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March 22, 2017 – OTTAWA (Canada) – The National Arts Centre (NAC) today expressed its regret over the cancellation of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. Over the last week, the NAC, in its role as a co-presenter, met several times with Magnetic North’s management and board of directors, as well as the festival’s major public funders, to try to come up with a collective solution that would have made it possible to present the event in Ottawa next June.
Magnetic North was founded in 2003 as a not-for-profit organization with an independent board of directors. Since the beginning of the festival the NAC has provided financial and in-kind support, including the use of office space and stages at no cost.
“In order to support the organization, the NAC was ready to step up in a variety of ways, as it has in the past,” said Peter Herrndorf, President and CEO of the NAC. “We are very sad and disappointed about the cancellation of the Magnetic North Festival. Those who created it – including the NAC’s then Artistic Director of English Theatre, Marti Maraden – envisioned an annual festival where the best work from across the country could be discovered by presenters and the professional theatre community. We’re proud of what Magnetic North has achieved for Canada’s English-language theatre community. It will be sorely missed. I’d like to thank Magnetic North’s Artistic Director Brendan Healy and Managing Director Nancy Oakley and members of the festival’s board of directors who did their best to save the festival.”
Jillian Keiley, Artistic Director of the NAC’s English Theatre, issued the following statement:
“All of us at English Theatre were very sorry to learn the Magnetic North Theatre Festival has been cancelled. The festival, in all its iterations, has been a very important complement to the NAC English Theatre’s mission. I’d like to thank all of the artistic and producing leaders who have guided the festival over the past 14 years. We especially send our thoughts to the artistic and leadership team of Brendan Healy and Nancy Oakley, who had barely begun in their new posts when the festival took this unexpected turn. I would have loved to see the great new heights that they might have reached. There is no doubt in my mind that, during its existence, the festival strengthened new work in our country, introduced ways for thousands of people from outside Canada to hear Canadian stories, and created a thriving network of theatre makers who influenced and encouraged each other to become a healthier, more diverse, more creative Canadian community.”
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