Plummer, Carver, Maraden & More Come To Stratford Shakespeare Festival In 2010 Season

Christopher Plummer will return to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival next
year to play Prospero in The Tempest, one of four Shakespeare plays scheduled for the 2010
season.

"I am very excited to have Christopher Plummer return to the Festival for The Tempest, one of
Shakespeare's most haunting and magical plays," says Artistic Director Des McAnuff, who will
direct the production at the Festival Theatre. "The character of Prospero represents the
culmination of Shakespeare's skill as a dramatist in creating a role of great complexity, richness
and paradox."

"Our audiences love Christopher Plummer for his great talent, humour and majestic command of
the language," says General Director Antoni Cimolino. "We are all very lucky to have him in
Stratford to play this role."

Christopher Plummer was hailed for his performance as Julius Caesar in the 2008 Festival
production of Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, directed by Mr. McAnuff, and this week
received a Gemini nomination for his performance in the film of that production. In 1997, Mr.
Plummer won a Tony Award (his second) for Barrymore, a production that originated at
Stratford. Among his honours are another seven Tony nominations, two Emmy Awards and six
nominations, a Genie Award and four nominations. Mr. Plummer has received Canada's highest
honours, as a Companion of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Governor General's
Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of his vast career in theatre, film and television.

A second Shakespeare will be mounted at the Festival Theatre, As You Like It, also directed by
Mr. McAnuff, and featuring Brent Carver as Jaques.

Mr. Carver is returning for his seventh season at Stratford. Festival audiences remember him in
such roles as Ned Lowenscroft in Elizabeth Rex, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, the Pirate King in
The Pirates of Penzance, Hamlet, and the Emcee in the 1987 production of Cabaret. In 1993 he
won a Tony Award for his performance as Molina in Kiss of the Spider Woman, a role he also
played in London and Toronto.

"When Brent and I met to discuss doing a project together, this is the title that instantly came
up," says Mr. McAnuff. "It is a great play for the times, as it concerns light coming out of the
darkness.

"The Forest of Arden is not only a pastoral landscape, it is a haven for art and imagination. That
is what we're about here at the Festival and that is especially important in hard times."

Marti Maraden will return to the Festival to direct The Winter's Tale at the Tom Patterson
Theatre. Former co-artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival with Don Shipley and
Mr. McAnuff in 2008, Ms Maraden directed that season's productions of All's Well That Ends
Well and The Trojan Women.

"I am very pleased that Marti Maraden is returning to direct this play for the Festival," says Mr.
McAnuff. "It is a piece she has wanted to stage here for some time. It is an excellent vehicle for a
number of our leading company members, who will thrive under her direction."
"Marti has created many beautiful productions for the Festival," says Mr. Cimolino. "She is one
of Canada's most skilled directors of Shakespeare and I am very happy to have her join us once
again," says Mr. Cimolino.

The fourth Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, will be directed by Dean Gabourie, the
Festival's Assistant Artistic Director. It will be the first Shakespeare ever to be mounted at the
Studio Theatre.

"We are so glad that the Studio Theatre will finally be blessed by one of the plays of
Shakespeare," says Mr. Cimolino. "It will be such an experience for our audiences to see this
great work on our most intimate stage."

Mr. Gabourie has been working with the Festival since 2001, and earned acclaim in 2002 for his
direction of Bereav'd of Light at the Studio in its inaugural season. Mr. Gabourie is also the
artistic director of the Dora-winning ACME Theatre Co., founded in 1989.

Kiss Me, Kate to be mounted at Festival Theatre
Once again a Shakespeare-inspired musical will be staged at the Festival Theatre: Kiss Me, Kate,
with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and book by Bella and Samuel Spewack. It will be directed
by John Doyle.

"John Doyle is an extraordinary director," says Mr. McAnuff. "He has a brilliant and evolved
minimalist aesthetic, ideally suited to the Festival stage."
Mr. Doyle won a Tony for his 2006 Broadway production of Sweeney Todd. He was nominated
again in 2007 for his highly acclaimed production of Sondheim's Company. He has served as
artistic director at four regional repertory theatres in his native U.K.

"John Doyle has an amazing track record," Mr. McAnuff says. "I can't imagine a better director
for Kiss Me, Kate. I was ecstatic when he chose this musical for his Stratford debut."
Christopher Hampton's Dangerous Liaisons will be the fourth production featured at the
Festival Theatre.

"Chris will be coming to Stratford from his home in England to work with us," says Mr.
McAnuff. "This is an amazing opportunity to have an important living playwright working with
us on the Festival stage."

Dangerous Liaisons will be directed by Ethan McSweeny, a young director who has been
grabbing attention since his Broadway debut in 2000 at the age of 29.
"Ethan McSweeny is a director I have wanted to get here from the beginning," says Mr.
McAnuff. "He has a solid backing in Shakespeare and has been doing absolutely remarkable
work - his New York production of The Persians with Len Cariou and Roberta Maxwell was a
particular highlight."

Evita and Peter Pan grace the Avon Theatre
Evita, with music by Andrew Lloyd Weber and lyrics by Tim Rice, will be staged at the Avon
Theatre. Gary Griffin returns to direct the production, hot on the heels of this year's hit West
Side Story, which received rave reviews and has been playing to sold-out houses throughout the
2009 season.

"This is the first electric musical that we've done here," Mr. McAnuff says. "It is a very
emotional story and one of the great scores of modern times, bonding classical melody with rock
and roll and Latin rhythms. We look forward to showing our audiences what the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival can do with a modern musical, knowing it is in the very capable hands of
Gary Griffin."

A second substantial production will be mounted at the Avon: J.M. Barrie's play Peter Pan.
"Peter Pan is part of our initiative to increase the number of students and families attending the
Festival," says Mr. Cimolino. "It is crucial that young people not only attend plays here but that
they see the Festival as their theatre."

The play will be directed by Tim Carroll, one of the driving forces behind the rebirth of the
Globe Theatre in Britain.

"Tim Carroll has a great sense of theatricality and of theatre history," says Mr. McAnuff. "His
work at the Globe in London is legendary. He adopts devices and mechanisms from other ages
and applies them to his edgy and contemporary work. He will be a great leader for our company
as we set off on our quest to develop a larger student audience base."

In April Mr. McAnuff announced a commitment to exploring new ways and means of increasing
student access to the Festival. It is his personal dream that by 2015 every student in Ontario will
have had the opportunity to see a play at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival sometime during
their educational career.

Jacques Brel to be staged at the Tom Patterson

For the first time, the Tom Patterson Theatre will be home to a musical revue - Jacques Brel is
Alive and Well and Living in Paris, featuring Brent Carver.

"These songs and this poetry have proved to be universal and timeless," says Mr. McAnuff. "I
want to hear these songs again - and I think our audiences will too."
The production will be directed by Stafford Arima, a Canadian director who has also enjoyed
success in New York and London. In 2004, Mr. Arima directed the West End production of
Ragtime, which was nominated for eight Olivier Awards. He followed that with a critically
acclaimed off-Broadway production of Altar Boyz in 2005. He also served as associate director
for the Broadway productions of Seussical and A Class Act.

A commitment to Canadian plays
The Festival continues its commitment to Canadian plays in 2010. The Studio Theatre will
present the world premiere of George F. Walker's epic play King of Thieves, the first of the
Festival's recent commissions to reach the stage. This play with songs moves the setting of John
Gay's Beggar's Opera from London to New York City in the late 1920s, in a tale of corruption
at all levels of society that leads to the collapse of the financial system.

Jennifer Tarver will return to direct this new Canadian play, her second George F. Walker
project, following the current production of Zastrozzi. Ms. Tarver directed Brian Dennehy in
Krapp's Last Tape in 2008, a production that is finding new life in Chicago before a planned
Broadway run.

"This is a great pairing of two outstanding Canadian artists," says Mr. McAnuff. "It is a
substantial work by one of the finest playwrights Canada has produced and a work that speaks to
our times. I can't think of a better director to shape this new work for the stage than Jennifer
Tarver."

Works by Judith Thompson and John Mighton remain under commission for future seasons
and another commission is soon to be announced.

Michel Tremblay's For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, directed by Chris Abraham, will be
presented at the Tom Patterson Theatre.

"We're very excited to have Michel Tremblay back on the playbill," says Mr. McAnuff. "And
we're thrilled to have Chris Abraham directing."

Mr. Abraham is known for his bold staging of contemporary classics. He is the artistic director of
Toronto's Crow Theatre, founding artistic director of Go Chicken Go and co-founder of Bill
Glassco's Montreal Young Company. In addition to his many theatrical awards, he won a
Gemini for his first film I, Claudia, based on the award-winning play.

Geraint Wyn Davies will present his one-man show Do Not Go Gentle, by Leon Pownall, about
the life of Dylan Thomas. Directed by Dean Gabourie, the production will be staged at the Studio
Theatre, where Mr. Wyn Davies presented three evening performances of the show in 2002. Mr.
Wyn Davies and Mr. Gabourie will also mount Do Not Go Gentle in New York this winter.
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's 2009 season runs until November 8, featuring Macbeth;
West Side Story; Cyrano de Bergerac; A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Importance of Being
Earnest; Julius Caesar; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; Three Sisters;
Bartholomew Fair; Ever Yours, Oscar; Phèdre; The Trespassers; Rice Boy; and Zastrozzi.

http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/

Photo credit Walter McBride

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