August 25, 2014… Artistic Director
Antoni Cimolino announces a season of Discovery for 2015 with 13
plays exploring eureka moments, whether they be scientific discoveries,
creative accomplishments, the dawning of a deeper understanding of human
nature or the epiphanies of self-knowledge.
These themes, as they are reflected in art, science and our personal
lives, will be further explored through more than 150 events at the
Stratford Festival Forum.
The 2015 season will also see a number of
creative artists pursuing new work through the Stratford
Festival Laboratory, Mr. Cimolino’s centre for creative research and
development, including adaptations of an early Urdu novel and a
children’s story, as well as a new approach to four of Shakespeare’s
history plays.
“Eureka moments take
many different forms,” says Mr. Cimolino. “When a creative spark is
ignited, when we gain a sudden flash of insight into our own natures,
when a scientific
discovery requires us to revise our model of reality: those are just a
few instances of how a leap in comprehension can change our lives.
“Such moments are
critical to human progress: from ancient times to the present day,
they’ve enabled us to push back the horizons of our understanding, to
enlarge our world,
to increase our knowledge of ourselves. But at the same time, they
often come at a cost – sometimes a terrible one.
“In planning the 2015
season, I wanted to explore the implications of those moments of
discovery, whether personal, scientific or social. I wanted to look at
the promises they
hold out, the risks they entail, the truths they tell us about
ourselves, and how they may affect the delicate balance between
individual freedom and collective responsibility.”
The plays in the 2015 season range from the classics – Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost and
The Adventures of Pericles; Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer; Ben Jonson’s
The Alchemist; and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex – to two modern works – Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s
The Physicists and The Diary of Anne Frank, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and adapted by Wendy Kesselman – and two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals –
The Sound of Music and Carousel – through to two contemporary Canadian plays – John Mighton’s
Possible Worlds and The Last Wife, a new play written by Kate Hennig.
“The 2015 playbill takes us right from Sophocles’
Oedipus Rex, one of the great original stories about self-discovery and its cost, through to a brand new play,
The Last Wife, where one woman discovers that political power is
ephemeral, and that perceived notions of the roles of men and women are
not easily changed.”
Festival Theatre to feature
Hamlet, The Sound of Music,
The Taming of the Shrew,
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Antoni Cimolino directs the season opener,
Hamlet
Hamlet | By William Shakespeare
| Directed by Antoni Cimolino
#sfHamlet
Mr. Cimolino will direct the 2015 season opener at the Festival Theatre:
Hamlet, the most renowned and celebrated of all Shakespearean tragedies.
He describes it as “the great
story about understanding yourself and the world and coming to a state
of readiness to face the ‘undiscovered country’ of death.”
Hamlet centres on the brooding Prince of Denmark, who is both in mourning for his father and deeply disturbed by the speedy
remarriage of his mother, Gertrude, to Claudius, her deceased husband’s brother, whom Hamlet believes murdered his father.
“Hamlet appeals to me in
part because it dramatizes a problem the world has always faced,” says
Mr. Cimolino. “Hamlet is a scholar who believes in the arts and their
potential to bring
about a better world. But people like him, whose primary motivation is
to strive for civilization, don’t know how to begin to deal with people
whose desires focus solely on power, sex or money.
“As result, all of
Hamlet’s sensitivity and capacity for self-examination leads only to
doubt and inaction. When eventually he is driven to act on his father’s
demand for revenge, he unwittingly
perpetuates the very system he was setting out to change.”
Mr. Cimolino, whose riveting production of
King Lear is a brilliant highlight of the 2014 season, has a
string of passionate and moving productions to his credit, including
last season’s sold-out production of
Mary Stuart and 2012’s Cymbeline, both of which were extended multiple times to meet the demand for tickets, and this season’s
The Beaux’ Stratagem. Mr. Cimolino’s other Shakespeare credits at Stratford include
The Merchant of Venice with Scott Wentworth and Tom McCamus in 2013; Coriolanus with Colm Feore and Martha Henry in 2006;
As You Like It with Graham Abbey, Stephen Ouimette and Sara Topham in 2005;
King John with Peter Donaldson and Stephen Ouimette in 2004; Love’s Labour’s Lost with Graham Abbey and Brian Bedford in 2003; and
Twelfth Night with Domini Blythe, Peter Donaldson and William Hutt in 2001.
Donna Feore takes the helm of
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music | Music by
Richard Rodgers | Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
Suggested by “The Trapp Family Singers” by Maria Augusta Trapp
Directed and Choreographed by Donna Feore
#sfSoundofMusic
Fresh from her triumph with this season’s smash hit
Crazy for You, acclaimed director and choreographer Donna Feore returns for her 21st Festival season with the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic
The Sound of Music.
The family favourite
tells the story of Maria Rainer, a high-spirited postulant at Austria’s
Nonnberg Abbey. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War,
Maria is sent by her Mother
Abbess to act as governess to the seven children of naval captain and
widower Georg von Trapp, so that she may discover if she truly has a
religious vocation. Maria’s love of music, and of life, soon endears her
to the children and eventually, despite his
initial resistance, to their father. But two circumstances cause them
to look into their hearts and rethink their destinies: Maria’s growing
feelings of love for her already engaged employer, and the Captain’s
unconcealed detestation of the Nazi regime that
is occupying his homeland.
“Like many of the titles on the 2015 playbill,
The Sound of Music is about people discovering their own capacity
for love, what love really means to them,” says Mr. Cimolino. “Maria
starts out believing that her love must be reserved for God, but then
realizes that secular love is no less vital to
her. Meanwhile, the Captain discovers how to show his love for his
children, and realizes the value of family within a community.”
Ms
Feore has been the force behind a growing list of hit musicals at the
Festival, including last season’s acclaimed production of
Fiddler on the Roof, as well as You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,
Oklahoma! and Oliver! Other recent credits also include The Very, Very Best of Broadway with Martin Short and Marvin Hamlisch, the Canadian Stage productions of
Rock ’n’ Roll and It’s a Wonderful Life and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s
Mozart: A Life in Letters. Her film credits include Politics Is Cruel,
Mean Girls, Eloise, Martin and Lewis, Stormy Weather and the opera films
Romeo and Juliette and Don Giovanni Unmasked.
Chris Abraham to direct The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew | By William
Shakespeare | Directed by Chris Abraham
#sfShrew
Siminovitch Prize-winning director
Chris Abraham returns for his sixth season to take the helm of Shakespeare’s
The Taming of the Shrew, hot off his gloriously uplifting production of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“The Taming of the Shrew
is one of a number of plays in the 2015 season that investigate women’s
roles within troubling, even violent, relationships, and invite us to
examine more closely the sometimes paradoxical dynamics of those
relationships.”
Katherina,
or Kate, the “shrew” of the title, has a reputation for ill temper that
so far has discouraged any potential suitors – and until a match for
her can be found, her father will not countenance any proposals to her
sister, Bianca. But then Petruchio, looking for a wealthy wife, decides
to take up the challenge of wooing Kate. The ensuing contest of wills
leads to a conclusion that has fuelled much
controversy in modern times.
Mr. Abraham has quickly established himself as a director of note with stellar Stratford productions of
Othello, The Matchmaker, The Little Years and For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again
to his credit. He is a multi-award winning theatre and film director,
dramaturge and teacher who has worked with Canada’s foremost artists and
theatres
including Canadian Stage Company, Tarragon Theatre, Segal Centre and
the Globe Theatre. Since 2007, he has been the Artistic Director of
Crow’s Theatre, for which he has directed numerous productions including
the Dora Award-winning productions of
Eternal Hydra and Easy Lenny, as well as Boxhead, The Country and Kristen Thomson’s award-winning hit
I, Claudia, for which he also directed the film adaptation and won a Gemini Award.
John Caird makes his Stratford debut with
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Love’s Labour’s Lost | By William
Shakespeare | Directed by John Caird
#sfLabours
Tony and Olivier Award-winning director
John Caird makes his Stratford debut in 2015 as director of Love’s Labour’s Lost.
“This
most beautiful of Shakespeare’s plays shows us the difference between
book-learning and lessons of the heart,” says Mr. Cimolino. “It’s about
four young men who
put the pursuit of knowledge on a pedestal, only to find that
intellectual inquiry is only part of the journey they need to take in
order to know themselves, to know others and to know the true meaning –
and the true cost – of love.”
The
play revolves around a decision by the young King of Navarre and his
friends to renounce the company of women and devote themselves to
contemplative study. Unfortunately
their decision is made just as the Princess of France and her three
lovely companions arrive on court business. Life and love have some
lessons in store for them all, as the characters discover that it takes
more than high spirits and witty words to win a
woman’s heart.
Though
Mr. Caird is a Canadian, his illustrious career has taken place almost
entirely outside of this country. As a director and writer, he has
worked in theatre,
opera and musical theatre with such esteemed actors as Judi Dench,
Daniel Day Lewis, Ian McKellen and Ben Kingsley. His hit production of
Nicholas Nickleby, co-directed with Trevor Nunn in 1980 at the
Royal Shakespeare Company, set a record for the most Olivier Awards won
by a show. He and Mr. Nunn also co-directed the original production of
the international sensation
Les Misérables. He is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal
Shakespeare Company, a regular guest director at the National Theatre
and Principal Guest Director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.
His recent credits include Hjalmar Söderberg’s
Gertrud at the Royal Dramatic Theatre; his musical Daddy Long Legs at Theatre Crié in Japan, which also toured across North America; Puccini’s
La Bohème at both the San Francisco Opera and Canadian Opera Company in Toronto; and
Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest at Dramaten in Stockholm. Mr. Caird’s book
Theatre Craft, an encyclopedic companion for the professional director, was published in 2010.
Avon Theatre to feature
She Stoops to Conquer, Carousel,
The Diary of Anne Frank
Martha Henry at the helm of
She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer
| By Oliver Goldsmith | Directed by Martha Henry
#sfConquer
Oliver Goldsmith’s comedy of manners
She Stoops to Conquer will be directed by Martha Henry, whose Stratford successes include this season’s production of
Mother Courage and Her Children, as well as Measure for Measure,
Three Sisters, Of Mice and Men, Elizabeth Rex and many others.
In this delightful and
extremely funny comedy, a wealthy countryman, Mr. Hardcastle, arranges
for his daughter Kate to meet Charles Marlow, the son of a wealthy
Londoner, hoping the pair
will marry. But confusion runs riot when a trick played by Kate’s
half-brother causes Marlow to mistake the home of his potential
father-in-law for an inn. Further complications are caused by the fact
that Marlow becomes nervous and tongue-tied around upper-class
women. Realizing she will have to “stoop to conquer,” Kate poses as a
maid in order to put him at his ease and help him connect with his own
heart – and hers.
“Like her namesake in
The Taming of the Shrew, Kate in She Stoops to Conquer has
to find a way to achieve her heart’s desire by apparently changing her
status. And by assuming the role that enables her to reach Marlow, she
will ultimately help him to get beyond the
personality quirk that has limited his ability to relate to others. She
realizes that, in human relationships, barriers can’t always be
overcome by confrontation. Sometimes you have to get yourself out of the
way in order to attain what you want,” says Mr.
Cimolino.
“Kate leads Marlow – and
us, the audience – to the vital realization that lies at the heart of
the play: that humanity is more important than class. This is a
wonderful play
about the discovery of our common humanity.”
The recipient of this year’s Legacy Award and one of Canada’s most celebrated artists, Martha Henry returns for her 41st season to direct
She Stoops to Conquer. A Companion of the Order of Canada, a
Member of the Order of Ontario and the recipient of the Governor
General’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Ms Henry boasts a career without
parallel in this country. Her relationship with the Festival
spans six decades, including the direction of numerous critically
acclaimed productions. She has also performed in almost 70 productions
at Stratford, playing nearly every female leading role in Shakespeare’s
canon. She was most recently seen in this season’s
The Beaux’ Stratagem and last year’s Taking Shakespeare,
playing a role that was written expressly for her by playwright John
Murrell. Ms Henry has also served as the Director of the Birmingham
Conservatory for Classical Theatre since 2007.
Susan H. Schulman returns to direct
Carousel
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel
Music by Richard Rodgers | Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on Ferenc Molnar’s Play “Liliom” | As adapted by Benjamin F. Glazer
Original Dances by Agnes de Mille
Directed by Susan H. Schulman
#sfCarousel
Last seen at Stratford in 2008 as the director of the critically acclaimed
The Music Man, Susan H. Schulman returns to the Festival at the helm of the Tony Award-winning musical
Carousel.
Against the backdrop of a
sun-drenched New England summer, a pair of star-crossed lovers,
carnival barker Billy Bigelow and millworker Julie Jordan, discover the
power of love to transcend
turmoil and even time itself in a show graced by what is arguably
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most luscious score, filled with soaring
melodies and unforgettable lyrics.
“You’ll Never Walk
Alone,” “If I Loved You” and “June is Bustin’ Out All Over” are merely
the shiniest gems in a classical Broadway musical that has resonated
with audiences for 70 years.
“Rodgers and Hammerstein considered
Carousel their greatest achievement,” says Mr. Cimolino, “and Time magazine named it the best musical of the 20th century. It is a beautiful story of love and forgiveness, which I know Susan will direct with grace and flair.”
Ms Schulman has a long string of hits at Stratford, including
Fiddler on the Roof, Man of La Mancha, The King and I, Hello, Dolly! and
To Kill a Mockingbird. Her Broadway credits include the Tony Award-winning musical
The Secret Garden as well as its highly successful national tour, the revival of
Sweeney Todd at the Circle in the Square, the revival of The Sound of Music and
Little Women, the musical as well as its national tour. Ms
Schulman received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Director for her
direction of the highly acclaimed
Violet, which also won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award
for Best Musical. She has directed for regional theatres throughout the
U.S., Canada and Australia, and most recently directed a new musical in
Denmark. Ms Schulman heads the Graduate Program
in Directing at Penn State University.
Jillian Keiley returns to direct
The Diary of Anne Frank
Schulich Children’s Plays presents
The Diary of Anne Frank
By Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, adapted by Wendy Kesselman
Directed by Jillian Keiley
#sfAnneFrank
Jillian Keiley, who gave us a madly inventive production of
Alice Through the Looking-Glass this season, will bring her remarkable creative vision to
The Diary of Anne Frank, a beloved play about the indomitability of the human spirit.
There are few who do not
know the harrowing but inspiring story of Anne Frank and the journal in
which she documented her experience of hiding from the Nazis in an
attic in Amsterdam for
more than two years. Her diary reveals a young woman’s journey of
self-discovery in a life cruelly cut short when she and her family were
found and sent to die in concentration camps.
“Both
The Diary of Anne Frank and The Sound of Music draw on
real-life stories – one tragic, the other triumphant – from the very
darkest period of our modern age,” says Mr. Cimolino. “It was a time
when we made the terrible discovery that the utmost
evil could take root even in the very heart of civilization. By taking
us into the heart and mind of just one young woman among the millions of
people who died during that awful time, Anne Frank’s story will forever
stand as one of our most harrowing reminders
of the human cost entailed when societies succumb to hatred, bigotry
and warped ideologies.”
Ms Keiley’s Stratford
connection dates back to 2008, when she was selected as a participant in
the International Master Directors Summit. This December she will take
Alice Through the Looking-Glass to the National Arts Centre,
where she is Artistic Director of English Theatre. She received the
Siminovitch Prize in 2004 for her “startlingly original and radically
imaginative” directing style. Her credits include
Tempting Providence, which she created in collaboration with
playwright Robert Chafe and which enjoyed a decade-long run across the
country and abroad. Ms Keiley also made a big splash with her first
project as Artistic Director of the NAC, Mary Zimmerman’s
Metamorphoses, a theatrical event set in and around a swimming pool.
Tom Patterson Theatre to feature
Oedipus Rex, Pericles,
The Physicists and
The Alchemist
Daniel Brooks makes Stratford debut with
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus Rex | By Sophocles | Directed
by Daniel Brooks
#sfOedipus
Sophocles’
Oedipus Rex will be staged at the Tom Patterson Theatre and directed by
Daniel Brooks, whose innovative and influential work has earned him acclaim across Canada and beyond.
“As a cutting-edge
director and playwright, as well as an actor and teacher, Daniel has
long been one of our country’s foremost theatre creators,” says Mr.
Cimolino. “I am
delighted to welcome him to the Festival.”
Filled with cryptic prophesies,
Oedipus Rex presents numerous moments of creative inspiration, all leading to tragic consequences.
King Oedipus, seeking a remedy for the
terrible curse that has befallen Thebes, sends his brother-in-law,
Creon, to seek the advice of the god Apollo. Creon informs Oedipus that
the curse will be lifted
if the murderer of the former king, Laius, slain many years ago at a
crossroads, is found and brought to justice. Oedipus dedicates himself
to the discovery and prosecution of Laius’s killer, an enterprise that
leads to his own ruin.
Mr. Brooks, the
recipient of the inaugural Siminovitch Prize, for which he was hailed as
one of the brightest lights in Canadian theatre, is well known for his
collaborations with Daniel
MacIvor. Together, they created a series of solo shows including House,
Here Lies Henry, Monster and Cul-de-sac. As Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company for 10 years, his work included
Bigger Than Jesus with Rick Miller, John Mighton’s Half Life and a stage version with music of Michael Ondaatje’s
Divisadero. His more recent credits include David Mamet’s Race for Canadian Stage,
The Drowsy Chaperone at the Winter Garden, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and Samuel Beckett’s
Endgame at Soulpepper, and Wallace Shawn’s The Designated Mourner at the Tarragon Theatre. He has been recognized with eight Dora Award nominations, winning three times.
Scott Wentworth steps into director’s chair for
Pericles
Pericles | By William Shakespeare
| Directed by Scott Wentworth
#sfPericles
As in
Oedipus Rex, the action of Pericles hinges on a riddle, the
solution to which sends the title character on a journey of Homeric
proportions, involving a long separation and culminating in a joyous
reunion. This production will be directed by
Scott Wentworth.
“Both these plays involve the discovery of similar dark and deeply disturbing secrets,” says Mr. Cimolino “In
Oedipus Rex, that revelation marks the culmination of the play, prompting a tragic conclusion. In
Pericles, the discovery comes at the beginning, initiating a
flight from danger and an ensuing life story that after much tribulation
will end happily.”
Scott Wentworth will mark his 21st
season with this return to the director’s chair. Mr. Wentworth is a
Tony-nominated actor, as well as a director and playwright
whose work has been celebrated on Broadway, in London’s West End, on
television, and in films and theatres across North America. He began his
directing career at the Indiana Repertory Theatre and made his
Stratford directorial debut in 2001 with
Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. His other directorial credits include Much Ado About Nothing at Hilberry Theatre and
Macbeth at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, which he co-directed with
Robin Phillips, as well as a number of productions for The Shakespeare
Theatre of New Jersey, including
The Winter’s Tale, Henry V, The School for Scandal, As You Like It and
Enter The Guardsman. He will return to New Jersey this December to direct
Much Ado About Nothing. A longtime Festival favourite, Mr. Wentworth recently played Gloucester in
King Lear, Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Squire Sullen in
The Beaux’ Stratagem, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Capulet in Romeo and Juliet and Shylock in
The Merchant of Venice.
Miles Potter takes on
The Physicists
The Physicists | By Friedrich
Dürrenmatt | Directed by Miles Potter
#sfPhysicists
Director
Miles Potter will return to the Festival for his 13th season in 2015, directing Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s provocative and darkly comic satire
The Physicists.
“The Alchemist and
The Physicists are two darker plays in the season about how human
knowledge can be subverted and applied to all sorts of negative things,
so that the eureka moment can become fodder for the worst aspects of
humanity,” says Mr. Cimolino.
Herbert Georg Beutler
(who believes that he is Sir Isaac Newton), Ernst Heinrich Ernesti (who
believes he is Albert Einstein) and Johann Wilhelm Möbius (who believes
that he is regularly
visited by the biblical King Solomon) are all patients at Les Cerisiers
sanatorium, an idyllic home for the mentally ill. “Einstein” is under
investigation by the police after the second murder of a nurse in three
months, the first having been committed by
“Newton.” When yet another murder takes place, it emerges that none of
these three men are quite what they seem. This brilliant, funny and
thought-provoking play deals with questions of scientific ethics and
humanity’s ability to handle its intellectual responsibilities.
Mr. Potter has directed nine productions for the Festival, including last season’s
The Three Musketeers, as well as Medea and Orpheus Descending,
both of which were later presented by Mirvish Productions in Toronto.
Mr. Potter has worked at virtually every major venue in the country over
the past 30 years, such as Vancouver’s
Bard on the Beach, Soulpepper, Theatre Calgary, Citadel Theatre and the
Manitoba Theatre Centre. He has worked on many new scripts, including
this summer’s world première of
Stag and Doe at the Blyth Festival and the première production and national tour of Michael Healy’s
The Drawer Boy.
Antoni Cimolino to direct Jonson’s
The Alchemist
The Alchemist | By Ben Jonson
| Directed by Antoni Cimolino
#sfAlchemist
Opening later in the season at the Tom Patterson Theatre is Ben Jonson’s satirical comedy
The Alchemist directed by Antoni Cimolino, who brought a deft hand to the North American première of Jonson’s
Bartholomew Fair in 2009, one of that season’s most in-demand productions.
Written by one of
Shakespeare’s greatest contemporaries, this is the story of three con
artists – Face, Subtle and Dol Common – who set up shop in the house of
Face’s temporarily absent
master, Lovewit. With Subtle posing as a doctor learned in alchemy,
they prey on a steady stream of gullible victims, including the
sensualist Sir Epicure Mammon and the Puritan zealots Tribulation and
Ananias, duping them with pseudo-scientific jargon and
the irresistible promise that they are on the verge of discovering how
to turn base metals into gold. Through a combination of quick changes
and even quicker wits, the three tricksters manage to evade discovery –
until everything is turned on its head by Lovewit’s
unexpected return.
“I love Ben Jonson,”
says Mr. Cimolino. “He is such a great complement to Shakespeare. Where
Shakespeare is enigmatic, Jonson is definite. Where Shakespeare is about
our deep inner natures
within the universe, Jonson is about the roles we play in the world.
There is an element of character to Jonson that is very different from
Shakespeare. And yet, Shakespeare was Jonson’s mentor and Jonson is the
reason why we have Shakespeare’s Folio. As writers
they represent two sides of the same coin.”
Studio Theatre to feature
Possible Worlds, The Last Wife
Mitchell Cushman directs his first Stratford play,
Possible Worlds
Possible Worlds | By John Mighton
| Directed by Mitchell Cushman
#sfPossible
Mitchell Cushman, who has just completed two years in the Festival’s Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction,
will make his Stratford directorial debut with John Mighton’s philosophical whodunit
Possible Worlds at the Studio Theatre.
This Governor General’s
Award-winning play revolves around the mysterious death of George
Barber, whose body is found with its brain missing. Two detectives set
out to uncover the truth
behind his grisly death, in a plot that explores alternate dimensions
and brings into question the very notion of reality.
“Just as
Hamlet is about embracing and reconciling the ultimate mystery of death,
Possible Worlds is about the mystery of living and the fact that
life too is that ‘undiscovered country’ forever shrouded by mystery and
infinite possibilities,” says Mr. Cimolino.
Mr. Cushman has served as assistant director to Mr. Cimolino on the Stratford productions of
The Beaux’ Stratagem and The Merchant of Venice. Awarded
last year’s Siminovitch Protégé Award by Chris Abraham, Mr. Cushman has
distinguished himself as one of the fastest-rising directors
in Canada today. Recent credits include the Dora Award-winning Mr. Marmalade and
Terminus, which earned him the Toronto Critics’ Award for best
director when it was remounted by Mirvish Productions in 2013. He serves
as Co-Artistic Director of Outside the March Theatre Company and was
recently named Crow’s Theatre’s first Associate
Artistic Director.
New work by Kate Hennig to be directed by Alan Dilworth
The Last Wife | By Kate Hennig
| Directed by Alan Dilworth
#sfLastWife
The Last Wife, a startlingly contemporary play about Katherine Parr, the last wife
of Henry VIII, written by Kate Hennig, will have its world première at the Studio Theatre in 2015, directed by
Alan Dilworth.
“Kate
Hennig has created a truly astonishing portrayal of Katherine Parr in a
play that speaks to us in a very real way today,” says Mr. Cimolino. “I
have watched this
script develop through its various workshops at Stratford and it is a
shining example of the exploratory work we are doing with classical
subject matter. I wanted to include
The Last Wife in this season about discovery because of the important things it has to say about the education of women.”
This
exciting new work focuses on a dying husband, a steamy affair, and a
compelled marriage full of personal violence that offers an irresistible
climb to absolute
authority. Does Katherine risk her safety to gain power? Does she love
the man she should love or the man she must love? And what happens to
her children when she loses it all?
After spending this season at the Shaw Festival as Clara Soppitt in
When We Are Married and Bodey in A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur,
Kate Hennig returns for her fifth Festival season. Ms Hennig is well
remembered as Golde in last season’s highly acclaimed production of
Fiddler on the Roof as well as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. Previously, she played the dance teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson, in
Billy Elliott: The Musical on Broadway and then in Toronto,
winning a Dora Award and a Toronto Theatre Critics Award. Her recent
credits include Emma Goldman in the Shaw Festival hit,
Ragtime and Señora Carrar in Rifles for Praxis Theatre, as well as the wildly popular première of Margaret Atwood’s
The Penelopiad, co-produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Arts Centre. In addition to
The Last Wife, Ms Hennig is a burgeoning playwright, with two other completed full-length plays:
The Eleventh David and Waterworks.
Mr. Dilworth makes his Festival directorial debut with
The Last Wife. He is a past participant of the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction, serving as Assistant Director of
Elektra and The Little Years. His body of work is known
for its stage imagery and theatrical minimalism, earning him numerous
awards including the inaugural Christopher Plummer Fellowship Award of
Excellence for his work with classical text. Recent
credits include Passion Play at Outside the March, La Ronde at Soulpepper,
Crash at Theatre-Passe Muraille, as well as The Unforgetting and
If We Were Birds, both of which won the SummerWorks Theatre Festival
jury prize for Oustanding Production. Mr. Dilworth is the co-artistic
director of Sheep No Wool.
Work in the Laboratory includes
projects under development by Sunil Kuruvilla,
Ken Cameron, Graham Abbey, Daniel Brooks, John Murrell
Created as a crucible
for artistic invention, the Laboratory has a broad mandate, which
includes investigating stories from other cultures, exploring the
classics in new ways and creating
new work in a variety of genres. There are roughly 15 projects in
active development at the moment, including the following:
Sunil Kuruvilla is working on an adaptation of
Umrao Jaan Ada, the 1899 Urdu novel by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. Thought to be the first Urdu novel,
Umrao Jaan Ada is the story of a woman of the same name who was
abducted as a young girl and forced into prostitution. Umrao ultimately
escapes and becomes a poet. The novel is her own story as told to a
fellow poet at the end of her life.
“The position of women in modern-day India has been very much in the news.
Umrao Jaan Ada gives us a historical look at a woman who rose
from the most trying of circumstances to become a successful and
independent force in her world,” says Mr. Cimolino.
The Breath of Kings is a dramatic adaptation of four Shakespeare plays –
Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V – conceived by
Graham Abbey and developed by him in collaboration with Daniel Brooks and
John Murrell. The production, which is designed to be presented
over two performances, brings together four of Shakespeare’s plays to
investigate questions about the nature of good government: questions
that have endured from the era of the divine right
of kings to the modern political age.
“The Breath of Kings
takes a four-part Shakespearean epic and distills it into a thrilling
two-part drama that delves into timeless questions of the relationship
between individuals
and the structures of power,” says Mr. Cimolino.
Playwright
Ken Cameron is working on an adaptation of Cue for Treason,
a children’s novel by Geoffrey Trease, written in the 1940s and taught
in Canadian schools for many years. Set in Elizabethan times, the story
follows a girl and boy who are being pursued
by the law and who, through a series of lucky accidents, join
Shakespeare’s company.
“Young people often give
theatre its most vibrant and enthusiastic audiences, yet there is a
surprising dearth of repertoire created specifically with them in mind.
I’m thrilled that we
are developing a script that brings Shakespeare’s world to life for
today’s young audiences,” says Mr. Cimolino.
“These projects
represent only three of the many ways in which we are using the Lab to
push back our boundaries,” he adds. “A dozen other works are now in
development, and 2015 will also
see a number of workshops giving our company members a range of
opportunities for exploration with each other and with visiting
artists.”
The 2015 Stratford Festival Forum will be announced at a later date.
Tickets for the 2015
season will go on sale to Members of the Stratford Festival on Sunday,
November 16, 2014, and to the general public on Friday, January 2, 2015.
The 2014 season continues through October 25, featuring
King Lear; Crazy for You; two versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream;
The Beaux’ Stratagem; Man of La Mancha; Alice Through the Looking-Glass;
Hay Fever; King John; Mother Courage and Her Children; Antony and Cleopatra;
Christina, The Girl King; and more than 200 events in The Forum.
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Stratford Festival 55 Queen Street | PO Box 520 | Stratford ON
| N5A 6V2
Box Office: Toll Free 1.800.567.1600 | Local 519.273.1600
stratfordfestival.ca
2014 Season
| April 21 to October 12
King Lear | Crazy for You | A Midsummer Night’s Dream | The Beaux’
Stratagem
Man of La Mancha | Alice Through the Looking-Glass | Hay Fever | King John
Mother Courage and Her Children | Antony and Cleopatra | Christina, The Girl King
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a chamber play
Man of La Mancha | Alice Through the Looking-Glass | Hay Fever | King John
Mother Courage and Her Children | Antony and Cleopatra | Christina, The Girl King
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a chamber play
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