NAC ENGLISH THEATRE CONTINUES TO INSPIRE WITH FIVE MORE GRAND ACTS
Grand Acts of Great Hope delivers new large scale works in five Canadian locations.  

June 8, 2021 – OTTAWA (Canada) – As we edge closer to a new normal, a powerful sense of hope is surging. To celebrate each step we take, the National Arts Centre English Theatre is bringing together some of the country’s most inventive artists to create and perform innovative new works with Grand Acts of Great Hope. These acts will inspire and embolden audiences for the brave new world facing us post-pandemic.

Following the success of Grand Acts of Theatre, Grand Acts of Great Hope will continue the NAC’s investment in the creation of ambitious new work from artists across the country, delivering performances safely in front of local audiences and later shared online. The hope is these works will help prepare us for the safe return when audiences and artists can once again share space together.

NAC English Theatre Artistic Director Jillian Keiley has once again teamed up with Sherry J Yoon, Artistic Director of Boca del Lupo (Vancouver), as the Co-Curator of Grand Acts of Great Hope. Boca del Lupo is an acclaimed theatre company which creates and presents performances in unconventional spaces. For this initiative, Ms. Keiley and Ms. Yoon issued an open call for proposals, which prompted exciting submissions from a large swath of companies and artists.

From that call, five works from locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia were chosen to be showcased for Grand Acts of Great Hope.

“This open call ignited the imaginations of theatre and dance companies across the country, while also opening the project to musicians, orchestras, circus and other performance groups,” said Jillian Keiley. “With this iteration, we hope that we might offer audiences a new hope for the future, inspirations for resilience, and ideas that might help audiences navigate the new priorities in our post-pandemic world.”

The five companies will perform their work live on location in select dates in late June and early July, in preparation for national audiences to experience the performances online later in September.

For more information, visit the NAC website.

GRAND ACTS OF GREAT HOPE - PERFORMING COMPANIES

Representing five regions in Canada, the celebrated companies commissioned to create and perform original works are:

The Shakespeare Company and One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre: A Mid-Summer's Daydream - (Calgary, AB) June 19

Narrative Design Collective: Across the Back Forty - (Regina, SK) June 26

Tsatsu Stalqayu (Coastal Wolfpack) and Mortal Coil: Siiye'yu (friends, relatives) - (Vancouver, BC) – July 8

Two Planks and a Passion Theatre in association with Theatre du Poulet: First Flight - (Canning, NS) July 10

Theatre Direct and FIXT POINT Arts and Media: Wishes in the Wind - (Toronto, ON) – Date to be confirmed

Dates are subject to change.

The live performances will take place in various regions of the country and will respect health and safety guidelines in each location. After the live performances have taken place, the NAC will share videos from each performance on its website and social media channels. Schedule to be confirmed.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE

The National Arts Centre 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 Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation.
 

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