Celebrated Shaw Actors Give Voice To Contemporary Theatre’s Most Illustrious Playwrights In Upcoming Shaw Festival Season!

For the last decade, the Shaw Festival has been introducing Contemporary Theatre's most illustrious playwrights into the playbill alongside their classical forebears. Like Bernard Shaw himself, these writers delight in questioning assumptions, subverting expectations and creating compelling theatre that unites head and heart. The 2013 season goes even further with the inclusion of plays by Brian Friel, Tom Stoppard, John Murrell and Adam Guettel.

PEACE IN OUR TIME: A COMEDY starts Previews May 19, opens June 7, and closes October 12th, by John Murrell, adapted from Bernard Shaw's GENEVA, performed at the Court House Theatre.

Sanjay Talwar made his Shaw Festival debut in last season's poignant drama HELEN'S NECKLACE. He returns to flex his Shavian muscles as the Senior Judge in John Murrell's re-envisioned Shaw extravaganza.

Last season, Jeff Meadows was the heir to an underwear empire in Misalliance. This season, he has graduated to headier responsibilities as The Secretary to the League of Nations.

After spending a year on stage in Mirvish Productions' War Horse, long-time Shaw Festival favourite Patrick Galligan makes a welcome return to play The British Foreign Secretary.

Diana Donnelly also returns to The Shaw after a brief absence to bring us Belle, the plucky American receptionist who inadvertently triggers an international incident at the League of Nations.

PEACE IN OUR TIME: A COMEDY also features a stellar supporting cast that includes Claire Jullien as Doña Dolores Ochoa, Moya O'Connell as Commissar Elizaveta Poskaya, Kevin McGarry as Bob Tarkenton and Ric Reid, Neil Barclay and Lorne Kennedy as the infamous trio of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco!

THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA starts Previews on July 4, opens July 26, and closes October 13, With Book by Craig Lucas, Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel, it is performed at Court House Theatre.

The multi-talented Patty Jamieson, the strong and loving mother in the 2012 smash hit production of Ragtime, returns to play Margaret, another mother whose unconditional love is put to the test.

Tony Award nominee Josh Young took Broadway by storm with his 2012 performance as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. He makes his Shaw Festival debut as Fabrizio, the handsome Italian who falls deeply and violently in love with Margaret's daughter Clara.

Jacqueline Thair, a company member since 2008, will play Clara, a young innocent woman with a dark secret.

For this Shaw Festival premiere, and second Adam Guettel work to appear at the Court House, The Shaw is thrilled to welcome the talents of three Festival newcomers – Juan Chioran as Signor Naccarelli, Kaylee Harwood as Franca Naccarelli and Julain Molnar as Signora Naccarelli. Company member Kelly Wong returns to play Giuseppe Naccarelli.

FAITH HEALER starts Previews on June 13, opens on July 12, and closes October 6th, written by Brian Friel, it will be performed at Royal George Theatre.

Jim Mezon is The Faith Healer. One of Canada's most celebrated actors, Mr. Mezon's chilling portrayal of Judge Brack in last season's Hedda Gabler and his powerful Big Daddy in the 2011 sold out production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof remain seared in our collective memory. This year he'll play traveling showman Frank Hardy, a man so haunted by his past that he must continually reinvent it.

Corrine Koslo has portrayed characters whose vulnerability can shake audiences to the core, from Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, to Lola in last season's Come Back, Little Sheba. Now she portrays Grace, a woman whose tragic life on the road with Frank is anything but 'healing'.

Long-time popular Festival actor Peter Krantz rounds out this Rashomon-like saga to play the seedy showbiz agent Teddy.

ARCADIA by Tom Stoppard, starts Previews on July 14, opens July 27, and closes  September 7th, running at Studio Theatre; sponsored by Paradigm Capital Inc.

For the first time, The Shaw presents the work of Tom Stoppard, one of the most significant contemporary playwrights in the English language.

Diana Donnelly, as research student Hanna Jarvis, leads an impressive collection of Shaw actors in this time-bending and very moving play.

After playing tortured lover Eilert Lovborg in Hedda Gabler last season, Gray Powell returns to The Shaw as Septimus Hodge, tutor to a young influential heiress.

Kate Besworth makes her Shaw Festival debut to play Thomasina, an academically advanced and precocious teenager. She recently appeared in The Railway Children for the Roundabout Theatre in Toronto.

Martin Happer returns to The Shaw to play graduate student Valentine Coverly. Patrick McManus will play Professor Bernard Nightingale.

The cast for ARCADIA also includes Andrew Bunker as Ezra Chater, newcomer Harveen Sandhu as Chloe Coverly and Nicole Underhay as Lady Croom.

2013 season ticket on-sale dates to note:
Members' Special Priority Booking Period: November 3, 2012 to November 30, 2012
Telephone, in-person, online, fax and mail orders are currently being accepted
General Public: January 12, 2013
Fax, mail and online beginning January 9
By phone and in-person beginning January 12

For more information visit www.shawfest.com/.

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