New role for Kevin Loring

Award-winning Canadian playwright, actor and educator Kevin Loring has been named the first-ever artistic director of indigenous theatre at the National Arts Centre.

The new department’s inaugural season in 2019 and 2020 will coincide with a major milestone for the NAC: the 50th anniversary of the Ottawa-based performing arts centre.

Loring won the 2009 Governor General’s Award for English Language Drama for the play “Where the Blood Mixes,’’ which examined the intergenerational effects of the residential school system.

The production toured nationally and was presented at the NAC in 2010 when Loring was the playwright-in-residence.

He is currently performing at the NAC in the musical “Children of God’’ from Oji-Cree playwright, actor composer and director Corey Payette, which also explores the legacy of the residential school system.

Loring will take up his new post on Oct. 16.

Loring’s lengthy history with the NAC dates back well over a decade, with appearances in Marie Clements’s plays “Burning Vision’’ and “Copper Thunderbird,’’ and in the NAC’s 40th anniversary production of George Ryga’s “The Ecstasy of Rita Joe.’’ He also took on the role of Edmund in an all-aboriginal version of “King Lear’’ in 2012.

Loring was among hundreds of indigenous artists the NAC brought together for discussions about expanding indigenous arts at one of the world’s largest performing arts centres.

Loring is a member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation from the Lytton First Nation in B.C.