The National Arts Centre in Ottawa is working with theatre companies across Canada to bring performing arts to the public.

Called the Grand Acts of Theatre, large-scale outdoor works will be staged in eleven communities from coast-to-coast including a show in Barrie called Something Bubbled, Something Blue where audiences will be invited to a wedding celebration attended by well-dressed guests in inflatable plastic orbs. And in Regina, performers will stage a series vignettes across the prairie landscape to explore Indigenous-settler relations.

“We’re really hoping that the public will have an encounter with it that 10 years from now they’ll remember this Grand Acts of Theatre as part of their experience of this very interesting time we’re in,” said Jillian Keiley, the NAC’s artistic director of English theatre.

It’s hoped project will help prop up Canada’s struggling theatre sector while appealing to a whole new audience amid the pandemic. The shows take place in September and October..and will also be shared online.