Irresistible Neighbourhoods: Introducing our Ottawa 2044 playwrights

The Future is Hyper-Local 

You are invited to cast your mind 20 years into the future of the place where you live. What would make your neighbourhood… irresistible? In 2023, we asked emerging local playwrights to walk through their neighbourhoods and offer possible futures in the form of a radio play. Welcome to Irresistible Neighbourhoods: Ottawa 2044. 

Irresistible Neighbourhoods is a new play development project from NAC English Theatre under the leadership of Artistic Director Nina Lee Aquino in collaboration with Judi Pearl, Associate Producer, Artistic Programming and Environmental Projects. This project began in September 2023, when four local emerging playwrights were commissioned to create short radio plays envisioning possible futures for their neighbourhoods.  

Over the past several months, the selected playwrights have been working closely with Climate Dramaturg Vicki Stroich (Artistic and Environmental Programs Manager, Caravan Farm Theatre) and Dramaturg Ric Knowles to help them bend their narratives towards more imaginative ideas of climate justice. This pilot project encourages the artists to use the full scope of their imaginations to help shift the fundamental values which underpin our relationship with the natural world.  

Introducing our Ottawa 2044 playwrights:

Sanita Fejzic, whose play imagines the future of Vanier

Lily Polowin, whose play imagines the future of Val-Tétreau in Gatineau 

Seth Thomson and Kel MacDonald, whose play imagines the future of Centretown.

The playwrights have all been hard at work since September 2023, developing their 25-minute radio playscripts. The completed scripts will be workshopped, rehearsed and recorded with the participation of professional actors, a director and sound designer, and then launched on the NAC website in collaboration with the NAC’s Digital Experience and Design team.  

Tune in this summer when we invite you to join us on an audio journey in which the first step in bringing about regenerative futures is having the courage to imagine them. 

Even More Irresistible Neighbourhoods 

Irresistible Neighbourhoods is a multi-year project from English Theatre, of which Ottawa 2044 is only Volume One! Stay tuned for exciting ideas currently in development for Volumes Two and Three, when the series will expand to include other disciplines and other regions. Details coming soon!