Three National Arts Centre Tours to Bring the Best of the Arts to Canadians this Fall
The National Arts Centre (NAC) will be criss-crossing Canada this Fall with three performing arts tours bringing the best theatre artists and musicians this country has to offer:
- From September 28 to October 14, NAC English Theatre will present Molière’s play Tartuffe – as re-imagined by east-coast comedy genius Andy Jones under the direction of Artistic Director Jillian Keiley – to audiences in five Newfoundland communities.
- From October 18 to November 5, the NAC Orchestra under the direction of Music Director Alexander Shelley will continue its highly acclaimed Canada 150 Tour, with seven concerts and 150 education and community engagement events in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver.
- After its October 18 world premiere at the NAC in Ottawa, NAC French Theatre’s Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show – an ambitious new play by some of Canada’s finest French, English, First Nations and Métis theatre artists – will be presented in Montreal, Winnipeg and Saskatoon.
Although the various NAC disciplines have toured in the past, this is the first time in the Centre’s 48-year history that so many of its artists have been on the road at one time.
“This is an incredible year for Canada and for all Canadians,” said Peter Herrndorf, the NAC’s President and CEO. “The National Arts Centre is celebrating the 150th anniversary of Confederation with outstanding performances and education events, featuring the best artists and musicians our country has to offer, and bringing it right to the doorsteps of Canadians all across the country.”
TARTUFFE
This production of Tartuffe premiered at the National Arts Centre in 2013, co-commissioned by the NAC and Newfoundland’s New World Theatre Project. Bringing together a stellar cast featuring some of the original 2013 ensemble and actors familiar to Newfoundland audiences, including Greg Malone (CODCO) as Madame Pernelle and Robert Joy (CSI:NY) in the title role of Tartuffe, this production marks the first tour for NAC English Theatre since 1998. Tartuffe will take to the road in Newfoundland for a six-performance, five-city tour in September and October.
Molière’s comedy classic is ingeniously re-imagined in Andy Jones’ riotous adaptation, set in 1939 Newfoundland. This Tartuffe is two hours of insanely brilliant showmanship that is witty, cutting and fierce, a blazingly funny exploration of religious hypocrisy – with a salty and distinctive Newfoundland flavour.
Tartuffe’s Newfoundland dates are:
Sept. 28 and 29: Arts & Culture Centre (St. John’s)
Oct. 4: Arts & Culture Centre (Stephenville)
Oct. 7: Arts & Culture Centre (Cornerbrook)
Oct. 11: Windsor Gordon Pinsent Centre for the Arts (Grand Falls)
Oct. 14: Joseph R. Smallwood Arts & Culture Centre (Gander)
The tour will be complemented by a full suite of education and outreach activities taking place in all five communities. These activities will include professional learning for teachers, student workshops and public outreach events, working with partners such as the Newfoundland Labrador English School District, The Rooms (St. John’s), Memorial University (Grenfell Campus) and the Canadian Improv Games, among others.
The tour of Tartuffe is made possible with support from Elinor Gill Ratcliffe C.M., O.N.L., LLD (hc), Penney Group, as well as Rick Mercer and Gerald Lunz.
Follow the Tartuffe tour by visiting tartuffetour.ca.
NAC ORCHESTRA’S CANADA 150 TOUR – WESTERN LEG
The Orchestra’s Canada 150 Tour began in Spring 2017 in the Atlantic Provinces. The Western Tour continues on the following dates:
Oct. 19: Centennial Concert Hall (Winnipeg)
Oct. 23: TCU Place (Saskatoon)
Oct. 26: Jack Singer Concert Hall – Arts Common (Calgary)
Oct. 28: Francis Winspear Centre (Edmonton)
Oct. 30: Royal Theatre (Victoria)
Nov. 2: Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts (Vancouver)
Nov. 5: Yukon Arts Centre (Whitehorse)
The Canada 150 Tour concludes from December 4 to 10 with a final series of concerts in Iqaluit and Yellowknife.
In Calgary and Vancouver, the Orchestra will perform Life Reflected, a stunningly original new work created by the National Arts Centre. Alexander Shelley brought together four remarkable Canadian composers to collaborate with Creative Producer and Director Donna Feore to create an immersive symphonic experience celebrating youth, promise and courage, revealed in the compelling and diverse portraits of four women. Life Reflected is a multisensory, engulfing visual and sonic experience, using video, art, film, spoken word, poetry, dance and projected visual imagery, tightly conceived around the NAC Orchestra.
Concerts in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Victoria will also feature the Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki, who will perform Schumann’s Concerto in A minor. The young Calgarian was just awarded the prestigious ECHO KLASSIK Award for his recent recording of Chopin: Works for Piano and Orchestra with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Krzysztof Urbański. Just 22, Jan Lisiecki has won acclaim for his extraordinary interpretive maturity, distinctive sound and poetic sensibility, he is “a pianist who makes every note count.” (The New York Times)
Repertoire for the tour will feature classical masterworks including Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, from the New World. It will also include I Lost My Talk, a new work by Alberta composer John Estacio. The work is based on the poem of the same name by Mi’kmaw poet and elder Rita Joe, C.M., about her experience at Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia. I Lost My Talk was commissioned for the National Arts Centre Orchestra to commemorate the 75th birthday of The Right Honourable Joe Clark, P.C., C.C., A.O.E. by his family.
The tour will include 150 education and community engagement activities – including masterclasses, lectures, school performances, coaching sessions, conducting and composition workshops and special recital performances that will unite the musicians of the Orchestra with students, educators, community leaders and artists.
The Canada 150 Tour is made possible with leadership support from Tour Patrons Gail and David O’Brien, Presenting Supporters Alice and Grant Burton, Supporting Partners Peng Lin and Yu Gu, Education Partner Dasha Shenkman, OBE, Hon RCM and Digital Partner Facebook.
Follow the NAC Orchestra’s Canada 150 Tour at nacotour.ca.
GABRIEL DUMONT’S WILD WEST SHOW
NAC French Theatre will open its 2017–18 season with a bold, large-scale new work: Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show, an anachronistic and irreverent epic, constructed as a series of tableaux, about the struggles of the Métis in the Canadian West. This colourful and entertaining piece of theatre will be directed by Mani Soleymanlou, and is loosely based on Buffalo Bill’s legendary outdoor travelling show. The work is a collective creation by 10 writers, including Jean Marc Dalpé, Alexis Martin and Yvette Nolan, performers and designers from across Canada, representing various French, English, First Nations and Métis communities.
Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show will premiere at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa from October 18 to 21 before heading to the cities of the show’s three partner-organizations:
Oct. 31 to Nov. 18, 2017: Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (Montreal)
Feb. 17 to 21, 2018: Théâtre Cercle Molière (Winnipeg)
Feb.27 to Mar. 4, 2018: Remai Arts Centre (Saskatoon)
This work is coproduced by NAC French Theatre (Ottawa) , Nouveau Théâtre Expérimental (Montréal), Théâtre Cercle Molière (Winnipeg) and La Troupe du Jour (Saskatoon).
(NAC French Theatre is the Executive Producer and the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui is Creative Partner.)
This production was made possible through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter initiative, Secrétariat aux affaires intergouvernementales canadiennes du Québec and generous donors to the NAC Foundation’s Creation Campaign, including Donald T. Walcot.
For more information about Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show visit wildwestshow.ca.
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