Stratford Shakespeare Announces Complete Lineup To Include McAnuff, Racine, Sorkin and More

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival announces its 2009 season – a playbill reflecting the Festival's commitment to producing the works of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, along with other classical theatre repertoire and the work of living playwrights.

"I'm very proud of the extraordinary work that our artistic team in the director's office has done to put together the 2009 season over the past few months. All of us on this team want very much to be a part of something truly great," says artistic director Des McAnuff.

"Our approach to creating a season is artist driven. We haven't simply come up with a list of plays and slotted people in. We have encouraged artists to come forward with their own dream projects. We see our responsibility as supporting those artists to help them fulfill their dreams and visions. This is the best way to serve not only them but our audiences. The key to creating transcendent theatre is having passionate people at the helm of each production."

Mr. McAnuff has selected four plays from the Elizabethan-Jacobean period, four other classics, and three contemporary Canadian plays, along with two musicals based on classical works.

"I'm delighted that the 2009 season will bring together many of the Festival's favourite artists as well as some of the finest new talent," says Antoni Cimolino, the Festival's general director. "We have created a playbill that builds on the excellent work accomplished in the 2008 season and positions the Festival well for the future."

A commitment to new play development is central to the Festival's artistic direction. The Festival is very excited to announce a series of commissions from three outstanding Canadian playwrights, John Mighton, Judith Thompson and George F. Walker. A fourth commission from one of Canada's most celebrated writers will be announced at a later date, along with titles and details of these projects. In addition, American playwright and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has been commissioned to adapt and translate a classic play. All of these commissions will be considered for production in upcoming seasons.

"It's important for us, as a classical repertory theatre, to have living playwrights in our
midst," says Mr. McAnuff. "It helps keep us honest in our approach to the classics, reminding us that our productions must speak to burning contemporary issues and the important subjects of our own times. Contemporary writers can gain a great deal in turn by having their works produced alongside the great plays of dramatic literature. "The classics feed and inform new plays just as our own writers help us to focus on the pertinence of the classics." From the Elizabethan-Jacobean period, the Festival will be presenting the following plays for 2009, fulfilling its commitment to produce four or five plays from the Shakespearean period every season:

Macbeth by William Shakespeare, at the Festival Theatre
Directed by Des McAnuff

Des McAnuff is the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's artistic director. In 2008 he directed the Festival's productions of Romeo and Juliet and Caesar and Cleopatra. A two-time Tony Award-winner, Mr. McAnuff attended Ryerson University and was part of Toronto's burgeoning theatre scene in the 1970s. He is director emeritus of La Jolla Playhouse, where for 25 years he directed over 30 productions of classics, new plays and musicals. His Broadway credits include Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention (2007), Jersey Boys (2006, four Tonys including best musical, now in London, Chicago, Las Vegas, national tour, and upcoming Toronto), Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays (2004, Tony Award), Dracula, The Musical (2004), How to Succeed…(1995), The Who's Tommy (director/co-author with Pete Townshend, 1993 Tony best director; 1997 London Olivier Awards best director/best musical), A Walk in the Woods (1988), Big River (1985, seven Tonys including best director, best musical).

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, at the Festival Theatre
Directed by David Grindley

David Grindley will be directing at the Festival for the first time in 2009. His 2007 production of Journey's End with Hugh Dancy, Boyd Gaines and Jefferson Mays at the Balasco Theatre won a Tony for best revival. He also directed Pygmalion on Broadway. His West End directing credits include Honour with Diana Rigg, Abigail's Party (Olivier nomination), The Philanthropist with Simon Russell Beale and Some Girls with David Schwimmer, and Loot. Other credits include National Anthems with Kevin Spacey, In the Club, Single Spies, Richard III, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and the comedians The League of Gentlemen. Future work includes adapting for the stage and directing The Third Man and a U.K. tour of Blackbird.

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare at the Avon Theatre
Directed by James MacDonald

James MacDonald is associate artistic director of Edmonton's Citadel Theatre and was co-founder of the Free Will Players. At the Citadel, Mr. MacDonald most recently directed Equus, Vimy, Shining City and Fire. Other directing credits at the Citadel include I Am My Own Wife and Stones in His Pockets. Other directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It for CanStage, The Myth of Summer at Alberta Theatre Projects and The Old Ladies at the Shaw Festival. Mr. MacDonald recently won a Dora award for Fire and a Sterling Award 3 for Vimy. He is a regular guest instructor/director at the University of Alberta, where he has taught acting to all three levels of the BFA (Acting) program, of which he is a graduate.

Bartholomew Fair by Ben Jonson, at the Tom Patterson Theatre
Directed by Antoni Cimolino

Antoni Cimolino is the general director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. His directing credits include Coriolanus, with Colm Feore and Martha Henry, As You Like It, featuring original music by the Barenaked Ladies, King John, Love's Labour's Lost with Brian Bedford, Twelfth Night with William Hutt, The Night of the Iguana and Filumena. Prior to launching his directorial and administrative career, he performed regularly on Stratford stages in roles including Romeo, Laertes and Claudio, among others. He was instrumental in establishing the Stability Fund and the For All Time Endowment Foundation, as well as the renovation of the Avon Theatre and the building of the Studio Theatre.

"Shakespeare does not stand alone," says Mr. McAnuff. "He is certainly our greatest playwright but to truly know his work, it is vital to explore the plays of his contemporaries, which is why we present Ben Jonson's rollicking city comedy Bartholomew Fair. In the coming seasons we hope to continue expanding our Elizabethan-Jacobean repertoire and produce works by Marlowe, Kidd, Middleton and the other great playwrights from Shakespeare's scene."

Other classics in the 2009 season are:

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, translated and adapted by Anthony
Burgess, at the Festival Theatre Directed by Donna Feore

Donna Feore will return to the Festival for her 17th season. Most recently at Stratford she was director and choreographer of the hit musicals Oklahoma! and Oliver! Other directing credits include Annie Get Your Gun at Massey Hall, The Soldier's Tale with F. Murray Abraham, Mozart: A Life in Letters for the Toronto Symphony and Lecture on the Weather by John Cage (Detroit Symphony). Other Stratford credits include: associate director of Gigi, Gypsy, The Boy Friend, HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. Ms Feore won a Dora Award for her choreography of the Canadian Opera Company's production of Oedipus Rex which was presented at the Edinburgh Festival. She also choreographed the COC's critically acclaimed opera Siegfried, which recently was remounted at The Opera National de Lyon. This fall she will direct It's a Wonderful Life at Canadian Stage Company.

The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, at the Tom Patterson Theatre
Directed by Martha Henry

Martha Henry returns for her 35th season. Ms Henry's most recent directing credit at Stratford was Of Mice and Men with Graham Greene in 2007. She is also the director of the Festival's Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre and a former artistic director of The Grand Theatre in London. In 2008 Ms Henry played Hecuba in The Trojan Women and the Countess of Rossillion in All's Well That Ends Well. She has been associated with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival since she appeared as Miranda to William Hutt's first Prospero in 1962. Since then she has participated in more than 60 productions, including 2007's acclaimed A Delicate Balance. Ms Henry is the recipient of two Sterling Awards, three 4 Gemini Awards, five Genie Awards, the Toronto Drama Bench Award, seven honorary doctorates and the Governor General's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Performing Arts. She is a member of the Order of Ontario and a Companion of the Order of Canada.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, at the Avon Theatre
Directed by Brian Bedford
And a companion piece
Ever Yours, Oscar, a one-man performance compiled by Peter Wylde from the
letters of Oscar Wilde, at the Tom Patterson Theatre
Directed by and featuring Brian Bedford

Brian Bedford returns to the Festival for his 27th season. In 2007, Mr. Bedford directed King Lear and played the title role. He has also acted and directed in Britain, Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. On Broadway, he won the best actor Tony for his performance in Molière's The School for Wives, as well as six other Tony nominations during his career. Other awards include the Obie, Outer Critics Circle, N.Y. Drama Desk and L.A. Critics Award. Mr. Bedford has made numerous appearances on television and film, and supplied the voice of Robin Hood in Walt Disney's animated film. In 1997, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Phèdre by Jean Racine, in a new translation by Timberlake Wertenbaker (World première), at the Tom Patterson Theatre
Directed by Carey Perloff

Carey Perloff just marked her 17th season as artistic director of San Francisco's A.C.T. Known for directing innovative productions of classics and championing new writing for the theatre, Ms Perloff has directed for A.C.T. the American premières of Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love and Indian Ink and Harold Pinter's Celebration and The Room; A.C.T.-commissioned translations of Hecuba, The Misanthrope, Enrico IV, Mary Stuart, Uncle Vanya, and A Mother (based on Gorky's Vassa Zheleznova); David Mamet's new adaptation for A.C.T. of Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance; the world première of Leslie Ayvazian's Singer's Boy; and several major revivals. "Carey Perloff and Timberlake Wertenbaker workshopped this translation of Phèdre at the Festival last fall. We're now proud to be presenting this new version by the internationally renowned author of Our Country's Good," says Mr. Cimolino. It is with great pleasure that Mr. McAnuff presents an all-Canadian season at the Studio Theatre, including a new play by Morris Panych:

The Trespassers by Morris Panych (World première)
Directed by Morris Panych

In 2008 Morris Panych directed and adapted Moby Dick for the Festival. Mr. Panych is one of Canada's most celebrated playwrights and directors. His plays have garnered two Governor General's Literary Awards for Drama, 14 Jessie Richardson Awards; three Sidney Riske Writing Awards; and five Dora Awards. Productions of the much lauded Vigil (Auntie and Me), Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, Seven Stories and Lawrence and Holloman are currently being mounted throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. His groundbreaking work The Overcoat has toured worldwide to great acclaim, and its film version, which Mr. Panych also directed, won an honourable mention at the

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