National Creation Fund Investments have no borders

Shows premiere from Coast to Coast AND Overseas!

With the National Creation Fund’s support, Canadian artists are continuing to create ambitious, work-class work. Now in its fifth year, the Fund has invested in the development of almost 70 compelling projects by artists and arts organizations from across Canada. These game-changing investments provide artists with the additional time, space and resources that are so essential to creating fully-realized productions.

After a long and difficult period of disruption and uncertainty, the Fund team is excited to see so many projects that received an investment making their long-awaited debuts on stages – and in one case, a skating rink – across the country and around the world.  In the next few days, three unique productions will premiere in Charlottetown, Whitehorse and Paris.

Tell Tale Harbour: A World Premiere Musical Comedy

Premiering in Charlottetown on June 23 as part of this year’s Charlottetown Festival

Adapted from the film screenplay The Grand Seduction by Ken Scott, Tell Tale Harbour is a new large-scale musical that is inspired by Atlantic Canada and the resilient people who proudly live there. 

Directed by NAC’s English Theatre outgoing Artistic Director Jillian Keiley, and starring iconic singer-songwriter Alan Doyle, this musical is led by a creative team of acclaimed East Coast artists. The musical draws on the folk-art traditions of the region, and its many musical styles and dances, to celebrate the small industry towns found throughout Atlantic Canada. Tell Tale Harbour will run at the Confederation Centre until the end of September.

Murmuration by Le Patin Libre: an international sensation

Premiering in Paris on June 23, presented by Théâtre de la Ville

Former championship figure skaters turned movement innovators, Le Patin Libre transforms the traditional hockey rink into a dramatic stage for contemporary movement.  Blending speed, precision, and intricate choreography, their first two shows, Vertical Influences and Threshold, have toured the world to great acclaim.

For their next project, the Montreal-based collective brings together a much larger group of 15 skaters to break new choreographic ground. Drawing inspiration from “flocking”, the complex movements exhibited by large groups of birds and fish, Murmuration explores what motivates creatures when they come together and separate at great speed.

Audiences in Paris will be treated to five performances of this high-energy production, which takes place at the Patinoire d’Asnières-sur-Seine – Patinoire Olympique des Courtilles.

Dreaming Roots – Yukon First Nations Culture & Tourism

Premiering at the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse on June 26 and 27

Dreaming Roots is a multi-year legacy project that celebrates more than 50 Yukon First Nations artists drawn from across this vast northern territory. Presented as part of the Arctic Arts Summit, the story’s artistic focus and themes are grounded in visioning and community consultations, and illuminates what Yukon First Nations people want to tell and teach their communities – and the world – at this potent time of cultural reclamation and healing.

Led by internationally acclaimed Indigenous artists, this multi-disciplinary, multimedia production includes new commissions in contemporary, traditional, and hybrid disciplines. Stories and performances from individual artists and groups are woven together to explore multiple generations in Yukon First Nations communities.

In addition to these three powerful shows, two more projects that received a Fund investment premiered this month. Creation Destruction, a large-scale multimedia dance and live music event created by Montreal’s Animals of Distinction, was presented in the stunning Trillium Park in Toronto as part of this year’s Luminato Festival. 

And on that same night, Intangible Adorations Caravan, an immersive, traveling performance and film experience that fuses carnival with science-fantasy biography, circus, and disability culture, also premiered in Toronto’s Lisgar Park.  Committed to the idea that public art should be truly accessible, creator Lisa Anita Wegner, who is a Mad and disabled artist herself, works toward the elimination of barriers of poverty and disability that too often get in the way of underserved communities experiencing art.  Audiences can attend free performances of Intangible Adorations Caravan in communities across the GTA throughout the summer.

These are just a few projects opening this year, with many more premieres scheduled for the months to come. Alan Doyle said it best: 

“I can’t wait to open the doors, dim the lights, and count in the band. Let’s go!”