click here to download a pdf of the season schedule
All shows start at 7:30pm.
Click here to purchase tickets or subscriptions to all 2011/2012 shows through ticketmaster, tickets are also available at the NAC Box Office with no online purchase fees
December 15, 2011 - Kim Kilpatrick, Alan Shain - with seasonal music by Janine Dudding of Acacia Lyra
500 Years of Christmas
Travel through 500 years of holiday celebrations, with all their ups and downs! Join popular storytellers Kim Kilpatrick and Alan Shain as they look at the way that traditions have changed over the years and make merry with the ghosts of Christmas Past.
Acacia Lyra is not your average harp and voice duo. Janine Dudding and Susan Sweeney Hermon sing in English, French, Spanish and Gaelic, accompanying themselves on Celtic harps and guitars. Their programme is a colourful journey of traditional and contemporary tunes, including their own material, from the Scottish highlands to the Peruvian Altiplano. Janine and Susan began performing as a duo in 2006. Each has a wealth of songs from different sources, and their musical collaboration has resulted in new compositions and fresh arrangements for harp, guitar and voice.The duo has been kept busy since it began a few years ago, performing in concerts and private functions in Ottawa, the National Capital Region, and in Quebec and Ontario.
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January 19, 2012 - Gail Anglin, Tom Lips and Daniel Kletke
A House Divided: Stories and Songs of the American Civil War
The American Civil War is one of the most talked about conflicts in modern history. With slavery, nationalism, and changing economics at its core, this war saw brother fighting brother. Tonight, we hear stories from both perspectives – North and South, framed with the stirring songs that were sung by soldiers and those who waited for them back home.
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February 16, 2012 - Jennifer Cayley, Jan Andrews, Katherine Grier
Dragon’s Gold: A Sword Re-forged, A Ring Accursed
When the old Norse gods still walked the earth, a son was slain. The payment for his death was gold; in that gold there was a ring. Only one knew the ring carried a curse – a curse to be lived out through the generations. Sound familiar? These myths inspired The Lord of the Rings and Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and tonight we bring you the original Quest of the Ring.
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March 15, 2012 - Mike Burns
The Shortest Road Home: Stories from Ireland
Irish seanachie Mike Burns returns to the 4th Stage to share the tales of a country known for its warm welcomes and its storytelling.
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April 19, 2012 - Kathie Kompass, Marva Blackmore, Mary Wiggin
Lasting Enchantment: 200 Years of the Brothers Grimm
2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of the famous fairytale collection of the Brothers Grimm. Written for adults rather than children, these stories are often just that -- grim. However, these are not the stories Hollywood tells us. Be captivated and enchanted, but be prepared to hear the unvarnished tales as the Brothers wrote them.
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May 24, 2012 - C.S.E. Cooney and Ruthanne Edward
Echoes of the Dead: Ghost Stories
Sometimes we fear ghosts, and sometimes we cling to them, refusing to release the shades of those we loved. Tonight we share stories of those who haunt lonely roads, tall houses and dark corners – we share the stories of those who see them, and those who summon them.
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June 16, 2012
The Odyssey
The experience of a life time. Odysseus’s journey, beginning to end, in a full day of epic storytelling. Circe, the Cyclops, gods and goddesses carrying you into an ancient world. Eighteen storytellers will take you on the hero’s quest as Homer meant us to hear it, from Troy’s defeat to Ithaca’s shores.