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Stratford Festival
The Festival Theatre
Genre	Repertory Theatre Festival
Dates	April to October
Location(s)	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Years active	1953–present
Founded	1952
Website	stratfordfestival.ca

The Stratford Festival is an internationally renowned repertory theatre festival which operates from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada.^[1] Founded by local journalist-turned-producer Tom Patterson, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Shakespeare Festival and then Stratford Shakespeare Festival before changing to the current name. Theatre-goers, actors, and playwrights flock to Stratford to take part — many of the greatest Canadian, British, and American actors play roles at the Stratford festival. It was one of the first and is still one of the most prominent arts festivals in Canada and is recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays.

The Festival's primary mandate is to present productions of William Shakespeare's plays, but it also produces a wide variety of theatre from Greek tragedy to Broadway style musicals and contemporary works. For some years, Shakespeare's work typically represented about a third of the offerings in the largest venue, the Festival Theatre. By 2017 however, only three of the 14 productions were Shakespeare's works.^[2]

The success of the festival dramatically changed the image of Stratford into one of a city where the arts and tourism play important roles in its economy. The festival attracts many tourists from outside Canada, mainly those British and American, and is seen as a very important part of Stratford's tourism sector.

History

A view of the Festival Theatre as seen from the Avon River.

The Festival was founded as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada, due mainly to Tom Patterson, a Stratford-native journalist who wanted to revitalize his town's economy by creating a theatre festival dedicated to the works of William Shakespeare, as the town shares the name of Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Stratford was a railway junction and major locomotive shop, and was facing a disastrous loss of employment with the imminent elimination of steam power.^[3] Patterson achieved his goal after gaining encouragement from Mayor David Simpson and the local council,^[3][4] and the Stratford Shakespearean Festival became a legal entity on October 31, 1952.

Already established in Canadian theatre, Dora Mavor Moore helped put Patterson in touch with British actor and director Tyrone Guthrie, first with a transatlantic telephone call.^[5] On July 13, 1953, actor Alec Guinness spoke the first lines of the first play produced by the festival, a production of Richard III: "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York."^[6][7]Alec Guinness and Irene Worth were among the cast of Stratford's inaugural performance of Richard III, working for expenses only.^[3][8]

This first performances (like the entire first four seasons) took place in a concrete amphitheatre covered by giant canvas tent on the banks of the River Avon. The first of many years of Stratford Shakespeare Festival production history started with a six-week season opening on 13 July 1953 with Richard III and then All's Well That Ends Well both starring Alec Guinness. The 1954 season ran for nine weeks and included Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and two Shakespeare plays, Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew. Young actors during the first four seasons included several who went on to great success in subsequent years, Douglas Campbell, Timothy Findley, Don Harron, William Hutt and Douglas Rain.^[9]

Fund raising to build a permanent theatre was slow but was helped significantly by donations from Governor General Vincent Massey and the Perth Mutual Insurance Company. The new Festival Theatre was dedicated on 30 June 1957, with seating for over 1,800 people; none are more than 65 feet from the stage. The design was deliberately intended to resemble a huge tent.^[10] That season's productions included Hamlet, Twelfth Night, the satirical My Fur Lady, The Turn of the Screw and Ibsen's Peer Gynt.

The Festival Theatre's thrust stage was designed by British designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch to resemble both a classic Greek amphitheatre and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and has become a model for other stages in North America and Great Britain.^[11][12]

Tony Award-nominee Scott Wentworth has performed within the festival's stage productions on numerous occasions since 1985, beginning with The Glass Menagerie,^[13] the festival has helped Sara Topham found herself with a career in acting, performing from 2000 to 2011,^[14] and a young, unknown Christopher Walken appeared in Stratford's 1968 stage productions of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, portraying Romeo and Lysander respectively.^[15]

Long-serving Artistic Director Richard Monette retired in 2007 after holding the position for fourteen seasons. He was replaced with an artistic team consisting of General Director Antoni Cimolino and Artistic Directors Marti Maraden, Des McAnuff, and Don Shipley. On March 12, 2008 it was announced that Shipley and Maraden would be stepping down, leaving Des McAnuff as sole Artistic Director.^[16] In 2013 Des McAnuff was replaced by Antoni Cimolino as Artistic Director^[17]

As of 2012, the Festival was in a deficit of $3.4 million, but had a surplus of $3.1 million by 2015, under the control of Cimolino and executive director Anita Gaffney. They had not yet reached the target of a half million ticket sales for the season (a previous record) but had achieved a significant increase in the number of new patrons to the theatres.^[18]

The 2018 season offers a wide range of productions.^[19] Those at the Festival Theatre include The Tempest, Julius Caesar, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Music Man. Two other Shakespeare plays, Coriolanus and The Comedy of Errors are joined by Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband and Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.^[20]

On 17 February 2015, AP News reported that the Stratford Shakespeare Festival plans to film all of Shakespeare's plays.^[21]

Well known actors who have participated in the festival include Alan Bates, Brian Bedford, Martha Burns, Jackie Burroughs, Zoe Caldwell, Douglas Campbell, Len Cariou, Brent Carver, Patricia Conolly, Jack Creley, Jonathan Crombie, Hume Cronyn, Henry Czerny, Cynthia Dale, Brian Dennehy, Colm Feore, Megan Follows, Maureen Forrester, Lorne Greene, Dawn Greenhalgh, Paul Gross, Amelia Hall, Uta Hagen, Julie Harris, Don Harron, Martha Henry, William Hutt, Frances Hyland, Charmion King, Andrea Martin, Barbara March, James Mason, Roberta Maxwell, Eric McCormack, Seana McKenna, Loreena McKennitt, Richard Monette, John Neville, Stephen Ouimette, Lucy Peacock, Nicholas Pennell, David J. Phillips, Amanda Plummer, Christopher Plummer, Sarah Polley, Douglas Rain, Kate Reid, Jason Robards, Alan Scarfe, Paul Scofield, Goldie Semple, William Shatner, Maggie Smith, Jessica Tandy, Peter Ustinov, Al Waxman, Irene Worth, Geraint Wyn Davies and Janet Wright.^[22]

Female directors at Stratford include Pam Brighton, Zoe Caldwell, Marigold Charlseworth, Donna Feore, Jill Keiley, Pamela Hawthorne, Martha Henry, Jeannette Lambermont, Diana Leblanc, Marti Maraden, Weyni Mengesha, Carey Perloff, Lorraine Pintal, Vanessa Porteous, Susan H. Schulman, Djanet Sears, Kathryn Shaw, Jennifer Tarver.

Today

The Festival runs from April to October, and has four permanent venues: the Festival Theatre, the Avon Theatre, the Tom Patterson Theatre, and the Studio Theatre. Although the Festival's primary mandate is to produce the works of Shakespeare, its season playbills include a variety of classical and contemporary works and at least one musical.

The Stratford Festival Forum runs during the season, and features music concerts, readings from major authors, lectures, and discussions with actors or management.

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is an industry partner of the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus.^[23]

Artistic Directors

• 
  Tyrone Guthrie (1953–1955)


• 
  Michael Langham (1956–1967)


• 
  Jean Gascon (1968–1974)


• 
  Robin Phillips (1975–1980)


• 
  John Hirsch (1981–1985)


• 
  John Neville (1985–1989)


• 
  David William (1990–1993)


• 
  Richard Monette (1994–2007)


• 
  Marti Maraden, Des McAnuff, Don Shipley (2007–2008)


• 
  Des McAnuff (2008–2012)


• 
  Antoni Cimolino (2013-)

Executive Directors/General Managers

• Victor Polley


• William Wylie


• Bruce Swerdfager


• Gary Thomas


• Mary Hofstetter


• Antoni Cimolino


• Anita Gaffney

2019 season

For the 2019 season, Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino has chosen 12 productions that explore the theme of Breaking Boundaries

• 
  Othello – by William Shakespeare
  


• 
  Billy Elliot the Musical – Book and Lyrics by Lee Hall, music by Elton John
  


• 
  The Merry Wives of Windsor – by William Shakespeare
  


• 
  Henry VIII – by William Shakespeare
  


• 
  The Crucible – by Arthur Miller
  


• 
  The Neverending Story – by Michael Ende, adapted for the stage by David S. Craig
  


• 
  Little Shop of Horrors – Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken
  


• 
  Birds of a Kind – by Wajdi Mouawad, english translation by Linda Gaboriau
  


• 
  The Front Page – by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
  


• 
  Nathan the Wise – by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, in a version by Edward Kemp
  


• 
  Private Lives – by Noël Coward
  


• 
  Mother’s Daughter – by Kate Hennig
  

Theatres

• Festival Theatre


• Avon Theatre


• Tom Patterson Theatre


• Studio Theatre

See also

• Theatre in Canada


• 
  Mary Jolliffe, the festival's first publicist.


• 
  James Alexander Cowan, one of the founders of the festival.


• 
  The Stratford Adventure, a 1954 NFB documentary on the founding of the festival, with Tyrone Guthrie and Alec Guinness.


• 
  Slings and Arrows, a 2003–2006 Canadian television comedy set in a fictional Shakespearean company modeled after Stratford.

References

Further reading

• 
  Guthrie, Tyrone; Robertson Davies; Grant MacDonald (1953). Renown at Stratford: A Record of the Shakespeare Festival in Canada. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company, Ltd.
  


• 
  Ouzounian, Richard (2002). Stratford Gold: 50 Years, 50 Stars, 50 Conversations. Toronto: McArthur & Company, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-55278-271-2.
  


• 
  Shaw, Grace Lydiatt (1977). Stratford Under Cover: Memories on Tape. NC Press. ISBN 978-0919600676.
  


• 
  Sperdakos, Paula (1995). Dora Mavor Moore: Pioneer of the Canadian Theatre. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1550222470.
  

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

• The Stratford Festival official website