Stratford Festival to Begin Performances in July
Three Tall Women, which was to have begun performances in June, has been moved later in the season. It will now be mounted in the Studio Theatre.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jun. 28, 2021
The Ontario government has issued its guidance for attendance at outdoor performing arts events, paving the way for the opening of the Stratford Festival's 2021 season.
According to these guidelines, the Stratford Festival will be able to accommodate 100 people (or 25% capacity) in each of its new outdoor canopies, where shows will run three times a day from July 10 until the end of September.
Three Tall Women, which was to have begun performances in June, has been moved later in the season. It will now be mounted in the Studio Theatre (as it was to have been in 2020) from August 10 to October 9, assuming the province's successful transition to Phase 3 of its reopening plan. Capacity will be limited to 25 people. The play's two parts will be presented as separate performances, scheduled to be seen on the same day. Each ticket includes both parts.
"We are thrilled to be able to progress with our 2021 season," says Executive Director Anita Gaffney. "A season outdoors under canopies is not only fitting for the current conditions but draws parallels to the Festival's first season in 1953. As we were then, we are under a canopy - and we are starting the performance season in July, just as we did 68 years ago. A relentless spirit of adventure has guided our efforts over the past several months and we can hardly wait to welcome our audiences back both in person and online, which has become a new Stratford Festival tradition during the pandemic."
The Festival began outdoor rehearsals earlier this month and will be able to move those indoors very soon.
"Rehearsing outdoors comes with challenges," says Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino, "but to see actors and creative teams back at work is a balm for the soul. As we move towards July 10, we are able to bring more artists on board and get more and more staff back to work. It feels good and we are hopeful that there are even better days ahead."
The 2021 season features six plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream, R+J, Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters, Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, Serving Elizabeth by Marcia Johnson, and I Am William, with text by Rébecca Déraspe, music by Chloé Lacasse and Benoit Landry, and English translation by Leanna Brodie.
2021 productions will be filmed and made available digitally beginning in September, to allow greater access to the performances.
The current guidelines allow a daily maximum capacity of 600 people, compared to 7,000 when the Festival is fully operational in all four of its theatres.
The Festival is also announcing a series of events - some in-person, some digital - for the 2021 Meighen Forum. Live events will be held in Lazaridis Hall in the new Tom Patterson Theatre, beginning August 6 and assuming the successful transition to Phase 3 of the province's reopening plan. These include performances of Andrew Prashad's One Step at a Time and Ryan G. Hinds's #KanderAndEbb, as well as a new series of play readings called Play by the Book, which features Jessica B. Hill's The Dark Lady; the Uprising Series, curated by Hannah Rittner; and the REV-elations Series, a co-production with b-current Performing Arts, curated by Sadie Berlin. (Details below.)
The Digital Meighen Forum will include a variety of paid events, including workshops, speakers and panels, as well as the audience favourite Meet the Festival, which will be free of charge and will run on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. ET, during live-performance weeks. Details of the Digital Meighen Forum are still being finalized.
As in the past, tickets for the 2021 season will go on sale to Members first (beginning July 6), as well as to those who have held the value of their 2020 tickets on account or donated the value of those tickets back to the Festival. After the advance sale period, remaining tickets will be put on sale to the public beginning July 12.
THE 2021 SEASON IN DETAIL:
FESTIVAL THEATRE CANOPY
Support for the 2021 season of the Festival Theatre Canopy is generously provided by
Daniel Bernstein & Claire Foerster.
R + J
Adapted by Ravi Jain, Christine Horne and Alex Bulmer
Directed by Ravi Jain
Produced in collaboration with Why Not Theatre
Featuring:
Dante Jemmott as Romeo
Eponine Lee as Juliet
Alex Bulmer as the Friar
Beck Lloyd as Lady Capulet and Tybalt
Lisa Nasson as Benvolio
Sepehr Reybod as Mercutio
Rick Roberts as Capulet
Tom Rooney as the Nurse
August 12 to September 26 | Opening Sunday, August 15
They say that love is blind - and with blindness comes the freedom to open the mind's eye to a world of limitless possibility. Likewise, the challenge of staging the world's most famous love story in a time of physical distancing brings with it the opportunity to explore modes of theatrical presentation that are both unexpectedly novel and as old as the art of storytelling itself.
Intended for blind, low-vision and sighted audiences alike, this radically reimagined version of Shakespeare's beloved romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, invites you into an up-to-the-minute modern world of sound and music, a world that challenges the identities we construct when we use only our eyes, a world in which the entrenched hostilities of an older generation are challenged by the passions of young people who only want to love.
Production support is generously provided by Dr. M. Lee Myers and by Catherine & David Wilkes.
Why We Tell the Story
A Celebration of Black Musical Theatre
Curated and directed by Marcus Nance
Music Director: Franklin Brasz
Featuring:
July 10 to July 21 | Opening Tuesday, July 13
Throughout the ages the African-American community has told stories of life, love, pain and hope through the glorious expressions of musical theatre and poetry. This update of the sold-out 2019 Meighen Forum concert, takes you on a journey with the voices of legendary Black poets and the music of the African-American musical theatre canon, including hits from Aida, Ain't Misbehavin', Caroline, or Change, The Color Purple, Hamilton, The Lion King, Once On This Island, Showboat and many more. As Maya Angelou said: "Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave."
Production support is generously provided by Mary Ann & Robert Gorlin.
You Can't Stop the Beat
The Enduring Power of Musical Theatre
Curated and directed by Thom Allison
Music Director: Laura Burton
Featuring:
July 15 to July 31 | Opening Sunday, July 18
What is it about musical theatre that captures the hearts of millions of fans? Through wars, disasters, heartbreaks and triumphs, musicals have been there to give us a way to understand the human experience and flourish. Has there ever been a better way to represent our inner lives than in glorious Technicolor and song? This tune-filled ride celebrates why musicals have always been the ultimate tonic for the soul in good or troubled times.
Production support is generously provided by Nona Macdonald Heaslip.
Play On!
A Shakespeare-Inspired Mixtape
Curated by Robert Markus, Julia Nish-Lapidus and James Wallis
Directed by Julia Nish-Lapidus and James Wallis
Music Director: Reza Jacobs
Featuring:
Jennifer Rider-Shaw
July 29 to August 15 | Opening Sunday, July 31
Shakespeare's influence on Western culture extends even into your favourite pop hits. Whether it be direct lines from his plays appearing in Top 40 lyrics or whole songs inspired by his plots, whether the borrowers be Taylor Swift, Madonna, Elton John, The Beatles, Prince or Radiohead, Shakespeare is still there, lurking in the mainstream, as cool and as relevant as ever. This lively celebration of terrific tunes affords a great opportunity to introduce a younger audience to Shakespeare's continuing role in popular culture.
Production support is generously provided by Barbara & John Schubert.
Freedom
Spirit and Legacy of Black Music
Curated and directed by Beau Dixon
Music Director: Beau Dixon
Featuring:
Beau Dixon
August 19 to September 5 | Opening Saturday, August 21
From the moment Black people landed on North American soil, their music took root and became the basis for much of the popular music we hear today. There is an endless list of exceptional Black musicians who have been lost to history while their white counterparts gained fame. From church hymnals to the blues, from jazz to rock 'n' roll, R&B and rap, we owe much of our musical history to Black culture, and it's time to give credit where it is due.
Production support is generously provided by Mary Ann & Robert Gorlin and by Sylvia Soyka.
Finally There's Sun
A Cabaret of Resilience
Curated and directed by Sara Farb and Steve Ross
Music Director: Franklin Brasz
Featuring:
Noah Beemer
Germaine Konji
September 9 to September 26 | Opening Sunday, September 12
Reflecting on this "great pause" as we move forward and get back to living freely, Finally There's Sun takes you on a musical journey through a year of enormous change and growth. It explores the isolation, the loneliness, the upheaval and the unexpected silver linings that came out of a time like no other.
Production support is generously provided by Jody & Deborah Hamade and by Dr. Robert & Roberta Sokol.
Tom Patterson THEATRE CANOPY
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Directed by Peter Pasyk
Featuring:
Eva Foote as Hermia, Snug and Peaseblossom
Craig Lauzon as Oberon and Theseus
Trish Lindström as Puck and Egeus
Jonathan Mason as Demetrius, Quince and Mustardseed
André Sills as Bottom
Amaka Umeh as Helena, Flute and Moth
Micah Woods as Lysander, Snout and Cobweb
Bahareh Yaraghi as Titania and Hippolyta
July 16 to August 1 | Opening Thursday, July 22
Spellbound lovers, quarrelling fairies, tradesmen with a fervour for amateur theatricals: they're all mixed up together in the surreal world of Shakespeare's great comedy of dreaming and desire.
This deep dive into the sometimes unsettlingly dark and dangerous realms of the subconscious famously culminates in a play within the play: a hilariously inept performance by Nick Bottom and his fellow would-be actors. But even as we laugh at the ham-fisted efforts of these "rude mechanicals," we are won over by their heartfelt belief in the power of the imagination.
Taking its cue from that insight, this production deploys the most fundamental techniques of theatrical art in a magically inventive staging of a play that is itself a celebration of the imagination at its most extreme.
Production support is generously provided by the Harkins & Manning families in memory of Jim & Susan Harkins.
The Rez Sisters
Directed by Jessica Carmichael
Featuring:
Jani Lauzon as Pelajia Patchnose
Brefny Caribou as Zhaboonigan Peterson
Lisa Cromarty as Marie-Adele Starblanket
Christine Frederick as Veronique St. Pierre
Nicole Joy-Fraser as Annie Cook
Kathleen MacLean as Emily Dictionary
Tracey Nepinak as Philomena Moosetail
Zach Running Coyote as Nanabush
July 23 to August 21 | Opening Wednesday, July 28
They have their dreams and their difficulties, these seven women. One yearns for a singing career; another for a white porcelain toilet. One grieves for her lover, killed in a motorcycle accident; another harbours the memory of a horrific sexual assault. The cancer that afflicts one of them is not the only malignancy they confront.
But One Dream they hold in common is that of winning "the biggest bingo in the world" - and one day, accompanied by the transformative spirit guide Nanabush, they leave their Manitoulin Island reserve and set out for Toronto to do just that.
Ribald, harrowing and mystical, this seminal work of Indigenous drama celebrates the spirit of resilience and the powerful beauty these women bring to the tough world in which they live.
Production support is generously provided by Karon C. Bales & Charles E. Beall and by M. Fainer.
Schulich Children's Plays
I Am William
Text by Rébecca Déraspe
Music by Chloé Lacasse and Benoit Landry
English translation by Leanna Brodie
Book, lyrics and score developed at Théâtre Le Clou
Directed by Esther Jun
Choreographer: Alyssa Martin
Music Director: Njo Kong Kie
Featuring:
Shakura Dickson as Margaret
Landon Doak as William
Allan Louis as John and the Earl of Leicester
Shannon Taylor as Mary and Queen Elizabeth I
August 10 to September 12 | Opening Saturday, August 14
Margaret Shakespeare has a dazzling talent for writing, which she yearns to put to serious use. But in an age lethally suspicious of female intellect and literacy, how can she find a way to fulfil her authorial ambitions yet still survive? Fortunately, she has a brother, William, who isn't much of a writer but who wants to make it as an actor - and friends in high places have just the role for him.
Tapping into our fascination with the enigma of William Shakespeare's life and how he came to write those plays - and the seemingly endless speculation in some quarters about whether he really did - this light-hearted yet genuinely passionate interweaving of comedy, song and poetic fancy spins a playful and witty yarn that will delight younger audiences and adults alike.
Serving Elizabeth
Directed by Kimberley Rampersad
Produced by special arrangement with Thousand Islands Playhouse
Featuring:
Sean Arbuckle as Talbot and Maurice
Arlene Duncan as Mercy and Patricia
Cameron Grant as Montague and Steven
Virgilia Griffith as Faith and Tia
Sara Topham as HRH Princess Elizabeth and Robin
August 28 to September 26 | Opening Thursday, September 2
In Kenya in 1952, Mercy, a restaurant proprietor, is hired to cater the impending visit of Princess Elizabeth, soon to be Queen. In 2015, another story unfolds in London, England, where a young Kenyan-born Canadian, Tia, is working as an intern on a TV drama series about the British royal family, while also pursuing a writing project of her own. These parallel narratives seem only coincidentally connected - until a surprising twist reveals a deeper relationship between the two. Audiences are certain to enjoy this ingenious contemporary drama that keeps us guessing as it explores issues of colonialism, nationalism and the question of who gets to have a voice.
Production support is generously provided by John & Therese Gardner and by the Tremain Family.
STUDIO THEATRE
Three Tall Women
Directed by Diana Leblanc
Featuring:
Martha Henry as A
Lucy Peacock as B
Mamie Zwettler as C
Andrew Iles as The Boy
August 10 to October 9 | Opening Thursday, August 19
By turns acerbic, anguished and sarcastically funny, an old woman known to us only as "A" lays bare her inner life in sometimes shocking detail to two others: a middle-aged caregiver identified only as "B" and a young legal professional, "C."
Originally programmed for the 2020 season, Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, which he called an "exorcism" of his own troubled relationship with his adoptive mother, is a profound meditation on aging, death and the very nature of the self: who are we really, and how do we become who we are?
In keeping with pandemic precautions, the play's two parts - the second of which brings a startlingly different take on its characters - will be presented as separate performances, scheduled to be seen on the same day. Each ticket includes both parts.
Production support is generously provided by Sylvia D. Chrominska, Dr. Desta Leavine in memory of Pauline Leavine, Sylvia Soyka, The Westaway Charitable Foundation and by Jack Whiteside.
THE MEIGHEN FORUM
LIVE IN LAZARIDIS HALL
Be among the first to experience a performance in the new Lazaridis Hall, designed as the home of The Meighen Forum in the new Tom Patterson Theatre.
One Step at a Time
August 10 to August 14
Using monologues, original songs, improvisational tap dance and multimedia video, Andrew Prashad shares his and his wife's journey of caring for a son with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, while raising two daughters - all while maintaining his career as a professional actor, singer and dancer.
#KanderAndEbb
September 14 to September 18
Ryan G. Hinds's #KanderAndEbb is a tour through the music of Broadway songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb, set against entertaining and touching real-life stories from the fan who managed to get semi-close to the legendary writers' fabled world. Featuring a fabulous four-piece band led by music director Mark Selby, the show is a hilarious, personal and sincere tribute that leaves audiences with a new and deeper appreciation of the music and lyrics they thought they knew.
Play By the Book
Dramatic, intimate readings complementing the season's playbills and performed live.
The Dark Lady
By Jessica B. Hill
August 6
Emilia Bassano, the probable Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets, was a published poet in her own right. She was also trilingual, multiracial, and a talented musician. The Dark Lady brings these two poets intimately together as they wrestle with artistic collaboration, ambition, envy and love: an entanglement that will profoundly shape both their lives and their work. Shakespeare in the Ruins is planning a full production of The Dark Lady for 2022.
Uprising Series
Curated by Hannah Rittner
August 18 to August 21
This series features readings of The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs by Ana Caro Mallén de Soto, The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret by Susanna Centlivre, When Ladies Meet by Rachel Crothers and Wedding Band by Alice Childress.
Support for the Uprising Series is generously provided by the Dorothy Strelsin Foundation.
REV-elations Series
A co-production with b current Performing Arts
Curated by Sadie Berlin
August 25 to August 28
REV-elations brings to light older and rarer plays by Black playwrights for audiences to discover, including The Escape by William Wells Brown, Collected Plays by Zora Neale Hurston, Parallel Hands by Frantz Fanon and How Now Black Man by Lorris Elliot.
ONLINE EVENTS
The Digital Meighen Forum brings expert commentary and artistic insights directly to your device.
Digital Workshops
Poems by Playwrights
In these three workshops led by Monice Peter, delve into the poetic journey of Afro- and Caribbean-Canadian and American Playwrights and discover how their culture and experiences are layered within the devices of their poetry.
Creating Costumes
In these workshops led by members of the Stratford Festival Wardrobe, learn practical costume-building techniques in order to begin to create your own pieces at home.
Shakespeare's Speeches
Through discussion and acting exercises, explore the intricacies of some of Shakespeare's great speeches in these workshops, led by actors, past and present, who have brought the words of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream to life on stage.
Original Dance
Learn original choreography from some of the Stratford Festival's professional dancers and choreographers.
Playwriting
Learn some creative writing strategies and exercises directly from Marcia Johnson, playwright of Serving Elizabeth. Discuss the particular styles and techniques employed in each of their plays and engage in some active writing exercises yourself.
Building Props
In these workshops led by Stratford Festival prop-builders, learn practical prop-building techniques in order to begin to create your own pieces at home.
The Stillness Room
Founded by Toronto theatre director and teacher Alan Dilworth, The Stillness Room is a coming together to experience the centring and quietly transformative qualities of stillness, silence and connection. Since May 2020 The Virtual Stillness Room has been available free for all, in partnership with Necessary Angel Theatre Company.
Meet the Festival
July 10, 17, 24, 31; August 7, 14, 21, 28; September 4, 11, 18, 25
Fun and informal digital Q&A sessions with Festival artists and staff.
For more information call the box office at 1.800.567.1600 or visit stratfordfestival.ca.
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