The National Arts Centre (NAC) is proud to announce that Kevin Loring’s tenure as NAC Indigenous Theatre Artistic Director has been renewed for four years, from September 1, 2023, to August 31, 2027.

Since taking on the position in 2017 and launching the inaugural season of Indigenous Theatre in 2019-2020, Kevin Loring has programmed bold and ambitious artistic works “with one foot in community and one foot on the stage” and championed the stories of First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities from coast to coast to coast, nationally and internationally. Kevin Loring’s seasons have featured extraordinary productions and collaborations with all NAC departments and external partners incorporating music, dance and visual art. Seasons have also included dozens of learning and community engagement programs and digital mentorship initiatives.

“JUST GETTING STARTED”

“Kevin Loring and the Indigenous Theatre team have enabled hundreds of Indigenous artists to proudly claim their rightful place on the national stage,” said Christopher Deacon, NAC President and CEO. “We are proud and delighted that he will continue to lead the Theatre and can’t wait to see how he will build on the important work he has begun."

"I am honoured to renew my tenure as the Artistic Director of Indigenous Theatre,” said Kevin Loring. “Given the interruptions we’ve all had to navigate, I feel that we are really just getting started. I am so excited for the future of Indigenous Theatre and for the artists we will be able to celebrate here at the NAC. I look forward to more collaborations, creating new works, and sharing more amazing productions from Indigenous Artists from across Turtle Island and around the world."

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES AWARD

The renewal announcement comes on the same day that Kevin will be honoured with a Library and Archives Canada Scholar Award co-presented by the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Foundation and LAC. The LAC Scholar Awards, which are being presented tonight at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, were created to recognize remarkable Canadians who have made an outstanding contribution to the creation and promotion of our country’s culture, literary heritage and historical knowledge.

NAC INDIGENOUS THEATRE MILESTONES UNDER KEVIN LORING

Kevin Loring’s first-ever NAC Indigenous Theatre season in 2019-2020 celebrated Indigenous languages, as well as women’s resilience, strength and beauty. The inaugural season opened with the two-and-a-half week Mòshkamo festival and featured a spectacular Algonquin-led Grand Canoe Entry procession along the Rideau Canal.

Under Kevin’s leadership, the NAC commissioned hundreds of Indigenous artists through various initiatives including #CanadaPerforms, Indigenous Cities, Dancing the Land and #ReconcileThis.

Another highlight of Kevin’s tenure was The Breathing Hole, a theatre work translated into an at-risk dialect of Inuktut and created in close collaboration with the Inuit community's language and knowledge keepers. A recording of the Ottawa presentation of the play was gifted to the three Inuit communities who speak the dialect.

Kevin Loring will finish the current NAC season with his award-winning work, Little Red Warrior and his Lawyer.

ABOUT KEVIN LORING

Kevin Loring is an accomplished Canadian playwright, actor and director and was the winner of the Governor General’s Award for English Language Drama for his outstanding play, Where the Blood Mixes in 2009. The play explores the intergenerational effects of the residential school system. It toured nationally and was presented at the National Arts Centre in 2010, when Loring was serving as the NAC’s Playwright in Residence.

A Nlaka’pamux from the Lytton First Nation in British Columbia, Loring created the Songs of the Land project in 2012 in partnership with five separate organizations in his home community. The project explores 100-year-old audio recordings of songs and stories of the N’lakap’amux People. Loring has written two new plays based on his work with the community including Battle of the Birds, about domestic violence and power abuse, and The Boy Who Was Abandoned, about youth and elder neglect.

A versatile artist and leader Loring has served as the co-curator of the Talking Stick Festival, as Artist in Residence at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, as Artistic Director of the Savage Society in Vancouver, as a Documentary Producer of Canyon War: The Untold Story, and as the Project Leader/Creator, and Director of the Songs of the Land project in his home community of Lytton First Nation.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT :

Carl Martin
Strategy and Communications Advisor National Arts Centre
613 291-8880
carl.martin@nac-cna.ca