Take a behind-the-scenes look inside the National Arts Centre

The curtain on Canada’s National Art Centre (NAC) was lifted exactly 50 years ago Sunday. A centre point for theatre, music and dance in the nation’s capital, it has attracted some of the worlds’ top artistic talent.

To celebrate its anniversary, the NAC opened its doors to the public with a rare backstage view. CTV News’ Molly Thomas got an all-access pass to this cultural hub of history.

We walk down memory lane with one of Canada’s prima ballerinas. Veronica Tennant danced in Southam Hall for a quarter of a century.

What people may not know is that the NAC keeps the majority of its theatre props right on site. The treasure trove contains everything from the famous holed umbrellas featured in “Oliver Twist,” to clocks and radios from every time period. I got the chance to link up with Mike Calouri, the head of props at the NAC, to explore a unique space, with gadgets and gizmos a plenty.

At 19 years of age, violinist Elaine Klimasko moved from Toronto to Ottawa, to pursue her dream of playing in the NAC orchestra. She was apart of the famous ensemble back in 1969. She calls her violin her soul mate, and shares why she still loves her job, 50 years after she first started.

Do you know what a maquette is? Don’t worry, most people don’t. It's a rough draft or scale model of sculpture. NAC Archivist-Curator Robert Vanderberg explained it to us in the secret archives of the NAC.

Few people know where this spot its located because it holds some of the centre’s greatest treasures. There are 200 costumes, 8,000 posters and thousands of pictures from the past 50 years. If you look close, you’ll even find that the Queen has visited the NAC.

Constructed with theatre, music and dance in mind, Fred Lebensold, the chief architect, chose a hexagon shape for its structure. Even the light fixtures and floors are in that shape. Recent renovations have brought 2,600 square metres of glass to the structure. That’s nearly twice the size of two NHL sized hockey rinks.

Famous faces, like Paul Anka and Wilfred Hyde-White, now line the hallways of this cultural hub of history. Before she was an Academy Award winner, Sandra Oh benefited from its wisdom too.

The next 50 years of the NAC now depends on if young people buy into what it has to offer.

Klimasko remembers looking out onto a “mature” crowd in her early days in the orchestra.

“Those times have changed now too,” she says. “There’s lots of younger people, lots of couples in their 30s and that really makes me happy.”

NAC CEO Christopher Deacon is confident that the “magic of the performing arts is timeless” and yet he recognizes the centre has to adapt to the next generation. The facility has added free wifi and 100 new singer-songwriters to its roster. As for cell phones in the theatre? “It would be crazy 50 years ago to bring a camera, now everyone has a camera,” Deacon says. “Now we encourage people to take pictures at the shows and post to Instagram, so the magic of the stage can be amplified across the country.”

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