Stratford Announces 2015 Season; 'SOUND OF MUSIC' and 'CAROUSEL' Confirmed

Stratford Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino has announced 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 contemporary Canadian plays - John Mighton's Possible Worlds and The Last Wife, a new play written by Kate Hennig.

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals will be staged at the festival in 2015. Donna Feore will helm The Sound of Music as director and choreographer, while the creative team for Carousel has yet to be announced

"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."

For more information about the Stratford Festival, visit them online here.

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