The Northern Arts and Cultural Centre is heading into its 42nd season with a lineup that moves from classical music to stand-up comedy, contemporary dance, children’s theatre and Indigenous comedy.
The theatre, also known as NACC, unveiled its 2026-27 season last week, drawing inspiration from the tamarack tree’s rings as a symbol of growth and resilience, and the lasting connections created through the arts.
This season, artistic director Kacie Hall said every production will include some form of local engagement, whether that’s through local opening acts, commissioned work, workshops, school performances or partnerships with community organizations.
“The experiences really do have a lasting impact on both our audiences and on the artists,” said Hall. “We really grow from them, but they just stay with us. They make an impression.”
The season opens with internationally acclaimed violinist James Ehnes, whose Canadian tour will include an original composition commissioned from Yellowknife composer Carmen Braden. The work will travel with Ehnes as he performs in every province and territory, giving Braden’s composition an audience far beyond the NWT.
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Comedy will also take a larger place in the lineup. Corner Gas creator Brent Butt will perform in Yellowknife, with local comedian Skye Plowman opening the show. Later in the season, Indigenous comedy duo The Deadly Aunties will bring their humour and advocacy-focused work to the NACC stage.
There are contemporary dance productions, including NEXT ZONE and lossy, music from Veda Hille and Friends, a new one-person play from Yukon, and the Children’s Festival of Silliness, which will feature both English- and French-language programming.
Beyond Yellowknife, three productions will tour Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Hay River, Inuvik and Norman Wells, with additional workshops and school programming planned along the way.
For Hall, putting together a program starts with a simple question: what would make people want to come to the theatre?
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“It really is so varied” she said of this year’s line up.
Hall said she regularly asks people in the community what kinds of performances they would like to see, and some of the shows in this year’s program grew directly from those conversations. Take Brent Butt as an example.
Hall said she thought about what kind of performer might bring someone like her father, a “50-something-year-old millwright,” to the theatre.
“It’s Brent Butt,” she said. “That’s the kind of performer that would engage this audience.”
Hall said this means not every production will appeal to every person, and that is precisely why having a diverse lineup matters.
By mixing comedy, classical music, dance, theatre and family shows, NACC is creating different ways for people to find something that speaks to them, even if they don’t usually see themselves as theatre-goers, Hall said.
Hall said she hopes people will look through the entire program and find something that interests them.
“This year we’ve got such a huge range of things that’ll interest different people,” she said.
Inspired by community members wanting more opportunities to learn and develop theatre skills, Hall said NACC is also offering a new series of professional development workshops in theatre safety, play creation, stage management and fly rigging, as well as dance workshops offered with the Yellowknife Dance Collective.
“It’s really about building visibility and building capacity for us,” Hall said.
