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Q&A: Sarah Jennings, author, political and cultural journalist, philanthropist
January 29, 2020Q. The update to your 2009 book Art and Politics: the History of the National Arts Centre has new chapters covering the last decade. What changed at the NAC since the first edition? A. There has been a greater emphasis on raising the national profile, more reliance on private fundraising…
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Five Minutes with Lara Deutsch
January 9, 2020Flutist Lara Deutsch performs regularly with the NAC Orchestra and with orchestras across the country. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Grand Prize of the 2014 National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary Competition, and is an alumna of the NAC’s Young Artists Program. Lara…
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Zones Théâtrales and Indigenous Theatre Join Forces
January 9, 2020Every two years, the National Arts Centre and venues throughout the National Capital Region celebrate French theatre with Francophone communities across Canada during Zones Théâtrales. Under the artistic direction of Gilles Poulin-Denis, Zones Théâtrales took place from September 9 to 14.…
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Ahead by a Century: Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha Re-imagined
January 9, 2020Created in 1911 by Scott Joplin, Treemonisha is one of the few surviving live performance pieces about the immediate post-slavery era written by a Black person who actually lived through it. More than a century later, this first all-African American opera is being reinvented thanks to help…
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Sharing the Gift of Live Performance
January 9, 2020For a decade, the NAC has helped thousands of children and their families experience the magic of live performance through the Share the Spirit program. Presented by Sun Life Financial, Share the Spirit provides free tickets to vulnerable populations in the National Capital Region through…
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NAC Indigenous Theatre: Unikkaaqtuat brings Inuit stories to a wider world
January 6, 2020Guillaume Ittukssarjuat Saladin has a suggestion for audiences attending the upcoming world premiere of Unikkaaqtuat (meaning to tell stories), an all-ages show which opens the second half of NAC Indigenous Theatre’s inaugural season. The cross-cultural production fuses circus, theatre,…
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Behind the Scenes with Boston Ballet
November 29, 2019Attending open rehearsals is one of the many perks donors receive when they support performance, creation and learning across Canada through the National Arts Centre Foundation. During the first snowfall of the season on November 7, NAC Foundation supporters spent a wonderful afternoon…
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Enriching Communities Through Music
November 7, 2019The Music Alive Program has been one of the NAC’s most far-reaching education initiatives. It connects teaching artists with children and youth in rural, Indigenous and underserved communities in Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Atlantic Canada. About 300 events take place…
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Inuit Myths Come Out of the Shadows
November 7, 2019Inuit founding myths are the inspiration for Unikkaaqtuat, a cross-cultural blending of circus arts, theatre, music, and video. The actors, musicians, and acrobats of Unikkaaqtuat perform in a world of shadows and video projections, transporting us to an ancient realm where life did not…
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Q&A: Mani Soleymanlou, director, playwright and actor
November 7, 2019Q. You’ve written a cycle of plays, titled from 1 to 9, which deal with identity. Your latest work is titled Zéro. What prompted this choice? A. Another word for zero in Persian and Arabic is “sefr”, which means “void”. I explored this idea in my first creations: Un, Deux and Trois. With…
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Donor Open Rehearsal: Inside the Creation of a New Composition
October 9, 2019Attending open rehearsals is one of the many benefits donors receive when they support performance, creation and learning across Canada through the National Arts Centre Foundation. NAC Foundation supporters spent a wonderful September morning at a rehearsal of NAC Indigenous Theatre and…
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A Landmark Celebration: The NAC Orchestra 50th Anniversary European Tour
October 4, 2019This past spring, your NAC Orchestra performed under Music Director Alexander Shelley to captivated audiences across Europe. CROSSINGS featured six Canadian composers and five Canadian soloists and offered more than 60 learning and engagement activities, none of which would have been…
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Five Minutes with Margaret Grenier
October 4, 2019Margaret Grenier, Executive and Artistic Director for the Dancers of Damelahamid, an Indigenous dance company from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia, presented Mînowin in the Azrieli Studio as part of the Mòshkamo Indigenous Arts Festival. Margaret choreographed and performed in…
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Mòshkamo: The beginning of a new era
October 4, 2019On Saturday September 14 hundreds of people gathered by the Rideau Canal just outside of the National Arts Centre to witness a great, long awaited moment. On this beautiful day, the audiences, artists and Indigenous peoples across Canada and around the world officially welcomed Indigenous…
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Where the Blood Mixes: A Journey to the Heart
October 4, 2019The first-ever performance of Kevin Loring’s debut play Where the Blood Mixes was in his hometown of Lytton, British Columbia in 2008. It was a staged reading of an earlier draft of the script—part of a British Columbian workshop tour by the play’s producers, the Playhouse Theatre Company…
