July 26, 2015… The
Stratford Festival is in mourning for Robin Phillips, who served
as its artistic director for six seasons.
Besides bringing to the
Festival such celebrities as Maggie Smith and Peter Ustinov, as well as
one of its most beloved long-time stars, Brian Bedford, Mr. Phillips
galvanized the company – and enthralled audiences – with his own
extraordinary talent and energy. His tenure, which lasted from 1975 to
1980, is still fondly remembered by many as a “golden age.”
“Robin Phillips was inspirational,” said current Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino.
“Like so many people at the Stratford Festival, I was profoundly
influenced by him. He seemed to make the impossible not only achievable
but beautiful.
His productions were crystal clear, emotionally honest
and elegant in their simplicity. Every movement, sound or visual element
was carefully considered, and yet they had a sense of freedom and
vibrant life not often experienced in the theatre.
“Robin
was a brilliant artistic director who raised the standards of acting
and physical production at the Stratford Festival. We owe him a great
debt of gratitude for his care, leadership and generosity to all.”
Born
in Haslemere in Surrey, England, on February 28, 1940, Mr. Phillips
made his professional stage debut in 1959 at the Bristol Old Vic, where
he had trained as an actor. In 1962, he joined the inaugural company of
the Chichester Festival Theatre, under the artistic directorship of
Laurence Olivier, and in 1965 he became an assistant director with the
Royal Shakespeare Company. His 1970 production of Roland Miller’s Heloise and Abelard was a hit both in London and on Broadway, and in 1973 he became artistic director of the Company Theatre in Greenwich.
Appointed
in 1974 to succeed Jean Gascon as artistic leader of the Stratford
Festival, Mr. Phillips presented his first season in 1975. It included
his highly acclaimed production of Measure for Measure with Brian Bedford – then a newcomer to the company – as Angelo and a Third Stage production of The Importance of Being Earnest (remounted at the Avon Theatre in 1976 and 1979) with William Hutt as Lady Bracknell.
In that first season too, with his productions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Comedy of Errors, he brought Shakespeare into the Avon Theatre repertoire for the first time in the Festival’s history.
His second season included his production of Hamlet, in which Richard Monette and Nicholas Pennell alternated in the title role, and a Three Sisters
directed by John Hirsch, starring Marti Maraden, Martha Henry and
Maggie Smith. In 1977, Mr. Phillips cast Ms Smith and Mr. Bedford
opposite each other in his production of Ferenc Molnár’s The Guardsman; the following season, he teamed them again in Noël Coward’s Private Lives. Peter Ustinov joined the company in 1979 to play the title role in King Lear, a production that was revived in 1980.
During
his tenure, Mr. Philips significantly increased the number of
productions each season and enhanced the Festival’s international
profile. He also introduced key innovations, making the balcony on the
Festival Theatre stage removable in order to dramatically increase the
flexibility of the playing area, and founding the Young Company to
provide the Festival’s artists with opportunities to enhance their
skills.
After
completing his tenure, Mr. Phillips went on to direct many acclaimed
productions in Canada, the United States and his native England, and
also directed the 1983 feature film The Wars, based on the novel
by Timothy Findley. He served as artistic director of the Grand Theatre
in London, Ontario, for its 1983–84 season, and returned to Stratford in
1986 to direct that season’s Cymbeline at the Festival Theatre.
He then served a two-year term as Director of the Young Company and
directed several more Festival productions, culminating with
Shakespeare’s King John in 1993.
From 1990 to 1995, he was Director General of the Citadel Theatre, during which time his production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love toured Canada and the U.S. His production of the musical Jekyll & Hyde
opened on Broadway in 1997, and the following year he directed the two
inaugural productions of the newly formed Soulpepper company in Toronto.
His West End productions included Long Day’s Journey into Night, starring Jessica Lange, in 2000 and Ghosts in 2001.
His last Stratford season was in 2013, when he rehearsed Twelfth Night with participants in the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre.
Among
other honours, Mr. Phillips received an honorary degree from the
University of Western Ontario in 1983, the Order of Canada in 2005 and a
Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2010. An
exhibition of photographs documenting his work at Stratford, entitled
“Robin Phillips Directs: A Visual Record,” is currently on display in
the Festival Archives. Mr. Phillips participated in the compiling of the
exhibition, and visited it in June. It is open to the public on
weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Festival extends its deepest condolences to Mr. Phillips’s partner, Joe Mandel.
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2015 Season | April to October
Hamlet | The Taming of the Shrew | Love’s Labour’s Lost| The Adventures of Pericles
The Sound of Music | Carousel | The Diary of Anne Frank | She Stoops to Conquer
The Sound of Music | Carousel | The Diary of Anne Frank | She Stoops to Conquer
The Physicists | Oedipus Rex | The Alchemist | Possible Worlds | The Last Wife
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