The National Film Board of Canada and AiMHi, the Prince George Association for Community Living, present a special screening Lay Down Your Heart on Monday, October 16 at 7 p.m. at the PG Playhouse.
An accomplished artist, a lifelong performer and a person with Down syndrome, Niall McNeil has built a unique family tree of blood and chosen relations made up of his closest friends and collaborators. Bonded together by affection and a shared creative passion, Niall’s family includes some of Canada’s most outstanding theatrical and artistic talent. By exploring his unconventional family histories—sometimes factual, sometimes infused with fantasy, but always deeply felt—Niall’s limitless imagination drives him toward the heart of human connection.
Niall’s creative accomplishments are many and include performing with Caravan Farm Theatre in the Okanagan, Vancouver’s Leaky Heaven and Neworld Theatres, and in Ottawa with the English Acting Company of the National Arts Centre. With his collaborators, he’s written and published a number of plays, including Peter Panties and King Arthur’s Night, and in 2022 Niall became the first artist with Down syndrome to be awarded a Canada Council for the Arts Composite Grant to support the development of three new multidisciplinary works.