Stratford Festival Will Film ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, KING LEAR, and KING JOHN

The Stratford Festival will be creating films of three of this season's Shakespeare productions for international release and broadcast.

King Lear, directed by Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino and starring Colm Feore, will hit cinemas in February. King John, directed by Tim Carroll and starring Tom McCamus and Seana McKenna, will be released in April. Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Gary Griffin and starring Geraint Wyn Davies and Yanna McIntosh, will have its first screenings in May.

This past March, the Stratford Festival announced an exciting and ambitious film and digital media project at its Annual General Meeting, committing to produce films of three productions each season with the ultimate goal of filming all of Shakespeare's plays.

"With these three productions, we launch a project dear to my heart," says Mr. Cimolino: "to create a Canadian collection of the entire Shakespeare canon, which allows us to preserve the performances of our greatest actors and share them with an audience far beyond our borders."

"The Stratford Festival canon collection will extend the Festival's reach and heighten its profile around the world," says Executive Director Anita Gaffney. "It will also serve as a valuable educational resource, allowing students to see Canadian productions of all of Shakespeare's works, supplemented by online study guides that we will create for each production.

"We're forging new territory here in Canada with the filming of a series of our productions and expanding the Festival's digital footprint. In addition to distributing the films through cinemas, TV and online, we also plan to use components from the film to inspire a suite of digital products including applications, games and audio books. We hope that this expanded digital presence will ultimately entice even more people to visit Stratford and take in the full Festival experience."

The Stratford Festival film and digital media project has been made possible by the very generous support of Laura Dinner & Richard Rooney; The Jenkins Family Foundation; Ophelia & Mike Lazaridis; Sandra & Jim Pitblado; the Slaight Family Foundation; and Robert & Jacqueline Sperandio.

The films will be produced by Melbar Entertainment Group and Executive Producer Barry Avrich. They will be distributed in Canada through Cineplex Entertainment's Front Row Centre Events, which specializes in bringing world-class events and performances to the big screen. Distribution in the U.S. and the rest of the world will be through BY Experience, the Worldwide HD Distribution Representative for the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD program and the International (ex-UK) Distributor of Great Britain's National Theatre Live screenings. The cinema screenings will be followed by a broadcast window on CBC, and then digital and on-demand release.

Each production will be filmed live in HD and will be edited before distribution to ensure the best possible representation and include additional behind-the-scenes features. King Lear will be directed for film by Joan Tosoni and captured on October 21. Antony and Cleopatra and King John will be directed for film by Barry Avrich and will be captured on September 25 and 26 respectively.

The Stratford Festival's 2014 theatre season continues until October 25, featuring King Lear, Crazy for You, two versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Beaux' Stratagem, Man of La Mancha, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Hay Fever, King John, Mother Courage and Her Children, Antony and Cleopatra, and Christina, The Girl King. For tickets to live performances, visit stratfordfestival.ca or call the box office at 1.800.567.1600.

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