season fully back with the pandemic in the rearview mirror,” said NAC President and CEO Christopher Deacon. “Artists returned to our stages, and to stages across Canada, performing extraordinary work. Audiences came back to experience it. And the magic that took place between those two groups reminded us why we do what we do. The arts inspire and delight us, they bring us together, and they have the power to spark change in each of us as individuals and as communities.”

SPEAKERS

The NAC’s Annual Public Meeting will take place Wednesday, February 21 from 4 to 5 p.m. in the NAC’s Alan & Roula Rossy Pavilion, and online at nac-cna.ca/publicmeeting.

Speakers will include:

• Guy Pratte, C.M., Chair, Board of Trustees
• Christopher Deacon, President and CEO
• Annabelle Cloutier, Executive Director of Strategy and Communications

A question-and-answer period will follow the presentation. Please submit any questions in advance to apm@nac-cna.ca. The webcast will be accessible in English and French and will include simultaneous sign-language interpretation.

CONNECT: THE NAC’S 2022–2023 ANNUAL REPORT

Connect, the NAC’s 2022-2023 Annual Report, was tabled in the House of Commons on January 29. The report demonstrates the NAC’s progress towards its vision of leading and supporting the renewal of the Canadian performing arts sector.

The report, publicly available on the NAC’s website, includes many highlights:

• Un. Deux. Trois., French Theatre Artistic Director Mani Soleymanlou’s ambitious cycle about identity, opened at the NAC in September 2022, featuring a diverse cast of 36 Francophone actors from across the country. The show’s national tour was unprecedented, with stops in Moncton, Caraquet, Quebec City, Montreal, Sudbury, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver, drawing audience and critical acclaim, even attracting the attention of The New York Times.
• The Breathing Hole, written by Colleen Murphy with Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy, with Nattilingmiutut language direction by Nilaulaaq Miriam Aglukkaq, and Nattilingmiutut translation by Janet Tamalik McGrath, was a landmark Indigenous Theatre/English Theatre co-production in English and Inuktut and part of Nordic Bridges. Directed by Reneltta Arluk, the production featured Inuit cast members from Canada, Greenland, and Denmark who performed in the Nattilingmiutut dialect. Commissioned by Indigenous Theatre and English Theatre, the Nattilingmiutut translation was the culmination of years of consultation with elders and community members, primarily from the community of Gjoa Haven. The script is now the largest piece of written text in the dialect. The Breathing Hole was captured on film and is available to the three Nattilingmiutut-speaking communities free of charge in perpetuity as reciprocation for sharing their stories, knowledge, and language with the NAC.
• Fall on Your Knees, the world premiere stage adaptation of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s novel by Alisa Palmer and Hannah Moscovitch, received widespread critical and audience acclaim. Co-created and written by Hannah Moscovitch and co-created and directed by Alisa Palmer, the production was a partnership between NAC English Theatre, Vita Brevis Arts, Canadian Stage, Neptune Theatre, and Grand Theatre, and played to more than 35,000 people in Toronto, Halifax, Ottawa, and London. Fall on Your Knees was made possible with support from lead donors Margaret Fountain, C.M., D.F.A. (hc), D.H.L. (hc), and David Fountain, C.M., as well as the National Creation Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Toronto Arts Council.
• From September 22 to 25, the NAC Orchestra presented SPHERE, a festival about listening to the Earth in a time of climate change that featured Canadian, Indigenous, and Nordic composers, musicians, visual artists, writers, and scientists. SPHERE was co-curated by Music Director Alexander Shelley and the Canadian-Icelandic interdisciplinary artist Dr. Angela Rawlings.
• A high point of the NAC Dance season was the return of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch with the Canadian premiere of Palermo Palermo, one of the acclaimed German company’s most exquisite productions. The performances featured six local extras.
• Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer, written and directed by Indigenous Theatre Artistic Director Kevin Loring, was presented at Theatre Calgary in partnership with MT7. A revival of the Belfry Theatre/Savage Society/NAC Indigenous Theatre premiere production, this incarnation, augmented for the larger stage, officially opened on February 3, 2023. In partnership with Savage Society (Vancouver), Belfry Theatre (Victoria), and Theatre Calgary (Calgary), Indigenous Theatre premiered and toured this raucous comedy across the country, arriving in the NAC’s Babs Asper Theatre in May. In every city, Kevin’s wit and artistry left audiences with understanding, insight, and a lot of laughter.
• NAC Popular Music and Variety (PMV) supports brilliant and diverse popular music artists, both emerging and established, by presenting about 120 performances a year on the NAC’s four stages. On April 28, PMV was proud to host revered Quebec singer-songwriter Daniel Bélanger in Southam Hall to a sold-out crowd. The show marked the artist’s first major release in nearly 10 years.
• The National Creation Fund invested $2 million in 11 ambitious new Canadian works in music, theatre, dance, and interdisciplinary performing arts. A particular standout was Mahabharata by Toronto’s Why Not Theatre. Written and adapted by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes using poetry from Carole Satyamurti’s Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling, this extraordinary production featured a cast comprised entirely of performers from the South Asian diaspora. Mahabharata opened at the Shaw Festival in March and played to sold-out houses at the Barbican in London, U.K. in October 2023.
• Professional development continued to be a strategic priority. ThisGen Fellowship, produced by Why Not Theatre in partnership with the NAC, is a national initiative that supports IBPoC (Indigenous, Black, People of Colour) women and non-binary performing arts practitioners getting to the next stage in their careers through training, mentorship, hands-on work placements, and peer-to-peer connection. This year’s cohort gathered at the NAC in October for workshops, meetings, and mentorship with NAC leadership.
• The NAC continued to build relationships with diverse communities. English Theatre organized Black Out Nights for the productions Is God Is (written by Aleshea Harris and directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu) and Heaven (written by Cheryl Foggo and directed by Patricia Darbasie), inviting Black audiences the unique opportunity to experience performances with their community and take part in a joyful event designed to cultivate a shared sense of belonging.
• The NAC’s Summer Programming series featured an exciting and diverse lineup of Canadian and international artists in more than 200 free and accessible shows. Audiences experienced spectacular dance ensembles, lunchtime performances in the NAC Atrium, outdoor concerts on the Wooden Terrace, musicians performing as they cruised down the Rideau Canal, and powerful musical and theatrical shows in the NAC’s performance halls.
• The NAC made meaningful progress in the area of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism (EDIA) with the development of a three-year EDIA Action Plan, alongside the Accessibility Action Plan. In addition, the NAC released its three-year Environmental Sustainability Action Plan. All the NAC’s action plans and commitments are publicly available on the NAC’s website.

THE NAC IN 2023–2024

In September 2023, the NAC released its new Strategic Plan, The Journey Ahead. Its vision is to continue working with artists and arts organizations from across the land to revitalize the Canadian performing arts. The NAC also committed to ensuring that equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, accessibility, and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples guide its actions.

The 2023–2024 season features a broad range of exciting work by diverse artists and arts organizations on the NAC’s four stages. Across Canada, the NAC continues to play an active role by fostering new creation through the National Creation Fund and the NAC’s programming departments, offering professional development for artists and arts professionals, and supporting learning and engagement in communities across the country through Arts Alive. Please visit nac-cna.ca for ticket information, and to learn more about the NAC’s role in leading and supporting the renewal of the Canadian performing arts sector.

ABOUT THE NAC

The National Arts Centre (NAC) is Canada’s bilingual, multi-disciplinary home for the performing arts. The NAC presents, creates, produces, and co-produces performing arts programming in various streams — the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English Theatre, French Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, and Popular Music and Variety — and nurtures the next generation of audiences and artists from across Canada. The NAC is located in the National Capital Region on the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Mary Gordon
Senior Advisor, Corporate Communications
National Arts Centre
(343) 588-0747
Mary.Gordon@nac-cna.ca